Happy Funday ~ Billy Dixon

 

In June 1874, a small band of buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls in Texas faced hundreds of Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne warriors. Among the attackers was Quanah Parker, the fierce young Comanche leader. Outnumbered and pinned inside a trading post, the hunters fought desperately for survival.

It was then that Billy Dixon, a seasoned marksman, tried something almost unthinkable. With his heavy Sharps rifle and simple iron sights—no scope, no spotter—he steadied his aim at a distant rider nearly a mile across the plains.

His first shot missed. His second, too. But the third struck true. Surveyors later measured the distance: 1,538 yards. Nearly a mile.

The tribes, stunned at the range, believed the hunters wielded uncanny power. The attack wavered. And in that moment, the tide of battle shifted.

For settlers, Dixon’s “mile shot” became a legend of frontier grit. For the tribes, it marked another chapter in the struggle against relentless encroachment. Whatever side of history one sees, the truth remains: a single pull of a trigger turned into one of the most famous shots ever fired in the American West.

Thanks Old Photo Club