Orrin Porter Rockwell
Orrin Porter Rockwell (SLC.gov)
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Editor’s note: In 2004, while working on the HBO series Deadwood, which is filmed at the Melody Ranch in California, Jay T. (special effects) and Maria (stand-in/actress) met and became engaged. “The cast and crew [after hearing the announcement] either clapped or cried,” recalled Maria Rockwell. “Robin Weigert, who portrays Calamity Jane, cried out of joy but was mad I didn’t say anything and didn’t even tell her I was dating anyone. Well, I wasn’t dating, I was getting married!” The wedding invitations were “wanted posters.” The wedding itself, which had an 1876 theme, took place on the set at the Seth Bullock house on April 10, 2005. David Milch, the creator, executive producer and writer of Deadwood, gave Maria away. Jay T. Rockwell bears a striking resemblance to his ancestor Orrin Porter Rockwell, a legendary long-haired Mormon adventurer who could, with much aplomb, handle Colt revolvers.


My great-grandfather’s brother (my great-uncle) was Orrin Porter Rockwell, known as the Mormon Danite or the “Avenging Angel.” I remember the stories my grandfather told me about Porter when I was a child. He told me that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, had prophesied that as long as Rockwell didn’t cut his hair, no bullet or knife could kill him. Two of the most famous Westerners in anybody’s book, Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, wore their hair long because the two Bills emulated the legendary Porter.

I heard many other stories about him as well. There was the time when Port (as he was sometimes called) Rockwell was quarreling with a man in a saloon near his father’s harness shop. The man emptied every chamber of his six-shooter at Port, and the balls splattered all around him, but not one touched him. Some of the stories involved the supernatural. In these stories, Rockwell received a shiny distinction that set him apart from such gunfighters as Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday—his legend had the spice of divine intervention.

Many believed that Port Rockwell, like a modern Samson, received supernatural strength through his long hair. In one instance, Rockwell supposedly faced a gang of ambushing outlaws, who indeed opened fire. When the outlaws saw their weapons were useless against their intended victim, they ran away in fright. Port then shook his coat and bullets dropped onto the ground like dead lice. Another time, Rockwell was on an errand in his buckboard. He stopped in a store but was forced to back out the doorway because someone was shooting at him. Port made it back to his buggy as bullets whizzed all around him, some passing through the spokes. Not one bullet struck Rockwell as he calmly picked up his rifle and shot the fleeing man who had attacked him. It was said that the Indians respected him because they could not kill him. All their bullets either missed him or failed to penetrate his flesh. His return fire, though, would cause considerable damage. Consequently, when Rockwell became a stage driver, the Indians left him alone.

Some basic facts are known about Porter Rockwell. He was born on June 28, 1813, in Belcher (Hampshire County), Mass., the second of nine sons and daughters of Orrin and Sarah Witt Rockwell. He was said to be a distant cousin of Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland and Abraham Lincoln. His early education was slight, and he could neither read nor write. A childhood injury left him with a limp, and useless behind a plow. He developed an uncanny way with horses and displayed an expertise with firearms that set him apart from almost all his contemporaries.

After he moved with his family from Massachusetts to western New York, he came to love and admire the controversial young “prophet” Joseph Smith. Later, in Missouri, Rockwell became known as the leading Danite, or militant protector of the Mormon faith, and was Smith’s bodyguard. In 1842, he was accused of seriously wounding Lilburn Boggs, the former Missouri governor who had helped boot the “Saints” out of his state. Rockwell was eventually arrested and served about nine months in jail before he was released; nobody could prove his guilt. In June 1844, Smith was killed in Carthage, Ill.; Rockwell had not made that trip.

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Porter Rockwell then became Mormon leader Brigham Young’s one-man security team and scout, helping greatly in the Mormons’ 1847 migration to the Salt Lake Valley in what would become Utah. When not scouting, fighting off Indians or hunting buffalo, Rockwell found time to start many businesses, including a livery and a hotel, and own several ranches. He also helped make the new land a better place as a deputy sheriff, tracking down horse thieves and other criminals.

Rockwell’s long hair and reputation for being indestructible spread far and wide. Assorted hard cases and shootists supposedly came from miles just to take a crack at killing him. One day as he was riding across the desert to his Skull Valley ranch, he heard his name being called. When he turned around, he found himself looking right down the barrel of a pistol. The horseman with the gun proudly declared, “Rockwell, I come all the way from California just to kill you.” The rider was carrying a cap-and-ball pistol, the kind that requires a powder cap to be secured to the gun in order to fire. Sometimes when riding on rough terrain, the cap would slip off, unbeknown to the rider. Rockwell stared down at the outlaw and, without flinching, stated, “Cain’t shoot me without a cap on yer gun.” The outlaw was petrified. He decided he had better take a quick look to make sure the cap was in place. But as soon as he shifted his eyes from his target to his pistol, Porter drew his pistol and blew him clean off his horse.

In 1857, during the Utah Expedition, when U.S. Army troops rode into Utah Territory to suppress an alleged Mormon rebellion, Rockwell kept a watchful eye on the soldiers. Not only did he serve as a Mormon chief scout but he also raided livestock. That November, he was involved in an attack on a half-dozen men in the Aiken party from California. Twenty years later, Rockwell was indicted for the murders of John and William Aiken. Before he could come to trial in 1878, though, he died.

The federal forces left Salt Lake City when the Civil War began, and Porter Rockwell had a successful mail contract in Utah Territory. He was a straight-shooter, both figuratively and literally. Some accounts suggest that he killed as many as 150 men, but even if that was a gross exaggeration, he certainly shot down more men than Hickock, Holliday and the Earp brothers ever did.

Rockwell was always very well armed. But unlike typical gunmen who displayed their weapons and seemed to invite trouble, he preferred to conceal his weapons. One of the weapons he reportedly favored was a Navy Colt with a sawed-off barrel that allowed him to hide it more easily. Rockwell invented a shoulder-sling, swivel holster for his coach gun, which could be carried undetected under his long coat and swiveled up for instant business.

The anti-Mormon Salt Lake Tribune and some other papers branded him a killer of unsuspecting travelers and even Saints who disagreed with him on certain viewpoints. The accusations were unfair, because none of his alleged murders was ever proved. More likely, he never killed a man who didn’t deserve it. The good citizens respected him; it was the criminals who hated and feared him. For his entire life, Rockwell was a prime target for persecution and slander by enemies of the Mormon Church. He did not bother defending himself against many of the accusations against him, and he rarely sought revenge. He took courage in his faith; to him, even if nobody else knew the truth, God knew, and only God mattered. Despite being persecuted, attacked and shot, Orrin Porter Rockwell lived to be 65 and was done in by a heart attack rather than violence. He died on June 9, 1878, and 1,000 people reportedly attended his funeral.

I began noticing the similarities between myself and Porter Rockwell when I was working in Utah on the 1997 action film Con Air as a special effects and pyrotechnics boss. People on the crew who were Mormons and people in town would come up to me and tell me about the amazing likeness. They showed me pictures, took me to a restaurant called Porter’s Place and told me all about his life. They said that I must be the Avenging Angel reincarnated.

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That experience caused me to do some research and to evaluate my past and why I am so drawn to the Wild West. When I was younger, my partner Ted Draper was a competitor in quick-draw competitions. He wanted to teach me his skills, and when I strapped the gun belt on and drew against him for the first time, I outdrew him. He would “fan” his gun, but I would naturally pull my gun out of the holster and “thumb” it and pull the trigger faster than he could fan. In time, I got so good at it that I would have him hold his pistol in the ready-to-shoot position, and I would still pull my gun from my holster and shoot before he could squeeze off a shot. Eventually, other gunfighters and stuntmen would challenge me, and I would outdraw them every time. It became a stunt in my Wild West show.

Also consider a hunting trip I once took in Montana with my uncle, grandfather and father. The night before, my dad told me how quick he was at loading and firing his .30-06 lever-action rifle. My uncle and I had paired off down a ravine; my uncle was ahead of me but suddenly came back on the run with a grizzly tailing him. The bear was 20 feet away, but I quickly got six shots off with that .30-06 and dropped him. My grandfather and dad ran up and commented that it sounded like a machine gun; they were astounded to learn it had only been me with my rifle.

I have always had a natural way with horses. While I was working with some of the top horse trainers, they commented on my ability to calm the wildest horses for trail work or as trick horses for films and television. I dress in 1800s Western wear because it is comfortable for me. I don’t do it to get attention, though back in 2004 it was one of the things that got the attention of my bride-to-be (“Jay T. stood out among normal folk,” she later said). The Wild West has always had special meaning for me, and I am just blessed that my wife understands that and appreciates my “Porter Rockwell” look when we leave the Deadwood set and go out on the town!


Originally published in the August 2006 issue of Wild West.