Old West Photo Friday: Exterminating the Buffalo to Exterminate the Indian

You've probably seen the above image. It shows a mountain of buffalo skulls and was taken c. 1870 on the Great Plains. It brings to graphic reality the slaughter and near extinction of a species that once blackened the plains in herds numbering tens of thousands.

What's often not mentioned in the history books is that the slaughter of the buffalo was encouraged by the U.S. Army. Commanders of the undermanned frontier garrisons, facing a tough war with the Plains tribes who were fighting to keep their land, realized that the tribes relied on the buffalo for food and clothing. Wiping out the buffalo, they reasoned, would bring the Indians to their knees.

During the 1870s and 80s, the army encouraged buffalo hunters to kill as many buffalo as possible. While Plains tribes would only kill a few and use all the meat and hide, white hunters would often only take the choice cuts like the tongue and leave the rest to rot. They would sometimes hold competitions to see who could kill the most and not even take any meat at all. Army bases generously supplied them with bullets and powder, and allowed their own men leave to go hunting. They would also look the other way when hunters jumped the border onto lands that were supposedly for Indians only.

As William Tecumseh Sherman, who for part of this time was overall commander of the U.S. Army, said, "If I could learn that every buffalo in the northern herd were killed I would be glad. The destruction of this herd would do more to keep the Indians quiet than anything else that could happen, except the death of the Indians. Since the destruction of the southern herd. . .the Indians in that section have given us no trouble." 

Below is an early postcard showing two buffalo hunters outside their sod house with their grisly trophies. The caption says what the Army thought this massive hunt signified: "The beginning of better things."

The Plains tribes had a different point of view. As Sitting Bull said, "A cold wind blew across the prairie when the last buffalo fell--a death-wind for my people."

Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Old West Photo Friday: A Dusty Day at Fort Defiance

In celebration of my two new Native American books, here's a photo of old Fort Defiance, Arizona, from 1873. This fort was established in 1851 to defeat the Navajo, who had been resisting white expansion into their land. Like most forts in the Old West, it didn't have walls since Native Americans almost never attacked large settlements, especially military ones, as they could not afford the losses this would incur.

It looks like dusty, miserable place, but for the soldiers it was home. It seems they're having a visit from some local Navajo. By 1873, most of the Navajo were at peace with the Americans. I've zoomed in on some of the figures below.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Wild West Photo Friday: Seth Kinman's Crazy Constructions

Now this looks like a saloon I'd like to hang out in! Just look at that furniture and the selection of hooch behind the bar. This is the bar of Seth Kinman, a famous frontiersman, taken in Table Bluff, California, in 1889. Kinman was a famous hunter who claimed to have killed more than 500 bears. He also shot any elk or Native Americans he saw and was considered dangerous to just about anything living.

His main claim to fame besides his itchy trigger finger was his skill at making furniture from elk horns and bear pelts. He gave examples of his craft to various presidents. Here he is posing with a chair he gave President Buchanan.

This bear chair had a special trick. You could pull a string and the head would pop out and gnash its teeth. A great way to break the ice at parties! The fiddle was made out of elk bones. Somehow I don't think old Seth Kinman would fit into today's world.

Old West Photo Friday: An Old General Store in the Territory of New Mexico

If you needed to go shopping in the little community of Farmington in the northwestern corner of the Territory of New Mexico back in the 1880s, this was the only choice. It was the A.F. Miller store, which also doubled as Miller's home and farm.

Farmington was a small town with little to show for itself except some sandy fields, but it was located at the junction of three rivers and thus saw a fair number of travelers pass through. When the town was incorporated in 1901, records show it only had 548 residents. It got a rail link to Colorado four years later, which helped the town grow. Farmington became briefly famous in 1950 when there was a wave of UFO sightings over three consecutive days. The local paper gave it extensive coverage, noting that about half the population saw up to 500 flying saucers dipping and weaving in the sky. I don't see any flying saucers in this photo, though.

The New Mexico Digital Collections claims this is New Mexico's first store and home, which is quite obviously untrue. Other sources say it was the first store in Farmington, a more believable claim although I haven't found any proof to back that up. As a researcher you have to be careful with your information even if you're getting it from a usually reliable source!

Old West Photo Friday: Chief Satanta of the Kiowa-Apache

This is Satanta, a chief of the Kiowa-Apache who spent many years fighting the U.S. Cavalry, most notably at the First Battle of Adobe Walls where he fought a cavalry detachment under the command of Kit Carson. During the battle, Satanta used a bugle to imitate a cavalry bugler, giving false commands to the enemy.

Satanta was the last Kiowa war chief and was eventually imprisoned in 1874 after countless fights with the encroaching American settlers and the cavalry that protected them. Given a life sentence without hope of parole, he killed himself in 1878.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Old West Photo Friday: Trooper of the Sixth Cavalry at Fort Union, c. 1888

The men of the U.S. Cavalry had a tough life in the nineteenth century. Stuck in uncomfortable barracks often in the middle of nowhere, they had to fight Indians and bandits while dealing with an unsympathetic citizenry who often blamed them for not be effective. Add to that bad food, harsh climate, and strict discipline, and you wonder why anyone volunteered.

This unidentified trooper of the Sixth Cavalry looks pretty proud, though. He was stationed in Fort Union, New Mexico, in the 1880s. I like this photo because you get a good view of his kit and the adobe brick building in the background he called home.

Fort Union was operational from 1851 to 1891, its soldiers playing a part in the Apache Wars, the Civil War, and various other border conflicts. It's now a national monument where park rangers will take you on a guided tour of the ruins while reenactors show off what life was like in those days.


Photo courtesy National Park Service.

Old West Photo Friday: Home Life on the Frontier

Life for American settlers on the frontier was tough. They arrived with a few precious possessions they had managed to haul from their homes back east or in Europe and had to make the rest themselves.
Homes would often be makeshift affairs. The main priority was getting a crop in so they wouldn't go hungry the next year. The top photo shows a home in what's probably Oklahoma. It appears to be made out of turf blocks as was common for homes in the territory. Turf was free and easy to build with and had the advantages of being fireproof and a good insulator. This family has built their home against a hill to shelter it from Oklahoma's fierce winds.
The bottom photo shows the home of the Winslow family in the 1870s at Mount Ayr Township, Osborne County, Kansas. It's built of logs with mud daubed between them to keep out drafts. It appears to have a turf roof as you can see some grass growing on it. At least there's no cow!
The cabin is small for so many people, but life was lived mostly outdoors. It must have gotten claustrophobic during winter storms, however, and would give rise to "cabin fever". In Alaska and other northern areas, people could be trapped in these tiny cabins for weeks and sometimes went insane.

Old West Photo Friday: Cowboys shoot down a Thunderbird

My regular readers know that weird legends from the Old West are one of my favorite topics, and that includes the fabulous Thunderbird. This giant critter supposedly flew the skies of the frontier, scaring Native Americans and cowboys alike until one was supposedly shot down near Tombstone, Arizona. There was an article in the 26 April 1890 edition of the Tombstone Epitaph about two cowboys shooting a creature with leathery wings like a bat and a head like an alligator. They dragged it back to town and nailed it up to a barn, its wingspan covering the barn's entire length.

I've written about the Thunderbird before, and how photos of the beast have become an obsession with cryptozoologists. Several photos claiming to be of the Tombstone creature circulate around the Internet, along with several more showing Civil War soldiers bagging flying monsters, as well as this more modern shot that looks like it's from the mid-twentieth century. Sadly, while there are so many Thunderbird photos, no one seems to have an actual Thunderbird stuck up on their wall.

For more on this crazy story, see my posts on pterodactyl sightings in America and another photo of cowboys with a pterodactyl. I also wrote about it in my new booklet, The Weird Wild West: Tall Tales and Legends about the Frontier.


While I'm careful to use only public domain photos in this blog, I'm not sure this one is. If it's really as old as it appears, then it's public domain. It could simply be an old fake. If it's modern, then I'm in breach of copyright, but the only way the creator could sue me is if they admitted faking the photo! I'll take that chance. :-)

Old West Photo Friday: Cowboy Riding Jackalope

Here's an old postcard showing a cowboy riding the fabled Jackalope. While most Jackalopes are rabbit sized, sometimes they get big enough for cowboys to saddle them up and hop around the plains. A Jackalope, of course, is a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope.

You can read about Jackalopes and a lot of other weird stuff in my new booklet out by Charles River Editors, The Weird Wild West: Tall Tales and Legends about the Frontier. There was a free giveaway on Amazon for the past couple of days, but since I was traveling up to Oxford I didn't get a chance to tell all of you. Sorry about that! I think a lot of people will be reaidng about Jackalopes this week because it made it to #271 on Amazon!

Charles River has come out with a second booklet of mine on The Trench Warfare of World War I. It got up to #338 on Amazon during the free giveaway. Sadly, that's also over. I should really get a Smartphone and start obsessively checking the Internet like everyone else. On second thought, I think I'll stay in the real world. That's where the Jackalopes live!


Photo courtesy Jackalope postcards, which has an amazing collection online. Seeing is believing!

Old West Photo Friday: A Saloon in Alaska

Here's a fun photo of a little saloon called the Road House, in Bluff City, Alaska, c. 1906. This was one of the many mining towns that attracted prospectors to America's last frontier. Of course, all that digging made them thirsty.

As you can see, the Road House wasn't much of a place. Some saloons were even worse, being simple tents or, in warmer areas, just a board propped up by a couple of barrels and set alongside the path to the mines. Many saloon owners were basically traveling salesmen, going from mining town to mining town with their tent and booze packed in a wagon. When the diggings got scarce and the miner's money ran low, they'd head to a more promising town. The miners moved from place to place too, always hoping to hit the Mother Lode.

Most miners never struck it rich. A better way to make a living was to "mine the miners" by selling them overpriced booze or tools or canned goods. While everyone talks about the lucky prospectors who struck it rich, the real moneymakers in these towns were the businesses that supplied the miners.

Old West Photo Friday: Panning for Gold

I love this shot. It shows a 49er panning for gold in California's American River. This guy looks like he's been put through the wringer yet is still determined to strike it big.

Unfortunately there's no name attached to this photo. I wonder whatever happened to him? Did he find enough gold to open a saloon in San Francisco and retire in comfort, or did he end up in a pauper's grave in some dusty mining camp?

Speaking of dusty mining camps, I have a humorous flash fiction piece in Every Day Fiction this week. It's called How They Brought The Train To High Hopes.

For more free stuff by yours truly, check out my articles over on Black Gate about Axum: The Ancient Superpower of Ethiopia and Arms and Armor of the Abyssinian Empire.

Have a great weekend!

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Old West Photo Friday: Chinese Firefighters of Deadwood

When we think of the Chinese in the Old West, we tend to think of three things--the railroad, laundries, and opium dens. While all of these were indeed a big part of the Chinese-American experience, that's nowhere near the whole story.

Take the Chinese community in Deadwood, for example. This roaring gold rush town in South Dakota grew out of nothing in the 1870s. People came from all over to work the hills, including a large number of Chinese. They worked as miners and also at the more profitable job of "mining the miners." Soon there was a Chinese laundry, grocery store, herbal medicine shop and yes, an opium den. Manual laborers, both Chinese and non-Chinese, took opium to ease the pain of their 15-hour work day and to get a good night's sleep. Generally they were hard at work the next morning.

Soon there was a flourishing Chinatown with its own police officers and fire brigade. You can see them in this photo, which was taken after they had won the great Hub-and-Hub race at Deadwood on July 4th, 1888. If you needed a quick response to your fire, these were the guys to call.

I'm curious about the Chinese medicine shop. I've heard of other Chinese medical practitioners in the Old West but know little about them. Does anyone out there know what kind of medicines they dispensed and if the non-Chinese community went to them too? Did Wild Bill Hickok get acupuncture to limber up his shooting finger? Did herbal cures from Asia work better than patent medicine? Drop me a line if you have some answers!

Old West Photo Friday: Prospectors in California

I love this shot. Even though you can't see too much detail of these grizzled old prospectors, you can see what they're up against. They're making their way along the Campo Trail in Devil's Canyon, California, in 1904.

While at this late date they wouldn't have had to worry about hostile Indians, there were still plenty of bandits, scorpions, and poisonous snakes around. Not to mention the rough terrain and merciless sun. I wonder whatever happened to these guys? Did they strike the Mother Lode or fade into obscurity, poor and worn out? There are no names attached to this photo so I guess we'll never know.


Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Wild West Photo Friday: J.W. Swart's Saloon in Charleston, Arizona in 1885

Working on my next Osprey book about the Apache Wars has got me reading a lot about Arizona. I've touched on Arizona history before with a different Osprey publication on Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Ride.

In relation to that already published book, here's an image of J.W. Swart's Saloon in Charleston, Arizona. They look like a friendly group, don't they? Charleston was a rough town situated nine miles southwest of Tombstone. It was right across the San Pedro river from Millville, so named because it milled the silver ore mined from Tombstone. The milling process required more water than was available in Tombstone, so the ore had to be shipped down to Millville.

Charleston was where the men who worked in the milling plant lived. It was a rough town and a meeting place for the infamous band of rustlers called the Cowboys, who would have a date with the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday at the OK Corral. The Clanton family, who were prominent among the Cowboys, had a ranch not far from Charleston. One wonders how many outlaws are in this picture.

Charleston has all but disappeared. The collapse of Tombstone's mining industry in 1886, and an earthquake in 1887, pretty much erased Charleston from the map. All that's left of this wild west town today are a few foundations in a lonely stretch of desert.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Military History Photo Friday: U.S. Cavalry on the Trail

OK, this is a painting and not a photo, but it's from the great Frederic Remington so I think you'll forgive me. It's titled In the Desert and was painted around 1888, in the final stages of the U.S. Cavalry's struggle with the Apache.

I'm getting into the Old West mindset again. I just signed a contract with Osprey Publishing to write a new title for their Combat series on a soldier's-eye view of the fighting between Apache warriors and U.S. Cavalrymen. Luckily I'm in Oxford right now and the famous Bodleian Library has a huge American collection. I'm burying myself in Old West history all summer, except for the week I'm going to be attending Worldcon.

Having ridden through the desert on a hot Arizona day, I can tell you that Remington captured the feeling perfectly!

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Old West Photo Friday: Apache Family

I've been thinking about my old home of Arizona lately and figured it was time to give you another Old West Photo Friday. This is an Apache band, probably an extended family, in 1873. They're in front of their wickiups, near Camp Apache, Arizona.
When this photograph was taken, the Apaches and U.S. Army were engaged in fierce fighting, with various Apache warrior bands fighting a guerrilla campaign against the thinly stretched U.S. forces. Reservations were one technique for breaking the Apache's independence.
Camp Apache had been founded as a reservation the year before. It was consolidated into the San Carlos Agency in 1876 when that agency assumed responsibility for the entire White Mountain Reservation. Camp Apache was renamed Fort Apache in 1879. The land is still a reservation today.
Here's a closeup of the two young people in the center.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.