Track #2 off my new CD, "Kitchen Table" is "Eliza Jane" which was a nickname given to a widow from Iowa in the 1870's who traveled to Colorado; then met and married a deputy sheriff by the name of Frank Kirkham. They had a few more kids and by most accounts were settled into their lives in the Upper Arkansas River Valley which stretches from the mining town of Leadville, south to Buena Vista. Around this time, there were repeated stagecoach robberies throughout the area. Frank's boss, the sheriff was frustrated and unable to catch the robbers. It seemed that the outlaw, or outlaws, always new which route and which stage out of the valley bound for Denver or Colorado Springs was hauling the refined ore of gold or silver from the mines.
I discovered the local lore behind this song when I accidentally looked up from fly fishing the Arkansas River one day, to discover a lonely white gravestone on the hillside above the river next to a boulder-strewn clay hill and cliff face. With no other graves nearby, and no sign of settlement, I wondered why anyone would bury a friend, family member, or loved one, in such a remote and desolate place. It wasn't until many months later that I grew curious enough to research the story behind the gravestone, and who lay below it. Local legend goes something like this.... Frank Kirkham, being bold and ambitious, hatched a plan to catch the outlaws all by himself. Without telling the sheriff or anyone else, he dressed as a woman, and caught a ride on the next stage that went out of Leadville carrying the booty from the mines. He carried a pistol under his garments and meant to surprise any robber who tried to hold up the stage. And sure enough, between Twin Lakes and Granite, the stage was robbed by a single bandit brandishing a gun. Frank revealed himself to the robber with his own gun. And when the robber tried to flee, Frank shot the outlaw in the back, killing them right there where the gravestone sits today. The identity of the outlaw is written; so they say, on that stone. I guess you'll have to listen to the song to find out who it was. Alternatives to this legend do exist. But I like this one best.
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