by Wayne Fanebust
for the Feb. issue of Etc. Magazine
Devil's Gulch is a quartzite rock chasm located in eastern Minnehaha County, near the town of Garretson, close to the border with Minnesota. Named after His Satanic Majesty, it exudes a dark, sinister intrigue, and yet Devil's Gulch is a place of intense, eye-opening scenic beauty, although to some eyes, it might look like a strange, freak of nature that. suddenly burst through the dirt on the verdant, rolling prairie. A creek of the same name runs between the huge rock formations that are 60 to 70 feet high.
Another remarkable rock formation called the Palisades proudly stands south of the town of Garretson, in Palisades Township. Just two miles from Devil's Gulch, the Palisades is another place of sheer enchantment where grand and high outcroppings of the hard, pinkish rock adorns the banks of the Split Rock Creek, a lovely stream that was once called Split Rock River.
The first settlers arrived in Palisades Township in 1873. This date coincides with an article in an 1873 Sioux Falls newspaper informing its readers that on a balmy September day, a party of young girls hired a team and driver and visited the Palisades "to see the beauty of the place and enjoy the pleasure of the ride." There was, however, no mention of Devil's Gulch.
Although the origin of the name "Devil's Gulch" is a mystery, it has a history along with a mythology. The Native Americans had long called it "Spirit Canyon." According to an old Indian legend, the canyon was created as a result of a tomahawk throwing contest between two warriors. While the two men tossed their tomahawks, suddenly the "earth trembled, the rocks split and the canyon appeared." Spirit Canyon became a holy place for the Indians, and for the white man, a place that the plow shall never touch.
Nowadays, tourists who visit Devil's Gulch are often told that the legendary outlaw, Jesse James, on horseback and being chased by a posse, jumped across the gulch, thereby escaping yet another attempt to capture him. The Missouri outlaw, along with his brother Frank had been on the run following the botched robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The James brothers, along with Cole, Bob and Jim Younger and three other men were attacked and shot up by angry men of Northfield. The crime was committed on September 7, 1876. Four men were killed in the gun battle, including two members of the gang. A few days later, the James boys split up with the Younger brothers and somehow managed to stay ahead of hundreds of pursuers.
Most people, especially those who know something about horses, will conclude that a jump of about eighteen feet would be impossible, if nothing else, because of the presence of jagged rocks. While it might be possible for a horse to broad jump eighteen feet, it seems unlikely that a horse, even a fresh, fast one, could get up the necessary speed because of problems presented by the rocky surface. And yet in 1924, W.W. Sanders, then an editor of a Garretson newspaper wrote: "It was across the Devil's Gulch—as the legend has it, that Jesse James jumped."
The quote was published in The Daily Argus-Leader, a Sioux Falls newspaper, and a legend was born — one that has found a permanent home at Devil's Gulch on the north edge of Garretson. Calling it a "pedigree legend," reporter J. A. Jerome wrote: "it is probably true that Jesse and Frank James had to jump across some chasm there, as there were no bridges of any kind...," and they were being chased by a Luverne, Minnesota, posse.
While the brothers were indeed, chased by a Luverne posse, facts tend to be scarce when one tries to explain the big jump. It is known that on the morning of September 17, 1876, the James boys took breakfast at the Charles Rolph homestead, located about 12 miles north of present-day Luverne, Minnesota. It is also known that the James boys entered Dakota Territory about five miles north of Valley Springs and that on the evening of the 17th, they visited the Andrew Nelson homestead, along the Split Rock River. This timeline suggests that they were never even at Devil's Gulch. Nevertheless, the tale has become a tidbit of lore that persists to this day.
The James brothers made their way back to Missouri and denied any connection with the Northfield bank robbery. The only thing either man would say is that they were never in Minnesota. After Jesse's death at the hands Bob Ford in 1882, the outlaw's reputation soared; he became America's bandit hero. Numerous "wild west shows" that featured Jesse's outlaw career, played almost everywhere in America. In 1907, the traveling Jesse James show stopped in Sioux Falls where fans were treated to samples of his outlaw exploits, but Devil's Gulch was not on the program.
It was in 1922 that news of the prodigious, eighteen foot leap finally emerged in the news media. It was then that the editor of the Wentworth News, a Lake County, South Dakota newspaper, wrote that he had been given a tour of Devil's Gulch by someone (unnamed) who "showed us the place where Jesse James jumped the channel riding horseback." After that a series of articles appeared in 1923 that are equally vague as to the origin of the tale, the wild story that strangely emerged in the public mind about 46 years after the events of 1876. Why, when and how the Leap legend surfaced at all, are three questions that have plagued historians and history buffs for a long, long time. But, apparently there were those who wanted to exploit the story.
W.W. Sanders was among the first to spread the word. Sanders was in love with the area, as was the Garretson Booster Club. In the summer of 1923, Sanders invited a group of southeastern South Dakota newspaper editors to visit the scenic spot. He gave them a tour of the Palisades and Devil's Gulch that included a bit of story telling. Taking the group across the footbridge over the Gulch, he told them they were walking where, years ago in the past, "Jesse James jumped across the Gulch..." But again, no evidence was provided.
In the heat of the moment or under stress caused by fear, anxiety or uncertainty, people sometimes see what they want or need to see in order to stay steady and make sense of their situation. It is known that the James' were pursued by many men, and in the course of the pursuit, more likely than not, one of the brothers jumped across a rocky creek bed or something similar. The jump takes almost less than a couple of heartbeats and is witnessed by one or more men. It mentioned in conversation, repeated over the years, changed slightly each time, until the insignificant puddle-hop becomes a legendary leap, a gargantuan feat by a larger-than-life desperado.
And, so the legend and lore of Jesse James' improbable, but magnificent, leap across Devil's Gulch lives on. It is a legend with a long life and it is an integral part of the story of the great escape by the James brothers. There is no point in trying to drive a stake through it, because it can't be killed. Somewhere out there someone might find an answer, a rational explanation for an issue that seems to be pleading for closure, but then again, maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, the romance of history has a legitimate place in this outlaw narrative alongside plain, dull facts.
Wayne Fanebust is an American Historian and the author of Chasing Frank and Jesse James: The Bungled Northfield Robbery and the Long Manhunt, published in 2018. He was born and raised in Sioux Falls. This article originally appeared in the Feb 2022 Etc. for her, a magazine published monthly and distributed for free in Sioux Falls. Article published with permission from the author.
