Wooten, Richens Lacy, scout and frontiersman, was born in Virginia about 1817. When he was seven years old his parents removed to Kentucky, and in 1836 he went to Independence, Mo., where he became a teamster for St. Vrain and the Bents in the Santa Fe trade. In childhood he had the misfortune to lose two fingers on his left hand, and he was called "Cut Hand" by the Arapahoe Indians, but to the white men of the West he was familiarly known as "Uncle Dick." He was an expert with the rifle and was engaged in his first Indian fight on the Pawnee river, near the crossing of the Santa Fe trail. In 1866 he received authority from the legislature of Colorado and New Mexico to construct a road through the Raton pass. He built the road, and also built a dwelling in the pass, where he died in his 90th year. It is said that he sometimes collected toll at the muzzle of his rifle from travelers over his road. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad company named one of its locomotives "Uncle Dick" in his honor.