Two Miles North of Here
Tulia, Swisher County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Two miles north of here Gen. Ranald S. Mackenzie, 4th U.S. Cavalry, ordered shot the 1450 horses captured from Indians in battle in Palo Duro Canyon September 28, 1874 to prevent their possible recovery by the Indians to return to their reservations on foot. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After U.S. cavalry under Mackenzie routed Southern Plains tribes at Palo Duro Canyon in September 1874, the troops slaughtered roughly 1,450 captured horses two miles north of this marker. Destroying the herd left the surviving warriors afoot, forcing them back onto their reservations.
Why it matters
The killing of the horse herd was a deliberate act of frontier warfare that broke Native resistance on the Southern Plains and opened the Panhandle to settlement.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1870s the Southern Plains were the scene of a final struggle. Comanche, Kiowa and Southern Cheyenne peoples had long ruled these grasslands on horseback and lived off the great buffalo herds. By the 1870s, commercial hunters were killing buffalo in enormous numbers, and the federal government was pushing tribes to stay on reservations in Indian Territory.
In 1874 that pressure exploded into the Red River War. U.S. Army columns entered the Texas Panhandle from several directions to force the bands that had left the reservations to return. The canyons of the Caprock, with water, shelter and grass, were where many families had gone to spend the winter.
The horse was at the center of everything. For the Plains nations, horses meant hunting, travel, wealth and the ability to fight. That made a large horse herd a target as well as a treasure.
People & events
On September 28, 1874, troops of the 4th U.S. Cavalry under Ranald S. Mackenzie struck the camps in Palo Duro Canyon. The attack scattered the people living there. Casualties were reportedly light, but the camps lost their lodges, their stored food, and their horses.
According to this marker, the soldiers captured 1,450 horses. Mackenzie then ordered them shot, here, two miles north of where the marker stands. The reason was cold and practical: if the horses were recaptured, the warriors could ride on; without them they'd have to walk back to their reservations. Accounts of the exact number of animals vary, but the decision and its purpose are well documented.
The loss was crushing. Facing winter without horses, shelter or supplies, and pursued by army columns, the bands of the Southern Plains gave up over the following months and returned to the reservations. Accounts often single out the horse killing as a key blow in ending their resistance.
Its place in the American story
The Red River War was one of the turning points of the American West. It ended the free life of the Comanche, Kiowa and Southern Cheyenne on the Southern Plains and opened the Texas Panhandle to the ranchers and settlers who came in the following years.
The killing of the horse herd shows a hard truth about how that war was won. It came less through battlefield victories than through destroying the things a people needed to survive: buffalo, food stores, lodges and horses. Seen this way, this quiet spot near Tulia is tied to the same strategy that was carried out across much of the West.
The story is remembered differently depending on who tells it. To many Texans of the 1930s it was a decisive victory. To the descendants of the Plains nations it is remembered as a devastating loss of their way of life. An honest visit holds both perspectives.
If you visit
This marker went up in 1936, the year of the Texas Centennial, when the state placed markers across Texas to commemorate its history. Its wording reflects the attitudes of that time, so it's worth reading with a bit of historical distance.
There's not much to see here except open Panhandle country, and that is exactly what makes the stop powerful. Stand still and imagine the sound of a herd of more than a thousand horses on these plains, and then the silence after the killing. It is a sobering, thought-provoking stop.
To understand the whole story, combine this stop with a visit to Palo Duro Canyon, where the battle was fought, and take time to learn about the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne perspective. Together they make one of the most meaningful history drives in the Texas Panhandle.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Ranald S. Mackenzie
Related events
- · Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Old MacKenzie Trail
Plainview, TX
This marker commemorates the trail broken in 1871 by General Ranald Slidell MacKenzie and his 4th U.S. Cavalry as they campaigned across the West Texas plains against roving bands of Indians. Larry Chittenden's mournful verse, quoted on the marker, conjures the wagon trains, soldiers, and lonely prairie graves that once followed its course. Erected in 1936 for the Texas Centennial, it fixes the fading route in public memory.
The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
Canyon, TX
At dawn on September 28, 1874, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie's 4th Cavalry descended a treacherous path into Palo Duro Canyon and surprised a large Native encampment sheltering there. Though the warriors fought from the canyon walls to cover their families' escape, Mackenzie burned the camp and supplies and captured some 1,400 horses — destroying a thousand of them — leaving the tribes without shelter or mounts and forcing their return to the reservations.
The Battle of Blanco Canyon
Floydada, TX
By the 18th century the Comanche had made the canyons and plains of what became Floyd County their stronghold, dominating trade and warfare across Texas after pushing rival tribes south. In October 1871, Colonel Ranald Mackenzie led U.S. cavalry, guided by Tonkawa scouts, against the Kotsoteka and Quahadi bands who refused reservation life. In Blanco Canyon, Quanah Parker's warriors struck first and drove off the soldiers' horses; the fighting wounded both Mackenzie and Lieutenant Carter, and though the campaign frustrated the army, it began the destruction of Comanche power on the Southern Plains.
Col. John I. Gregg 1872 Battle Site
Canyon, TX
After the Civil War, waves of settlers pushed west onto the Great Plains and clashed with the Native nations who lived there, prompting Army campaigns against the Southern Plains tribes. In 1872 Colonel John I. Gregg led Eighth Cavalry troops from New Mexico into West Texas hunting raiders, and on August 16 they skirmished with Kiowas near this spot. That fight, with the later Red River War of 1874-75, drove the subjugation of the Plains tribes and their confinement to reservations.