The Train and Lucy Tutaine

"In the fall of 1882, a California woman used a slab of bacon to take on the Southern Pacific when the railroad refused to reimburse her. Lucy Tutaine, a widow with two young sons, lived on a small ranch adjacent to the steep San Gorgonio grade of the Colorado Desert. Her only cow wandered on the unfenced train tracks and was killed. She asked the railroad to reimburse her, but was denied. Poor Lucy needed the milk for her family, so she took matters into her own hands.

She took a giant slab of bacon to which she had added a rope. She then had her sons take turns using it as a sled while she pulled it up and down the train tracks. As the passenger train climbed the steep grade, it struck the well-greased rails and could not make it up the hill. A long delay ensued while frustrated passengers waited for crew to apply sand to the tracks.

The greasy bacon tracks were eventually traced back to the cow-less Lucy. She freely told her story, with the hope of getting satisfaction. When she was threatened with arrest, she replied that the police could arrest her, but as soon as she was free, she would do it again. She wouldn't stop until the railroad paid for her cow. The railroad reimbursed the widow. Her children no longer had bacon sled rides, but they did have milk."

From True West Magazine, "The Bacon Cure," January 13, 2015.