Colorado Cannibal Alferd Packer

There are many different versions of what happened that fateful winter of 1874. The one I like and that sounds the most believable to me is this one.

In January of 1874 a group of 20 miners from Utah, including one Alferd Packer, age 31 arrived in the San Juan mountains to seek their fortunes. Alferd claimed to be the guide for this group, however there is some doubt as to whether or not he really was.

They stopped at Chief Ouray's camp in northwest Colorado. The Ute chief tried to warn them that it was much too late in the year for anyone to try and make it through the mountains. A group of 5 men, including Packer, decided they were going to try it anyway. They wanted to beat everyone else to the fields and get a jump start on making their fortune, and on February 9th 1874 they left and headed out towards the Los Pinos Indian agency on Cochetopa creek near the Gunnison and Saguache areas.

The group figured it was about a 40 mile trip and took only 10 days worth of food. It was actually a 75 mile trip and would take much longer especially with the snow and avalanche danger.

The men in this group consisted of Frank "Reddy" Miller, Shannon Wilson Bell, Israel Swan, James Humphrey, Alferd Packer and the youngest at age 18, George "California" Noon. When they left, that was the last time anyone, other than Packer, saw them alive.