A fitting tribute to a fallen Salt Lake County lawman

COPPERTON — It's a cemetery that few people visit.

Most of the headstones, the ones that haven't faded away and are still legible, are dated from around the turn of the 19th to the 20th centuries. Among those buried in the Bingham City Cemetery are three Utah law enforcers, all of them killed in the line of duty.

Monday, in a scene fitting of the old mining town that once thrived in the canyon directly to the west of the cemetery which it spawned, a new monument was dedicated to one of those deputies who made the ultimate sacrifice while protecting his community.

On Nov. 29, 1913, newly appointed Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy James D. Hulsey was shot and killed by a man wanted for already killing three other Utah law enforcers and a civilian.

Local historians call it the bloodiest episode in Utah law enforcement history. Five officers and a civilian were murdered by a miner in Bingham Canyon in the span of eight days.

Like many mining towns of the Old West, Bingham was "a very violent place to work" in 1913, said Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Randy Lish who spent many years researching the case.

The string of officer killings started Nov. 21, 1913, when Bingham Marshal William J. Grant, along with deputies George O. Witbeck and Nephi S. Jensen, went to Saratoga Springs to arrest Rafael Lopez, who was wanted for murder in Bingham Canyon. He had killed a man he thought was trying to steal his girlfriend.

The officers were ambushed.

Hulsey was a respected member of his community, having worked previously as a barber, bartender and a Bingham City volunteer firefighter. He also possessed excellent tracking skills and was able to follow Lopez back to the mine. Most people thought Hulsey was crazy for thinking Lopez would return to the scene of the crime.

But after it was confirmed Lopez was hiding somewhere inside the mine and receiving help from others who were still loyal to him, 150 law enforcers gathered to search for him. As Hulsey was attempting to smoke Lopez out of an area of the mine by lighting a wagon load of hay on fire, he too, along with Vaso Mandarich, 35, was shot and killed.

Lopez escaped and fled the state. He killed an estimated 30 more people in Texas before the Texas Rangers caught up with him and killed him in one final gun battle, according to Lish.

Later, a ceremony was held at the mine for Hulsey. Approximately 500 people attended, making it at the time one of the biggest ceremonies in the history of Bingham Canyon, said Utah Law Enforcement Memorial historian Robert Kirby. A train then brought Hulsey's body to the cemetery where he was buried.