Echoes of Adobe Walls: Exploring the Forgotten Battles of the Texas Panhandle
When studying Texas history (especially Texas Panhandle history) the placename Adobe Walls may be encountered. Some people might recall a famous battle between commercial bison hunters and Southern Plains tribes in the late 1800s at a trading post called Adobe Walls. A few people who have a keen interest in either Texas Panhandle history or Native American tribes who once lived in the area will know that there were two battles of Adobe Walls.
The first was on November 25, 1864, which involved New Mexico Volunteer Calvary Troops from Fort Bascom New Mexico, and the Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache (aka Kiowa Apache) tribes. This battle is the least known of the two battles of Adobe Walls. The second, more well-known battle started on June 27, 1874, when a combined force of Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa warriors attacked the commercial hide hunters trading post now known as Adobe Walls. This early morning surprise attack took place about a mile north of the old, abandoned Fort Adobe (Adobe Walls) trading post established in 1843 by William Bent/ St. Vrain and Company. This earlier trading post was built using adobe construction, unlike the 1874 Adobe Walls commercial bison hunter trading post complex which had no adobe structures only sod and timber constructed buildings.
To the modern-day descendants of warriors who fought and died in these battles the heroic deeds of their ancestors live on in family stories. These stories are recounted and passed on from generation to generation at social gatherings, family visits, and some have been recorded in ethnographic studies and books on the Southern Plains Tribes. Recently, a sort of historical revival is taking place as the tribes search for ways to reconnect their members to the rich history and culture as it relates to the Texas Panhandle. Visitations and tours to such places as Adobe Walls, Palo Duro Canyon, Hutchison County Museum in Borger Texas, and the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon are raising awareness of these invaluable resources to the past.
Many years ago, such visits occurred only on very special occasions such as the 50th Anniversary of the 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls. In attendance at the site on the Turkey Track Ranch were a few remaining buffalo hunters and warriors of the battle. The remembrance ceremony, picnic, and marker dedication took place in 1924 and lasted several days. Later in 1941, a marker to the Native Americans was placed at the site of the 1874 Adobe Walls battle and attendees included a few Native American participants and descendants of participants along with the public.
Modern visitors who venture down the dusty road into the valley where the 1874 Adobe Walls trading post site is located and in the general area north of the 1864 battle will likely be surprised and slightly disappointed by their first visit to the site. They are usually expecting to see dilapidated structures or buildings from the trading post. At first glance, it is even difficult to see the site at all until you are within the boundaries of the trading post site. You will notice the two granite monuments with pipe fences and the headstone and grave of Billy Dixon also enclosed within a pipe fence, but not much else. The trading post was burned soon after it was abandoned in 1874, so nothing remained above ground until archaeologists uncovered it during excavations in the 1970’s.
The site is a protected archaeological site preserved by the State of Texas. Nothing modern has been added to the site since 1941. Unless a person ventures through the knee-high grass most of the building outlines are not visible from the road. Besides Billy Dixon’s grave, there are two other graves on the site with pipe fences. One is located at the northern edge of the site and one near the cattle guard and Native American Monument.
Located just about a mile south of the 1874 site is part of the 1864 battle site and location of the Bent/St Vrain original 1843 Adobe Walls trading post which is on private ranch property and is only accessible by special permission. Native people who visit the site will not be surprised to see offerings and trinkets left at the Native American Monument by previous visitors, while coins and cartridges are placed at the grave of Billy Dixon who was a participant in the 1874 battle and later lived not far from the site.
Since the majority of battles and historical events have a bit of mystery, controversy, or questions associated with them, then why would the Battles of the Adobe Walls be any different? Here are a few things that have come up over the years. Firstly, the number of participants is always in question. Who was there and how many have been debated since the day of the battles?
In 1864 the numbers of Native Americans involved in the battle were likely overly exaggerated to help explain why Col. Carson and his troops eventually had to retreat and return to New Mexico without severely dealing a harsh defeat to the Southern Plains tribes which was their intended purpose.
In the 1874 Adobe Walls battle some questions still remain about the buffalo hunter participants and their whereabouts during the battle. Since the battle starts with a surprise rush just at first light by warriors riding toward the Adobe Walls trading post it was a mad scramble to get inside someplace safe. The warriors were almost upon the hide hunters and merchants before they knew what was happening. With a great amount of confusion early in the battle and no communication between buildings, it was almost impossible to know who was located elsewhere at the trading post. Many of the hide hunters learned who was also there after the battle was over and it was safe to venture outside.
When the trading post was abandoned many hide hunters and traders returned to Dodge City, Kansas. The saloons and shops of Dodge City were filled with men who had fought at Adobe Walls even if they were only recounting and embellishing what they had overheard. Some gave interviews to local newspapers and suddenly Adobe Walls and the great battle were big news all around the world. For the chance to get a little notoriety or a free drink tall tales were spread far and wide. Some of the actual participants later seemed to have backed up these fanciful tales and their authors. The number of warriors involved as stated by the buffalo hunters was probably only about half as many as claimed. On the granite marker dedicated to the Buffalo Hunters it is inscribed with the number of warriors at 700 from three tribes. The bison hide hunters were most likely hoping that by inflating the numbers they could convince the U.S. Military and the War Department to keep all the Native peoples on their reservations and away from prime hide hunting grounds in the Texas Panhandle.
Perhaps one of the most well known and most often repeated stories associated with the 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls is the Billy Dixon “Long Shot” story. Olive Dixon wrote the book “The Life and Adventures of Billy Dixon of the Panhandle of Texas” published in 1914, that was based on notes she took while her husband Billy told her about his life. In the 1914, first edition of this book there is a photo on a page that shows one of the high bluffs located east of the Adobe Walls trading post. The caption reads; High Bluff East of Adobe Walls on Which Dixon Killed Indian at 1,200 yards. Today, if you measure in Google Earth and on a topographic map the distance to the bluff in the photograph is approximately 753 yards.
Interestingly enough when the second edition of the same book was published in 1927 the same photograph is used of the same bluff east of Adobe Walls, but this time the distance in the caption has been changed to; High Bluff East of Adobe Walls on Which Billy Dixon Killed an Indian at 1,538 yards.
In a later 1955 book titled “Adobe Walls Bride The story of Billy and Olive Dixon” by John L. McCarthy, there is a photo of a completely different high bluff that is well over a thousand yards south of the high bluff featured in the earlier book about Billy Dixon. Surprisingly the distance credited in the description of the long shot is 1,538; the same as in the 1927 edition of the Billy Dixon book but showing a completely different high bluff. This new bluff is marked on a USGS topographic map as a Small Bluff and is 1,222 yards from Adobe Walls. Olive Dixon was involved in either writing or being interviewed in both books. How did she not realize that the distance and location of her husband's supposed “Long Shot” kept changing in her book and the later book about her and Billy's life? So, did the long shot actually take place? Most likely not at the modern stated distance of 1,538 yards or almost 7/8ths of a mile. If it happened at all it was probably near the High Bluff East of Adobe Walls as shown in the original book Life and Adventures of Billy Dixon of the Panhandle of Texas. Copyright 1914 Frederick S. Barde, Olive Dixon.
Well, as noted earlier, many mysteries, controversies, and questions remain even to this day about the two battles of Adobe Walls.