Yellowstone Kelly Helps Build the Fort

An interesting character named Yellowstone Kelly emerges from the shadows of Ransom County’s earliest history. At 15 and too young to join the army during the Civil War, he skirted the rules by scribbling the number “18” and placing it in his shoe so that he could swear that he was “over 18.” While he went on to live an adventurous life in the West, what’s important here is an episode concerning the construction of Fort Ransom while he was still in the army.

Here are his words: “Early in the spring of 1867 the company was ordered to establish a station at the forks of the Cheyenne River near Bear’s Den Hill … Our course led over a rolling prairie. Nothing of interest occurred until the second or third day, when we crossed a high and level plain which extended for many miles. This plain was covered with a thin coating of ice, and on all sides as far as the eye could reach was dotted with the bodies of dead buffaloes. These animals were in good condition and bore no mark of bullet or arrow wounds. The cause of their death was a mystery to us. As we marched over the plain toward the valley of the Cheyenne the appearance of so many carcasses scattered around made a strong impression on my mind, perhaps because they were the first buffaloes I had ever seen.”