In February 1874, Blair continued his work for Wells Fargo in Colfax, Calif., and then in July he moved to Corinne, Utah Territory, which lay on the Central Pacific and was the connection point for coaches to the Montana Territory cities of Virginia City, Helena and Fort Benton. Pioche became his base again in February 1875, and on occasion he drove the stages. During one incident in Utah, when outlaws ordered Blair to throw up his hands, the team spooked, carrying him and his passengers to safety. Most of the time, though, he rode shotgun, and that’s where he made his reputation.

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Wells Fargo did not have enough express messengers for every stagecoach run, so the company put guards on routes deemed prime targets for highwaymen. According to Wells Fargo Special Officer James B. Hume, most guards were “men of thorough courage and prompt action…the kind of men you can depend on if you get in a fix, with the certainty that they will pull you through or stay by you to the last.” Blair, in particular, excelled at his job. When he or another messenger rode shotgun, it presented road agents with a dilemma: While the strongbox likely contained a considerable sum, the risks of trying to seize it greatly increased.

On occasion, Blair guarded a prisoner instead of a strongbox. In February 1876, he escorted desperado Richard “Idaho Bill” Sloan from Pioche to Salt Lake City. Bill and his gang had taken over the stage station at Desert Springs the month prior, causing all sorts of mayhem, and had eventually been arrested in Pioche, strutting around the streets like a walking arsenal. An acquaintance of Blair’s recalled the incident: “Bill was a desperado and a dangerous one…but at Pioche, Nev., he submitted to arrest as peacefully as a lamb when Eugene Blair came for him.…The prisoner was handcuffed, of course, and Blair sat beside him in the coach. It was generally thought that Bill’s friends would try to rescue him somewhere on the road, which led him [Blair] to say to him: ‘Bill, I’ve heard that your friends are going to get you away from me between here and Carson if they can. Likely enough they will, but it’s fair to tell you that it’ll never do you any good, for I shall shoot you dead at the first break they make. It’s as well to have the matter understood between us.’”

On the night of April 14, 1876, Blair was riding shotgun beside Pat Ryan on the Eureka-to-Pioche route when road agents stopped them three miles from Pioche. “Pat. Ryan, the driver, [was] ordered to throw down the box,” The Pioche Daily Record reported. “As the stage was stopped, Eugene Blair, messenger, dropped down in the front boot with his double-barreled shotgun. Pat. Ryan threw out an empty box to the road agent, who, as he grabbed it, called out, ‘Ryan, is that the right one?’ Ryan made some reply, which he does not recollect, as, just at that time, Blair fired at the robber, who, without doubt, received the shot in his side, as it turned him partly around. He returned the fire at once, just as Ryan commenced whipping up the horses. After they had gone a short distance, they were halted, and Blair, getting down, went back after the box, which he found; but the robber had managed to get away. There is no doubt, however, that he will be caught this time, as the gunshot wound will betray him. Blair says the Gentleman Jack of the road is an Irishman, as he recognized the brogue.” Later that night, parties from Pioche returned to the scene and followed the robber’s tracks for some distance before losing them in the sagebrush.

A month later, a lone highwayman again held up the Eureka-to-Pioche stage, this time some 80 miles from Pioche. Messenger Phil Barnhart chased off the outlaw, and Blair—who was not aboard—took up the case afterward, arresting one George Mayfield on suspicion. Mayfield never admitted to that holdup but was subsequently convicted of other stage robberies.

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