If you happen to venture into the rural Kings Mountain area west of quiet Woodside, you have to be impressed with the level of civilization that has taken over there, albeit in subtle ways.
Although there are some remnants of its rough-hewn past as a gritty, 19th-century logging community still in existence, today’s residents are, for the most part, far more affluent, cultured and refined — not entirely, of course, but you get the idea.
And it’s probably not a stretch to note that an awful lot of the current inhabitants of the redwood region have utterly no idea that, in the years after the Civil War, certain outlaws of an especially violent bent frequented the territory.
In particular, historians (prominent financial adviser and Kings Mountain resident Ken Fisher among them) are quick to point out that key elements of the murderous James Gang hid out there after determined law enforcement authorities began to close in on them in the turbulent post-war Midwest.
Cole Younger and two of his brothers, Bob and Jim, lived on a ranch outside La Honda for a considerable period of time in order to lie low and avoid detection, reportedly working as relatively anonymous workers in the lumber industry.
They had good reason to try to maintain a level of secrecy. They were vicious killers with long and bloody track records dating back years. Their ill deeds (awful and many), in concert with the James brothers, Jesse and Frank, during the Civil War period, became the stuff of grim legend.
Their trail of criminal activity was particularly marked in Missouri where, for a time, they were members of the notorious Quantrill Raiders, a paramilitary outfit sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Barbaric behavior on all sides was rife in those bitter days.
Eventually, the Youngers left the Peninsula’s mountain environs and returned to their bandit ways. Years later, they were wounded and apprehended in a foiled bank robbery attempt in Northfield, Minnesota. A movie has been made about that affair.
Arrested, the brothers languished in prison. Bob died while incarcerated. Jim was paroled and died by his own hand in 1902.
Cole was paroled and hooked up with Frank James to form what amounted to an outlaw celebrity touring show, called the “Cole Younger and Frank James Wild West Company.”
Cole died in 1916 in Missouri, his home state. He was 72. There is no evidence to suggest that he (or his brothers) ever returned to Kings Mountain and La Honda.
Maintaining tradition
In the age of Twitter and ever-shorter attention spans, there is something inherently valuable in maintaining some semblance of tradition along the fast-changing Peninsula and in Silicon Valley at large.
One such move to nurture appreciation in this regard is a yearly high school football game between two ancient suburban neighbors, Burlingame and San Mateo.
They have been doing so on a regular basis since 1927 during the Coolidge Administration. It’s one of the oldest such events between public secondary schools in the Greater Bay Area.
Last weekend’s Little Big Game at the San Mateo field was the 92nd in the enduring series. An estimated 5,000 well-behaved folks turned out for it. There was food, banners, marching bands, pep squads and even some prep football.
The atmosphere, as it is most years, was more in tune with a combined family reunion, a gathering of old friends and, yes, a few foes as well.
When the combined choirs from the two schools sang the National Anthem prior to kickoff, there was a definite hint of nostalgia in the brisk air, a memory or two of a simpler and gentler time.
A slightly younger version of the Little Big Game will take place next week on Thanksgiving Day when San Jose High and its rival, Lincoln of San Jose, face off in the 77th Big Bone Game.
Good for them.
John Horgan’s column appears weekly in the Mercury News. You can contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.