Dead Man Mountain is located 10 miles north of Jacksboro, on the Jackshoro - Post Oak road. The tree in this account was situated just off the east side of the road on what was later to become tile Avis Townsite.
A man came down in this country and stole a bunch of horses that belonged to some ranchers. Well, my grandparents, they took up a claim down there where there was some good spring water. See, the Campseys came to Jack County when my daddy was 8 years old. (Around 1879). They came from Kansas to Texas, you know, and they went down there and found this good spring down on the river, and they took up a claim there. So this guy came by - there wasn't water everywhere like there is now - and he stopped and asked about watering these horses, and he did. When my folks told the ranchers what time this guy passed by there, the ranchers took out after him. They said, "We've got to catch him before he crosses Red River. If we don't, he'll be in Oklahoma Territory - and we can't get him there..."
The man with the stolen horses got to the turn in the road at what is now called Dead Man Mountain where all that good green grass was, and he let the horses graze, hobbled his own horse and thinking himself safe, laid down and went to sleep. And that is where the ranchers overtook him, so they hung him to a limb of that tree there.
And, yes, the ranchers got their horses back.