The Cowboy Cemetery near Salt Plains, Woods County, Oklahoma,
where two cowboys from the Comanche Pool, Comanche County, Kansas, are buried.
They were killed by Indians, almost certainly in the 'incident' known as Dull Knife's Raid.
Photo by Bobbi (Hackney) Huck.
ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1878, THE BODIES OF REUBEN BRISTOW AND FRED CLARK WERE FOUND NEAR HERE. IT WAS BELIEVED THAT THEY HAD BEEN KILLED BY NORTHERN CHEYENNE LED BY CHIEF DULL KNIFE. BRISTOW AND CLARK WERE COWBOYS HAULING SALT FOR COMANCHE POOL CATTLE WHEN DULL KNIFE FLED HARSH CONDITIONS ON THE RESERVATION NEAR CANTON. THE SALT HAULERS, PROBABLY KILLED FOR THEIR MULE TEAM, INADVERTENTLY CROSSED THE PATH OF THE CHEYENNE DURING THEIR DESPERATE FLIGHT TO THE NORTHERN PLAINS.
Photo by Bobbi (Hackney) Huck.
The Cowboy Cemetery near Salt Plains, Woods County, Oklahoma,
view of the back of the original gravestone and the memorial tablet.
Photo by Bobbi (Hackney) Huck.
MONUMENT DONATED BY ALVA MONUMENT - BUDDY SAMS
ALVA, OKLAHOMA
GRANITE DONATED BY SOUTHERN GRANITE CO. - DAVID EDWARDS
ELBERTON, GEORGIA.
Inscription:
Cow
Boy
AND
SALT HALL
KILLEDBY
INDIAS
Also see:
September 1878:
The Last Indian Raid In Kansas
reprinted in The Western Star, January 23, 1920.The Indian Scare
The Western Star, July 4, 1885.Salt Plains
A story by Wendel Ferrin of how & where early Comanche County residents got salt for their cattle."Mrs. King related many early days incidents, and one she told was of how Frank King who was the range boss of the Comanche Pool and whom she later married, came by and told her how that day he and other cowboys of the Pool had came upon the bodies of three (sic) salt-haulers who had been camped at a spring just over the line in Oklahoma. He also related how these men had been killed by Indians and their horses stolen. They buried these unfortunate men whose bodies were so swollen they filled a wagon box by the time they were found. These graves can still be found on the R.E. Hill ranch in northwest Woods County, Oklahoma."
-- Frank & Almada (Parker) King Off-site link to an account of the death and burial of these cowboys:
REMINISCENCES OF CHARLES F. COLCORD Address Delivered - "Pioneer Reunion" Medicine Lodge, Kansas, February 9, 1934 -- Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 12, No. 1, March, 1934.
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