John Wayne Saw a Sheriff Padlock a Rancher's Gate in 1962 — He Paid the Debt in Cash

Chino Valley, Arizona, 1962. Eduardo Reyes had been ranching eleven hundred acres north of Prescott for twenty-three years. He had bought the land with fourteen years of savings and had been working it ever since. Three years earlier, a water rights dispute had produced a legal judgment against him for costs and survey fees. He had been paying it down. The remaining balance was $412. The fall cattle sale was six weeks away. On a Wednesday morning in October, he drove back from Prescott — where he had spent the morning trying to arrange an extension and been told the county attorney's office was closed — and came around the last bend in the road toward his gate. The gate was padlocked. A notice was on the post. A 1961 Impala with California plates pulled up behind his truck. The man who got out was six feet four. He walked to the gate. He stood beside Reyes and read the notice once. He asked one question: what's the amount? Reyes said $412. The man asked if he could borrow the truck. He was back in one hour and fifty minutes. He had a receipt from the Yavapai County clerk's office. The padlock came off the gate at eleven forty that morning. Eduardo Reyes offered to pay him back in October when the cattle sold. John Wayne said that wouldn't be necessary.