Under Cover for Wells Fargo: The Unvarnished Recollections of Fred Dodge (Volume 63) (The Western Frontier Library Series)

This book should be a movie with Clint Eastwood....or Tommy Leee Jones...This guy was the real deal, and if you're ever lucky enough to read it, you will see why. First, I own property and live on what was once the Dodge ranch in Boerne, Texas. I've been here for 38 years now. Like Fred Dodge, I also grew up in California and am well aquainted with Sonora and the Sierras. (Sonora Pass, 12,500ft.) Fred was raised in a mining camp, along with Blackfoot indians, who I'm sure taught him his unnatural tracking and capture skills. He never saw another white kid his age untill he was fourteen. Fast forward to Tombstone, Arizona, where as a young man in 1880 or so, he became a shrewd businessman as well as a well liked frontier guy. The bad guys respected him, and the good guys all took credit for his good deeds. He was all okay with that, because as his wife and family, or anyone else who came into contact with him never knew until he retired here in Texas, He was hired by Mr. Valentine of Wells Fargo to go undercover and find the guys that were raiding their shipments of money and merchandise. He did this so well, when he would collar some S.O.B. he would drop him off with Wyatt Earp at Tombstone, so as not to be detected as an agent.Great read, his letters edited by Carolyn Lake(God Bless You). EVERYONE I have loaned this book to has asked to keep it. G.S.

A superb recollection of a person who lived and worked in the Old West with famous characters! Mr Dodge actually participated in and around many historical happenings.

My husband loves the classic western tv series Wells Fargo and this book is what the series went by to make them. True and enjoyable reading.

not a qp69 hardcover first edition as purchased.

I relished the language and recollections of Fred Dodge! The vernacular was different and it is like this statement "We were blowed up and Could not get any trace of anyone else, So we Started on our home journey---Virgil Earp left us at Benson..........." I recommend this book to anyone interested in what actually happened at that time in history!

Reading

Worth reading twice.

While some claim that Fred Dodge was never a Undercover Agent for Wells Fargo, in Jim Bartz' book Company Property (of Wells Fargo) which details documented articles used by and belonging to Wells Fargo Express Co., there's an offical Wells Fargo photograph dossier shown that was compiled by and is labelled "Fred Dodge" as well as "Official Wells Fargo Photographs", that has been authenticated and is a Rogues Gallery of notable robbers that were compiled by Mr. Dodge. Apparently Wells Fargo historians believe that Fred Dodge worked for them.