Bird Creek Indian Battle

The plaque says thirty-four rangers routed 240 "Indians." The Handbook names them Comanche and tells a bloodier, less clear story. On May 25, 1839, John Bird and a companion met Comanche hunters skinning buffalo. The next day a much larger Comanche party, estimated at about 300, drew his rangers into a trap. Five rangers died: Bird, William Weaver, Jesse Nash, H. M. C. Hall and Thomas Gay. Estimates of Comanche dead run from thirty to seventy-five. The surviving rangers retreated to Fort Smith, then returned to bury their dead.

What the plaque says

Bird Creek Indian Battle May 26, 1839 This marker commemorates the death of Captain John Bird, Sergeant William Weaver, Jesse E. Nash, H.M.C. Hall, Thomas Gay, and the heroic and successful battle of a Ranger force of 34 against 240 Indians. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 1.6 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 16 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 29 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• First Lutheran Church — 0.9 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Temple — 1.4 mi
• Santa Fe Memorial Hospital, Inc. — 1.5 mi
• City Federation of Women's Clubs — 1.5 mi