Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON UT in kansas plans plan are arunder way to erect a marker where once stood port fort A aubrey U brey and to preserve I 1 ita t a site its as a memorial to thrilling chapter in the history of the sunflower s tate state fort aubrey was named n a med in honor of 0 f col F X aubrey who found several springs of fresh water there and rid suggested uc it as a good place toil for a fort ort although the outpost which one once b bore 1 re his name has lung long since passed away the fame of felix xav for aubrey french canadian by birth but an Ame american ritan hunter trapper and trader by occupation has endured because he was the liero hero of one of the greatest treat cst long distance rides in history from santa fe N M to independence rice mo a distance of more than SOO miles in five days and sixteen clours early iii 1 th the morning of september 12 1840 aubrey rode out of santa fe lor for the start of this classee of the from the morning of ilie start until independence was benched ren clied he topped stopped neither to eat or sleep and on at least three occasions during isla ride ald narrowly escaped capture and death at the h hands u ads of indians lie he att while radl riding n g and after the second morning ng out he tied himself into the anddie and snatched bits of sleep at times late at bigia on september IT 17 five five days and hours after leaving r banta fe aubrey arbiey rode up to the old noland house in independence ile he had traversed miles by horseback in that length of time by hours of continuous riding and traveling miles each 24 hours fort aubrey was established in september 1850 1856 about four miles east of the present city of syracuse kan during its brief career it was an important post on the historic santa annta fe trail for or it was the only refuge tor for wagon trains harassed by indian attack attach in the IBO nille mlle stretch between fort dodge kan and fort lyon col colo 0 it was garrisoned by united sta states tes troops tor for a time and then the necessity for its being there hn having ing apparently passed away it was abandoned at least it passed out of the aminy army records abo about ut 1858 or 1859 1850 interesting as port fort aubrey was as a haven for those who traversed traveis ed the santa fe trail by stage coach covered wagon or pack train when the savage tribesmen swooped down it ts is even more interesting because it Is the scene of a tragedy of the plains which Is still one of the unsolved rays mys teries of the old west F for or here one day in december 1863 a party of 22 missouri militiamen froze to death in a fierce blizzard which swept over western kansas what their names were and just how they met theli theft death no one knows local tradition has preserved part of tile the story and the military records throw some light on the tragedy but there Is still enough left untold to make it a true mystery of the plains the local tradition part of it has been preserved by a syracuse merchant U H helfrich a pioneer homesteader and the socialist candidate for governor of kansas in 1020 1026 whose hobby Is 19 the history of his county lie ile got the story from R T goa goans ns who was a member of the party caught in the blizzard and who assisted in the burial of the dead mr goans told mr helfrich three companies of cavalry an escort of governor over nor goodwin of arizona left fort leavenworth in the fall of 1863 to accompany the governor to fort union N al lie ile said bald they arrived safely at their destination but were separated on their way back and t that hat while camping in the ruins of fort aubrey 22 men of company I 1 froze to death records Ile corda of fort leavenworth and the arizona historical society show governor goodwin goodwill the first governor of arizona left fort leavenworth september 25 1803 escorted by costs com annles A and 11 II of the regular cavalry and d company I 1 of the fourth missouri militia the expedition was in charge of maj james A phillips of 0 kansas with peter F clark capt john 11 II butcher and capt daniel rice in command of the companies they arrived at fort union at N al november 0 9 and left november 11 they reached fort lyons colo november 23 in a snowstorm on this part of the trip they lost several horses and some of the men were frostbitten the party remained ned at fort lyons eight days and from that time there are no more records of company Z L mr helfrich Hel believes that a disagreement hmong the soldiers nt at fort lyon caused company I 1 to split from the rest of the command companies A and 11 II reported at fort riley on december 23 having lost one by freezing they also reported much suiter suffer ing from the heavy storms which they encountered As aa for the tata fate of company I 1 ae ac N Y V it a A 0 UP 20 y q jv 4 71 1 IQ sl ad W WN av k X 3 I 1 belics ol 01 CL trag ebig zhe cording to the goans conns story these mt ml lit lamen reached the site bite of fort aubrey about december I 1 and camped in the old dugouts of the fort while there the blizzard swept down upon them huddling together in an effort to keep warm and burning their wagons they tried in vain to fight off the deadening cold but it was no use when morning crime came 22 of them were dead according to goans they were all frenchmen naturalized citizens of the united states without near relatives in this country but it if there ever existed any record of their names that record has not yet been discovered prom from up in north dakota comes the story of another and similar tragedy what Is believed to be the first printed account of it appeared recently in the geauga geaugh republican record at chardon ohio written by its editor arthur E towne As a small email boy hr towne went to the dakotas with his parents in the eighties and this tory Is one of several told to him by old timers in that country which he has haa written under the title ot of highlights from old days in the west for the republican record ills his story of the mystery surrounding the death of a whole platoon of united states cavalry reads as follows follow st in the fall of 82 the first venturesome tur esome settlers penetrated into dickey county in what Is now north dakota one of the most beautiful pieces of prairie country in the james yam es river valley two chance land hunt tera whose names may now he be lost unless they can be dug out of the ol 01 old flies files of newspapers published fit it that time in aberdeen were prospecting in that region one evening as they were heading towards the river in search of a good camping place they passed a g grass rass grown buffalo wallow here there burst upon thern them a sight which they probably never forgot the circum circumference of the wallow was literally lined with bones of men and horses other skeletons lay within the cirel circle although the bones had been scattered some investigation indicated that the horses had been used for defense in place of earthworks earthworms earth works united states army buttons and brass belt buckles were found also badly rusted barrels of muzzle loading guns of tho the old army musket type with their stocks rotted away or burned away hy by prairie fires rusted bits iron stirrups canteens and other metal parts of soldiers equipment were also found here all of which went to show that this was a troop of united states cavalry reports made at the time stated that the skeletons of 28 men iad and a like number of horses were found but nothing was discovered that showed to what regiment or company tills this troop belonged it if this was the result of a brittle battle it to Is probable that the indians carried away anything of the soldiers equipment that struck their fancy this would aciro account for nothing remaining that would identify the troop the bones looked as if they had been bleaching in the sun for years and years inquiry was made sometime after of various members of drifty drifting ng 1 gooses I boses band of sioux located on the reservation west of the ills bourl these indians onca claimed the territory in Is now spink county und and vicinity they had their main village on armday h asland la in the james river some sixty miles to the south of this tragic spot the indians could throw no light on the subject and it may be that this fight occurred before their advent here among the theories advanced to account for or the wiping out of this cavalry troop la Is one to the effect that these men perished in a blizzard what gave rise to this idea was the fact that no broken bones or berf perforated skulls showing the effects ot of gunfire we were found prom froin this the idea was gathered that these men and theft mounts did not perish in battle the story went around that these men were a part of a cavalry regiment stationed at some come post along the missouri about the time of the outbreak of the civil war that they were either recruited frons from the south or were with the south in their sympathies pa thies that they had deserted sometime time in march of 01 61 and headed for or I 1 th the e james J am es river with the view of working way down into the confederate states by that route the theory was that this was the safer route as the army trails generally followed the missouri and there would be much greater danger of pursuit and capture if they traveled that way that on their way to the james they were overtaken by a blizzard and being lost and bewildered in the driving snow and d in imminent danger of freezing they had bad on stumbling on this buffalo wallow burled buried themselves in the snow which would he be deeper there in the hope of preserving their lives until the storm abated but because of the intense cold they perished to a man not so far away was the river with alt high hanks banks which would have hae afforded some shelter and there was plenty of wood for ores fires so BO that they might have escaped had they traveled a little farther with their backs against the storm however old army officers who had spent most of their lives on the plains say that they never heard of 0 desertion on any such a wholesale scale sea le neither either had bad they ever heart heard 0 of f a cava cavalry try troop riding out into the vas vastness aness of the plains and vanishing so coin completely plemely ely and for so long a time that even the circumstances of its departure and the mystery of its utter disappearance were forgotten that this was a united states cavalry troop however is practically certain from the odd pieces of equipment found the fact that the bones were lying on the prairie just where the troopers gave up their lives indicates that chist this detachment was never located by the command ot of which it was a part since ince the united states army a always as buries u ries its dead whether this troop belonged to general army which fought in the little crow war or a scouting party of minnesota troops which participated in the same conflict la Is a matter of conjecture this unknown battle of the buffalo wallow may have been one of the many lights which occurred along between the late sixties and the custer massacre in 1870 when the plains indians were making their last desperate attempt to retain the prairies for themselves not but who these men were or whether they perished in conflict with tho the red warriors of the sioux nation or with the white armies of king winter Is still so BO for far sis ns we iano know one of the unsolved mysteries of tile the plains |