The land above Big Creek contains a large flat partially forested cattle range bordered on three sides by precipitous canyon drop-offs. Big Creek meanders through this place before it enters the very steep 2,000’ gorge at the bottom of which is the raging Tuolumne River. Archey's diggings were situated just above this cascading gorge. The original owner of this range-land was an elderly pioneer and homesteader named Ed McGrath. He had sold the land before the turn of the century and the current owner was oblivious to Archey’s presence on the deserted reaches of his range. Around nearby Groveland, Archey Wright began using the name Ed McGrath. A name associated locally with the land he worked.
On July 30th, 1921, Groveland Constable William Schmidt received a complaint that a cabin owned by local rancher, Frank Hadley had been entered and sacked. Hadley was convinced that Ed McGrath was the culprit. Constable Schmidt knew Archey as Ed McGrath and decided to visit his diggings with Hadley to bring him in for questioning.
They found McGrath where expected on Big Creek and apprised him of the complaint. He was asked to return with them to Groveland and he complied without incident. McGrath was wearing heavy work boots at the time and asked Constable Schmidt if he could change into shoes for the trip. Schmidt allowed him to enter his campsite to make the change. After all, he knew the man. He wouldn’t try anything. A moment later he returned, his .32 Winchester at shoulder leveled upon a very surprised Constable.
He declared, “I’m am not Ed McGrath. My name is Monte Wolfe! You two - head for Groveland!” To assure they complied, he chased them up the trail a ways then, rushed back to camp to pack up and leave knowing that a posse would soon follow. He followed the Tuolumne River downstream and crossed the river at Ward’s Ferry. Carrying rifle and shotgun, he stopped at the home of Dan Berger and asked for matches. Berger handily obliged and Wolfe thanked him with a wide grin as he departed, then he departed north up to the tree line and into the higher Sierra.
Wolfe traveled north climbing up the precipitous headwall of the Tuolumne's lower canyon until he was out of sight of Berger's place. Once into the forest, he turned southeast and dropped back down to the Tuolumne River upstream from his earlier crossing at Ward's Ferry. He entered the cold river and floated feet first in a downstream traverse to the River's south shore. He exited the river where he would leave little sign and followed the south shore's densely overgrown canopy upstream into the highlands. He had hoped his ploy would work. Dan Berger would contact the Sheriff and hopefully send the posse north and away from his trail.
The following day, a posse stopped in at Berger's place as expected. Their visit was short and they departed at a gallop in the direction that Berger had shown them on their map. By the following afternoon, an ever-widening 20 miles separated posse from prey as they trekked in opposite directions.
During the weeks that followed the Groveland posse pursued Monte into the mountains without success. The Tuolumne County Sheriff, William Sweeney later joined in an unsuccessful attempt to block Monte’s retreat into the mountains. Wolfe stayed ahead of his pursuers and carefully covered his trail in a way that no white man could follow. Northern California newspapers caught on to the story and soon the name of Monte Wolfe, the Lone Wolf of the Sierra was front-page news as far away as San Francisco.
As fall progressed to winter, the authorities pursuing Monte Wolfe blocked all routes out of the mountains just below the snowline in Tuolumne County. They reported to the media that Wolfe would soon attempt to exit the mountains as no man could survive in the deep snow and freezing temperatures all winter.
Against all predictions, Monte wintered alone in a vacated cabin on the Ridburg cattle range in Bell’s Meadow. Drainage from this 6,800’ elevation meadow form the headwaters of the Clavey River. Monte knew that access to the cabin would not be possible until summer when ranchers returned to put up fences in advance of their cattle drive. When the snows had subsided sufficiently to allow access, cattleman Wesley Smith, the range boss, entered the mountain cabin and found that all of the stored food had been used or taken and numerous deer hides had been left behind by Wolfe as a calling card and a payment of sorts. The newspapers caught wind of this and capitalized on the story. The papers noted that the snow was 25 feet deep in Bell’s Meadow that winter and Monte Wolfe had thrived.
Sadly, while Monte wintered at Bell’s Meadow, his father Thomas passed away on January 11, 1922 in the Palouse. Monte stayed underground during the summer of 1922 in spite of receiving the sad news about his father. The newspapers reported that he was aware of the upcoming sheriff election in Tuolumne County and was lying low because it was thought that Sheriff Sweeney might try to clinch the election by arresting him. The reality was that Monte had left California to visit his mother Edner in northwestern Washington. After Thomas’ death, she had relocated to the Everett area with her daughter, Alma. Unbeknownst to Monte, this visit with his mother was to be his last.
After his visit to Washington, Archey returned to California. Now a bandit of repute, it seemed that stories of the infamous Monte Wolfe preceded him wherever he appeared. He reveled in this new found fame and added to the "stories" whenever he could.
The new sheriff in Tuolumne County took all the stories in with deepening interest.
