Greed and a bad case of gold fever had taken hold of 6 men during the winter of 1873. Alfred "Alferd" Packer was the only survivor of an ill considered expedition to the rich gold fields of the San Juan Mountains. This would not have been such an unusual occurrence except Alferd came out of the mountains after two months well fed and not starved and his story would soon show why.
In 1873, Alfred Packer, 31, went with a group of 20 other prospectors from Bingham Canyon, Utah, near Salt Lake City, into the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to seek wealth from mining minerals, including gold. He claimed to have been the guide for this expedition, but there is evidence that this may have been an exaggeration if not an outright fabrication. Apparently some of the food supply was lost along the way, and the would-be miners grew hungry and desperate.
The party arrived in January 1874 into Chief Ouray's Ute camp in northwestern Colorado, near Montrose, where they were cared for and urged to remain until spring. At that time of year, the mountain passes were treacherous, the Ute said, and snow could bury men. It would not be wise to proceed.
Nevertheless, a handful of these prospectors could not wait. They wanted to get to the mines before anyone else. Five of them, frenzied by the prospecting spirit, decided to risk all and continue over the mountains to the Los Piños Indian Agency on Cochetopa Creek near Saguache and Gunnison. Packer joined them. They left on February 9. Packer claimed that another group of five had gone out before them and they wanted to be first on the mine claims in the spring.
With a 10-day supply of food for a 75-mile trip (they apparently thought it was 40), the doomed men who left Chief Ouray's camp with Packer were Shannon Wilson Bell, Israel Swan, James Humphrey, Frank "Reddy" Miller, and George "California" Noon, who was only 18. Aside from Packer, that was the last time anyone saw these men alive.
More than two months passed and people wondered where they were. The next event is confusing. Either a party of prospectors came through in the spring and asked about them, sending out search parties, or Packer himself emerged. Packer came out alone from the winter wilderness and walked into the Los Piños Indian Agency on April 16 (the Colorado State Archives say April 6). Some witnesses say they saw him in the nearby town of Saguache more than a week earlier.
When he arrived, he had several wallets in his possession from which he extracted rolls of money, and although he professed having gone for more than a day without food, he asked for nothing to eat, he just wanted some whiskey. Packer mentioned that he'd hurt his leg and had fallen behind, so he was not sure where the others from his party were. He had expected them to beat him out of the mountains.
But the prospectors had not been seen. People who listened to his tales at the saloon thought that he'd taken the dead men's possessions. An Indian guide walking along the trail found strips of meat, which turned out to be human flesh. Packer's tales began to sound like outright lies. From all appearances, he had killed the others, survived off their meat, and enriched himself with their assets.
