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The Jones and Plummer Trail was established in the fall of 1874 when two former buffalo hunters turned merchants and freighters. These two men Charles Edward (Dirty Face) Jones and Joseph H. Plummer, established a store at the head of Wolf Creek. Jones marked the trail, and the partners' trips to and from Dodge City to deliver hides and buffalo meat and purchase goods cut ruts into the sod deep enough for others to follow. From Dodge City, the trail angled southwest, paralleling Crooked Creek, to cross it and the Cimarron River near the Oklahoma-Kansas line. From there, it continued to Beaver, Oklahoma. At Beaver, the Dodge City Trail branched off to the southwest.

"The Jones and Plummer Trail" is the story of a group of 50 buffalo hunters who left Dodge City in early March of 1874 to travel south to Texas panhandled to hunt the last of the buffalo herds.  The Jones and Plummer Trail is an excerpt from the book Return of the Great Hunters. 

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Buffalo Days, Legends of Dodge City, is about outfits of buffalo runners who traveled in and out of the Arkansas River Valley from 1870 to 1872. The book is a collection of individual stories of how men became legends of their experiences, founded at times by luck, but mostly on their skills to survive. These are the stories of personal legends established out of solid character and the will to endure, making them unique to American lore. Here are the hunters such as Charles Rath, Josiah Wright Mooar, Jim White, Thomas Nixon, HooDoo Brown, Bill Tilghman, and Billy Dixon. Many of the stories captivate the adventure, excitement, and experience of the Old West, tell the facts behind the individuals who were the founders of Dodge City and the events for which they participated in a less dramatized way. It is also the story of the greatest slaughter of any animal history: the great Bison herds of America. To purchase the book go to: Buffalo Days (See Video Trailer Here)

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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included. 

This is the story of Moses Embree Milner, one man's life on the frontier as an Indian Scout. By the late 1860s the Army had been involved in the Indians Wars for 20 years and because of the vast, challenging land to the west, the Army needed more manpower. To offset the vastness of the territory the Army employed Indian Scouts to performed reconnaissance and combat duties. These scouts helped to subdue the last warring tribes.  There were several types of scouts: those who enlisted as Indian Scouts for brief terms and those hired as scouts by the U.S. Army. Sometimes an individual may have served at different times as a hired scout and an enlisted scout, but never at the same time. In addition to enlisted and hired scouts, some scouts not of native American descent served in Regular Army infantry and cavalry regiments in short-lived Indian campaigns in the 1800s. To read more about early frontier history you can purchase the book Trail, Forts, Treaties and Indian Wars at Amazon. 

Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included. 

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 Throughout the American West, regular troops delivered state-sanctioned violence to execute United States law and policy. To accomplish this task the US military established multiple forts to supply military troops to punish Indian plundering, drive specific tribes onto legitimate reservations, or force Indians to the treaty table. 

The Wild West Podcast proudly presents Military Forts, part five of Trails, Forts, Treaties, and Indian Wars. In part five narrated by Brad Smalley, a description is provided on how the US military maintained its  presence in Kansas through a chain of forts. The establishment of these forts along the heavily traveled trails were part of a practice that often expanded randomly over the nation's frontier. Six forts were located in the central and western portions of the state. They were established to render defense to the frontier as both the Indians and the settlers came in contacted with each other.  Featured in part one are Fort Leavenworth, Harker and Wallace.  To learn more about Kansas Military Forts you can purchase the book, Trails, Forts, Treaties and Indian Wars at Amazon. To review more books by Mike King go to the Legends of Dodge City Website. 

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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included. 

Dodge City was founded on June 17, 1872 as makeshift bar setup five miles west of Fort Dodge. The Founding of Dodge City tells the story of when George Brown meets George Hoover who has set up a makeshift whiskey bar in the middle of the plains. Hoover explains to Brown how he had an obligation to feel the needs of railroad workers and buffalo hunters by opening up a bar. Opening a bar was a simple process, he only needed two things: a place to sell it and the barrels to supply it. The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is a part of a historical series describes how Hoover settled on the location of his makeshift bar, "The western border of the reservation was five miles from the Fort itself. So I decided to mark off five miles from the Fort. To take a true measurement of the distance traveled, I tied a rag to a wheel on my wagon.” At the end of the conversation Hoover convinces Brown to go into the whiskey business by opening a bar next to his tent.

Soon after Brown sets up the second saloon in Dodge City a make shift town is created of crude framed buildings, half wood, and half dugout. Brown provides a first hand look at then Buffalo City soon to become Dodge City during the months of July and August of 1872. One week after Brown sets up his saloon gamblers and women start to arrive in big bowed, mule-driven wagons. What comes next from those wagons begins to play out as bad whiskey business - as one of the first gunfights erupts in the street between gambler Moorehouse and ruffian by the name of Langford. You can purchase the book by clicking on Buffalo Days. Learn more about Kansas and the early west by visiting Wild West Podcast Facebook Page. 

Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
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Dave Morrow mustered out of the Military in May 1866. He drifted into Hays City, Kansas, where he lived for several years. David Morrow might be considered typical of many Easterners who came to the Kansas buffalo range about 1870. Dave quickly gained a reputation as an excellent shot and first-class hunter. Dave Morrow was known as "Prairie Dog Dave" in Dodge City. He had many roles in western law enforcement and served with Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. This is the story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley about how Dave Morrow got his moniker of Prarie Dog Dave. The story of Dave Morrow is an excerpt from Buffalo Days, now available on Amazon. 

Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
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 In the Death of an Endless Resource, the great buffalo slaughter is on, and in 1873 the herds became harder to find.  In the southern prairies, the buffalo completely vanished. To prosper in buffalo hides, the buffalo hunters sent two men to Fort Dodge, Kansas. The hunters asked the commander of Fort Dodge what the penalty was if the skinners crossed into the Texas Panhandle and onto reservation land. The Medicine Lodge Treaty said no white settlers could hunt there, but that’s where the surviving buffalo had gathered. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dodge met with the two men, and one remembered the colonel say, “Boys, if I were a buffalo hunter, I would hunt buffalo where buffalo are.” Then the colonel wished them good luck. To learn more about the Great Buffalo Slaughter of 1873 purchase Buffalo Days. 

Return of the Great Hunters
Cattle Drives Website
Legends of Dodge City Website
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In May of 1872, Richard Irving Dodge takes a wagon to a high point above the Kansas plains called Pawnee Rock. The story written and produced by Mike King provides a clear description of the great southern herd coming north for the summer grass. This herd of buffalo was no less than four hundred and eighty thousand in number as they cross the Kansas plain. While on Pawnee Rock, the future commander of Fort Dodge reflects on a time when he and his men held off a massive buffalo charge along the banks of the Arkansas River Valley. The production narrated by Brad Smalley provides nine layers of sound effects, which are best, experienced with a set of headphones. The listener will experience the sounds of a night camp along the riverbanks of the Arkansas River and the sounds of buffalo hoofs shaking the ground during a massive charge.

Support the show

If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included. 

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.