1. Charles H "Colorado Charlie" Utter was a figure of the American Wild West, best known as a great friend and companion of Wild Bill Hickok.
23 Facts About Charlie Utter
1. 2.
Charlie Utter met and married 15 year old Matilda "Tily" Nash on September 30,1866, in her parents' home in Empire, Clear Creek, Colorado Territory.
3.
The wagon train arrived in Deadwood in July 1876, and Charlie Utter began a lucrative pony express delivery service to Cheyenne, charging 25 cents to deliver a letter and often carrying as many as 2,000 letters per 48-hour trip.
4.
Charlie Utter had been a close friend of Hickok's for some time previously, constantly watching to ensure that Hickok's weaknesses of alcohol and gambling would not bring Hickok to a bad end.
5.
Charlie Utter was not present on August 2,1876, when Jack McCall fatally shot Hickok in the back of the head as Hickok played poker in a Deadwood saloon.
6.
Charlie Utter later claimed the body and placed a notice in the local newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer, which read:.
7.
Attendance at the funeral was heavy, and Charlie Utter had Hickok buried with a wooden grave marker which read:.
8.
Charlie Utter left for Colorado, but returned in 1879 to have Hickok re-interred, at Calamity Jane's urging, in a ten-foot-square plot at the Mount Moriah Cemetery, surrounded by a cast-iron fence and with an American flag in the ground.
9.
In February 1879, Charlie Utter purchased the Eaves Saloon in Gayville, a mining town 1.75 miles west of Deadwood, but ran into a string of bad luck.
10.
Charlie Utter was found guilty of selling liquor without a license.
11.
Later that year, Charlie Utter opened a dance hall in Lead, a company town far more sedate than its raucous, rollicking neighbor, Deadwood.
12.
Charlie Utter was convicted of "operating a nuisance," but because he had already closed the establishment, Judge Moody sentenced him to a mere one hour in jail.
13.
Charlie Utter was fined $50 on the charge of disturbing the peace.
14.
Charlie Utter was back in Deadwood by the fall of the year.
15.
Charlie Utter opened another dance hall and managed one of Deadwood's theaters.
16.
Charlie Utter followed, first to Leadville, Colorado, in February 1880; then Durango, Colorado, having separated or divorced from his wife; then Socorro, New Mexico.
17.
Charlie Utter's gravestone is in Cementario Amador, Calle B, Santa Ana, Panama.
18.
The inscription lists Charles H Utter as having died on July 3,1915.
19.
Charlie Utter had long, flowing black hair and a moustache, perfectly groomed, wore hand-tailored fringed buckskins, fine linen shirts, beaded moccasins, and a large silver belt buckle and carried a pair of gold, silver and pearl ornamented pistols.
20.
Charlie Utter would allow nobody into his tent, even Hickok, on pain of being shot; in his tent he slept under the highest quality blankets, imported from California and carried with him mirrors, combs, razors, and whisk brooms.
21.
Charlie Utter is portrayed by Dayton Callie in the HBO television series Deadwood and Deadwood: The Movie.
22.
The film, set in 1889, shows the character still living in Deadwood, although the historical Charlie Utter had moved back to Colorado in 1880.
23.
The film shows Charlie Utter being murdered in 1889 by henchmen sent by George Hearst, after Charlie Utter declined to sell his land to Hearst.