Prepare yourself for a bone-chilling journey through the unchartered territories of the Wild West! Get ready to feel the sweat on your brow and the grit in your teeth as we traverse from Adobe Walls to Chicken Creek, recounting tales of confrontation, courage, and survival straight from the horse's mouth, Joe Plumber.
We kick things off with the horrifying recount of Dave Dudley and Tommy Wallace's brutal deaths, caused by an unexpected Indian uprising. Listen as Plumber narrates their grim fate, and the admirable strength shown by Hannah Olds, a cook and boarding house owner, in the face of such adversity. The tension escalates as we return to Adobe Walls after burying our fallen comrades, only to discover more trouble brewing. We try to keep our spirits high, but the sound of a loud crack sends chills down our spine, leading us to a precarious situation that needs immediate attention. We wrap up with an intriguing exploration of a Daybreak Settlement before the attack of 700 Indians, offering a detailed look at its unique structures. Join us on this adrenaline-filled ride that will leave you on the edge of your seat!
Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
Order Books
Prepare yourself for a bone-chilling journey through the unchartered territories of the Wild West! Get ready to feel the sweat on your brow and the grit in your teeth as we traverse from Adobe Walls to Chicken Creek, recounting tales of confrontation, courage, and survival straight from the horse's mouth, Joe Plumber.
We kick things off with the horrifying recount of Dave Dudley and Tommy Wallace's brutal deaths, caused by an unexpected Indian uprising. Listen as Plumber narrates their grim fate, and the admirable strength shown by Hannah Olds, a cook and boarding house owner, in the face of such adversity. The tension escalates as we return to Adobe Walls after burying our fallen comrades, only to discover more trouble brewing. We try to keep our spirits high, but the sound of a loud crack sends chills down our spine, leading us to a precarious situation that needs immediate attention. We wrap up with an intriguing exploration of a Daybreak Settlement before the attack of 700 Indians, offering a detailed look at its unique structures. Join us on this adrenaline-filled ride that will leave you on the edge of your seat!
Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
Order Books
Wild West Podcast presents Return of the Great Hunters, part 5. In the throng of the impending horde, written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley. I pulled into Adobe Wall's settlement on midday on June 20th. Upon coming inside of the makeshift settlement I was quickly discovered and my disordered parents convinced the men that Indians had attacked me. The man around Cam thought I was the only survivor of a desperate encounter. I found Adobe Wall's buzzing with talk about Indians. I went to James Langton upon my arrival to see if he had a sharps 50. I told him how I lost my big 50 in the Canadian. It was highly important that I should be well armed if Indians attacked us. To my disappointment, the only gun at the Wall that was not in use was a new 44 sharps, which was next best to a 50. Langton told me that the gun had been spoken for by a hunter who was still out in camp. He was to pay $80 for it. Langton said that if necessary he would let me have the gun, as he had ordered a case of guns and was expecting them to arrive any day on the freight train from Dodge City. He told me he would have them in stock before the owner of the gun came in from the Buffalo Range.
Speaker 1:When I stepped out of Langton's general merchandising store I met up with Plumber. The July midday heat rained down on me like a breath of hell. The scorched dirt shimmered in the intense white rays of the sun. Plumber was anxious to talk and asked me about Mike and Frenchie. I told him how the Canadian River had got the best of me and how I lost one of my mules. We decided to get out of the sun and headed over to Rath's place. We wanted to get a bite to eat and see if Hannah Olds had cooked up one of her fresh pies. When we passed Bio Keef's blacksmith shop, I observed how the recent bad weather had stormed the Handrahan's makeshift roof into sod dumplings. I looked up and observed one of the cottonwood rafters over. Handrahan's saloon was exposed from the wash. Plumber was first to pull back the solid plank boarded door and we stepped over a large log threshold into a dirt floor. The Rath and Wright store was cool and a row of dusty bottles lined the shelves over the makeshift supply house. The dust was so thick that it built a layer over the bottles covering their once brilliant greens and blues. We found an open table in the back of the room next to some sacks of flour and pulled up two makeshift benches. Hannah Olds entered the back room and asked us what we would have. We both decided on a cut of buffalo ham.
Speaker 1:Hannah Olds cooked for the buffalo hunters, scanners, traders and teamsters. She cooked good meals for everyone on Fine China imported from England. Hannah and her husband, william Olds, owned a boarding house in Dodge City and they decided to go to Adobe Walls. Under the employee of Wrath and Wright Trading Post, she was alone in camp most of the time and learned to leave camp when Indians were in the area. She hid in the heavy brush and the hollows along the creek. The boys at Adobe Walls were very conscious of the presence of Hannah Olds at Adobe Walls and she was treated with great respect. They built a special private privy for Mrs Olds that she greatly appreciated. Mr and Mrs Olds had their own private quarters behind the Wrath and Wright Trading Post. Hannah brought out our cooked meal from the wood-burning stove and Plummer and I struck up a conversation.
Speaker 1:Plummer informed me how two of his skinners had come into a bad way. Their names were Dave Dudley and Tommy Wallace. Plummer knew Dudley from his own association with Thomas Nixon and his frequent social contract with Dudley in Dodge City. Plummer said that during the first week of June that his team had set up camp at the mouth of Chicken Creek, he left Dudley and Wallace at the camp to go back to Adobe Walls to buy supplies. When he was picking up the supplies at Langton's store there was a lot of excitement about the settlement. Plummer inquired about all the fuss and was told by John Wesley Moore of a possible Indian uprising. Plummer did not hesitate when he heard the news about the Indian unrest and left the next day. Plummer said he wanted to get back to his camp at Chicken Creek to pack up his goods and get his men back to safety.
Speaker 1:This is when I saw the look on Plummer's face. He felt silent. His gestures were as empty as his words. I looked into his eyes but it was like nothing was to behold Dark, with an endless depth of ink, sorrow and pain. I could not see the whites of his eyes nor the vessels that flowed through them. His discriminations were sustained in the depths of darkness holding a thousand souls, yet there were none to be seen. Then he spoke.
Speaker 1:When I came into camp it was just about a half hour till sundown, said Plummer, I found my wagon all burned up and my hides destroyed. This was when I discovered Dudley and Wallace. They were both dead. They just butchered him, said Plummer with difficulty. Plummer struggled with his words. Those savages propped up Dave Dudley in a sitting position. Dudley has one of his seeds cut out. Those savages fastened it to his hand and it was tied around out there and a stake drove into the ground and his hand put on that stake. So he'd have to look at it. It was an awful site, said Plummer. They had him tied up to some wooden stakes. They cut a hole in the pit of his stomach and drove a wooden stake right down through there and into the ground with an axe. He had long hair down to his shoulders and they scalped him and took every hair of his head nearers.
Speaker 1:Plummer then fell silent. We both rested for a minute as it was hard for a plumber to speak. What happened to Wallace, I asked? They just killed Wallace, replied Plumber. They swiped him but didn't butcher him up. So I wanted to bury him but I could not do it. Plumber's words puzzled me. What do you mean, I asked. Why did you not bury him? The Indians were still out in the brush, replied Plumber. I could feel their presence. They had waited for me to come into camp. They let me get through so I could see these fellows, dudley and Wallace. It was an ambush. I said those Indians wanted to kill you the way they killed Dudley and Wallace. What did you do next, I asked? They didn't shoot until they saw what I was going to do, replied Plumber.
Speaker 1:I was driving a four mule team. I jumped down off my wagon, pulled my pocket knife out and cut the belly band of the near-lead horse. I dropped my knife, then jumped onto that horse bareback the horse was in a blind bridle and then collar on and I reached for my buffalo gun. Instead of turning around and going back, I went straight ahead, right into the brush. Did they give chase? I asked yes, replied Plumber. I got across the creek but they had put their horses to dang, far off that by the time they got their horses. I got around them, gasped Plumber. It was sundown and they couldn't trail me. I came right through them while them Indians shot a hundred shots at me. I got across the creek into the breaks as quick as I could. I headed up the red deer and swung around that night. I knew how to travel and came back.
Speaker 1:I did not want to lead them to Adobe Walls, plumber paused. That's when I saw Josiah write more, said Plumber. Josiah was 40 miles up there. I met him the next day about halfway between the Adobe Walls store and the river. I raised an eyebrow and stared at Plumber. He was sitting in silence searching for his words, his back arched and his eyes on the front door. My horse was played out, said Plumber. I was walking leading my horse when Josiah Moore came out from the brush. I almost shot him.
Speaker 1:I told Josiah about the attack at our camp on Chicken Creek and how I found Dudley's corpse pinned to the ground by a wooden stake driven through the abdomen. Moore told me of a similar incident in the Anderson camp along Salt Fork. He said an Englishman, john Thompson Jones, nicknamed Cheyenne Jack, and a German, w Mueller, known as Blue Billy, were killed. I think something's up, concluded Plumber. What do you mean, I asked. What's the mystery? When I arrived back at the settlement, the men at Adobe Walls told me of Amos Chapman's arrival, replied Plumber. He'd brought with him six Army regulars from Fort Supply, but they spent the afternoon with Rath, charlie Myers and Jim Henryhan. All the men about the camp were suspicious to Chapman's visit.
Speaker 1:From across the room I heard a door open. Its creaking noise bringing a chill to my spine. The door sounded like some dying animal crying out its pain and sorrow in its last breath. The sunlight from the open door gave off a brightness that seared into my retina. My eyes were glued to the figure. The figure moved towards the bar and then paused. Hey, billy, billy. Dixon Called the voice from across the room. Billy, are you in here? I held my hand over my eyes, but even with my hands cast into shadow I still had to squint to see. Is that you, masterson? I replied I can smell you, masterson, over here. Plumber and I are over here.
Speaker 1:I stood up, grabbed a nearby stool, set it down next to mine and waved Masterson over to where we were sitting. Plumber struck a match, lit up kerosene lamp sitting at the end of the bar and Masterson took a seat at our table. You boys must be up to no good, said Masterson, sitting up here in a dark corner of the room, all by your lonesome. Masterson looked directly at me. He was always all about business, deadlines and schedules. His face was never readable, like he left his emotions on the planes and scooped him up on the way in. He twitched a smile at me. I heard you fell into the river, billy Dixon, and lost your gun in one of your mules, smiled Masterson, you are a hell of a sight to see. Well, I'm not going to tell that story twice in one day. I replied.
Speaker 1:Besides, plumber and I are trying to figure out why that no-good Amos Chapman was about our settlement. Well, I heard the big boss man wrath, charlie Myers and Jim Hanrahan was told that there was going to be a massive Indian attack on the morning after the next full moon, explain Masterson. The three merchants decided to keep the secret to themselves. If word got around, the hunters might clear out, leaving a valuable stock of supplies defenseless. Masterson paused. I think that's why the next morning John Moore left for the range to fetch his brother.
Speaker 1:Chapman returned to Fort Supply with the soldiers and Wrath, along with Myers, made ready a shipment of hides. Wrath departed his way back to Dodge City. I think he put Jim Hanrahan in charge of the operations. What makes you think Jim Hanrahan has been put in charge of operations? Ask Plumber. Well, after Wrath left, moore rounded up some men and hired an extra team to bring in his hides, said Masterson. Hanrahan tried to persuade Moore and the other hunters to remain. Some were persuaded. Moore was not. Two of them saddled up that night and made a dead run for Dodge City. That's why you only see about twenty-six of us still remaining.
Speaker 1:Plumber told Masterson about Dudley and Wallace and was stricken about Dudley. Dudley and Masterson had become good friends and spent time together in Dodge City. We all agree that Dudley and Wallace needed a burial. This would be the proper thing to do, said Masterson. I told him that I needed to get back to my camp and pull up stakes and get my team out before they met up with the same misfortunes as Dudley and Wallace. Masterson and Plumber agreed to return with me to my camp as a precaution to a possible hostile Indian attack.
Speaker 1:The next morning, plumber, masterson and I left Adobe Walls together and headed to Chicken Creek. When we arrived at Red Deer Camp we found Dudley and Wallace in a bad way. Plumber found his horses still on a harness and we quickly put the dead to rest. We were back at Adobe Walls on June 26th. Masterson, plumber, mike McCabe, frenchie and I were all glad to be back in good company. We unloaded our hides in the back of Langdon's place to have him freighted to Dodge City. We now had excellent credit for purchasing from our inventory of hides.
Speaker 1:That evening two brothers named Ike and Shorty Shadler arrived at the Walls. The Shadler Brothers worked for Orlando Bond and on their way south to deliver a wagon load of goods to our settlement they passed the Moor Brothers. The Shadler Brothers told us that the freight wagons carrying the new supply of guns were camped on the flats north of the Walls. They informed Langdon that they did not expect the wagon load of supplies to reach our settlement for another day or two. When Langdon heard that the man to whom he had promised the gun was not coming for several days, he hunted me up and told me I might have the gun. I went right over to his store and got the 44, together with a full case of ammunition. I was so tickled over my good luck that I took the gun over to Henry and Saloon to show it to him. After we had looked the gun over, I sat down in the corner for the night. I attended to get it when we said goodbye to the Walls.
Speaker 1:The next morning I had planned on going back out to the Buffalo Range. By this time the excitement and talk about the fate of the four men who had been killed by Indians had subsided and we paid no further attention to the matter. So busily were we engaged in our preparations for departure. The night was sultry and we sat with open doors. In all that vast wildness, ours were the only lights, save for the stars that glittered above us. There were just a handful of us out there on the plains, each bound to the other by the common tives, standing together in the face of any danger that threatened us. It was a simple code, but about the best I know of. Outside could be heard at intervals the muffled sounds of the stock moving and stumbling around or a picketed horse shaking himself as the horse paused in their hunt for the young grass. In the timber along Adobe Walls Creek to the east, owls were hooting. We paid no attention to these things, however, in our fancied security against all foes.
Speaker 1:Frolickton had a general good time. Panran made a thriving trade. From the night to June 26, 1874, there were 28 men and one woman at the walls. The woman was the wife of William Olds. She had come to Dodge City with her husband to open a restaurant in the rear of Rathen Wright's store. Only eight or nine of the men lived at the walls, the others being buffalo hunters who by chance happened to be there. There was not the slightest feeling of impending danger. The all grew weary and tired from the vestivities and began to bed down. Mike Welch, a hunter by the name of Shepherd, and several others decided to rest at Henryhands. The rest slept in the two stores. I decided to bed down outside underneath my wagon. The Shaddler Brothers slept in their wagon on the north side of the corral, near Myers and Leonard's store.
Speaker 1:Before moon rise, the night was a special kind of blackness, the sort of moonless night that wants only to hold the stars and help them to shine all the brighter. It was warm and black. Midnight fell like a rich billet blanket of black, swallowing up the day, draining the colors to gray and then to nothing at all, until the moon appeared out on the horizon. The place became silvered and transformed by moonlight which, at full, hung like a great luminous pearl on the radiant breast of heaven. A crack, then a loud boom shot across the plains.
Speaker 1:I awoke with a start, unsure of why, like a rifle shot, bringing me out of my slumber into a heart racing moment of consciousness. I reached for my pistol. I grabbed it and pointed it out into the darkness Nothing. Then a panic of footsteps like a rushing force appeared in the doorways. Then a shout it's the ridge pole, yelled Hanrahan. It's about to give way. When Hanrahan stepped out of the darkness I could see his gun barrel smoking. He set it down inside the entranceway and yelled Get up, get out, yelled Hanrahan. I looked over to the open door where Hanrahan stood.
Speaker 1:I rushed Welch and Shepard. They both soared past Hanrahan, flying like wild quail, with expressions of shock and horror. Welch screamed out we're going to be buried alive. His left foot should have extended to take his weight. Instead it caught the threshold of the doorway. He hit the dirt, sending a plume of dry soil skyward. Then came Shepard, tumbling over Welch, giving a groan as the air left his lungs. Hanrahan walked over to the two men on the ground, looked down at him and shook his head. Boys, you're about as graceful as a sledgehammer in a knife fight, laughed Hanrahan. Now how about some useful help getting this here ridge pole mended before this here roof falls on our heads. After two hours of work. The perfectly good ridge pole was removed and another, nearby, already conveniently cut pole was put into place.
Speaker 1:Most of the boys were already awake from the ruckus, but for some reason Hanrahan wanted to keep a lot of us from going back to sleep. Hey boys, the drinks are on me, said Hanrahan. So we all went into the saloon and had an hour of fun before we turned in for the night. So I went over to Langdon to buy some ammunition for my Sharps 44. But for some reason in which I cannot explain even to myself, I left my case of ammo with Langdon, little dreaming how greatly I would regret my carelessness.
Speaker 1:One hour before sunrise on June 27th 1874, the Indians formed a gorgeous, majestic and spectacular cavalcade. They sedately rode across the grassy bottoms of the Canadian River. They rode 900 strong, the hand-picked men of the Comanche, kayawe, cheyenne and Arapaho nations, the greatest horsemen on earth and the best cavalry that ever went to battle. Their ponies shone with all the colors of the red-skinned rainbow, yellowish, brown, red with vermilion, stained with every horrible ornate device and the hideous art catalog of the plains. Ride to battle they did with bravery. Now at their head rode the Comanche Quana Parker, a brilliant young warrior, along with Isetea, the grim old medicine man on a little Grey Pony, destined to prove in his own person the fallacy of his prediction that his medicine made all invulnerable to the white man's bullet. With them, on a base Dalyan, came the Comanche sub-chief, stonecalf's nephew, medicine man and Paladins rode side by side, glistening with war paint and adorned in fighting rain. Every Indian believed that he galloped to the certain victory of the medicine man Isetea had promised. Led by Quana and inspired by the medicine man, they felt empowered to mount their first attack.
Speaker 1:On Adobe Walls. Some boasted nothing more than a breech clout, a war-woop and an anxious look. Several covered their tawny shoulders with bright cotton shirts. Many had gathered closely about them. The almost inevitable faded army blanket Died. Porcupine quills occasionally edged. Moccasins and elaborate beadwork designs ornamented many buckskin shirts, flannel streamers quivering with feathers fluttered above them. A spore riding whip around his wrist, trappings of fur, bracelets of silver and marvelous feathered headdresses testified to the Comanche love of finery. Buffalo rib bows made by skillfully binding together the ends of two ribs with buffalo-eyed thongs, as neatly and firmly as a blacksmith might have forged welded his metals, prove the existence of the Cheyenne mechanical skills, although they still carried bow, arrow, shield lance, war club and tomahawk.
Speaker 1:The Indians had dealt with the traitors. For more deadly weapons, forty-five caliber Colts were carried, winchester rifles and Spencer carbines were seen to every side, and some had sharp rifles. Stonecalf's nephew was armed with a revolver and a carbine of the latest design. His deerskin moccasins were adorned with beads and his leggings were of well-tanned leather. At the right wrist he carried a little square musical instrument four or five lengths across the cadence of which furnished time and dancing. On the cheek strap of his horse's bridle there was a dark-carried scalp about two inches in diameter, carefully dressed and curiously painted on the inner side.
Speaker 1:His nine-foot lance, adorned with an eagle feather and tipped with a steel point of 18 inches, was carried with care. In a case of otterskin that would have brought him many dollars at the fur traders. His shield two thicknesses of hide from the neck of a buffalo bull, dried hard as flint was capable of turning a pistol ball. It was stuffed with feathers that swung. From his left arm this shield stood covered with the softest buckskin, the edge hung round with eagle feathers, while on its coat of arms a full moon and group of stars was emblazoned in ochre. From the shield dangled his medicine, the bill of an eagle, the claws of a bear and the scalp of a fair-haired man taken in battle. More than a foot above his head, the crest of his splendid warp. On it rose the crowning effort of primitive art, comprised of lines of beads and artistically wrought with Indian figures. The headpiece was arched with a ridge of beautiful eagle feathers, a tail of the very best buckskin galey, ornamented and trimmed at either edge with eagle feathers trailed to his heels. A buckskin shirt, fringed with leather laces, covered his coppery breast and his blanket flowed from his shoulders like the folds of a Roman toga. This favorite son of the Comanche stood straight and supple as an Iroquois.
Speaker 1:They arrived at Daybreak and looked down from the crest of a hill forming lines of battle command. They saw the three structures of the settlement standing in a row. On the south was the Wrath and Wright Company store with one of the partners, james Langton, in charge. This building was 30 by 60 feet, had walls of adobe 2 feet thick and a big door. On the west, in the back of the structure, 15,000 buffalo hides stood arranged in piles.
Speaker 1:Perhaps 100 yards to the north stood Hanra, hans and Dobie Building, 80 feet long, 25 feet wide and with walls some 2 feet deep. 50 yards to the north of Hanra Hans was the Leonard and Myers store, with Fred Leonard in charge. This structure was 30 by 70 feet and its walls were 10 inches thick. A big door opened on the east. This store stood in the northeast corner of a stockade, 250 by 300 feet, with poles extending 7 feet into the ground and from 7 to 13 feet above. There was no chink in between the poles of the fence or corral. A mess house stood in the southwest corner of the stockade and between the two buildings was a well.