clay county histories

Markus Krueger | Program Director  HCSCC

I love a good Western, but they sure get a lot of things wrong. For instance, Moorhead was a real Wild West town, but I never see a Hollywood Western take place in the snow.

And here’s a myth I want to debunk: the body count at the end of Hollywood Westerns often rival minor Civil War battles. That never happened. James Sharp said of Moorhead in 1871-72 “A shooting match before and after breakfast was not an unusual occurrence,” but in most cases, it seems, these gunfighters were too drunk to shoot a 19th century pistol straight (yes, even at breakfast time). 

Take one example. Dave Mullen was one of the scuzziest nogoodniks of the North, moving his bordello along Northern Pacific Railway to wherever the railroad workers had disposable income at track’s end. In 1870 that meant Brainerd. After being shot by patron there, the St. Cloud Journal reported “It is feared Mullen will recover, though hopes are entertained that his wound will prove fatal.” The following year he established himself on 4th Street in Moorhead, what Solomon Comstock would call “Moorhead’s dark and bloody ground,” and what we used to call Herberger’s at Center Mall. 

On the morning of September 12, 1872, Dave Mullen got into an argument with gambler Ed Hayes. Both drew their guns and started firing. Now if this were a movie, six shots from a revolver would net you seven or eight dead Bad Guys, but this was reality. Both men, who we assume were sitting at the same table initially, began shooting at each other, exited the building, and ran around the building continuing to shoot at each other. A total of 15 shots were fired – which means at least one of them reloaded – resulting in two woundings and zero fatalities. Both men were arrested but no one was charged because they agreed to leave town. Can you imagine Moorhead Police Officers today letting two men go free after a downtown shooting spree because they promised to LEAVE TOWN?  

Mullen and Hayes would meet again the next year in Bismarck, the new town at track’s end where Moorhead’s criminal element relocated in 1873. While looking out of his saloon window, Dave Mullen saw an old man running for his life down the street, followed by Dave’s buddy Shang Stanton from Moorhead. Bullets were whizzing by them. He didn’t know what was going on, but he saw Ed Hayes was the guy shooting at them. Dave started shooting at Ed. Ed forgets Shang and shoots at Dave. Shang turns and shoots at Ed. Nobody got hurt. 

Dave’s luck ran out at “The Battle of Mullen’s Corner” in Bismarck, November of 1873. Twenty-five soldiers from the 7th Cavalry barged into his saloon (long story short: it was over a girl). A soldier gave the command: “Commence Firing!” The room filled with bullets, resulting in one wounded and two dead: Dave Mullen and the soldier who killed him.