43 E. 600 N 31-6 Hurricane, Utah 84737
Steam tractor which pulled ore wagons to Delco, Idaho from the
Macintosh mine, 1941. Jim Decker, seated on the engine, was about
to go into the service in WWII. Engine now in collection of Oscar
Cooke’s Dreamland.
‘Trigger Jim’ is a man that Western Folklore imitates.
the rough-edged vigor so often given fictitious American heroes,
and he is real!
Trigger Jim is one of the last two remaining buckaroos of the
Utah Construction Company, a Latter Day Saints-owned ranch that
broke up in 1946. The ranch spanned from Canada to Mexico. With big
eyes and a grin, Decker explained that he slept with a rope braided
of horse’s hairs. ‘You see, that rope is sticky. It was
proved to me that a rattlesnake would not cross over that rope, so
I slept with one out on the range to keep the snakes away.’
Decker earned the name ‘Trigger Jim’ in World War II.
One night he was standing guard and was waiting to be relieved when
he was surrounded by Nazi SS troops. (About now you’re probably
wondering why he is still around.) Trigger had five bandoliere of
ammunition. He fended off the attack shooting every round. From
then on he shot so much he gained the name of
‘Trigger.’
Another history making story was when Trigger, along with the
two Munsey brothers, found the infamous Nazi death camp Dachau.
Here the men discovered 42 box cars of murdered prisoners.
After seeing much of this world and living much of its history,
‘Trigger Jim” Decker is now going into his 80th year,
and is still full of vigor and wit. The legend still lives.
