Show HISTORIC vi HAYS NOTED SPOT WHERE THRILLING INCIDENTS OCCURRED D it nn cattily ly deen an educational institution to io isalla on I 1 II 11 t s alto ato tho the 1 of ulas c city i ty special letter one of 0 the noted military posts 01 0 the country was fort hays kin kan in fort pletcher fietcher was built at ua junction of the north fork and bi X in a hood flood destroyed it ill owned several soldiers and laway mules wagons tents and aad barracks then gen ihil I 1 hil bil sheridan chose a higher site arid and major gills ol of iha seventh united states cavalry direct cl the building ot of the new lort fort chic 11 was begun at once it was name I 1 hays in honor ot of gen alexanjer alexander hays who commanded lomm a di devison div lson vison under hancock in the civil war and aad N wa vai killed in the tha Wild wilderness ernesE campaign many noted officers have been stationed at fort hoys gen pail sheridan was in command in 1868 and previous to that date general hancock directed military affairs in that department general custer caster made many 0 his remarkable indian campaigns irom from there from ga to 71 his car alanl was there custer was succeeded 1 in 1 71 ty by colonel oakes cakes with the sixta cavalry the last allicer in command at the post before its abandonment ws WAS maj john R yard of the infantry many years before lie he haj had bee absen 11 t there he r 0 with the tenth colored cavalry in ili connection with custer it nay may be noted that the last survivor of the memorable massacre on the little bis 1319 horn tn in 1876 died last april la in cheyenne wyo when billy the generals old war horse died billy was found wandering about on the battlefield passed into the possession ot of mr thomas P r talbot of cheyenne was kindly cared tor for and his body lies iles burled in the garden of the talbot residence the place being marked by a stone slab after the tort fort had been built hays city sprang up around it and in early years it was waa an open question whether hays city or dodge city was the tougher place in 1870 the little place had thirty seven saloons every one a gambling place most ot of them dance halls the cowboy ind the blua coat made things lively la IA these resorts tor for there was no love lost between them one night flight the file cowboys lynched three colored soldiers they were hung from the railroad bridge west of town and their dead bodies were found dangling there the next day for years the place was the cowboys trading point the surrounding country was waa a vast cattle range on oa aug 23 wild 13 bill ill william hickock was elected marshal and while he was in command he killed four men one of them was a soldier ot of custers Ou seventh regiment and mr N tr T r no A VIEW OF FORT HAYS IlIc hickock kod deemed it ft judicious to leave town before the expiration ot of his term tarm of office he be saying that he had rici no contract a ct to whip the whole army in august 1872 pony donovan was arrested on a charge of horse stealing and was confined in the jail in the basement of the court house ca uni night some one shot him dead tace abc e pad and fired the court house it burned down and all the county records were destroyed the now court house likewise burned down then another r was built that yet stands A puca placa with wita a history is a small tract ot of land northwest ot of hays city it contains the graves of forty five persons many of them unknown who met violent deaths in various affrays or by assassination si coot boot hill 1 is the name of this neglected place chosen because most of the corpses were burled with their boots on but in 1876 hays city began to improve indians occasionally came to town got drunk and engaged in rows with citizens or soldiers but serious resulted in the old tort for was abandoned and hays city his developed into one ot of the most thriving little towns ot of the west surrounded by vast wheat fields the buildings ot of the tort fort alone reminding the visitor of the stormy days of 0 the past and even they will soon be but P a memory for or an agricultural and normal college Is to be established at the tha old tort fort and the reservation lands are about to be turned into a public park |