Editor’s note: Loveland area history writer Kenneth Jessen has written a series of stories about notable Black people in Colorado history in recognition of Black History Month.

Black cowboy Isom Dart drifted around the West and probably got his start breaking horses while working at the Goodnight Ranch in Texas. But Dart had a dark side — he liked to steal horses along the Texas-Mexico border. Eventually, Dart traveled north and landed a job as a cook for a Union Pacific construction camp located between Green River and Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Dart drifted south into Colorado and built a cabin near the top of a long forested ridge called Cold Spring Mountain north of Brown’s Park. The location was in the northwest corner of Colorado. By breaking and selling wild horses, he saved enough money to start a herd of his own. As Dart’s herd gained size, he began using his own brand, the “I D Bar.”

From his isolated location, Dart was able to move freely and stole cattle in Wyoming. The law caught up with him, and a warrant was issued for Dart’s arrest by a Sweetwater County magistrate in Wyoming.

The county seat was in Rock Springs, and no law officer wanted to venture south into Brown’s Park with its reputation as a hideout for outlaws. The sheriff hired Joe Philbrick to ride south and bring back Dart.

Philbrick used a buckboard for the long trip that followed the Green River, across open country, at elevations up to 6,000 feet, to reach Brown’s Park. He somehow located Dart, served him with the warrant and took him into custody.

The two men began the long two-day trip back to Rock Springs. During the trip the horses bolted on a steep hill, and the buckboard overturned. Philbrick was knocked unconscious and was badly injured.

Dart escaped injury, could have easily abandoned his captor and ridden back to Brown’s Park. Instead, Dart took the injured Philbrick to Rock Springs for medical attention. He returned the rented buckboard to the livery stable and surrendered at the jail.

Philbrick remained hospitalized for weeks. On the eve of Dart’s trial, Philbrick left the hospital and appeared in court on behalf of the Black cowboy. After he told the jury all of the things Dart did to save his life, the cowboy was promptly acquitted.

So called “stock detective” Tom Horn, a former Pinkerton agent, was hired by large Wyoming ranchers at the rate of $500 per cattle thief he killed. This is equivalent to about $7,000 in today’s purchasing power. Rustlers were rarely convicted because juries were typically made up of small ranchers in competition with the big outfits.

In the early spring of 1900, Tom Horn slipped into Brown’s Park under the name of James Hicks. Maintaining a low profile, he posed as an itinerant cowboy and horse buyer.

Horn’s attention was first drawn to Matt Rash. Horn discovered that Dart and Rash worked together, rustling cattle and driving them north to the Union Pacific Railroad at Rock Springs to be sold. Horn presented his evidence to his employer in Wyoming and was given the go ahead to kill both Rash and Dart.

On July 7, 1900, Rash was having lunch at his cabin while Hicks took aim through a window and fired. The first bullet hit Rash so hard it spun him around, and the second bullet passed through his right breast. Mortally wounded, Rash pulled off one of his boots, crawled into his bed and died. His body was discovered several days later.

Horn was careful to cover his tracks and appeared to send a letter from Denver to Rash the date of the killing. It was probably the work of an accomplice. Next Horn dropped his alias and filed a formal complaint implicating Isom Dart as a horse thief.

On Oct. 3, 1900, friends spent the night at Isom Dart’s Cold Mountain cabin. The next morning, Dart was walking down from the cabin when two shots rang out. When the bullet struck Dart, he crumpled to the ground and died instantly. His visitors hit the ground watching for the assailant. Later two spent 30-30 cartridges 120 yards from the cabin were recovered, and they knew Tom Horn packed his signature 30-30 Winchester.

In 1902, Tom Horn bragged about killing Matt Rash and Isom Dart in a letter boasting that he alone put an end to rustling in Brown’s Park in just one summer. Later, Horn was tried and convicted of the murder of a teenage boy named Willie Nickell. For his crime, Horn was hanged in Cheyenne in 1903.

Isom Dart is buried near the site of his cabin on Cold Spring Mountain. He was a man with many endearing qualities, including being quite generous. His lifestyle, however, involved stealing horses and cattle, a habit which eventually cost him his life. He died in his mid-50s.