# "Head'em off at the Pass!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518 "2023-03-01T00:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/41 "2023-03-02T15:42:38Z")
I can only parse it as sloppy pursuit advice rather than a tactic for interception. Basically, “Let’s head for the pass, because that’s the only route the fugitives can escape by.” Hopefully you catch up to them before they exit the pass and change course. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/42 "2023-03-02T17:12:12Z")
I kind of assumed it wasn’t a linear chase, rather a posse or some such has been looking for the bad guys in an area and finally get a sighting. The posse is not directly behind the bad guys with respect to the bad guys direction of travel and the bad guys are not moving full speed and are not aware they have been spotted. Do you go full on charging at them when they could then scatter / run / or they can set up a fight partially on their terms. Or do you take a route you know , and make sure they don’t see you and move quickly to get ahead to the pass where you know they are heading and set up the ambush and resolve the situation without a full pitched battle. Obviously it requires either a difference in speed , or a different route to take that the bad guys don’t know about, and the bad guys don’t know exactly where you are. If there is no difference in knowledge then sure it doesn’t work. There is a fight coming up, you use your better situational awareness / knowledge to get ahead of the problem , the problem isn’t fully aware you know more than they do ( otherwise they start the fight now) and then it can be resolved on your terms without the need for a big fight. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/43 "2023-03-02T17:28:03Z")
Another possibility: the pursuers sight their targets, but there’s no direct route to get to where they are right now: they’re on the other side of a river, or up on a ridge, or something like that. But you know eventually they have to go through a pass, which you can get to from your side of the obstacle easier than trying to cross the obstacle itself. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/44 "2023-03-02T17:53:42Z")
A newspaper archive yielded this intriguing precursor. The _Burlington Free Press_, 20 Apr 1889, Sat · Page 3 The article by Charles King is titled “After Chief Joseph” and was syndicated in about a dozen papers. > General John Gibbon parked what men he had in wagons, and made a dash from Fort Shaw to head them off at Big Hole Pass as they crossed the Bitter Root range. A similar line in found in an Associated Press article in the _Los Angeles Herald_, 20 Mar 1906, Tue · Page 2 under “Scotty Ready to Surrender.” > The theory of the officers is that in fact these two men were sent ahead of the main party to head them off at Wingate pass and thus prevent the mining experts ever seeing the mining property they sought and in which the New Yorkers were so heavily invested. Apparently, this was a real military strategy. Any decent screenwriter would replace the dryness of an officer looking at the map and showing his men the possibility of cutting across territory to defend a named narrow gap with a rousing spontaneous cry of “Head 'em off at the pass!” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/45 "2023-03-02T18:08:09Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Big Hole Pass as they crossed the Bitter Root range. [Here’s the image from Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/Big+Hole+Pass+as+they+crossed+the+Bitter+Root+range.+montana/@45.3784496,-113.5711914,89251m/data=!3m1!1e3). You can see how a small body of men could stop a force with nowhere else to go. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/46 "2023-03-02T18:22:05Z")
I asked ChatGPT, and it had an opinion. > The phrase “head them off at the pass” is often associated with Western movies and TV shows, where it was a common line used by cowboys and lawmen to describe intercepting someone before they could reach a destination. However, the exact origin of the phrase is not clear, and there is some debate among linguists and historians as to its earliest example. > > One possible early example of the phrase can be found in a novel called “The Duke’s Prize” by M.E. Braddon, which was first published in 1876. In this novel, one character says, “I’m off to try and head him off at the pass.” ETA though I don’t see that book In her partial bibliography…. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/47 "2023-03-02T18:33:11Z")
The most plausible scenarios require the pursuers to be faster than the pursued, like leaving the slow wagons behind or sending a couple of (presumably speedy) men ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/48 "2023-03-02T18:40:16Z")
ChatGPT isn’t a search engine. It’s designed to produce text that looks like it was written by a human. It’s not designed to give accurate or researched answers. It’s designed to give answers that look like they were written by someone who has done research and is giving an accurate answer, and it will absolutely invent cites in order to create that appearance. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/49 "2023-03-02T18:41:29Z")
I can work with that! ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/50 "2023-03-02T20:42:18Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > it will absolutely invent cites in order to create that appearance. It’s more human than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/51 "2023-03-02T21:55:13Z")
I’ve asked it to summarize books, and it will just make up plot details. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/52 "2023-03-02T22:12:26Z")
So it’s at least as smart as a fifth grader. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/53 "2023-03-03T03:15:40Z")
I appreciate all the effort that has gone into finding the origin of this cliche, but I think people are goinng off on a tangent in trying to find the first uses of this. With all of you looking for examples of uses of this phrase, it should by now be clear that something about the “accepted” definition is wrong. Many citations give something like "a well-known phrase from cowboy movies of the 1930s/40s. See here, for instance: [etymology - What is the origin of "head off" in the sense "to prevent"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/542611/what-is-the-origin-of-head-off-in-the-sense-to-prevent#:~:text=This%20expression%20gave%20rise%20to,him%20off%20at%20the%20pass). [Toronto Theatres and the Golden Age of the Silver Screen - Doug Taylor - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=zHyACQAAQBAJ&pg=PT71&lpg=PT71&dq=%22head+them+off+at+the+pass%22+western+films&source=bl&ots=BYnY7Qbhh2&sig=ACfU3U1Tup-5v6HhgwGu4gXydkfYCj71ug&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi57vWd4b79AhVZF1kFHfrFDiMQ6AF6BAgtEAM#v=onepage&q=%22head%20them%20off%20at%20the%20pass%22%20western%20films&f=false) But we have, at best, found two examples of this line being used in westerns from that period - and they’re not particularly well-known or influential films. Cliches are supposed to get to BE cliches by being frequently quoted. If that were the case, we should be able to find plenty of examples. But we haven’t. After looking for several days myself, I have concluded that this is absolutely NOT a common phrase in cowboy movies. Nor is it common in comic books, comic strips, television shows, and other forms of mass media entertainment from that time period. I admit that I haven’t checked radio shows in detail, but the fact that none of my internet searches turned up any examples from radio is suggestive. I looked for examples where the phrase has been used. Almost always they are late examples where it is obvious that the person using the line knows that it is supposed to be a time-worn cliche, and is often using it for precisely that reason. I searched for examples of well-known western writers using the line. I find nothing for Max Brand, Louis L’amour, or Bret Hate using it. Not even that early example of pulp western writing, Edward Z. C. Judson (better known as “Ned Buntline”), appears to have used it in anything I could find (although at least one website credits him with coming up with the phrase). Max Brand apparently actually did have someone heading someone off at a pass – although the phrase wasn’t used in that book (It’s _Destry Rides Again_ (1930). None of the movies of that name actually follow the plot of the book, so don’t go watching them.) One website had this promising quote: > [@](#): > > Among other literary gems, [Clarence E.] Mulford was the writer who coined the phrase “cut them off at the pass” ( from [Clarence E Mulford, writer and creator of Hopalong Cassidy | Jerry Milo Johnson Ancestry Project](https://voiceinverse.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/clarence-e-mulford-writer-and-creator-of-hopalong-cassidy/) ) Aha! Hopalong Cassidy! Someone upthread said that he was certain Hopalong MUST have said the line in one of his movies! So I went through the IMDB pages for all 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies. Not one of them cites the line in its “quotes” section. I admit that’s not conclusive, but I think that if he said it even once, it’d be in there. I leave the joy of watching all 66 William Boyd movies to someone more dedicated to The Western. So I looked in Clarence Mulford’s Hopalong Cassidy books online. The phrase appears in none of the Mulford books on Project Gutenberg, nor in the random sampling of other works I found elsewhere on the web. I conclude that Mulford did NOT originate the phrase, nor did Hopalong Cassidy in any of the movies. Interestingly, though, I DID find one Western Cliche that appeared in a Hopalong Cassidy movie. In the 1938 film **Bar 30 Justice** I found this immortal pair: > [@](#): > > [**Hopalong Cassidy**](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0101955/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): Which way’d they go? > > [**Buck Peters**](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0242139/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): They went thataway! > **[Bar 20 Justice (1938) - Quotes - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029895/quotes/?ref_=tt_trv_qu)** > > Bar 20 Justice: Directed by Lesley Selander. With William Boyd, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Russell Hayden, Gwen Gaze. Outlaw miners have been stealing ore from Ann Dennis' mine. Hoppy spends much of his time running around in the mine shafts tracking down... I have come to the conclusion that, the two obscure examples notwithstanding, the “common use” of the phrase “Head 'em off at the pass” or variations thereof is a myth, much like the non-existence of the quote “Play it again, Sam”. The difference in this case is that there is no one particular film that can be cited, no particular actor associated with it, and no phrase similar to it that is being misquoted. Actually, it’s a bit more like “Yondah lies da castle of my fadduh!” Which Tony Curtis didn’t say in **The Black Shield of Falworth**. Or in anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/54 "2023-03-03T03:17:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I have come to the conclusion that, the two obscure examples notwithstanding, the “common use” of the phrase “Head 'em off at the pass” or variations thereof is a myth, much like the non-existence of the quote “Play it again, Sam”. The difference in this case is that there is no one particular film that can be cited, no particular actor associated with it, and no phrase similar to it that is being misquoted. So it’s a [Dead Unicorn Trope](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeadUnicornTrope)? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/55 "2023-03-03T03:19:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …or Bret Hate using it… Bret Harte’s mirror-verse evil twin? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/56 "2023-03-03T03:35:55Z")
The clean-shaven one? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/57 "2023-03-03T03:40:34Z")
No, the one with an extra goatee over his handlebar. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/58 "2023-03-03T03:42:35Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I think the idea is that those who are being pursued are going to use the well known pass. The locals know a harder and less known, but shorter way to get there. So by the time the quarry has navigated to and through the pass, the hunters have already gotten ahead and are waiting for them. > > It would require specific conditions, as well as asymmetric geographic knowledge to pull off, but maybe it actually happened once somewhere. I could envision it happening in a situation where local conditions in or around the immediate area of a crime make fleeing directly for the pass (and presumably a safe haven) imprudent, but where the reality of geography and infrastructure make it obvious that the only possible safe haven would have to be first through, and then beyond “the pass.” Consider, for example, a mounted gang robbing a bank in the center of town. They probably haven’t loaded up their horses with supplies if they want to get out of town quick (faster than the law can catch them), and in any event they’ll eventually need water for themselves and horses. Suppose the pass (through which all that can be had, along with a place to shelter and remain hidden, either in plane sight such as a large town, or otherwise) is to the west, but then so is the sheriff’s office (that is, to the west, but still in town, well short of the pass itself, but something you’d have to go by if you were to head due west from the bank), to the south the road dead ends at a dried out creek littered with rocks that make it impossible to traverse at speed, and to the east, well… that’s just the wrong way altogether, and there ain’t no way to double back from that direction but by going through town again. So maybe, in this example, conditions in town make an escape to the north the least likely to result in immediate capture, but then it’s intuitively obvious that at some point the gang will have to cut west and make for the pass. So it’s not so much that the gang failed to take a short cut, rather that the gang found it advantageous, for whatever reason, to flee the immediate scene of the crime by heading towards an area of immediate safety, but which will not serve their long term needs of a place where they can hide out while accessing water, food, shelter, etc. Or, maybe it’s just a trope some writer thought up without thinking through. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/59 "2023-03-03T03:52:50Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I have come to the conclusion that, the two obscure examples notwithstanding, the “common use” of the phrase “Head 'em off at the pass” or variations thereof is a myth, much like the non-existence of the quote “Play it again, Sam”. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The mere fact that so many mentions of it refer to it being “well known” or a cliche is pretty strong evidence that a) it had to start _somewhere_ and b) once it got started, it got over-used pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/60 "2023-03-03T03:57:33Z")
A reference from 1914 (ETA: actually August 7, 1915, but Google lists the wrong year): > **[Happy Days](https://books.google.com/books?id=zFFHAQAAMAAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=RA35-PA7&dq=%22off%2Bat%2Bthe%2Bpass%22&hl=en)** _Happy Days: A Paper for Young and Old - Issues 1051-1100 - Page 7_ It’s used in the reverse sense: “They will head us off at the pass.” I haven’t read through it except to see that it mentions “cowboys” in another section. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518.md?page=4)