The most spectacular crime in the history of Dawson, New Mexico, had it all – even if it didn’t actually take place in Dawson.

Masked bandits. Bound and gagged guards. Exploding safes. Sledgehammers. Quick getaways. Ex-Rough Riders. Multiple arrests. And, as described by one newspaper, “one of the most daring hold-ups ever attempted by desperate and determined men.”

So what does any of this have to do with Dawson?

Plenty. The pilfered money was the monthly payroll for Dawson miners.

All $35,500 of it – $35,000 in cash, $500 in silver – the equivalent of roughly $1 million today.

On May 14, 1908, the First National Bank of Albuquerque hired the Wells Fargo company to deliver the precious cargo to Dawson. Archie Hilton, a Wells Fargo guard, accompanied the money aboard the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad to the train depot in French, 18 miles southeast of Dawson.

Upon his arrival, Hilton placed the money in a safe, locked the doors and windows, and, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, proceeded to stand watch with the assistance of station agent H.O. Smith while awaiting the next train to Dawson. The time was 4 p.m.

Nine minutes later, while Hilton was sitting on the safe rolling a cigarette, the two men were startled by the sound of breaking glass from the depot window. Before they could react, both were staring down the barrels of two Winchester rifles. A third man, armed with a makeshift battering ram, broke down the door, and all three entered the depot.

The masked men quickly set to work. They bound Hilton and the agent, cracked open the safe using dynamite and a sledgehammer, bagged the money, mounted their horses, and rode off in a northerly direction. All three wore – what else? – black hats, and they were armed with pistols and rifles.

The bandits got a good half-hour start. That’s how long it took for Hilton and the agent to be “accidentally discovered and liberated by a tramp,” according to newspaper reports, at which point the massive manhunt began.

San Miguel County Sheriff Cleofes Romero led a special train northward carrying 30 cowboys, former Rough Riders of Teddy Roosevelt fame, “and other hardy men, all armed to the teeth.” A second train originating from Santa Fe transported a pack of bloodhounds to assist with the search. A third left Dawson with four men and six horses. Fifteen cowboys joined the pursuit from Raton, 45 miles to the north.

As one might expect, the Albuquerque Morning Journal had a field day the next morning with its big, bold, multideck headlines atop the front-page story:

     $35,000 in Specie Is Bandits’ Swag

     Three Daring Robbers Dynamite Wells Fargo Safe at French and Escape to the Hills With Their Booty

     Money Shipped from First National Here

     Ex-Rough Riders, Cowpunchers, Special Trains and Bloodhounds on Trail of the Fleeing Highwaymen

     Agent and Guard are Both Gagged and Bound

     Coin Shipped to the El Paso and Southwestern Coal Company at Dawson to Pay Off Big Force of Miners

     All Mountain Passes Being Closely Guarded

     Large Rewards Offered by the Railroad Company for Recovery of Cash and Capture of the Fugitives

Two days later, two men were in custody: Robert Henry Farr, a saloonkeeper from Springer, and Henry Stone, a rancher from Roy. Farr was the cousin of Henry Farr, a Colorado sheriff who was killed a few years earlier in a fierce gun battle with the Ketchum Gang. (Black Jack Ketchum and his brother, Sam, at one time rode with Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.)

Deputy Sheriff Bud Farmer of Dawson was next, charged with being complicit in the robbery. E.L. Carpenter, general manager at the Dawson mines, had asked for an officer to accompany the payroll from French to Dawson. Farmer was suspected of boarding a train that morning in Dawson but never getting off in French to meet the delivery.

J.B. Humphreys was the last to be appreheded, five months later, picked up 450 miles away in Wichita, Kansas. He was handed over to New Mexico authorities and joined Farmer, Farr, and Stone under indictment for  the robbery.

Farr and Humphreys were tried together on March 29, 1911, nearly three years after the robbery, in a jampacked courtroom in Raton District Court. The defense argued that Farr only assisted in the robbery because he was ordered to do so at gunpoint; as for Humphreys, he was said to be 100 miles away at the time.

After five days of testimony, the sequestered jury deliberated for eight hours before reaching a verdict on April 4 at 2 a.m. Seven hours later, Judge C.J. Roberts read the decision:

“We, the jury in the case of the Territory versus Robert Henry Farr and Jess Burke Humphreys, find the defendants not guilty as charged in the indictments.”

Spectators were surprised by the acquittal, according to newspaper accounts, figuring the best Farr and Humphreys could hope for was a hung jury. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Farmer and Stone on the grounds that the case against them would be based on the same evidence.

The stolen money was never recovered.

For District Attorney George E. Remley, the losing prosecutor, this wouldn’t be his last encounter with Dawson. Two years later, he would lead the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of 263 miners in the second-worst mine disaster in the nation’s history.