Despite being laden with perils, the Santa Fe Trail was a pathway to wealth for many traders. In 1828 alone, $150,000 of merchandise was taken to Santa Fe. That same year, both danger and necessity led a caravan of traders to bury more than $10,000 of silver at Chouteau’s Island in Kearny County. The traders were returning to Missouri, and among the group was a man by the name of William Young Witt. Witt, a third cousin to the grandmother of lifetime Lakin resident B.C. Nash, kept notes about the tumultuous journey.
“After a few days’ rest, sight-seeing and purchasing stock to replace our own jaded animals, preparations were made for the return trip. All the money we had received for our goods was in gold and silver, principally the latter, in consequence of which, each member of the company had about as much as he could conveniently manage, and, as events turned out, much more than he could take care of.”
On the morning of the third day after leaving Santa Fe, the company’s entire herd was stampeded and they were left upon the prairie without as much as a single mule to pursue the thieves. While some remained to guard camp, others returned to Santa Fe to recover the stock which they had to repurchase “for there was no law governing those lawless bands that infested that country at that time.” The incident opened the party’s eyes to the treachery that awaited them. They kept up a vigilant guard both day and night eventually arriving at the Upper Cimarron Springs.
“One morning, just before dawn, the whole earth seemed to resound with the most horrible noises that ever greeted human ears; every blade of grass appeared to re-echo the horrid din. In a few moments every man was at his post, rifle in hand, ready for any emergency, and almost immediately a large band of Indians made their appearance, riding within rifle-shot of the wagon. A continuous battle raged for several hours,“ wrote Hitt. Though successful at stampeding all the horses and mules, the bows and arrows of the Indians were not enough against the gunpowder of the traders so the Indians retreated. Hitt was wounded six times. (According to fellow trader Milton E. Bryan’s account and Hitt’s son’s account, Hitt was wounded 16 times.)
The men soon realized the seriousness of their condition being 300 miles away from Santa Fe. The next morning some of them stayed in camp while Hitt and the others took off in hopes to find some of the lost stock. Upon his return to camp, Hitt was overtaken by Indians. While two held his legs, the other “plunged his hatchet, as he supposed, into my head, but instead of scuffling to free myself and rise to my feet, I merely turned my head to one side and the wicked weapon was buried in the ground, just grazing my ear.” Hitt escaped two more swings of the hatchet before some of his traveling companions arrived to rescue him. All the men returned to camp and took turns guarding the wagons through the night. Unable to secure any of their stock, they left by foot in the morning with each man shouldering a rifle and a proportion of provisions. They were not far when they spied smoke rising from the area of the camp. The Indians had set fire to their wagons.
After eight days travel, they had less than 100 pounds of flour left and had been unsuccessful in finding any game. Hitt recalled, “For two weeks the allowance of flour to each individual was but a spoonful, stirred in water and taken three times a day.” Adding to their futility was a scarcity of water. In desperation, the troupe was once compelled to suck the moist clay from a buffalo wallow. “Some became so weak and exhausted that it was with the greatest effort they could travel at all,” wrote Hitt.
As soon as a convenient camping ground was found, the men made shelter and left the weakest of their party while some of the strongest hunted. Successful at last in killing some small game and buffalo, they used buffalo chips to fuel a fire. After a few day’s rest, the men began again to march homeward, but their money had become a greater burden than they could bare. They decided to bury it at the first good place they came upon. “We came to an island in the river to which we waded, and there, between two large trees, dug a hole and deposited our treasure…This task finished, with much lighter burdens, but more anxious than ever, we again took up our march eastwardly.”
Traveling for over two weeks by foot, the men were exhausted; some scarcely able to move. They divided company, “one portion to press on, the weaker ones to proceed by easier stages, and when the advance arrived at the settlement, they were to send back a relief for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few who were stronger than the others reached Independence, Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to bring in their comrades” who were seemingly nothing but human skeletons wrapped in rags, but “all got safely to their homes.”
Hitt is not mentioned as being among the men who returned to Chouteau’s Island the following spring and recovered the silver under the protection of the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail. Sources: “William Y. Hitt Santa Fe Trail Memoires,” “The Old Santa Fe Trail” by Colonel Henry Inman, “Commerce of the Prairies” by Josiah Gregg, “The Flight of Time” by Milton E. Bryan, “Kansas Before 1854: A Revised Annals” compiled by Louis Barry, & ancestry.com with special thanks to Meg Nash Spellman.
McCloskey is not new to this type of adventure. Last year he traveled the Oregon Trail. Since the first part of the SFT mirrors that of the Oregon Trail, McCloskey decided he would take up where he left off last year. After leaving Fort Scott, he joined up with the SFT at Canton. He will travel the original trail as much as possible, but just like the Oregon Trail, much of the SFT is not accessible.
