Heroes of the Santa Fe Trail

by Randy D. Smith

  There were basically two ways to hunt bison. Indian fashion, which meant to ride a swift pony after the herd and shoot the animals as they were passed, was one method. Buffalo Bill Cody used this method when hunting for the railroad to supply the crews with meat. This tactic worked fine, although it was quite dangerous, if one was processing a few animals a day for food. Indians hunted buffalo in this fashion quite effectively with arrows and spears after the coming of the horse. An entire culture was built around the horse and the buffalo. Spiritualism, art and moral values evolved to sustain the buffalo-horse culture. Many tribes such as the Comanche were transformed from subsistence hunter-gatherers to ferocious warrior-raiders.

  Mexican ciboleros of the Southwest used long lances and short-barreled fusils to hunt in a similar fashion. But great numbers were not taken because the tanning process was extremely slow and cumbersome. It is for this reason that the Bents of Bent’s Fort, Colorado, traded with Indians for buffalo hides. Indian women brain tanned the hides and worked them with their teeth. Few whites were willing to work the hides in such a fashion.

  In the 1860s a new tanning method was devised so that mass production of buffalo hides could take place efficiently. This changed the entire nature of the hunt. Buffalo were processed rather than hunted after that period.

  Professional hunters chose the second alternative of hunting. The method was called buffalo running, which is confusing terminology since one would think that using a horse for such hunting would more properly fit. This tactic called for a hunter to position himself in an ambuscade with high-powered rifles and shoot the animals as they passed in migration. Later, when numbers had dwindled, the same tactic was called the buffalo stand. Small groups would be shot at long range until they were either all down or had panicked and fled beyond the shooter’s range.

  Buffalo, like many other animals on the plains, did not associate the report of a rifle with the death of a companion. It is a complex thinking pattern of association of which most animals are not capable. If a hunter did not shoot too often so that the report of the rifle was startling or did not wound an animal to cause a violent reaction to the shot, the others would simply mill about in confusion. A hunter learned to shoot dominant cows first, calves second, and bulls last. A well-placed shot in the lungs simply caused the animal to lie down and suffocate from the wound. When other animals approached it, they would fall next to the hunter’s bullets so that they did not cause a commotion from recognition of the odor of blood. Good shooters occasionally downed more than a hundred animals before the herd became startled and moved away.

  Professionals used large .50 caliber single shot rifles that often weighed over eleven and sometimes as much as sixteen pounds. The heavy weight helped reduce recoil and allowed for a steady sighting, especially when used with crossed sticks to brace the barrel. Sharps dropping blocks and Remington rolling blocks were the most popular, but almost any large caliber rifle would do. Muzzleloading Plains rifles, Spencer repeaters, Civil War surplus Springfield .58 caliber muzzleloading rifles and Trap Door Springfields were also commonly seen. Bill Cody used a converted breechloading Springfield named Lucritia Borgia for most of his early hunting. Contrary to popular depiction, Winchesters were considered almost worthless before 1873 for such a purpose because of their light loadings.

  Hunting took place most often when the hides were well haired in the late fall, winter and early spring. In the heyday of the hunting, 1868-74, however, the animals were slaughtered year around. In 1870, two major buying firms assembled over 200,000 hides between them. A good hunter could gross as much as two hundred dollars a day during the high-market years, a fantastic wage for that age.

  But these men paid a price. They lived in primitive conditions, dwelling on the open plains for months at a time, constantly exposed to the filth of skinning and hide processing, open to Indian reprisal, and at the whims of nature. More than a few froze to death or simply disappeared in the vast wilderness. This was especially true when there was a run on the buffalo similar to the early gold rushes. Thousands tried their hand at buffalo hunting, most ill prepared for the experience and without the knowledge to exist in the harsh environment. It was common practice for hunters to carry in their pocket a “bite,” arsenic poison in a capsule made from a .40 caliber brass shell casing fitted inside a .45 casing. If all hope was lost during combat with Indians, hunters could poison themselves to avoid being captured alive, tortured and mutilated.

  The highly profitable business became glutted in 1873 and the prices for green hides fell drastically. Men who had gone deeply into debt to assemble an outfit found themselves shooting hundreds of buffalo for prices that didn’t break even with costs. Many became desperate and turned to stealing Indian ponies or other crimes to pay the bills. The trade became associated with “hard cases” and attracted all sorts of riffraff. Many of the true professionals abandoned the business before they lost everything. Others did not realize what was happening and rode their business into bankruptcy.

  The federal government encouraged the wholesale slaughter of the bison herds. Free ammunition was even handed out to hunters in the form of a subsidy. Government medals were given to the most successful hunters. The reasons were simple. First, Indians were entirely dependent upon the herds for survival. Kill the bison and the Indian starved. Eventually the Indian had to surrender to the government reservation just to get enough food to eat. Second, large-scale agriculture was not possible until the dangerous and unpredictable buffalo were removed from the plains and replaced by domestic cattle. Railroads needed immigrants to pay their construction and operating expenses, and immigration for farming purposes was not possible until the buffalo was removed. To the government, extinction of the buffalo meant settlement of the land. No more hostile independent Indians and lots of new farmers spending money would be the result.

  A typical buffalo hunting outfit consisted of two shooters, four skinners and two men to stretch the hides. Two iron wheeled wagons were often used to carry supplies and haul the hides. Wagons would carry a ton of ammunition, sixteen pounds of lead and four hundred pounds of powder. Ammunition was reloaded to conserve resources, the brass casings being used several times before being discarded. Normally the crew went where they suspected most of the animals would be and build a dugout in the side of a hill for a base camp. If the herd moved, so did the crew. Hides would be hauled into a settlement periodically to sell and buy supplies.

  A hunter left base camp around 6:00 a.m. in the morning and hope to have a stand established by 10:00 a.m. He took a pair of rifles and at least a hundred rounds of ammunition. He would also carry a wiping rod, ripping knife, hunting knife and sometimes a butcher’s steel for sharpening.

  By mid-morning the bison had grazed heavily and normally would be lounging, chewing their cud. They were much less excitable at that point. The shooter would set up and shoot, if possible until around 2:00 p.m., at which time the skinners would arrive and begin processing the animals. The hide stretchers staked out the hides hair side down, salted them, and often sprinkled a good dose of powdered arsenic to keep vermin and varmints from eating them. They would also be responsible for retrieving the dried hides later; binding and loading them on the wagons. In good weather, it took three days for a hide to dry. The hides were usually staked out where the animals fell. When they were dried, they were folded and stacked. When a stack reached around eight feet in height, they were tied into bundles and “boosted” onto the wagons for sale.

  It was said that a good man could skin fifty buffalo a day. He was normally paid fifty dollars per month but sometimes received twenty-five to thirty cents apiece. He was paid by the shooter, who more times than not, was the boss of the outfit. This work went on day after day, as long as the buffalo were available. A few men kept expenses low by doing all the shooting, skinning and stretching by themselves. It would have not been unusual for an outfit to be out on the plains for six months at a time with only occasional trips into a town for s
upplies. After a while, in less than sanitary conditions, the men smelled like their work. Most folks knew a buffalo hunter by his odor if not his gritty appearance.

  Other than beans, flour and coffee, the hunter’s principle food was the buffalo itself. Buffalo humps, highly esteemed for their flavor, were hung in trees for months, becoming crusty and green. They would be sliced, salted and fried in tallow. Usually buffalo meat would be hung over the winter. It was often cured by digging large square holes lined with fresh green hides pegged to the edges. The meat was salted and left in the hole for eight days. It was smoked, salted and cured. Men ate enormous quantities of the meat at each meal. Some of the claims of the poundage ranged to fourteen pounds a day, but these men lived largely on a meat diet and needed a lot of protein during cold winter weather when most of the hunting took place.

  Until 1873 hunters stayed north of the Arkansas River. By treaty, the area south of the river was Indian land. The river was termed the Deadline. But the tremendous harvest of 1873 so decimated the herd that it did not move north of the river. If men wanted buffalo, they would have to cross the line. Newly formed Dodge City was the center of the trade. Hunters approached the commander of a nearby military installation, Fort Dodge, to ascertain the government’s position on the hunters violating the treaty. They were given approval to carry out their plans. Washington’s unofficial policy of obliteration of the buffalo overcame any treaty negotiated with “savages.”

  Dodge City founders and robe traders Charles Rath and Charles Meyers organized a trek into the forbidden zone. In order to support and encourage the hunters he proposed to buy the hides from a point on the plains and transport the hides to Dodge City at his own expense. The logical location was Adobe Walls in present-day Hutchinson County, Texas, a failed venture of William Bent’s, which still contained the ruins of his old trading fort.

  Fifty men, one woman and thirty wagons were assembled for the push to Adobe Walls. Once there the group erected two sod houses, a corral and a saloon. It was a modest settlement to be sure but more than adequate for the needs of the hunters. A late spring delayed the coming of the herd but when it did appear, the hunters broke into small parties and began their annual slaughter. It wasn’t long before certain groups disappeared and stories of scalped hunters found on the plains began to circulate. It didn’t have much effect on the Adobe Walls group, however. Each year the buffalo numbers were falling and if the men expected to make a profit, they were compelled to take the risk of Indian hostility. The enterprise continued in spite of regular harassment.

  The Indians were in an entirely different situation. They were witnessing the disintegration of their culture. The rapid depletion of the herd spelled eventual doom for them and they reacted violently. A mystic Comanche named I-sa-tai proposed a grand scheme that involved spiritual rituals to make his braves bulletproof and to lull the hunters into a deep sleep so they could be massacred. For some reason, Indians always seemed to follow fellows who believed they could make men bulletproof. Serious doubt must be placed on the idea that I-sa-tai really believed such things were possible. Such a prediction would seem doomed to self-defeat, but the claim was made and the Comanche were able to form an alliance with Kiowa, Arapaho, Cheyenne and Plains Apache. Perhaps I-sa-tai’s claims simply provided the tribes an excuse to revenge the destruction of their greatest natural resource.

  Early on the morning of June 27, 1874, the alliance struck the settlement. Twenty-eight men and one woman were at the Walls to meet the attack. During the night a beam in one of the buildings had cracked and many of the men were up making repairs. Otherwise, they might have been caught in their beds by the early morning surprise attack. The Indians fought with fierce courage, several times making it to the walls of the sod structures. But the big buffalo rifles held them off, taking a substantial toll of Indian lives.

  Eventually, the attack broke off in failure, I-sa-tai’s claims discredited. The hunters lost only three men, two caught outside of the structures during the first stages of the attack and a third who accidentally shot himself in the head.

  The military was summoned for protection and the hunters were escorted back to Dodge City. General Nelson Miles was then ordered to punish the tribes for their resistance. Never mind that the hunters were flagrantly violating a treaty, the Indians must be punished. Miles badly defeated the alliance in battle and scattered the remainder. From that point on the land south of the Deadline was fair game for the hunters. After that year, the industry steadily declined in the south range as the numbers of buffalo dwindled to extinction. The last group of buffalo in the Southwest was slaughtered in 1887, long after the big money was gone from the trade.

  Hunters in 1868 believed that they would “hunt buffalo for the rest of their lives.” By 1878, local newspapers were complaining of the unemployed hunters, “looking for trouble and a grubstake.” A few men made small fortunes, some eked out a living at the trade for several decades, but for most the riches turned to rags. The final step was the gathering of the bones of the beasts that littered the plains for fertilizer. When that was over, the buffalo were gone, the Indian subdued and most of the hunters were left with only a memory of the glory years of the American buffalo trade.

  Chapter 16

  The Early Years of the Mud Fort

  Billy Dixon

  Medical records of the early years of Fort Dodge, Kansas, are marked with sacrifice, sickness, exposure and death. The problem was that military engagements against hostiles accounted for a small percentage of the soldiers’ ailments.

  The open plains of Kansas were a magnet for white explorers of the early 19th century. A narrow, relatively benign corridor defined the north and south borders of Kansas Territory across the expanse of the central plains of the North American continent. To the north lay a treacherous and bewildering maze of sand hills that now makes up a large percentage of the state of Nebraska. Beyond that were the harsh winters of the Dakotas. To the south were the vast, semi-forested plains of present-day Oklahoma which were dominated by some of the most powerful plains Indian tribes on the continent, successfully repelling the northern expansion of the Spanish empire for over 300 years. Other than following the Missouri River to the Northwest as did Lewis & Clark, the only practical overland crossings lay across the plains of Kansas. The three most practical crossings followed the Platte, Smoky Hill and Arkansas Rivers. Because most of the early reasons for crossing the plains centered upon the beaver and buffalo hide industries of the Southern Rockies and the Santa Fe Trade, the Arkansas River and the Santa Fe Trail became the most dominant of the three routes.

  As early as 1845, the United States had established a tiny log and sod wall garrison at the Cimarron Crossing of the Arkansas River to provide some meager protection for caravans crossing over the Santa Fe Trail. Mann’s Fort probably never held more than twenty to forty volunteer troops, a garrison incapable of doing any more than just holding a position in the middle of nowhere. With the advent of the Mexican War, Mann was abandoned as trail traffic temporarily ground to a halt.

  In 1850, as a result of Indian raids upon a newly established stage route to Santa Fe, Fort Atkinson was established six miles east of Fort Mann near a natural wonder and constant water source known as Black Pool. Problems of supplying the fort proved to be enormous as it was located nearly three hundred miles from Fort Leavenworth, the nearest neighbor to the east. By 1853, under the excuse that Indian resistance had faded, the post was abandoned. Caravans assembled at Council Grove into defensive para-military units before making the dangerous crossing to the Mexican settlements along the east slope of the Rockies.

  In 1859, Fort Larned (Camp Alert) was established approximately fifty miles northeast of the old Fort Atkinson site along the Pawnee Fork of the Arkansas River, and became the main assembly point for the caravans. Only three companies of troops were garrisoned at Fort Larned during the summer months, seriously impeding any pursuit of marauding bands of Kiowa, Arapaho, Comanche and Plains Apac
he. As a result of nearly constant pleas for protection by the caravans, a general Indian uprising resulting from the Chivington Massacre, and the demands of trail protection during the Civil War, several military expeditions were undertaken to access the conditions of the central plains. It was advised that a concentrated military presence to provide punishment and offensive actions against the tribes was the only option for settlement of the region. The Civil War increased threats to the Santa Fe Trail from the Southwest. As a result, one of the newly established military posts was designated in March 18, 1865, to be placed on or near the old Fort Atkinson site.

  Under orders, Captain Henry Pearce, Company C, 11th Kansas Cavalry, chose a spot six miles east of Fort Atkinson for the new post to be established on April 5, 1865. Pearce felt that his new site was more easily defended and more centrally located to protect various surrounding crossings of the Arkansas other than the Cimarron, such as the Mulberry, Black Pool and Coronado Crossing branches. What Pearce chose was a sandy flood plain slope next to where the river spread into a succession of shallow channels, far from any timber or rock resources which could be used for construction materials. The site was beneath an eighty-foot bluff and a series of ravines across a plains plateau stretching for miles to the north. The grandly named Fort Dodge, after the commander of the Department of the Missouri, Major General Grenville M. Dodge, was nothing more than a series of crude dugouts in the banks of the Arkansas River covered with brush and/or tent roofs, surrounded by a shallow earthen barricade. The much less grandly nicknamed “mud fort” was in place for defense of Union interests along the Santa Fe Trail. Although located against a ready and constant source of water, Fort Dodge had few actual defensive advantages over Fort Atchinson. The post had high ground encircling its position except along the southern riverbank. The ravines along the plateau to the north were such that an opposing force could gain access to the high bluff without detection. Fort Leavenworth was not able to provide even the bare essentials for construction, such as nails, tools or window. All the troops had were shovels and sod to begin construction. During the first year, seventy sod dugouts were built along the riverbank, most measuring ten by twelve feet in circumference and seven feet deep. A sod chimney with vent hole was fabricated for each dugout to provide for cooking and ventilation. Banks of dirt were left in the walls for placement of sleeping bunks. General John Pope, after an inspection, stated that the dugouts were “holes not fit to be dog kennels.” In spite of such criticism, it was felt that some defensive force had to be in place to counter a Confederate invasion of the Santa Fe Trail.