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 He was a man of the West. A cowboy, husband, father, outlaw, hired assassin, lawman and lone wolf.  

This Deputy Sheriff and Horse Rustler was a true pioneer of Hot Springs County, Wyoming. 

Hot Springs County, Wyoming was a lawless rugged country, far from civilization and the law. The pioneers who came to this land had to have grit and the desire to survive. 

Albert Nard a.k.a. Slick had come to Wyoming up the Texas Trail in 1884. Tempers had just begun to boil between the homesteaders and free-range cattlemen. Within six years, this young cowboy, now a husband and father, fell in with Jack Bliss, a known horse thief. The two rustled cows and horses in the Lost Cabin area and were well-known by the locals. Slick knew the Hole-in-the-Wall gang members and early pioneers of the area as he plied his trade to provide for his young family. It was there, during the Horse Rustler Wars, that Slick was given a choice by a vigilante- turn informant or go to jail.

The Worland Grit claimed that “Nard hung out in the Hole in the Wall country but generally played a lone hand. He had earned a right to be called “Slick” through his cattle and horse rustling. For a time, he rode with the Curry gang of train robbers and was supposed to have been an actor in several of the big looting deals that gang was responsible for.”

This podcast was researched and hosted by Jackie Dorothy and Dean King of Legend Rock Media Productions with special thanks to Author and Historian, Mike Bell. 

For more adventurous reading and to learn more about this family and their friends, we suggest the following books which we used to research their story:

• Butch Cassidy, The Wyoming Years by Bill Betenson
• History of Wyoming, Big Horn Basin by Taceta Walker
• Incidents on Owl Creek - Butch Cassidy's Big Horn Basin Bunch and the Wyoming Horsethief War by Mike Bell

Shop the Independent Bookstore | Lulu

Music Credits:

• Dude, Where's My Horses by Nat Keefe with the Bow Ties
• Horses and Trains, Jesse Gallagher
• Rattlesnake Railroad by Brett Van Donsel
• A Fallen Cowboy by Sir Cubworth
• Western Spaghetti by Chris Haugen

Travel back to the past with a trip to Hot Springs County!

     Thermopolis, Wyoming is home of the "World's Largest Mineral Hot Springs" and still retains much of its western charms. Only a few hours from Yellowstone, you can come visit and for yourself why this town was once an outlaw hideout!
Home - Hot Springs Wyoming Tourism (thermopolis.com)
     You can even visit Old Thermopolis on Black Mountain Road where all that remains are memories - and a great fishing hole.  Slick Creek, named after our infamous lawman/outlaw, Slick Nard, is still in existence, a marker of by-gone days and highway robbery.
     Afterwards, lounge at the actual Hole-in-the-Wall bar that the Wild Bunch visited, now at the Hot Springs County Museum.
Hot Springs C

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Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association. Join us on Facebook!

Your hosts are Jackie Dorothy and Dean King and you can find us at (20+) Pioneers of Outlaw Country | Facebook

This is a production of Legend Rock Media Productions.