High Plains History; Buffalo Bill, Kansas Gold Rush

[Female Speaker] Ok. What I found that works best, is if I hold the microphone- Brian Wakeeney Kansas, and this is track one, and we are going to be recording the buffalo shoot out, and Phillip Beam will be a reader today and mr. Beam you don't even have to worry about the time, unless you just want to run it, cause it'll come in under. I'm sure Ok you ready? [Phillip Beam] In a one and a two and a three. While William Cody was under contract to the Kansas Pacific Railroad to provide buffalo meat for the construction crews, his skills became so well known to the cavalry officers at Fort Hays, that they began calling him Buffalo Bill. Friends of Billy Comstock where the favorite scout of General Custer and then chief of scouts at Fort Wallace thought himself the greater buffalo hunter, and lodged a complaint at Hays. Consequently, it was decided at a match would be held between Cody and

Comstock. The officers raised a purse of five hundred dollars, ,Posters were put up at railway stations, and an excursion train one hundred passengers, including champagne service, was cancelled from St Louis. A site about twenty miles east of Sheridan Kansas was picked where buffalo are plentiful, and the ground was level. Officers, soldiers, railroad workers, and others took the day off to witness the event. Cody road Brigham, a Utah indian pony, and carried Lucretia Borgia, an improve fifty caliber bridge loading gun, while Comstock carried a Henry rifle. When a heard was sited the two rode into it together followed by mounted referees. The herd split, Comstock chasing one bunch, and Cody the other. Cody used his best tactics, crowning the leader. [Phillip Beam; Speaking in an accent, quoting Cody] 'On this morning the buffalo were very accommodating, and I soon had them running in a beautiful

circle. When I dropped them thick and fast, until I had killed thirty eight, which finished my run. Comstock banged at the rear buffalo in his herd, killed him, and then followed the rest across the country, always aiming at the rear one', he said. [Phillip Beam] Comstock killed 23, scattering them over three miles of prairie, while Cody's lay close together. [Phillip Beam; Speaking in an accent, quoting Cody] 'I had nursed my buffalo as a billiard player does when he makes a big run', Cody said. Time was called while lunch and champagne was served on the excursion train. Right on schedule a second herd of cows and calves was sighted. Again Cody was the winner, and again a champagne break was called. Cody aloud is how [Uninteligible] [Phillip Beam; Speaking in an accent, quoting Cody] "Champagne proved a good drink on a Kansas prairie and a buffalo hunter was a good man to get away with it.' [Phillip Beam] Somewhat aroused by the beverage, Cody announced to the admiring excursion ladies and he would sally forth

without a saddle and bridled, guiding Brigham with and only his voice and a blind bridle. He dashed into the herd, killing 13 more. To make a spectacular finish, he drove the last buffalo straight toward the wagons where the women were seated. This gave them a splendid fright, but Cody sent the animal crashing to the prairie sod 50 yards short of the screaming congregation. Thus was William F. Cody christened Buffalo Bill, having killed 69 buffalo during the day, to Billy Comstock's 46. Thanks to the Trego County Historical Society, and the libraries of Hays, Wakeeney, Hill City, and Oakley for providing references for this story. For High Plains Public Radio, I'm Phillip Beam, in Wakeeney Kansas. [Female Speaker] Great. [Laughter] [Phillip Beam] It's 3:40. [Female Speaker] It'll work, it'll work.

Ok. [Shuffling] Yeah, I had four- just a little-- while- was probably about 4:25, ok. Um. Do you want to go ahead and read the Gold Rush? [Phillip Beam] Might as well [Female Speaker] Alright. [Shuffling] [Female Speaker] This is the Kansas gold rush. [Shuffling] [Phillip Beam] In an one, an a two, an a three, an a go. From 1900 to 1903, Wakeeney Kansas, county seat of Trego County, was the scene of a feverish gold rush. 'Gold, acres of gold. A solid body of gold bearing shale', read a headline in the St. Louis Globe- Democrat describing land along the

Smokey Hill river. Soon investors from Denver and St. Louis, but most heavily from Topeka, were scrambling to buy property along the Smokey Hill River. At least two or more gold refining mills were built, or under construction, but not all were convenced. In an interview for the Topeka Capitol, professor Rasmuth Hayworth of the Kansas University geology department said 'the gold promoters have no standing as scientists.' He said he had visited the Smokey Hill plant and that it was all fraud. He insisted that the test that had shown such high gold ratings had been salted. Professor Hayward further stated, 'I could salt shale under the eyes of ten Pinkerton agents and they could not detect fraud. I could carry enough gold under my fingernails to make ore run to twenty dollars a ton. There is as much gold in that mud out in the street as is in the Smokey Hills shale.'

Despite these warnings, the gold boom continued through all of 1903. The city of Little Smoky Hill, with parks, paved streets, magnificent buildings was created all on paper. By midsummer 1904 it was all over. A Topeka Journal headline read 'Trego Shale gold has entirely collapsed.' And how had the Kansas gold rush started? A former state adjutant general named H.P. Arch who had left office in disgrace, for the gold fields of colorado, returned to Topeka in the fall of 1900. His face was sunburnt, and weather beaten, and he was carrying a heavy bag that he guarded carefully.When questioned about its contents, his only remark was 'Lots of people would like to know. That bag is worth

more than buildings on Kansas Avenue.' When asked where it came from, the awnser was 'Trego County.' Thanks to the Trego County Historical Society for contributing to this story. For High Plains Public Radio I'm Phillip Beam in Wakeeney Kansas [Female Speaker] great. [Laughter] [Shuffling] [Audio pops] [Female Speaker] I have to set this thing down. to keep it from making noise. Ok, we are now on track to two and we're in Wakeeney Kansas, and this is the Chrysler House- Chrysler Home. [Shuffling] [Phillip Beam] The flat Kansas prarie lies hundreds of miles from the corporate high rise headquarters of the- [Female Speaker] Lets start again.

[Phillip Beam] Can I just run through one time without recording? [Female Speaker] Sure. [Mic popping; Shuffling] [Female Speaker] We're on track three and this is the Chrysler Home story, and it's read by Phillip Beam, and we're in Wakeeeney Kansas today. [Phillip Beam] In an one, and a two and a three. The flat Kansas prairie lies hundreds of miles from the corporate high rise headquarters of the automobile industry. With the city of Ellis is located along interstate 70 in Ellis County shortens the distance. One of its native sons Walter Percy Chrysler- [Female Speaker] Can you say his name again? Just start with 'One of the native sons'. [Phillip Beam] One of its native sons Walter Percy Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler automotive empire, grew up in this north central Kansas town. Born in northeast Kansas in 1875

the Chrysler family moved to Ellis when Walter was fourteen. There he helped his father build a house that still survives, and draws several thousand visitors to the town of two thousand. The Chrysler boyhood home, a modest frame home surrounded by a white picket fence, was placed on the national register of historic buildings in 1952. While a resident of Ellis, Walter Chrysler attended the public high school, was a member of the baseball team, and played the tuba in the school band. In 1892, at the age of seventeen, he took his first job with a railroad company, earning five cents an hour. From their he advanced to machinist apprentice and eventually became the superintendent of machinery. His rise in the automotive world began with the Buick Motor Company, and in 1919 he became a vice president in the General Motors Corporation, and was a millionaire at age of forty

five. Chrysler never forgot his Kansas roots and in 1924 he returned to Ellis for a big parade, driving the first Chrysler car, which had just come off the assembly line. Beside him was his Ellis high school sweetheart, who he had married in 1901. A year later he found that the Chrysler Corporation, with offices in the Chrysler building in New York City. [Female Speaker] I'm sorry I need to stop you, because I realised that's confusing. When I just heard you read it I thought 'thats not right'. Can you do that agian, and say in 1925- [Pause] [Phillip Beam] Returned in 1925? [Female Speaker] Lets see- ah no- lets see. [Female Spaker; reading from the script] 'In 1924 he returned to Ellis for a big parade driving the first Crysler car, which had just come off the assembly line. Beside him- well...- whom he had married in

1901. [pause] [Female Speaker] Could we say a year after his- A year after the parade in Ellis, he founded the Chrysler Corporation? Cause this way it makes it sound-, I've written it, so it makes it sound like in 1902 he started the Chrysler Corporation, and that can't be. [Phillip Beam] Yeah. [Female Speaker] So could we say- Um- Could you say 'a year after attending the Ellis parade...'? [Phillip Beam] Why not just say 'A year after the parade...'? [Female Speacker] Yeah that'd be good. [Phillip Beam] Where do you want me to start it [Female Speaker] A year after the parade. [Phillip Beam] Ok. [female Speaker] Just go right ahead.

[Phillip Beam] A year after the parade, he founded the Chrysler Corporation with offices in the Chrysler building in New York City, where he remained chairman until his death in 1940. The Chrysler family has been involved in renovation of the Kansas Chrysler home, as well as, the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, which is located behind the house on 10th street. Family momentos, Chrysler's hand, forged machine tools, and vintage Chrysler autos are part of the exhibits. Thanks to Karen Ann Bland of Gove Kansas for contributing to this story. For High Plains Public Radio, I'm Phillip Beam, in Wakeeney Kansas. [Female Speaker] Ok, great, thank you. [Phillip Beam] Sure. [Audio Cut; Silence]