Isom Dart

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SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Isom Dart was one of the Black cowboys of the west whose story is not commonly known.

Believed to have been born around the 1850s in Arkansas, his name was previously Ned Huddleston. In time, he made a name for himself after being freed from slavery in Arkansas and moving out west.

He eventually changed his name to Isom Dart.

“He was a rancher, a cattle rustler, a gun slinger, just whatever you think of when you think of the wild-wild west, that’s Isom Dart,” said Robert Burch, founder of the Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation.

The story of Isom Dart and the territory he covered is slowly coming to the forefront as people discuss and research Utah’s Black history.

“Because the Utah territory had many iterations — at least six or seven iterations. So, Rock Springs Wyoming which is where he settled for a while was part of the Utah territory,” Burch said.

Dart was said to be the best sharpshooter around, one of his nicknames being “Quick Shot.”

As time would reveal, people rarely heard about Black cowboys in history classes or see characters representing them on television shows.

“I think what has happened is we’ve become victims of Hollywood, where Hollywood may illustrate one or two exceptional cowboys. Twenty to 30% of cowboys out in the west were Black, so what we see on television is inaccurate,” Burch said.

Isom Dart was one of the Black cowboys of the west whose story is not commonly known. (KUTV)

Records from the pages of history revealed that Dart often found himself on the wrong side of the law. There were reports of him stealing cattle, getting into fights and gambling.

Toward the end of his life, however, Dart stepped away from that lifestyle and wanted to settle down into a simpler life.

“Even at the end of his life when he decided he wanted to stop the rustling, stop being a gun slinger, and try to settle. People were trying to push him off his land, and he died because he didn’t want to leave it and lose his land,” Burch said.

Dart at one point bought and ran a successful ranch near Brown’s Hole — which was also known as Brown’s Park.

A man was reportedly hired by a large company to shoot and kill Dart so that company could go in and take his land away by force.

Dart was in his early 50s when he was killed.

He was and buried in an isolated grave in Colorado.

https://kutv.com/news/belonging-in-utah/historian-introduces-the-life-of-isom-dart-utahs-black-cowboy-ned-huddleston-sema-hadithi-african-american-heritage-and-culture-foundation