Cowboy Cemetery

Cowboy Cemetery is an Oklahoma historical marker in Woods County.

Woods County · approximately 12 miles north of Camp Houston

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On September 12, 1878, the bodies of Reuben Bristow and Fred Clark were found near here. It was believed they had been killed by Northern Cheyenne Indians led by Chief Dull Knife. Bristow and Clark were cowboys hauling salt for Comanche pool cattle when Dull Knife fled harsh conditions on the reservation near Canton. The salt haulers, probably killed for their mule team, inadvertently crossed the path of the Cheyenne during their desperate flight home to the Northern Plains.

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Marker data: Oklahoma Historical Society, Historical Marker Program. Marker texts come from the Society's marker database, reproduced with the Society's written permission. Where the database describes a marker's location in words but records no coordinate, the pin on this page is ours, worked out from that description and marked approximate.
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Cowboy Cemetery

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