The town that I started police work in, Prineville, Oregon, was strictly a cowboy and logger town. This incident occurred in the early 1970’s. There wasn’t a gang problem of any type, outlaw motorcyclist or punk gang bangers avoided the town.. The city had a population under five thousand and there were only six full time police officers and a janitor/jailer. So anyone coming through town had the impression they could cause a lot of trouble and get away with it.

One night an outlaw motorcycle gang decided to stop in the town and take over one of the local bars. They threatened to shoot or cut any cowboy or logger that tried to enter the bar. The local boys got upset, but they didn’t call for the police. Instead the area around the bar filled up with locals boys who were driving log trucks and pickups, and they all had their big game hunting rifles. They didn’t cotton much to the handguns the bikers carried because they were just too small.

The bikers were called out into the street in front of the bar for a fight. The bikers strutted their stuff because they knew they could whip anyone in this cow town. Outside the bar they went. Instead of a dirty biker fight they found cowboys with bigger guns than they had and it was apparent that the bikers were not going to win any type of fight. All the bikers could do was jump on their motorcycles and ride, or run in hopes of fighting another day. What they didn’t notice was they were actually herded down a particular street and forced to drive at speeds faster than their headlights could illuminate the oncoming streets and any hazards that may be ahead of them. In their defense, I would have gone as fast as they were if I thought the log truck behind me was going to run over my motorcycle with me on it..

Suddenly all of the motorcycles didn’t have riders and their bikes crashed. That’s when I got the call. When I arrived at the crash site I found lots of hurting bikers and a lariat rope stretch across the street. The outlaws had received lots of road rash, but not a bone was broken. They refused medical assistance and asked for an escort out of town. I gave them an escort out of town and I never did hear from them again. They didn’t even want to file a complaint against the local boys.

I wonder if they tried to take over another bar in another town, or if they learned not to threaten folks they didn’t know, although I did hear that bikers threatened loggers in Coos County. Unfortunately they were in the national forests and the Log Truck drivers knew the roads. The Bikers didn’t fare well and they ended up in the local hospital and their motorcycles were no longer rideable.