“Jim Bethel Killed! Old Resident of this County Found Dead in his Doorway.”
With these words, in 1908 the Madera Tribune apprised local residents of the murder of one of Madera County’s best known mountain men.
In the parlance of the day, Bethel was known as a “squaw man.” That is, he took a Mono woman as his wife and lived near the Indians. He had resided near North Fork for more than thirty years, and at the time of his death, he operated a roadside tavern, the kind that provided refuge for heavy drinkers and purveyors of violence. Most of the whites in Madera County liked Jim Bethel. The Missouri native had fought in the Mariposa Indian War and looked for all the world like W.F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody.