Buffalo Springs

Who killed Pat Hennessey is still argued. The plaque calls it a massacre, but the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History says historians disagree whether the freighter died fighting Cheyenne or at the hands of white horse thieves. He was said to have been burned on a wagon wheel. Teamsters heaped rocks over his shallow roadside grave and kept adding to the pile, yet the body was later moved: excavation at the memorial park in Hennessey, the town named for him after the 1889 run, turned up no remains.

What the plaque says

Buffalo Springs On the Old Chisholm Trail, 1/3 mi. West From this noted watering place came the name of "Bison," 1 mi. so. "Buffalo Springs" was the camp site of Pat Hennessey and his men just before they were massa- cred, 7 mi. so., July 4, 1874. Next day, a war band of Indians was stood off by ranchmen at the Springs. Crowds here made the Oklahoma "Run," April 22, 1889. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center — 12 mi
  The Oklahoma Historical Society's Enid museum of the September 1893 run into the Cherokee Outlet, with the town's original land office among the old buildings out back.

More markers nearby

• Run of '89 North Boundary — 3.5 mi
• Cherokee Strip — 3.5 mi
• Massacre of Pat Hennessey — 7.2 mi
• Roy V. Cashion — 7.2 mi