Billy Dixon and the Battles of Adobe Walls

Brother Billy Dixon

Born 1850 Died 1913

I just finished Billy Dixon's Book in hard copy. What amazed me most was how different the people were from the Actors. These were good and bad people

just as we have today. They laughed, joked, fought

just as people do today. Heroes, Yes! without a doubt,

but for the best of reasons, to stay alive and survive.

There is a Digital Library Link near the bottom of this page. Enough said/gp

Click picture to enlarge

This is a picture that you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Robert Frame and I searched before

we left. By all the maps and information we had, this

is the shot a West Virginian named Billy Dixon made when he knocked Coyote Dung off his horse.

With of all things a borrowed Rifle!

The Army later surveyed the shot the distance was

1,538 yards or 9/10's of a mile.

Look past the Cottonwood Trees

to the high point. It may have been an extra 200 yards

to the Settlement behind the camera. This is fenced and posted property. We filmed legally from the road

right of way.

gp

click on picture to enlarge

This is the area where the Settlement of Adobe Walls was located. It is behind the observer on the first picture. The settlement was somewhat secluded from the wind. I have added the next picture as contrast, the location below is about half a mile away from Adobe Walls.

The information below with directions from Mr. Jackson

allowed Robert Frame and I to see a unique part of history.

This diagram came from Hansford County Texas. Courtesy

of Mr. James Jackson. Mr. Jackson is also a BPCR Shooter.

His Father was on the Hansford County Historical Board.

After he passed away James found this diagram in his desk

with two pages of notes. I'm going to post the notes in the

elder Jacksons handwriting just as he set them down,

because now they are a part of History.

click on image to enlarge

click to enlarge

We as a group owe a debt of gratitude to people such as the Jackson Family. The Smithsonian Museum and others have

spent little effort in researching or documenting the

Time of the Great Western Buffalo Herds. And little effort

to research the men who in their efforts to carve a living in this untamed wilderness expanded our Great Nation. Were the actions taken in the name of Progress always justified? Of course not, one would be very naive to think so. But a large part of the information that we today possess was cared for and passed down by the local families themselves.

These Websites have a lot of information on the subject.

The men in attendance at this Battle reads like a Who's

Who of the old West! A few years later Billy Dixon won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his part in another Battle.

www.skyways.org/orgs/fordco/texts/rath.html

http://www.oldwestlibrary.com/OWL/adobewalls.htm

This link will take you to a digitized version of Billy Dixon's Book. As they are scanned exactly, the first few pages are blank, just scroll down.

http://books.google.com/books?id=QlgDAAAAYAAJ&dq=pictures+of+billy+dixon&pg=PA18&ots=8ggq_k0vKi&sig=mPO8ymZL6hXX82VVk_SZbWly8Ak&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fsourceid%3Dnavclient%26ie%3DUTF-8%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS246US246%26q%3Dpictures%2Bof%2Bbilly%2Bdixon&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1&cad=legacy#PPP1,M1

Aproximate location of Settlement. Notice fence post.

click on picture to enlarge

I added this picture just to emphasize how vast these Ranches are.

The fences are seperated by Public Road. They are Graveled and well

maintained. The signs posted leave little doubt as it is not a small thing

to leave the Right of Way. This one is fairly close by their standards to the Main Road.