Col. Shanks, who had lived "out west" pre war, was in Laramie, Wyo as early as 1868, where he got involved in a drunken shooting that killed a friend of his. He was a miner, living in temporarily in Denver in June 1870. He was elected county constable in Laramie in Sept. 1870, but died shortly after. He is buried in Laramie's Greenhill Cemetery. His grave was decorated as part of the 1884 Memorial Day observances in laramie.