author
Billy Dixon
1850–1913
A frontier scout and buffalo hunter remembered for one of the Old West’s most famous long-range shots, he lived through some of the hardest years on the southern plains. His adventures at Adobe Walls and Buffalo Wallow later became part of Western legend.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in what is now West Virginia in 1850, Billy Dixon was orphaned young and went west as a teenager. He worked his way into life on the plains as a teamster, buffalo hunter, scout, and guide, building the kind of practical reputation that mattered on the frontier.
He is most closely linked with the Texas Panhandle, especially Adobe Walls, where he helped establish the post and took part in its defense during the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. Dixon also fought in the Buffalo Wallow Fight, and his actions there led to his receiving the Medal of Honor as a civilian.
Later accounts of his life helped fix his image as a classic plainsman of the American West. His memoir, published after his death in 1913, preserves a firsthand view of buffalo hunting, scouting, and conflict on the late-nineteenth-century frontier.