- Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Jr
- Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Idaho
- Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Pictures
- Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Oklahoma
- Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum
Thomas Edward Ketchum was born on October 31,1863 in San Saba County, Texas, son of Green Berry Sr.Ketchum and Temperance Katherine Wydick Ketchum. Thomas Edward Ketchum had four siblings two brothers and two sisters His father died when he was only five years old and his mother was blind several years before she died in 1873.
Black Jack Ketchum Thomas Edward Ketchum was born on October 31,1863 in San Saba County, Texas, son of Green Berry Sr.Ketchum and Temperance Katherine Wydick Ketchum. Thomas Edward Ketchum had four siblings two brothers and two sisters His father died when he was only five years old and his mother was blind several years before she died in 1873. A description of the killer matched that of Thomas Edward Ketchum. But authorities never proved his involvement. Ketchum worked mostly as a cowboy and cattle drover early on. He left Texas in 1890 and drifted into the Pecos River Valley in New Mexico. When his brother Sam joined him four years later, they formed a gang.
Tom's oldest brother, Berry Jr., became a wealthy and noted cowman and horse breeder. Sam his other brother got married and had two children, but left his wife when their son was only three. Tom and Sam were both cow boys working on ranches throughout west Texas and northern and eastern New Mexico. They were in many trail drives and got to know the territory, settlers and ranchers very well.
Tom Ketchum's first major crime was the murder of John N. 'Jap' Powers, a neighbor in Tom Green County, Texas. Powers was shot down on December 12, 1895, by several men including Black Jack. He later admitted that he took part in the murder, but was paid to do it. Later he left , and his brother Sam joined him later in New Mexico.
The brothers worked on the Bell Ranch, until early June, 1896, when they quit their jobs and stole some supplies. On June 10, they came to the small settlement of Liberty, north of present-day Tucumcari, where there was a store and post office operated by Levi and Morris Herstein. Tom and Sam robbed the store at night and then rode to the Pecos River. Levi and some 3 or 4 men went after the Ketchums and after a short gun battle most of the posse formed by Levi were dead.
After the Herztein killing, Tom and Sam joined friends in Arizona and they went on a killing and robbery spree in the Four Corners states, they also rode with members of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang. Will Christian was known as 'Black Jack' and when he was killed in 1879 someone mistakenly identified Thomas as 'Black Jack' only after Christian's death that people started calling Thomas 'Black Jack' but people who knew him never called him that.
After many train robberies a posse of law men hunted down the Ketchum gang after a short gun battle at Turkey Creek the outlaws escaped, but Sam was wounded so badly he was taken to a hospital and was turned in by a nurse. He later died of his wounds in the Santa Fe penitentiary and was buried in the Odd Fellows cemetery which is now covered by a road.
On August 16, 1899, Black Jack attempted to single-handedly rob the same train, unaware that his brother was recently dead from a similar idea. Black Jack boarded the engine, but mistakenly forced it to stop on a sharp turn where the cars with the loot could not be uncoupled. Meanwhile, the conductor, Frank Harrington, was getting sick of being robbed. He crept through the cars and shot at Black Jack, who returned fire. Black Jack missed; Harrington nearly severed Black Jack’s arm at the elbow. Black Jack fell off the train but was unable to get back on his horse.
The train quickly got moving again, leaving Black Jack to lie out all night until “help” arrived in the form of another train. He raised his gun as the conductor and brakeman approached him. They offered to shoot him right then if he wanted a fight, but he replied, 'No boys, I am all done. Take me in.' His arm was amputated in Trinidad, Colorado and then, restored to relative health, he was sent back to Clayton for trial. Convicted of “felonious assault upon a railway train,” Black Jack became the only person sentenced to death under the law, which was later overturned by the Supreme Court as carrying too severe a sentence.
He pled innocent to most of the crimes he was charged with but, the judge found him guilty and he was sentenced to death by hanging. The hanging was delayed several times until law men heard about rumors that old gang members were going to free Black Jack, so they pushed up his hanging to April 26 1901. His hanging turned out to be a big town event. People from the towns around Clayton came, the law men sold tickets to see Black Jack get hung and they sold little dolls of Black Jack hanging on a stick.
The law men felt better about pushing up his sentence, but were still a little nervous about the rumors about somebody saving Black Jack. Someone remembered a tall stranger... He and Black Jack exchanged several glances, but the stranger left before any one could find out who he was. Finally the sheriff took two blows with an hatchet before the rope was cut then Black Jack fell to the ground, he had been beheaded. It was the first time any one was ever hung in Clayton, so many mistakes were probably made like the rope was probably stretched while testing and the probably misjudged Black Jack's weight. Black Jack was buried at Clayton's Boot Hill ,but was moved to the new cemetery in the 30's.
“Doc Holliday…He Died in Bed.”
Wow, who knew this deathbed twist would jolt True West’s Facebook fans to generate the first major top-rated feed in the magazine’s social media history? It is shocking that tuberculosis turned out to be the loaded gun that claimed the life of one of the Old West’s most iconic gunfighters.
That milestone post’s 7,500 views has long been beaten, but the ungovernable passion that drives folks to walk the weeds to locate a lone marker or tombstone, and to tramp through out-of-the-way pioneer cemeteries, that won’t soon die out.
Just seeing a photo of the Doc marker stirred up Old West aficionados to chime in with stories and pictures of their visits to the O.K. Corral gunfighter’s marker of death.
Yes, our Old West heroes may be immortal in our minds, but they ended up six feet under, as we all will. Since we can’t rub shoulders with these frontier cowboys, lawmen, Indians and outlaws, the next best thing is to visit them at their final resting places, where their stories came to an end.
True West’s editors turned to none other than self-confessed tapophile, tombstone tourist, grave site connoisseur Bob Stinson to guide our readers on a 40-site-strong R.I.P. repertoire that pays respect to some Old West icons who still make their way into our hearts—beyond the grave and all.
—The Editors
*****
Doc Holliday
Grave Site: Linwood Cemetery
Year Buried:1887
Where: Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Why You Should Pay a Visit: John Henry Holliday, more widely known as Doc Holliday, went west from Georgia for new opportunities and, likely, to help his tuberculosis. But the lure of the gambling dens (and his coughing) took him away from dentistry and into the life of a sporting man. He was a well-known figure in the boomtowns, where he drank heavily, played the cards and built a reputation (only partly accurate) as a dangerous man. He is best known for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in Tombstone’s 1881 O.K. Corral gunfight.
Pay Your Tribute By: Taking a dip in the Glenwood Hot Springs pool, which opened, unfortunately, the year after the doc had succumbed to the tuberculosis he hoped would see relief from such healing waters.
Liver-Eating Johnson
Grave Site: Original site was the Sawtelle National Cemetery in California, but he was reburied at Old Trail Town Cemetery.
Year Buried: 1900
Where: Cody, Wyoming
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Mountain man, Civil War vet, Indian fighter and scout, John “Liver-Eating” Johnson lived a life that was so cinematic, Hollywood made a movie based on him, 1972’s Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. The actor even served as a pallbearer at Johnson’s reinterment at Old Trail Town in 1974.
Pay Your Tribute By: Cracking open a copy of Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson, the book that inspired schoolteacher Tri Robinson to petition to make Johnson’s wish come true: he wanted to be buried at his stomping grounds in the northern Rockies. That’s how he ended up in Cody.
Outlaw Cowboys
Grave Site: Boothill Graveyard
Year Buried: 1881
Where: Tombstone, Arizona
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton may have rustled some cattle and associated with the wrong crowd, but they got more than they bargained for when they met up with the Earps and Doc Holliday one fateful afternoon in October 1881. They paid with their lives, and now they lie side by side forever. Billy Clanton’s ill-tempered brother, Ike, ran away from the confrontation and survived. While you are here, stop by Fred White’s grave; as Tombstone’s first town marshal, he got gunned down by Curly Bill Brocius in 1880. Other outlaw Cowboys laid to rest here include Old Man Clanton.
Pay Your Tribute By: Touring the famous O.K. Corral gunfight site and watching a daily two p.m. re-enactment of the shoot-out that claimed their lives.
Johnny Ringo
Grave Site: Johnny Ringo State Historical Landmark on East Turkey Creek Road
Year Buried: 1882
Where: Cochise County, Arizona
Why You Should Pay a Visit: An enemy of the Earps and Doc Holliday and a friend to the outlaw Cowboys, John Peters Ringo probably was involved in the attempted assassination of Virgil Earp and the murder of Morgan Earp. Ringo was known as a gunfighter, but history does not record his gunfights. That’s what a reputation can do for you, as most men of the time wanted nothing to do with Ringo.
Pay Your Tribute By: Trying to track down Ringo’s grave site at Turkey Creek Canyon. He most likely committed suicide, while on a bender, near a large oak tree in West Turkey Creek. His grave is located on private property, but visitors are allowed; just ask permission at the house where the trail begins. Head over to nearby Willcox after visiting Ringo and say hi to Warren Earp in the Pioneer Cemetery.
Belle Starr
Year Buried: 1889 / Where: Porum, Oklahoma
Grave Site: Near Belle Starr Cabin
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Myra Maybelle Shirley, better known as Belle Starr, provided a safe haven for many outlaws, especially the James-Younger Gang. In 1883, she was found guilty of horse theft in Judge Parker’s Fort Smith court and served time in Detroit. An unknown killer shot her dead while she was riding home in 1889.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting with Dr. Ron Hood, who restored Belle Starr’s grave site and relocated her 1850s cabin to Youngers Bend. Take highway nine from Eufaula Lake Dam and continue two miles down a dirt road; visitors are welcome, just be sure to ask permission, as this is private property.
Kit Carson
Grave Site: Kit Carson Park & Cemetery
Year Buried: 1868
Where: Taos, New Mexico
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Mountain man Christopher Houston “Kit” Carson was one of the greatest scouts in history. John C. Fremont hired Carson to guide several exploratory expeditions of the West since he knew the land as well as the Indians did. Dime novels helped Carson’s legend grow, which is somewhat strange for a man who couldn’t read or write.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the 12-room adobe Kit Carson bought in 1843. Now known as the Kit Carson Home & Museum, the house features mountain man exhibits that include Carson’s own Spencer carbine and beaded carrying case.
Jesse James
Grave Site: Original site was the James homestead, but his grave was moved to Mount Olivet Cemetery in 1902.
Year Buried: 1882
Where: Kearney, Missouri
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Jesse Woodson James never conceded victory after the Civil War. He hated the Yankees and was a guerrilla fighter for the Confederates. His anger and bitterness carried over into his train and bank robberies. One of his own gang members, Bob Ford, turned against him and shot James in the back at the outlaw’s home in St. Joseph.
Pay Your Tribute By: Stopping by the James Farm and Museum in Kearney, the original location of James’s grave and his boyhood home. (The photo of James’s grave shows his mother standing at his original grave at the James homestead, before it was moved to Mount Olivet.)
John Slaughter
Grave Site: Calvary Cemetery (City of Douglas Cemetery)
Year Buried: 1922
Where: Douglas, Arizona
Why You Should Pay a Visit: With the last name Slaughter and a height of five-feet-six-inches, you had better be able to kick some tail. John Horton Slaughter knew how to handle a gun. He was a Confederate soldier and Texas Ranger, as well as a cattleman in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. He also served as the Cochise County sheriff for two terms, helping clean up the lawlessness in Tombstone and surrounding areas.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the San Bernardino Ranch that Slaughter purchased in 1884, which now offers up a museum sharing the lawman’s legacy as well as restored buildings that include the adobe ranch house.
Grave Site: West Point Cemetery
Year Buried: 1876
Where: West Point, New York
Why You Should Pay a Visit: The United States Military Academy was established in 1802 and has had a number of legendary Americans pass through its gates. George Armstrong Custer finished at the bottom of his West Point class in 1861, yet led exemplary service during the Civil War, only to lead his 7th Cavalry troops to their demise at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in 1876.
Pay Your Tribute By: The Little Bighorn Battlefield in Garryowen, Montana, is another must-see place on every Old West history buff’s bucket list. Markers show the exact locations where Custer and his men fell.
Geronimo
Grave Site: Apache POW Cemetery / Year Buried: 1909 / Where: Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Geronimo is probably one of the most recognizable names in the world. After years on the warpath, Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo achieved fame when he turned himself in for the final time in September 1886. He traveled with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and made appearances at numerous fairs and gatherings before dying in the prisoner of war camp in 1909, never achieving the freedom he had been promised.
Pay Your Tribute By: Heading to the Fort Sill Museum, on the original parade ground, to see the photographs and artifacts of the Chiricahuas who lived here until 1914.
Pat Garrett
Grave Site: Originally buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery, he was then reinterred in the Masonic Cemetery in 1957.
Year Buried: 1908 / Where: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Why You Should Pay a Visit: The skinny, bean pole scoundrel who killed Billy the Kid, Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett got a sullied reputation after folks suggested he might have killed the Kid without any warning. After finishing out his term as Lincoln County sheriff, Garrett ranched and released his firsthand account (partly ghostwritten) about his experiences with the Kid. He died his own mysterious death, shot on the road, while talking with a rancher who he had leased grazing rights to in order to pay debts.
Alfred Packer
Grave Site: Littleton Cemetery
Year Buried: 1907
Where: Littleton, Colorado
Why You Should Pay a Visit: This American prospector was accused of cannibalism while guiding a party in Colorado during the winter of 1873-74. Sentenced to prison for 40 years, Alfred (also known as Alferd) Packer got out on parole early, in 1901, only to die a few years later, at the age of 65, in Deer Creek.
Pay Your Tribute By: Hosting a summer picnic beneath the shade of the tree near the grave site. Don’t forget to wear your “Have a Friend for Lunch” t-shirt or hat, available for purchase at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Pep up the conversation by sharing some funny moments from Cannibal! The Musical, by the South Park co-creators.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the site where Garrett died, approximately a half mile from the highway marker, south of Route 70, between Las Cruces and San Augustin Pass. If you want to see it, join the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang based in Fort Sumner.
Bill Doolin
Grave Site: Summit View Cemetery
Year Buried: 1896
Where: Guthrie, Oklahoma
Why You Should Pay a Visit: A member of the infamous Dalton Gang, Bill Doolin turned to train and bank robberies because ranching paid the cowboy peanuts. Legendary lawman Bill Tilghman captured him in 1896, but Doolin escaped his jail cell in Guthrie. Heck Thomas and his posse tracked him down to his father-in-law’s farm near Lawton and, after a warning, gunned down the outlaw in a hail of bullets and shotgun blasts; his chest had 20 buckshot wounds alone!
Pay Your Tribute By: Heading to downtown Guthrie to see the 1892 territorial prison. As Doolin proved, those 19-inch thick limestone and brick walls turned out to be escapable after all!
William Bent
Grave Site: Las Animas Cemetery
Year Buried: 1869
Where: Las Animas, Colorado
Why You Should Pay a Visit: William Bent and brother Charles were among the West’s greatest trappers. They lived in two worlds—the white man’s and the Indians—and tried to fight white expansion while also making lots of money off of those settlers.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the replica of Bent’s Old Fort, which the brothers, along with fellow trapper Ceran St. Vrain, opened on the Santa Fe Trail in 1833. Travelers could get a hot meal, rent a room, load up on supplies and hear the latest news from other pioneers passing through the area.
Jack Slade
Grave Site: Salt Lake City Cemetery
Year Buried: 1864
Where: Salt Lake City, Utah
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Joseph Alfred “Jack” Slade was a respectable citizen and businessman…when he was not drinking. A driver for the Overland Stage Company, he was instrumental in establishing layover stations for the Pony Express. When he went on a bender, Slade became a dangerous man; he’d tear up saloons and anyone who got in his way. His continuous threats and violent behavior drove vigilantes to hang him in Montana in 1864. His body was placed in a tin coffin filled with alcohol until the following spring, when it was taken to Salt Lake City for burial; no one knows why it was not sent to his family in Illinois. Mark Twain helped popularize Slade by writing about him in his book, Roughing It.
Pay Your Tribute By: After your visit to the historic Mormon cemetery, check out a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which began singing in 1847 at the first tabernacle, completed in 1851; the present dome-roofed tabernacle was completed in 1867.
Black Jack Ketchum
Grave Site: Clayton Cemetery
Year Buried: 1901
Where: Clayton, New Mexico
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Along with his brother Sam, Thomas Edward Ketchum, better known as Black Jack, led the train-robbing Ketchum Gang. During an 1899 train robbery that he tried to pull off on his own, Black Jack got shot in the arm, which had to be amputated. Sentenced to hang for the robbery, he was decapitated at the gallows during a botched execution.
Pay Your Tribute By: Resting your head at the Hotel Eklund, first opened in 1892. While eating in the Victorian dining room, with its crystal chandeliers and marble fireplaces, think of Ketchum, who apparently watched the men put the finishing touches on his scaffold while he was eating his breakfast in Clayton, his last meal.
Wyatt Earp
Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Jr
Grave Site: He had a church funeral in Los Angeles, but afterwards, he was cremated and his ashes were taken to Hills of Eternity Memorial Park.
Year Buried: 1929
Where: Colma, California
Why You Should Pay a Visit: A visit to Wyatt Earp’s grave site should be at the top of any Western history buff’s bucket list. The most famous lawman the Old West has ever known, Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was a true adventurer who spent his days in the rip roarin’ cattle towns of Wichita and Dodge City and the mining boomtowns of Deadwood, Tonopah, Tombstone and Nome. His involvement in Tombstone’s 1881 O.K. Corral gunfight forged his larger-than-life, legendary status.
Pay Your Tribute By: Leaving a rose at Josie Earp’s grave, who is buried with the lawman. Although the two never married, she was the love of his life, spending nearly 50 years together. Her Jewish heritage is the reason they are both interred at Hills of Eternity.
Warren Earp
Grave Site: Pioneer Cemetery
Year Buried: 1900
Where: Willcox, Arizona
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Warren Baxter Earp rode with his infamous brother Wyatt and others on the legendary 1882 Vendetta Ride. On July 6, 1900, the quick-tempered Warren got in a fight with rancher Henry Hooker’s range boss, Johnny Boyett, who gunned Warren down in a Willcox saloon.
Pay Your Tribute By: Walking along Railroad Avenue to see the 1881 Southern Pacific Depot, which the Earps would have seen when they were in town. That street also hosts two museums that pay tribute to cowboy film actor Rex Allen and cowboy balladeer Marty Robbins.
George Custer
Grave Site: West Point Cemetery
Year Buried: 1876
Where: West Point, New York
Why You Should Pay a Visit: The United States Military Academy was established in 1802 and has had a number of legendary Americans pass through its gates. George Armstrong Custer finished at the bottom of his West Point class in 1861, yet led exemplary service during the Civil War, only to lead his 7th Cavalry troops to their demise at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in 1876.
Pay Your Tribute By: The Little Bighorn Battlefield in Garryowen, Montana, is another must-see place on every Old West history buff’s bucket list. Markers show the exact locations where Custer and his men fell.
Wild Bill Hickok
Grave Site: Mount Moriah Cemetery
Year Buried: 1876
Where: Deadwood, South Dakota
Why You Should Pay a Visit: James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was a scout, gambler and lawman in some of the rowdiest cowtowns of the Old West. He was involved in one of the few documented face-to-face gunfights; across a town square in Springfield, Missouri, he put a bullet through Dave Tutt. He met his end when Jack McCall shot the famous gunfighter in the back of the head as he was playing poker.
Pay Your Tribute By: Downing some sarsaparilla at Saloon No. 10, where you will find yourself surrounded by mining camp artifacts from Hickok’s day. The gunfighter was actually killed at another Deadwood saloon, Nuttal & Mann’s, but that burned down in 1879. This saloon keeps the history alive by promoting the Aces and Eights story and all.
Sam Bass
Grave Site: Round Rock Cemetery
Year Buried: 1878 / Where: Round Rock, Texas
Why You Should Pay a Visit: A cowboy who helped drive cattle from Texas to Kansas, Sam Bass gained notoriety as a stage and train robber, who, once, along with his gang, stole $60,000 from the Union Pacific Railroad. Chased by a posse of Pinkerton agents and Texas Rangers to Round Rock, Bass was shot and found alive in a pasture. He died soon after.
Pay Your Tribute By: Attending Round Rock’s Fourth of July celebration at Old Settlers Park, which re-enacts the Bass shoot-out every year—three times, even!
Clay Allison
Grave Site: Originally buried in Pecos Cemetery, his remains were reinterred at Pecos Park in 1975.
Year Buried: 1887 / Where: Pecos, Texas
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Robert Clay Allison was one of the West’s great shootists, a word he apparently coined after he listed it as his occupation. He was discharged as a Confederate soldier because of his angry, psychotic behavior, likely caused by a head injury, but he rejoined Nathan Bedford Forrest’s group and served the rest of the war. A successful rancher, Allison supposedly danced on the bar in his birthday suit at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico. He had numerous confrontations that could have ended his life, but he died after a fall from his wagon caused the wheel to go over his head and break his neck.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the West of the Pecos Museum, near Allison’s grave. Created from an 1896 saloon, this is a fitting place, considering Allison’s drinking habit, to absorb some Old West history.
Emmett Dalton
Grave Site: Kingfisher Cemetery
Year Buried: 1937
Where: Kingfisher, Oklahoma
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Emmett Dalton was the only Dalton brother to survive the gang’s ill-fated dual bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas, in October 1892. Sentenced to life in prison, he got out on parole after 14 years and ended up writing a book about the Dalton Gang’s exploits, When the Daltons Rode.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the Dalton cabin on the grounds of the Chisholm Trail Museum. The Dalton boys’ mother, Adeline, spent the last 16 years of her life in that cabin. When you visit Emmett in the cemetery, be sure to stop by her grave too.
John Wesley Hardin
Grave Site: Concordia Cemetery
Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Idaho
Year Buried: 1895
Where: El Paso, Texas
Why You Should Pay a Visit: This guy was so deadly, I felt scared to visit his grave. John Wesley Hardin supposedly killed 44 men, including one simply because he was snoring too loudly! One of the West’s most celebrated and despised gunfighters, Hardin was shot in the back of the head in 1895 while playing dice in El Paso’s Acme Saloon. Seems like the deadliest pistoleros always got it in the back; not many men had the pills to face them down.
Pay Your Tribute By: Standing at the site of the Acme Saloon on 274 E. San Antonio Avenue (look for the historical marker). Until last April’s fire, you could also see the Wells Fargo building where Hardin had his law office on the second floor; now it’s ashes. If that doesn’t encourage you to head out on these road trips while you can still see the sites, we don’t know what will!
Billy the Kid
Grave Site: Old Fort Sumner Cemetery
Year Buried: 1881
Where: Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Why You Should Pay a Visit: At 21 years old, Henry McCarty, a.k.a. Billy the Kid, did more in his life then most people who live to be 100. Legend says he killed 21 men, one for every year he lived; in reality, he probably didn’t even kill five. When John Tunstall, the Kid’s mentor, was murdered, the Kid went on the war path, vowing to kill Tunstall’s murderers. The Kid was the featured player in the Lincoln County War, along with some other hard cases known as the Regulators. Shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett, the Kid is buried in the cemetery behind the Billy the Kid Museum.
Pay Your Tribute By: Learning the Kid’s story as you see with your own eyes the outlaw’s rifle, chaps, spurs (even locks of his hair) at the Billy the Kid Museum.
Tom Horn
Grave Site: Columbia Cemetery
Year Buried: 1903
Where: Boulder, Colorado
Why You Should Pay a Visit: A former scout and Pinkerton detective, Tom Horn became known as the hired killer who, while drinking, “confessed” to the shooting of 14-year-old Willie Nickell. Most likely, Willie’s death was a case of mistaken identity; he had been shot from a long distance, wearing his father’s jacket and riding his father’s horse. Some believed the neighboring ranch family, the Millers, had a hand in the killing, given the two families’ long-standing feud. Whatever the truth, Horn was hanged in Wyoming for the murder.
Pay Your Tribute By: Visiting the grave of the one whose death ended Horn’s life. All True Westerners make it to Cheyenne, Wyoming, at least once in their life, after all. You’ll find Willie Nickell’s grave at Lakeview Cemetery. Stop by in July, and you can take in the rodeo and festivities at Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Masterson Brothers
Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Pictures
Grave Site: Willow Grove Cemetery
Year Buried: 1892 / Where: Buffalo, Wyoming
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Accused of rustling, Nate Champion and his small ranch peers felt cattle barons were squeezing them out. When the Johnson County War began in 1892, Champion was the main target. After hired gunmen killed his partner, Nick Ray, the lone Champion did his best to hold off his attackers. When they set his cabin on fire, he ran in a last-ditch effort to escape, but got hit by their bullets. His last journal entry read, “Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again.”
Pay Your Tribute By: Standing by the Champion statue at the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum. The Hoofprints of the Past Museum in Kaycee offers tours of Champion’s shoot-out site at the TA Ranch; this year’s Hole in the Wall Tour is June 22, so sign up before you miss your chance.
Buffalo Bill Cody
Grave Site: Lookout Mountain
Year Buried: 1917
Where: Golden, Colorado
Why You Should Pay a Visit: William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody was the greatest showman the Old West ever knew. He took his extravaganza to the people back East and Europe who had only heard about the Wild West from newspapers and dime novels. Not only did his shows include trick riding, shooting displays and re-enacted Indian battles and stagecoach holdups, Cody also had the smarts to feature real-life Western heroes, such as Wild Bill Hickok and Sitting Bull, among others.
Pay Your Tribute By: Heading inside the nearby Buffalo Bill Museum to view Cody artifacts such as the Stetson hat he wore during his last performance before his death, Sitting Bull’s peace pipe, voice recordings of Cody introducing his Wild West show, rare photographs and more.
Sitting Bull
Grave Site: Initially buried at Fort Yates,
North Dakota, the remains were supposedly dug up in 1953
and moved to Mobridge, South Dakota off U.S. 12.
Year Buried: 1890
Where: Mobridge, South Dakota (shown) or Fort Yates, North Dakota
Why You Should Pay a Visit: The leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, Sitting Bull participated in a 36-hour Sun Dance and had a vision of an Indian triumph over white troops. Soon after, he led his warriors to the greatest victory in American Indian history, the 1876 Battle at the Little Big Horn. Faced with the near extinction of the buffalo, he surrendered in 1881 and eventually ended up on the Standing Rock Reservation. For four months in 1885, he toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, then ended up shot at his cabin by Lakota police in 1890.
Pay Your Tribute By: Heading to Standing Rock Reservation in Fort Yates, where a new Sitting Bull Visitor Center is due to open this May. This home to the original grave site for Sitting Bull may very well still contain his remains.
Annie Oakley
Grave Site: Brock Cemetery
Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum Oklahoma
Year Buried: 1926
Where: Brock, Ohio
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Phoebe Ann Moses became known as Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter who rose to fame in a way most men then or now could only dream of doing. After she beat Frank E. Butler in a head-to-head shooting competition (possibly in 1875), her legend began to grow. She caught the attention of Buffalo Bill Cody, who cast her under the nickname “Little Sure Shot.” Oakley and Butler (whom she had married) became a trick shooting duo with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West extravaganza for 16 seasons.
Pay Your Tribute By: Heading to the Garst Museum, in nearby Greenville, which shares more about Oakley and her marriage to Frank. The staff will also tell you how Corps of Expedition leaders Lewis and Clark met here in 1795.
Sam Houston
Grave Site: Oakwood Cemetery
Year Buried: 1863
Where: Huntsville, Texas
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Samuel Houston led his men to a victory in San Jacinto, after Gen. Santa Anna’s Mexicans had won a major battle at the Alamo, which allowed the Texians to win the overall war. The military hero went on to become the governor of two states, president of the Republic of Texas and a U.S. senator. No wonder Texas named its largest city after him.
Pay Your Tribute By: Checking out the Sam Houston Memorial Museum, which has memorabilia and relics from this legendary Texan’s life, plus Houston’s Woodland cabin, where his family lived from 1847-59.
Nate Champion
Grave Site: Willow Grove Cemetery
Thomas Edward Black Jack Ketchum
Year Buried: 1892 / Where: Buffalo, Wyoming
Why You Should Pay a Visit: Accused of rustling, Nate Champion and his small ranch peers felt cattle barons were squeezing them out. When the Johnson County War began in 1892, Champion was the main target. After hired gunmen killed his partner, Nick Ray, the lone Champion did his best to hold off his attackers. When they set his cabin on fire, he ran in a last-ditch effort to escape, but got hit by their bullets. His last journal entry read, “Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again.”
Pay Your Tribute By: Standing by the Champion statue at the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum. The Hoofprints of the Past Museum in Kaycee offers tours of Champion’s shoot-out site at the TA Ranch; this year’s Hole in the Wall Tour is June 22, so sign up before you miss your chance.
Judge Isaac Parker
Grave Site: Fort Smith National Cemetery
Year Buried: 1896
Where: Fort Smith, Arkansas
Why You Should Pay a Visit: The infamous “Hanging Judge” Isaac Charles Parker once had six men hanged at the same time. Indian territory was a wild, lawless place and Judge Parker had to rule with an iron fist. He actually was against the death penalty; of the thousands of cases brought before him, only 79 men had their necks stretched.
Pay Your Tribute By: Walking around Parker’s courtroom and gallows at the Fort Smith National Historic Site.
Related Posts
In the early 1900s, Bat Masterson left the wilds of the West for the bright…
Many deem Robert K. DeArment’s 1979 biography, Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend, as…
Jim Leavy was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1842. His name was often misspelled Levy…