The Sheep Eaters

William Alonzo Allen (1848-? ) was an American dentist, pioneer, gold-miner and author. After hearing about the discovery of gold in the west he left Iowa in 1877 to travel to the Black Hills. He panned for gold, discovered coal and clay, and also continued to work as a dentist. He was the author of four books, his autobiography Adventures with Indians and Game; or, Twenty Years in the Rocky Mountains (1903), Black Feathers (? ), The Sheep Eaters (1913) and Blankets and Moccasins (with Glendolin Damon Wagner) (1933). He was “a typical oldtime Westerner, who, for over a quarter of a century, has taken part in the wild life of the West, being in the early days the trusted leader of immigration, a keen enjoyer of the sports of the chase, a crack rifle shot, who won and successfully maintained an enviable record as an Indian fighter of bravery and distinction. ”