Billy Dixon: His Life and Adventures

Maybe you’ve already heard of Billy Dixon. If you have, you probably know him for the shot he made at the second battle of Adobe Walls up in the Panhandle in 1874. It was twenty-eight men and one woman against a force of Comanche, Cheyenne and Kiowa numbering at least 700. Billy Dixon, using a borrowed Sharps .50-90, picked a brave off his horse at such a range that the Indians were spooked and decided to pack it in. US Army surveyors later measured that shot at 1538 yards. That’s 9/10ths of a mile. Billy said it was luck. Maybe so, but it takes rare skill to make that kind of luck possible.

These are Dixon’s memoirs, as dictated to his wife near the end of his life. Dixon was orphaned at age twelve, on his own at fourteen, a muleskinner,

a scout and a buffalo hunter. His life of adventure and freedom on the Plains comes alive in these pages.