Across The Fence: Billy Dixon at Adobe Walls, June 1874

In 1843 William Bent established a trading post, near the Canadian River, in the north-central panhandle of Texas. From 1843 until 1848 the outpost served as a gathering place for trappers, traders and the Native people of the region. Originally a log fortification, enclosing 6,400 square feet, the post was soon reinforced with adobe blocks nearly two-feet thick. As hostilities between the whites and the local Kiowa and Comanche tribes escalated the outpost was abandoned. After it was abandoned William Bent set off kegs of gunpowder and blew it up. It was at these ruins in November of 1864 tha...