Walker Lake Bulletin 5 Mar 1890
"Superintendent William Drew {sic}, vulgarly dubbed Badger Bill, is pushing work on the Monopoly. The indications are good. Mr. Drew was slightly injured last week by a two ton bowlder {sic} falling on his head, but he says there is gold in sight and trifling accidents wont prevent him getting it. The Monopoly is a relocation of the Red Bank and is owned by Shafe Hanger, Charley Ganong and Badger."

Walker Lake Bulletin 28 May 1890
"Badger Bill says they employ nothing but full blooded American cooks at the Monopoly Mine - all squaws."

Walker Lake Bulletin 25 Jun 1890
"Badger Bill is out in the hills lassoing lizards."

Walker Lake Bulletin 31 May 1893
"Badger Bill was caved on in the Pamlico Mine last Monday and is in town (Hawthorne) for repairs."

Walker Lake Bulletin 22 Nov 1893
"Badger Bill and Jim Daugherty are working in the AA Mine. Next month they will tackle the O.K. Extra."

Walker Lake Bulletin 14 Jun 1894
"Badger Bill has taken a lease on the Snowball, an extension of the Fortuna, and has 18 inches of $50 ore."

Walker Lake Bulletin 29 Aug 1894
Badger Bill is still sinking on the Snowball vein and had about 12 inches of $40 to $50 ore."

Walker Lake Bulletin 17 Oct 1894
Silver Star District
"Reports are that all the mines are looking good. The mill is going through a hundred ton lot from the Hardscramble. Badger Bill has about fifty tons ready for the mill and several others are waiting their turns."

Walker Lake Bulletin 7 Nov 1894
Silver Star District
"Badger Bill has a 45 ton lot of ore now going through the mill. It is thought the ore will mill about $40 per ton."

Walker Lake Bulletin 14 Nov 1894
"William Rue, alias Badger Bill, alias Captain Coxey, has had a clean up from the Snow Ball of forty tons, the result of which is not yet known, but is believed to be beyond his expectations. The mill is now running on Owen Owen's ore."

It is unknown if the following is pertaining to Badger Bill alias Captain Coxey or not.
Walker Lake Bulletin 28 Nov 1894
The Hat That Coxey Wore
"A battered old Derby hat is being passed along the line by the different Wells Fargo agents. It started from Washington. Each agent attaches a tag with appropriate inscriptions. It is said to be the hat that Coxey wore on the occasion of his memorable trip to Washington last Summer. After attaching the verse, Johnny Adams passed it along:
This is the hat that Coxey wore
In eighteen hundred and ninety four.
Stand all aside and let it pass -
It bears the motto: Off The Grass."

Walker Lake Bulletin 5 Sep 1894
"Badger Bill has seven tons of good ore on the Snowball dump. The grade of the ore is steadily improving."

The copy of the following is very difficult to read. I have made every effort to get the gist of the article transcribed.
Walker Lake Bulletin 24 Apr 1894
Apparently while working on a ladder in one of the Mines a falling hammer hit Bill on the head and it is believed fractured his skull. Bill neglected the wound that needed attention. He was brought to Hawthorne in an unconscious condition. Dr. Brier attended the injured man and has every hope that Bill will recover.

Walker Lake Bulletin 1 May 1895
"Wm. Ruhe {sic} (Badger Bill) who has been under Dr. Brierly's care for the past week, suffering from a fractured skull, was locked up Tuesday on a charge of insanity. It was impossible to keep the patient in his room on account of his deranged condition, and the doctor deemed it prudent to have him kept in restraint, as his only hope of recovery is quietude. The doctor hopes that in a few days he will be out of danger, when he will be released."

Walker Lake Bulletin 8 May 1895
Declared Insane
"Dr. Brierly and Dr. Moore examined Wm. Rhue {sic} (Badger Bill) last Friday as to his sanity. They found that he was afflicted with derangement of mind, and application was made to Judge Mack to a commitment to the Nevada Hospital for Mental Diseases. The doctors are hopeful that before the commitment arrives the patient will have recovered sufficiently to obviate the necessity of sending him to Reno. The cause of his dementia is a fracture of the skull received while at work in a mine in Star District over a month ago."

Walker Lake Bulletin 15 May 1895
"Badger Bill is slowly recovering from mental derangement caused by the accident at the Star District."

Walker Lake Bulletin 8 Jul 1896
"Badger Bill has been in town (Hawthorne) for a few days."

Walker Lake Bulletin 12 May 1897
"Badger Bill, who went to DeLamar some time ago, is on his way back to Silver Star again."

Walker Lake Bulletin 9 Jun 1897
"Badger Bill arrived in town last week. Since leaving here he has visited the DeLamar country. He says that DeLamar is a Mormon camp and he was forced to join the Latter Day Saints in order to make grub."

Walker Lake Bulletin 22 Jun 1898
"Wm. Rue (Badger Bill) left on Monday for the Veteran's Home at Napa. (Yountville)"

Walker Lake Bulletin 25 Apr 1899
"Badger Bill, who went from this county (Mineral county now, Esmeralda County then) to the Yountville Soldiers Home some months ago, is now in Lyon County (NV), headed this way. He told the railroad boys that the Home is full of cranks, and he couldn't get a long with them."

Walker Lake Bulletin 17 May 1899
"Badger Bill arrived in town (Hawthorne) last week from Yountville Soldiers Home."

Walker Lake Bulletin Wednesday 12 Jul 1899
A Ghastly Spectacle
Wm. Rue's Body Found On The Highway, Half Devoured By Coyotes
"On Sunday evening (9 Jul) last Al Wild notified the Coroner that he had passed the body of a man lying on the Garfield Road, about five miles southeast of Lapanta Mine. After notifying the undertaker and summoning a jury, the Coroner and party started for the scene about daybreak Monday Morning (10 July).

On arriving there a ghastly sight met their eyes. Lying directly in the wagon track was the body of Wm. Rue {sic} better known to our people as Badger Bill. He had evidently been dead some days as the body was badly decomposed, and coyotes and vermin had eaten the flesh from one side of the body. The left arm had been pulled from the body at the shoulder and carried off by coyote. As it was almost impossible to convey the mutilated remains to Hawthorne, a grave was made by the roadside and the remains placed in a coffin and poor old Badger was laid to rest in the shadows of the hills in which he worked for years. A large stone marks the head and foot of the grave.

An inquest was held on the ground and the jury returned a verdict according to the above facts.

Deceased was for many years a miner in the vicinity. About three years ago, while climbing a ladder in a mine in Douglass, he was struck on the head by a falling hammer, and it is believed his brain has been affected ever since. In June, 1898, he was admitted to the Veteran's Home at Napa, Cal., but was discharged from there at his own request in April last. His discharge was found in a pocket of his coat. Recently W. A. Douglass gave him a lease of a mine and a grub stake in Star District, but owning to his feebleness and general debility he was unable to work in the mine, and his friends advised him to enter the County Hospital (Hawthorne). Accordingly he secured a permit from Commissioner Douglass and started for Hawthorne on the evening of the 2nd (July 2). He had probably been wandering about the hills four days. There was no food nor water among his effects. A HHH horse medicine bottle with a small quantity of that fluid in it was found.

He was a veteran of the late war, a native of Pennsylvania, aged 66 years."

Hawthorne New 1 Jun 1932
Badger Bill Grave Marked

"The grave of William La Rue, Civil War veteran, who was found dead on the old Hawthorne-Mina Road and was buried at the place where he was found, has at last received attention. Members of the J.F. Shain Post Veterans of Foreign Wars have erected a fence around the lonely spot and plan to set up a bronze marker on the natural rock headstone that has always marked the last resting place of the once famous Badger Bill.

According to the old timers Bill was between 70 and 75 years of age at the time of his death, which occurred in 1900. Bill came to the state at the close of the Civil War and made Nevada his home hereafter, working in various camps. His advanced age caused him to enter one of the Old Soldier's Homes in California, but his longing for the sagebrush was too great and he returned to make his home in Sodaville.

Again his failing health required that he be taken to a medical institution Billy Douglas {sic} then county commissioner, arranged to have the old veteran sent to Hawthorne, and he was to be brought here by railroad at county expense. His everlasting determination to oppose railroads could not be overcome and Bill started to make the 35 mile hike to Hawthorne without assistance. When he did not show up in Hawthorne a search was made and his body found at the side of the old road, where the lonely gravestone now marks his last resting place.

S. T (Sam) Kelso, county pioneer and for many years a public officer, was a close friend of Badger Bill and for years has endeavored to have some patriotic organization give attention to the grave of the old veteran. The matter was brought before the local V.F.W. and resulted in provision to a lasting tribute to a most worthy comrade."

The following account was posted on this memorial by the original holder Herbert Rickards, some information found here is incorrect, such as dates and questionable, such as no proof had yet been found that Bill served in the military at any capacity.

Pvt. William (Badger Bill) LaRue
Served with Co.H 6th Wisconsin Vol. Inf. during the Civil War of 1861-65. After the war he came out west to Nevada were he worked as a lone miner, it then he got the nick name Badger Bill as he was always burrowing into the hill sides like a Badger. He died while enroute from Sodaville to Hawthorne NV (Natural causes) some time between Dec. 1 1899 (Last time seen alive) and Jan. 20th 1900 as his body was found along side the road between the two towns.
He was buried were he fell and a lone marker was placed on his grave. Photo of Bill courtesy of the Ed Begg collection.

Note: The original death date of Jan 1900 in Hawthorne is incorrect, proven by articles attached to this memorial. Also there is a question as to if he was born in WI or PA. Sue Silver has made every effort to find any documentation that Bill served in the Civil War so that a Civil War headstone could be erected at the sight of his burial, but to date no such documentation has been found. There is also questions about the spelling of his surname, dozens of different spellings have surfaced in many different documents and newspaper articles, none absolute proof of the spelling of his name at birth.
UPDATE: Pvt. William "Badger Bill" La Rue
Badger Bill was indeed in the Civil War, serving in Company H, 6th Wisconsin Infantry Reg. see National Archives, film # M559 Roll 17. Badger Bill official name in the Army was William H Lairue and records show an alternate name of William H LaRue. Some of the engagements the 6th Reg. was in are Cedar Mountain, Manassas II, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg I, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, Totopotomoy Creek, Cold Harbor, Petersburg III, Appomattox Court House. Having been in so many horrific battles, he probably had PTSD...reason he was such a loner. He deserves to be remembered. Source Richard Collins, Find A Grave member 47214448.
UPDATE: William Rue told the Yountville Soldier's home that he served in Co. H of the 8th Illinois Infantry. That his name was William Rue and that he was a native of Pennsylvania. There is a Draft Registration in Illinois of William Rue, a blacksmith, b. PA prior to any time of service he may have undertaken. He was never issued a CW soldier pension. His application was processed but never approved as they could not find any proof of his service.