Flora Vista was the end of the outlaw trail for W.S. Floyd. His trouble began at Osage Mission (now St. Paul) in southern Kansas when he stole nine ponies from a member of the Osage Nation. On September 3, 1883 he was indicted by a federal court in Kansas for horse theft. Floyd drove the herd to Colorado and apparently managed to sell them. He was using several aliases including William Wardell, Taylor and Simons. During the winter of 1883-84, he stayed in Pagosa Springs. At the time Archuleta County had yet to be created and Conejos County extended from the southern San Luis Valley, over the Continental Divide and on to the area around Pagosa. In April 1884, Conejos County Sheriff Joe Smith learned that Floyd was in Pagosa and that he had a federal indictment for horse theft. He traveled to Denver, where he obtained an appointment as a Deputy U.S. Marshal and then secured a copy of the arrest warrant for Floyd.
With the legal niceties taken care of, Sheriff Smith boarded the Denver and Rio Grande and headed south. After crossing over Cumbres Pass and through Chama, he arrived in Amargo in early May. In 1880 and ’81, that burg had been a tent-filled den of iniquity as it served as a hell on wheels railroad camp while the D&RG extended its twin rails toward Durango and Silverton. It was located twenty miles west of Chama. Smith learned that Floyd might be in Durango. After arriving at the Durango depot, Smith deboarded and sought out La Plata County Sheriff Sam Pedgrift. The Sheriff knew Floyd and his undersheriff, John McDermott, informed Smith that Floyd had gone down the Animas to New Mexico. Apparently Floyd had made himself somewhat of a nuisance of in Durango. Newspapers of the time were known for their exaggeration and an account in the Denver Tribune noted that while living in Durango Floyd “lived in open defiance to all principles of law and decency, and carried out a career which, if fully written up, would fill the pages of a good-sized book.” Joe Smith was determined man. He enlisted the aid of Sheriff Pedgrift and Undersheriff McDermott. After Smith secured a horse, the three men mounted up and headed downriver.
New Mexico’s Animas valley was sparsely settled in 1884 and a stranger had been seen riding down the valley. On May 13th, at Flora Vista, they cornered their quarry. He was cutting wood and distracted as they approached. When Floyd knelt to rest, Sheriff Smith made his presence known, yelling out for Floyd to put up his hands. Floyd had let it be known that he would not be taken without a fight, so the posse men had their pistols in hand. When Floyd went for his holstered six-shooter, he was cut down in a barrage of gunfire. It was later learned that even while sleeping, he kept his revolver handy. At the time every little village in northwest New Mexico had its own Justice of the Peace. The Flora Vista area was precinct 20 of Rio Arriba County (San Juan County would not be created until 1887). The local J.P. was notified and he convened a coroner’s inquest on site over the cooling body of W.S. Floyd. The jurors ruled that Floyd had resisted arrest and had met his death at the hands of a duly authorized posse under the direction of Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Smith, District of Colorado. In short order, the Flora Vistans gathered shovels and dug a grave. Floyd was wrapped in blanket and lowered into his final resting place. The Albuquerque Morning Journal reported that “Floyd was buried near Farmington, and there was no particular effort at ceremony.” With their work done, the Coloradoans mounted up and road home.
Written by Mike Maddox. Note: The pursuit and killing of Floyd was of such little note in Durango that it garnered only sixteen lines in the Durango Southwest newspaper. Northwest New Mexico had no newspaper at the time. Sources: Durango Southwest, Dolores News (Rico, Colorado), Alamosa (CO) Journal, Albuquerque Morning Journal and the Las Vegas Daily Optic. Click on images for more details.
Original source can be found here.
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