Who was Alfred Packer? Was he America's first Hannibal the Cannibal?

On February 9, 1874, Alferd Packer and five other men departed from the camp of Ute Chief Ouray, near what is now Montrose, Colorado. They were resuming a trek that had begun several months earlier in Provo, Utah, hoping to reach newly discovered gold prospects in Breckenridge, Colorado.

While the original party was considerably larger, only Packer (as guide) and Israel Swan, Shannon Wilson Bell, George Noon, James Humphrey, and Frank Miller dared risk the sometimes brutal Colorado winter in search of riches. And brutal it was, as not long after leaving the safety of Chief Ouray's camp, the group was engulfed in a furious blizzard near the present site of Lake City, Colorado.

Packer was next seen on April 16, 1874, straggling into the Los Pinos Indian Agency with little more than a rifle and a skinning knife belonging to members of his party. The story Packer told at that time was that, once the storm hit, he had set up camp while the others went forward in search of food. They never returned, and Packer subsequently headed out for Los Pinos. - https://www.museumtrail.org/alferd-packer

SOURCES:

https://www.museumtrail.org/alferd-packer

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120993735/the-oskaloosa-independent/

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