Halloween, 1906. A quiet grove outside Kennewick became the stage for one of the bloodiest gunfights in Washington’s early history. Four men would not survive the night: three sworn to uphold the law, and one determined to defy it, leaving the town shaken and seemingly lawless.
The Men in the Poplars
It began quietly in the waning afternoon light, when Deputy Joe Holzhey and saloonkeeper H.E. Roseman followed a trail of burglaries to a transient campsite hidden in a poplar grove along the Columbia. A fire burned low between the trees, and two strangers sat in its glow. The deputy’s presence was met with suspicion and hostile questions. One spat that it made him “hot” to be spied upon, and both warned the deputy to stay away. Their names were not yet known, but they would soon be etched into Benton County history: Jake Lake, a 44-year-old sheepherder with a mean streak, and George “Kid” Barker, a teenage drifter fresh off a Spokane freight train.
Holzhey and Roseman withdrew from the grove, but the uneasy exchange weighed on them. Not long after, they encountered Benton County Sheriff Alex G. McNeill and Kennewick Marshal Mike Glover, who were also investigating the burglaries. The four men decided to return together and press the questioning. As they approached the camp a second time, the tension broke. According to Roseman’s later account, Lake suddenly stepped from between the trees, rifle in hand, and leveled it at the officers. With a grim sneer, he greeted them: “Evenin’ gents, I guess you’re looking for trouble — well, you’re goin’ to get it.” It was the spark that would ignite one of the bloodiest nights in Kennewick’s early history.
The First Shots Are Fired
According to Barker’s retelling, Lake spotted the officers approaching and readied for a fight. He stepped out from the trees with his rifle, confronted the men, and ordered them to halt and throw up their hands. It was at this point, Barker said, that the men reached for their weapons, prompting Lake to commence shooting.
The gunfire instantly struck down Holzhey and Glover. McNeill, despite being shot in the abdomen, managed to take cover behind a sapling and return fire, emptying his six-shooter. The unarmed Roseman had taken cover during the exchange, and when the shooting stopped, he helped the wounded McNeill into a handcart on the nearby railroad tracks and pushed him back to Kennewick for aid.
Whiskey, Fury, and a Misfired Justice
News of the gunfight spread like wildfire, and an angry posse quickly assembled in Kennewick. Fueled by outrage — and, some said, whiskey — they rode hard for the grove. There, they found the aftermath: Marshal Mike Glover dead, Deputy Joe Holzhey mortally wounded, and Jake Lake lying lifeless among the trees. Barker had vanished into the night.
The search that followed was frenzied, with what was said to be half the town’s men combing the countryside. Eventually, posse member Forrest Perry found Barker crouched in a ditch not far from where the shooting had occurred and shouted for him to surrender.
In the chaos of an already tragic Halloween night, the rest of the posse mistakenly took Perry for the fugitive and opened fire, killing him instantly. Barker surrendered immediately. He was taken to Prosser to stand trial for murder, but he escaped before it began and was never seen again.
Subsequent investigations would later reveal that Lake and Barker had been innocent all along, rendering the deadly confrontation a catastrophic error. The stage that was set for a historic gunfight instead became the setting for a needless tragedy. The four deaths that Halloween left the town reeling were a bitter testament to how swiftly fear and assumption can turn suspicion into senseless bloodshed.
