The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-06-08

Indians attacked buffalo hunters
camp occupied by % men and one woman,
located on the south fork of the Canadian river
in what is now Hutchinson county in the Texas
Panhandle.
Characteristic of it's ranking as frontier clas-
sic is the number of men who at one time or
another have been called survivors Of the
Adobe Walls fight. Seemingly every old-timer
who was ever buffalo hunter on the South
western plains in the '70s has been accorded the
distinction of HE fought at Adobe Walls" by
amateur historians and imaginative newspaper
reporters, and this, despite the fact that there
has been in existence for many years an anthem
tic list of the actual participants which might
easily disprove the claim advanced in favor of
spurious defenders of that outpost of the from
tier
Under the terms of the Medicine Lodge treaty
of 1867, the federal government fixed the Arkan-
sas river as the northern boundary Of the Indian
country for the tribes of the Southwestern
plains and guaranteed that white hunters should
not cross that stream But they did.
In 1872 the mushroom town of Dodge City,
Kan, sprang into existence and became the out
fitting point and center of activity of the hide
hunters who, with their big Sharps buffalo guns,
were constantly invading the red mans country.
By the spring of 1874 the slaughter had been
so great that the buffalo had been virtually
wiped out near Dodge City. So A. G. Myers, who
was in the general merchandise business in
Dodge organized an expedition to establish
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" Form
ing partnership with Fred Leonard and accom-
panied by party of 20-odd frontiersmen Myers
set out for the forbidden Indian country.
Among the members of the party 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
$50 miles the expedition reached spot on the
south fork of the Canadian where stood the
ruins of an old trading post known as Adobe
Walls, which had been built by William Bent
and Ceran ST. Vrain some time before 1910.
A mile or so farther on, in broad valley where
there was pretty stream called East Adobe
Walls creek, Myers and his companions unloaded
their wagons and set about establishing the Sec
ond Adobe Walls which was to become even more
famous than the first
Myers and Leonard built a picket house, 20
by 60 feet in size; Hanrahan put up sod house,
% by go, and O'Keefe opened his blacksmith
shop in picket structure, Is feet square. Ny
ers and Leonard also built 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
branch store at Adobe Walls and built sod
house, 16 by 20 feet leaving James Langton in
charge Of the new business there. To Adobe
Walls also came William Odds and his wife to
open a restaurant.
For several years the Indians had been watch
ing with increasing alarm the wasteful slaugh-
ter of the buffalo by the white hunters. SO
when in the spring Of 1874 a Comanche medi-
cine man named Isatai announced that he had
q new medicine which would enable them to