Some of the most interesting characters are those who are least known, for one reason or another. One such Character was Inepegut which, in  the Ute Indian dialect, means "the crazy one.

"Inepegut's true name has long since been forgotten, but the white settlers of the Uintah Basin called him Provo John. He was born in a small Ute village in Provo Canyon circa 1849. His father was a warrior in Chief Walker's band which, at the time of Inepegut's birth, was engaged in a bloody war with the newly arrived Mormon settlers. He was the youngest of several brothers and many sisters, but from the very beginning, was different from the rest of the children his age. He was quiet and independent, and shunned companionship, seldom talking to anyone. His favorite brother, Provo Jim, was the only person he would talk to.

 By the age of eight years, Inepegut was living alone in a little hut  but on the perimeter of the village, sustaining himself by hunting rabbits. He was a phenomenal shot with hurled stones, which he collected from the bed of the Provo River and kept in a pile near the door of his hut. Stones, in fact, seemed to fascinate him, and he spent many hours finding just the right kinds, usually round and smoothly polished. Many more hours were spent in arranging and rearranging them in piles. Stones were the only weapons he was ever known to use.

 Inepegut was the object of scorn by the other children of the village, and even his sisters taunted him unmercifully for his anti-social behavior. He developed an uncontrollable temper, and would often drive his antagonists away by hurling rocks at them.

In 1860, President Abraham Lincoln set aside land in the Uintah Basin for the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation, and the Timpanogos tribe to which Inepegut belonged was compelled to disassemble their tepees and prepare for the long trek from their native canyon to the arid desert at the southern foot of the Uintah Mountains. However, when everything was in readiness, the Utes encountered a slight problem. Eleven year-old Inepegut refused to accompany them. He proved too swift to catch, so some of the braves pursued him on horseback, but he eluded capture by scrambling high up on the rocky canyon-side, and held them at bay by pelting them with rocks. 

His brother, Provo Jim, tried to trick him by getting close enough to grab him, but Inepegut was wise to the ruse and escaped even higher up the slope. As a last resort, Inepegut's aged mother was induced to try to talk him down from his perch, but as she worked her way up the steep incline, Inepegut's temper flared, and he began flinging stones. One of these struck his old mother on the side of her head, and she died instantly. Extremely remorseful now, he meekly gave himself up to his brother.

 Inasmuch as the tribe was in transit, nothing was done to punish the boy at that time, but he was tied to a pony and transported to the reservation in the far away Uintah Basin. There, at Whiterocks Agency, a tribal council was convened to determine the boy's fate. They declared him to be crazy, which presented their first problem, for it was believed among the Utes that if a crazy man was killed, his spirit would return to haunt his killers; therefore, they dared not execute him.

 One such character was Inepegut-which, in   Finally they reached a determination. He was blindfolded, tied to the back of a horse, taken by four or five braves to Spirit Lake, high in the Uintah Mountains, and there tied to a tree with rawhide thongs, and left to die. Spirit Lake was sacred to the Utes, and they believed that if Inepegut died in this fashion, at this place, the spirits and not they would be the cause.

 Having securely fastened the boy's bonds, the braves mounted their swift ponies and returned hastily to the reservation; having a strong superstitious fear of the Spirit Lake. But when they arrived, there stood Inepegut, his feet cut and bleeding, and a broad grin on his face. Although on foot, he had beaten them home.

 A second time he was returned to the mountain location, tied even more securely to the tree, and left to die, while the braves rode hard for the reservation; but when they arrived, there stood Inepegut once again, even more emaciated from the ordeal, but still grinning broadly.

 A third time Inepegut was taken to Spirit Lake, and this time great pains were taken to secure his bonds, and even greater speed was employed in their return, but again Inepegut was there waiting for them. They were in awe, and reported these strange things to the tribal council, who duly determined that an evil spirit must have freed him, and possessed him, and so they dared do nothing more with him.  

Thus it happened that Inepegut was allowed to live, but was banished from the society of his people. He was sentenced to live alone, with no food or clothing, and   was forbidden for anyone to speak to him. He was in esence, a total outcast.

 Inepegut lived on the outskirts of Whiterocks, Utah, totally nude, both summer and winter, hunting rabbits and other small game with his amazing speed and unerring aim. He kept his usual collection of stones, but he also possessed one polished stone which he seemed to revere more than all the others Provo Jim said it was the very stone which had killed his mother.  

His family took compassion upon him and erected a small shelter of canvas, wrapped around three vertical sticks, but each night he burned it. Still they continued to erect the shelters for many years, and still he would bum them. He seemed to enjoy his punishment, as though his penitence eased the burden of his guilt. 

For forty-eight years Inepegut lived like this, and he was often seen dashing across the countryside in pursuit of rabbits many times actually out-running them and catching them with his bare hands. Other times he brought them down with well thrown stones at remarkable distances. He displayed amazing endurance and immeasurable patience.

 For many years my grandfather, William Coleman Boren, lived on Deep Creek in Red Gulch, not far from Whiterocks Agency on the reservation. Each winter Inepegut made his little camp near the Boren's house, and Will Boren occasionally left food items on the back stoop for the unfortunate man. He had an aversion to work of any kind, but would frequently leave behind a token of his appreciation a rabbit, a feather, most often a polished stone.  

During the cold and stormy winters, Inepegut still wore no clothing. The only item of clothing he was ever known to wear was an old worn out over shoe on one foot, for no apparent reason. As the storms raged, he would scoop out two shallow holes in the ground, and build fires in each. Then he would sit or curl up in the warm coals of one pit while he kept a fire burning in the other. When one fire burned down, he would exchange places, and thus keep warm. 

Frequently he would go to sleep and fall over into the snow, and his little fires would go out. Will Boren, or his sons, would go out virtually every morning during the winter, and chop Inepegut's long hair out of the frozen snow and ice with an axe in order for him to be able to get up. As soon as they did, he would bound nude through the snow in erratic circles, limbering up his cold and stiff muscles, and then would be off on the hunt for food. His survival under such conditions was something of a miracle.  

Inepegut could often be seen in the vicinity of Fort Duchesne where the tribe kept their cattle herd. Demonstrating his incredible patience, he would stalk the milk cows, sometimes taking many hours to work his way among them, until he could manage to squat next to one of them, and squirt a few streams of precious warm milk into his open mouth. Other times he would wait as patiently for a young calf to suckle its mother, when he would sneak stealthily to the opposite side and suckle with the calf! 

In 1905, parts of the Uintah Ouray Reservation were thrown open for settlement by the whites, and towns began to spring up as the influx of people began. The Price to Vernal stage passed directly through the reservation, and Inepegut, huddling nude beneath a makeshift canvas lean to erected by his family to shade him from the hot summer sun, was a favorite tourist attraction. The stage frequently stopped to permit passengers to have a view of "the crazy Indian" and to take pictures. Provo Jim charged twenty-five cents for each photo, and with the money purchased medicine and other necessaries for his aging brother.  

However, the first photo taken of Inepegut proved to be a hazardous experience for the photographer. On this occasion, when the stage stopped for the usual curious view, an enthusiastic tourist set up his shutter plate camera on a tripod, and readied to take a picture of the crazy Indian. In that era, a tray of flash powder was exploded to create light enough for an image to impress itself on a plate in the camera, and on this occasion, the flash explosion frightened Inepegut, who had never seen anything like it. He picked up some of his ever present stones and began a well placed barrage. One of the stones shattered the lens of the camera, and others pelted the photographer, as he grabbed his tangle of equipment and scrambled to board the stage. Other stones frightened the stage horses, and they bolted, forcing the photographer to run to catch up, with the nude and angry Indian close in pursuit, throwing stones with deadly accuracy. 

Having been exposed to the elements for nearly half-a-century, Inepegut's health began to decline, and he finally succumbed and died in 1909-10, aged about sixty-one. His people, who had spurned him in life, according to their custom, honored him in death with a lavish ceremony. Inepegut was given a secret burial, somewhere near Spirit Lake in the high Uintahs. His burial site was, the Utes believed, guarded by the spirits, and if invaded by any intruder, the spirit of Inepegut would return and throw stones. Tourists and fishermen who visit Spirit Lake to this day, tell stories of mysterious stones being thrown at them from some invisible source. 

Personal  Interviews with: Gerald and Leo Thome, Bill Reed, Colorow (Ute Indian), Cumpanees (Ute Indian), Mary Reed Harris, Happy Jack (Ute Indian)Times magazines authored by Kerry Ross Boren Collections of Dr. Floyd O'Neill, Western History Dept., University of Utah