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Texas Ghost
Town
ADOBE WALLS, TEXAS
Hutchinson County,
Texas
Panhandle
17 miles NE of Stinnett
28 miles NE of Borger
78 miles NE of Amarillo
Just north of the Canadian River
Population:
between unknown and zero
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First
Battle Of Adobe Walls Site
Photo courtesy Erick Whetstone, 4-22-04 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
The name Adobe Walls has been applied to several trading posts north
of the Canadian River.
The earliest date is given as 1843 and the first structure appeared
around 1845-46 when an 80 foot square adobe structure was built and
aptly called Fort Adobe.
Indian misbehavior forced the post to close by 1848. Attempts were
made to reestablish the post, but it was finally blown up in frustration,
providing the Panhandle with its first landmark ruins.
In 1864 the First Battle of Adobe Walls was fought when Colonel
“Kit” Carson and his force of 335 men (with 75 Indian allies) fought
hostile Kiowas, with assorted Apaches, Comanches, and Arapahoes near
the ruins. The casualties were three dead with 15 wounded for the
Army and Indian casualties were estimated to be 60 killed or wounded.
Ten years later, Dodge City, Kansas merchants opened a trading
post/ restaurant/ saloon a mile from the original ruins. Trade with
the area’s buffalo hunters flourished until June1874 when the Second
Battle of Adobe Walls took place. The main building was constructed
of sod - in the fashion of Kansas buildings - and although the complex
was overwhelmed by a force estimated between 300 to over a thousand
Indians, the defenders held their own with only three dead (one an
accident after the fight was over). The post was abandoned.
Later the Turkey Track Ranch made its headquarters near the
original site. Former Army scout and survivor of the 1874 fight, Billy
Dixon built a house at the ruins of Fort Adobe. In 1887 Dixon’s
house became the community post office and Dixon became postmaster.
Adobe Walls as touted as an up and coming settlement in an attempt
to recruit settlers, but in truth it never truly developed. The population
never exceeded 20 throughout the 20th Century and only scattered houses
remain today. |
Archeological
Site
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Society acquired six-acres of the
1874 site in 1923 and archeological digs have turned up a trove of
artifacts. The site is on the National Register and is Texas state
archeological landmark.
Book Your Hotel Here & Save
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Bird's
Creek
by Clay Coppedge
"Sometimes
history remembers the marksman and other times it's the victim whose
name attaches itself to historical immortality. The deciding factor
is who writes the history, and the history of the Old West was not
written by the Indians.
That's why frontiersman Billy Dixon's famous rifle shot in 1874 at
the Battle of Adobe Walls has become part of western history and mythology.
It's known as the shot of the century..." more |
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