Return of the Great Hunters

Second Battle of Adobe Walls by Michael King

John Thompson Jones, also known as "Antelope Jack" and "Cheyenne Jack", b. 1853- d. 1874. Killed by Indians shortly before the Battle of Adobe Walls. He holds a Sharps Military Rifle, probably a .50 cal. Model 1874, Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.

One hundred and fifty years ago, a fight occurred, the story of which has become one of the classics of the Western frontier. The second Battle of Adobe Walls began on the early morning of June 27, 1874, when a war party of several hundred Comanche, Klowa, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Kiowa Apache Indians attacked a buffalo hunters' camp occupied by 28 men and located on the south fork of the Canadian River in what is now Hutchinson County in the Texas Panhandle. Wild West Podcast proudly presents the Return of the Great Hunters: The Secon Battle of Adobe Walls. 

Under the terms of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, the federal government fixed the Arkansas River as the northern boundary of the Indian country for the tribes of the Southwestern plains. It guaranteed that white hunters should not cross that stream. But they did. In 1872, the mushroom town of Dodge City, Kansas, sprang into existence and became the outfitting point and center of activity of the hide hunters who, with their big Sharps buffalo guns, were constantly invading the Red Man's country.

​The hides of the buffalo could be sold for $3 apiece. Since the buffalo were plentiful then, a man could kill as many as fifty per day. The buffalo hunters would take their hides with large team-pulled wagons to Dodge City, Kansas, the nearest railroad point at the time. Supplies also had to be purchased at Dodge City. Provisions and ammunition for hunters would be freighted back to them by the wagons that took their buffalo hides to market.

Early shot of Dodge City, 1872-4. Dodge City was the most popular fitting out point for the early part of the extermination of the buffalo. Kansas Historical Society (through Charlie Norton.)

By the spring of 1874, the slaughter had been so great that the buffalo had been virtually wiped out near Dodge City. The future economy of Dodge City came into question as the hide trade became less profitable, for there were no buffalo to be found. Although no accurate sources are available, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge of Fort Dodge estimated the buffalo kill in Kansas to be close to 3.5 million over the 1872-1874 period. An estimated 850,000 buffalo hides were shipped from Dodge City in 1872-1874.

Charlie Rath's hide yard, Dodge City, Kansas. Rath is the man on the right, seated on the buffalo hides. The 50,000 hides piled up around Adobe Walls provided good cover for the Indians. Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.

So A. C. Myers, who was in the Dodge general merchandise business, organized an expedition to establish a trading post farther south where the hunters could get their supplies and to which they would bring their buffalo hides, which Myers would freight back to the Kansas "hide capital." Forming a partnership with Fred Leonard and accompanied by a party of 20-odd frontiersmen, Myers set out for the forbidden Indian country.

Among the party members were Jim Hanrahan, an old buffalo hunter who was going along to open a saloon at the new trading post; Thomas O'Keefe, a blacksmith; and two young buffalo hunters destined for future fame—Billy Dixon and Bat Masterson. After a Journey of 160 miles, the expedition reached a spot on the south fork of the Canadian where stood the ruins of an old trading post, Walls, which had been known as Adobe, built by William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain sometime before 1840. A mile or so farther on, in a broad valley with a pretty stream called East Adobe Walls Creek, Myers and his companions unloaded their wagons and set about establishing the second Adobe Walls, which was to become even more famous than the first.
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Myers and Leonard built a picket house, 20 by 60 feet In size; Lianruhan put up a sod house. 25 by 60, and O'Keefe opened his blacksmith shop in a picket structure, 15 feet square. My-ers and Leonard also built a stockade corral by setting big cottonwood logs on end in the ground. A short time later, Rath and Wright, leading merchants of Dodge City, decided to establish a branch store at Adobe Walls and built a sod house, 16 by 20 feet, leaving James Langton In charge of the new business there. Willam Olds and his wife also came to Adobe Walls to open a restaurant.

Model ofJames . Hanrahan's saloon, Adobe Walls, Texas, June 1874. Hutchinson County Museum.

Plan and view of Hanrahan's saloon. (T. Lindsay Baker and Billy R. Harrison, ADOBE WALLS, History and Archeology of the 1874 Trading Post, (Texas A & M University Press, College Station, Texas,)

For several years, the Indians had been watching with increasing alarm the wasteful slaughter of the buffalo by the white hunters. So when, in the spring of 1874, a Comanche medicine man named Isatal announced that he had a new medicine that would enable them to wipe out the white men who were exterminating the buffalo, he found the tribesmen ripe for such a crusade.
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The first Indian leader to agree to help in this laudable enterprise was a chief of the Comanches, Quanah, the half-breed son of Cynthia Ann Parker, who, as a little girl, had been stolen from her home in Texas and had become the wife of the great Chief Peta Nocona. Then, the medicine man "carried the pipe" to the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Kiowa Apaches, and they readily agreed to accompany their Comanche brethren.

So, a great war party of between 600 and 700 mounted warriors set out for the buffalo hunters camp, and on the night of June 26, they camped about five or six miles from Adobe Walls, began painting themselves and their horses, and preparing themselves for the charge against the hated white men. "Those men shall not fire a shot; we shall kill them all," was the promise of Isatai.

Before going to sleep, Dixon and Hanrahan prepared themselves for an early start in the morning for the buffalo hunting grounds to the northwest. When the repairs to the saloon's roof were completed, the sky was growing red in the east. So Hanrahan proposed to Dixon that instead of going back to bed, they get ready to start out as soon as it was light. Dixon agreed, and as he started to get his horse, he looked down the valley. There, through the dim light of the morning, he saw a sight that almost paralyzed him for a moment. 

A dark mass of horsemen was moving swiftly up the valley, and the next moment, it had spread out like a fan, and a mighty war-whoop shattered the stillness. Isatai was coming with his host of wild tribesmen to make good his promise to wipe out the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls. Throwing his rifle to his shoulder, Dixon fired one shot, then turned and sped toward the Hanrahan saloon as the wild charge of the Indians swept down upon him. But this hasty warning was enough to bring the occupants of the saloon, who were already awake and dressed, to the windows with their big buffalo guns in their hands. 

"We were scarcely inside before the Indians surrounded all the buildings and shot out every window pane." Billy Dixon says. "For the first hour, the Indians were reckless and daring enough to ride up and strike the doors with the butts of their guns." Andrew Johnson recorded how the savages backed their horses up against the doors of the buildings and tried to push them in, showing a willingness to fight at close quarters almost unparalleled in Indian warfare. 

But the steady fire of the buffalo hunters soon discouraged this, and after beating off several attacks, the white men had a chance to take stock of their losses. Strange to say, there were only three. The two Shadler boys, asleep in their wagon outside the stockade, had been killed and scalped. Their big Newfoundland dog had evidently put up a fight, for he was also killed and scalped - a piece of hide having been cut from his side. Billy Tyler, one of the defenders of the Leonard and Myers store, was killed early in the fighting, and except for some minor wounds, these were the only casualties. 
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Time after time, the Indians charged, but as their ponies were knocked down by the heavy slugs of lead from the buffalo guns and more and more of their warriors were killed or wounded, it began to dawn upon them that Issatai had been a false prophet. So, the charges ceased. During one of these lulls, a young Comanche, gorgeously appareled in a war bonnet and scalp shirt and mounted on a fine pony, made a lone charge toward the buildings in the face of hot fire from the hunters. Ridding up close to one of the buildings, he leaped from his pony, thrust a six-shooter through a port hole, and emptied it. He then attempted to retreat but was shot down. This daring warrior who had hoped to make a name for himself by his lone charge was Pe-ah-rite, the son of Horseback, one of the leading chiefs of the Comanches.

By late afternoon on the first day, the Indians had given up hope of wiping out the defenders of Adobe Walls and began to withdraw. After an anxious night of watchfulness, the buffalo hunters discovered the next morning that only a few Indians were lingering around the place, and some long-distance shots soon drove them off. During the second day, hunters from some of the outlying camps made their way unmolested into Adobe Walls, and that night, one of them, Henry Lease, was sent to Dodge City for help. Mike King, the author of Buffalo Days, gives Billy Dixon's account of a scratch shot he made on the afternoon of the third day. 

In the afternoon, a party of about fifteen Indians appeared on the side of the bluff, east of Adobe Walls Creek, and some of the boys suggested that I try my big "50" on them. The distance was close to three-fourths of a mile. Billy Dixon gives an account of how he made the shot. I took careful aim and pulled the trigger. We saw an Indian fall from his horse. The others dashed out of sight behind a clump of timber. A few moments later, two Indians sprinted on foot to where the dead Indian lay, seized his body, and scurried to cover. They had risked their lives, as we had frequently observed, to rescue a comrade who might be not only wounded but dead. I was admittedly an excellent marksman, yet this was what might be called a "scratch" shot.

The Comanche attack at Adobe Walls caught its resident buffalo hunters literally sleeping. Dixon had left the ammunition for his own rifle locked in the settlement store. So, borrowing a Sharps.50-90 buffalo gun like that above from a bartender, he aimed at a horseback warrior on a distant ridge, killing him on the third shot. (Rock Island Auction)

More hunters came in on the third day, and by the seventh day, fully a hundred men were gathered there. Among these latecomers, so many of the "survivors" of later years were numbered. But by this time, the danger from the Indians had passed. The Red Men had departed for a series of raids in Kansas and Texas, which soon brought the military into the field and resulted in their eventual defeat. But before the attack at Adobe Walls ended, there was one more tragedy, one which darkened the life of the brave woman defender, Mrs Olds. On the fifth day, her husband was coming down a ladder with a gun in his hand when it went off accidentally, and she rushed from an adjoining room in time to see his body roll from the ladder and crumple at her feet. 
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As the sun descended, casting a warm golden glow over the rugged landscape, the small town of Dodge City buzzed with anticipation. A cloud of dust on the horizon heralded the long-awaited return of the hunters, the brave men who had ventured out to find economic relief but ended in a battle confronting the Indians who tried to protect their way of living. The townspeople lined the dusty streets, young and old alike, their eager faces lit with excitement and anticipation.  Banners and streamers adorned the buildings, fluttering in the gentle breeze, and the sound of joyful chatter filled the air. As the riders drew nearer, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. The returning hunters rode at the head of the procession, their faces weathered and stern but with a glint of pride in their eyes. Behind them trailed a line of packhorses laden with the spoils of their hard-won victory. The news of their return and the fight at Adobe Walls made each man a hero. The returning hunters became legends, recognized for their sacrifice to torch the spirit of bravery that will be passed on from generation to generation. The return of the great hunters gave each citizen of Dodge City a spark, setting a fire in hearts that had become tinder dry with economic disparity, which would soon turn to another economic boom, the Western Trail, and becoming a Cow Town. 

Dodge City in the Early 70's. In Order from Left to Right: Barber Shop, Restaurant, Bill Playford's Saloon, Dance Hall and M. V. Cutler's Store.

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Join us on November 2, 2024, when, Brad Smalley, will provide an account of the Battle of Adobe Walls and how the decimation of the buffalo led to the Red River War, which cleared the way for another economic boom in Dodge City, the cattle trade. You can hear Brad’s presentation at the Western Cattle Trail Association 150th anniversary conference in Dodge City. The event will feature a lineup of speakers and activities to commemorate this historic milestone. The agenda includes discussions on the history of cattle trails and exploring the history of the Northern Cheyenne Indians. Those interested in attending the conference should note that the registration fee is $75.00 per person, and registration can be completed via the organization's website or through the mail. 

Active participation from attendees is essential in ensuring the success of this significant event. Additionally, those who register early will be guaranteed a place and receive a special commemorative gift. To learn more about how to register to attend this conference, go to www.westerncattletrailassoc.com/conference-info and reserve a seat at this November 1st and 2nd two-day event. ​