By 1885 a reform movement had begun in this wild cowtown. The open saloons were being forced underground into "blind tigers", a place where liquor could be bought through a slot in the door but neither the seller nor the buyer could see the other.
Accusations, threatening letters and bad feeling raced through the city. Enos Blair, a local editor and prohibitionist, had a mysterious fire at his home which everyone blamed on the saloon crowd. On this site, early on December 8, 1885, Frank Noyes, a blind tiger owner, was taken from his residence by vigilantes posing as law officers. Noyes was found the next morning hanging from a crossbeam at the railroad yard one block east. A note on the body named others who should take warning from his untimely death.
Though several of the vigilantes were recognized when Noyes was first seized, none ever faced trial.
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