NF The Real Lone Ranger?

[TerryB]

I want to say his name was Bass Reeves, an African-American US marshal who worked under Judge Parker out of Fort Smith. He spent a lot of time in the IT, sometimes with an Indian policeman as a backup. O'Reily's show on Fox alleges that he may have been the inspiration for the Lone Ranger. He had an amazing 20 year career.

 

[ole]

I've never heard of Bass Reeves and for that I will thank O'Reilly. But I will give him credit for showing something of this guy.

That he never said "HiYo, Silver" makes me no nevermind.

 

[donna]

Saw the show Sunday. It was interesting and learned a lot. I had posted about show in Legends thread.

 

[Dave Hull]

To me, he was more the basis for Rooster Cogburn, US Marshall who worked for Judge Parker, could not read, out of Ft Smith and in the Indian Nations and was known to always get his man. I remember reading about Bass Reeves a long time ago and never thought of him as the Lone Ranger, but did see him remade as a white, ex Confederate, one eyed, old fat man.

 

[donna]

I checked and there are several books on Bass Reeves. He also has Memorial on Find A Grave. It is at:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8584642

The Legends series on Fox is well worth watching. We have seen every episode. It is well done. Want to get the book for my husband for Father's Day.

 

[rosefiend]

If you have kids, point them to this book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0822567644/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

I didn't realize that Vaunda Micheaux Nelson had written this, but she is a heck of a writer and scholar and won a pile of awards for her latest book, No Crystal Stair. Won some awards for this one, too.

Gary Paulsen wrote a children's book about Bass Reeves too but I'm not sure how his historical scholarship is on his book. He's a good writer but I read one of his Civil War books ages ago and it was a little preachy, which was weird for him. Also the book ended with the soldier running away from camp, and I was going, hm, that boy is not going to get very far.

ETA -- Oh, Paulsen's book says right on the cover that it's a fictional account. I was going to say I should drink more coffee ... except I already did.

 

[Patrick H]

Thanks for bringing this man to my attention. I probably never would have known about him if I hadn't seen this thread. He has a great personal story!

 

[bankerpapaw]

I believe that was the best one of the whole lot. Being from Arkansas, I knew who Bass Reeves was, but that was about it.

 

[huskerblitz]

Arrested over 3,000 felons and killed 14 outlaws in self-defense? Man, that's one heck of a career!

 

[mofederal]

A mounted statue of Bass Reeves installed in Fort Smith, Ark., and dedicated in 2012. It is called Into the Territory. The creator of the 25 foot high sculpture is Harold T.H. Holden. Bass usually rode with a tracker dog.