Tuesday August 5, 2025, Presented by Kern Nutall

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Sid Wilson of Lee’s Ferry was known to have a temper and almost always went around armed. A local rumor claimed he once killed a man in a shootout, perhaps Texas. But in 1923, he built a cabin 4.5 miles up Paria Canyon at a reliable spring. His wife Mary and his business partner Owen Clark participated, as did Jerry Johnson, the son of the pioneer ferryman Warren Johnson. The wood came from the Spencer steamboat, but Sid had never been paid for work done for Charlie Spencer anyway. Some suspected Sid used his remote ranch to facilitate his rustling and rebranding talents. While he might have been involved with missing horses at the South Rim, there was less question about the cattle rustling on the Arizona Strip. No jury in Flagstaff, however, appeared willing to convict him of it. While the cabin burned in the early 1950s and the peach trees vanished long ago, a corral can still be seen at the site. Learn more about the not-so-distant 1920s of Lee’s Ferry, and what became of Sid and his brushes with the law.