Warren Wagon Train Massacre

The Kiowa account begins at Fort Sill, with short rations and a death. Satank's son had been killed in Texas in 1870, and the old man had gone to bring back his bones. More than a hundred Kiowa, Comanche and allied warriors crossed the Red River on May 15, 1871. Indian informants later said Maman-ti's power had foretold that the second party to pass would be the one to attack, so the war party let General Sherman's column go by. Afterward Satanta boasted to the agent that he had led the raid, and Sherman arrested him on May 27.

What the plaque says

Warren Wagon Train Massacre (1.5 mi. E), On May 18,1871, Kiowas and Comanches from the Fort Sill Reservation, in present Oklahoma, attacked a train of 12 wagons owned by Capt. Henry Warren, a contractor of supplies for U.S. forts in this frontier region. Seven teamsters were killed. The chiefs who led the raid were soon arrested, and Satank committed suicide. In a nationally spotlighted trial at Jacksboro, Satanta spoke with great eloquence on behalf of his people. Texas' Governor, E. J. Davis, later commuted the death sentences given by the court. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 9.1 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Fort Belknap — 14 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 21 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• Hawkins Chapel — 5.8 mi
• Site of Loving Ranch House — 6.1 mi
• Britt Johnson — 6.8 mi
• Community of Jermyn — 7.6 mi