Submitted by Dick Blust, Sweetwater County Historical Museum
An Oscar-nominated hit movie about a grueling long-distance horse race was inspired by a real event – a race that ran through Sweetwater County; indeed, all the way across southern Wyoming.
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1975’s Bite the Bullet, starring Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, and James Coburn, is the story of an early twentieth-century endurance race sponsored by a newspaper with a major cash prize, winner takes all. Hackman and Coburn’s characters are old comrades who cannot let their friendship interfere with winning, and Candice Bergen, the only female contestant, has a hidden agenda for competing.
The real-life race – the Great Endurance Race of 1908, sponsored by the Denver Post – ran from Evanston to Cheyenne, then south to the finish line in Denver, over 500 miles. The prizes put up ranged from $50 to $1,000.
There were initially over two dozen contestants from Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico, and research by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River recently identified the race’s Wyoming contestants: W.C. Casto of Fort Bridger, James Edwards, from Diamondville, David Wilcox, Saratoga, Joe James, of Encampment, and Arthur Holman and Charles E. “Charlie” Workman, both from Cody.
In the eyes of the public the two contenders to watch were Frank T. “Dode” Wykert, the Colorado favorite, on a roan horse named Sam, and Charles Edgar “Charlie” Workman of Cody, riding Teddy.
A special train commissioned by the Post transported most of the riders to the race’s jump-off point in Evanston, though Workman chose to ride Teddy all the way down from Cody, itself a journey of well over 300 miles.
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The Union Pacific Railroad set up watering stations along the race’s route, and riders were obliged to feed, check in, and rest their mounts every 50 miles, with the toughest (and driest) stretch running across the Red Desert between Rock Springs and Rawlins. Veterinarians were stationed at regular intervals along the route – which, until it reached Cheyenne, followed the Union Pacific rail line east from Evanston – to rule out horses deemed unfit to proceed.
The starting gun was fired in Evanston at 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 30, 1908. Charlie Workman on Teddy took an early lead, and while Workman was the first rider to pass through Carter, Church Buttes, Granger, and Bryan, Charlie Trew, on a thoroughbred named Archie, was the first to reach Green River.
The riders who had not dropped out early or had their horses withdrawn by race veterinarians continued through Rock Springs and Point of Rocks. As described in one account, “After Point of Rocks came more sand, and still more. The Red Desert tried the horses, for at every step they sank down into the loose, thick sand…”
At Bitter Creek, Workman and Teddy were still in the lead and were the first to arrive in Wamsutter, then Rawlins. From there the race continued through Fort Steele, and, while
Workman and Teddy were still first, several others, including Wykert and Sam, were gaining on them.
After Fort Steele came Medicine Bow, then Laramie, and it was along the next stretch that Workman lost his lead when Wykert, aboard Sam, made it to Cheyenne first.
The final stretch, south to Denver, now lay before them, through Greeley, Fort Lupton, and Brighton, with Workman and Wykert fighting for the lead and the other riders well behind. When, before a huge crowd, they reached the finish line on the street in front of the Denver Post at 2:33 PM on June 5, there “was not an inch to choose between them.” The finish was declared a dead heat; Charlie Workman on Teddy and “Dode” Wykert aboard Sam were judged the joint first place winners.
Workman and Wykert split the first and second place prizes, but Wykert’s Sam won the $300 “condition prize” for being in superior physical shape at the finish. Jim Edwards of Diamondville came in third, arriving at the finish line about five hours later. W. H. Kern, of Colorado City, Colorado, was fourth, W.C. Casto from Fort Bridger, Wyoming, was fifth, and David W. Lee, Bridgeport, Nebraska, came in sixth.
The Wyoming Tribune in Cheyenne reported that “The race was ridden over 524 miles, the winners making the distance in six days, nine hours and thirty-five minutes,” which meant the finishers covered over 80 miles per day for nearly a week.
In the end, art imitated life. In the last scene of Bite the Bullet, race winners Gene Hackman and James Coburn cross the finish line together.
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