Crime

Louis Ford, son of respected businessman and entrepreneur Barney L. Ford, chooses a life of crime in Part 3 of this series.

Louis Ford is accused of theft by a client at the Cheyenne hotel owned by his well-respected father, Barney L. Ford.

When the first prospectors and miners arrived in what would become Summit County, no legal or governmental structure existed–no federal, state, county or town governments, no sets of laws–to guide their interactions.  This lack of a structure presented problems.  How did one file a claim?  How did one keep others from stealing that claim?  How could disagreements be settled?  To alleviate the problem, miners and prospectors adopted an idea used in California–the mining district.