FORT SMITH, Ark. â The deadliest day in U.S. Marshal Service history took place April 15, 1872, near the town of Christie in Adair County, which was located in the Cherokee Nationâs Goingsnake District.
The gunfight between a marshal posse and CN citizens took place at a schoolhouse being used as a courthouse to try the case of CN citizen Ezekial âZekeâ Proctor.Â
âThis is definitely one of the stories the museum wants to tellâ¦not just from the marshalâs side of it but from the Cherokee Nationâs side of it because we really want to find the whats and whys and hows, and thereâs a reason we refer to this as âThe Tragedy of Goingsnakeâ and not âThe Goingsnake Massacre,â David Kennedy, U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith curator, said. âThis was the bloodiest gunfight that ever took place in the American west that the military wasnât involved in.â
FORT SMITH, Ark. â The deadliest day in U.S. Marshal Service history took place April 15, 1872, near the town of Christie in Adair County, which was located in the Cherokee Nationâs Goingsnake District.
The gunfight between a marshal posse and CN citizens took place at a schoolhouse being used as a courthouse to try the case of CN citizen Ezekial âZekeâ Proctor.Â
âTragedy at Goingsnakeâ occurred 149 years ago
âThis is definitely one of the stories the museum wants to tellâ¦not just from the marshalâs side of it but from the Cherokee Nationâs side of it because we really want to find the whats and whys and hows, and thereâs a reason we refer to this as âThe Tragedy of Goingsnakeâ and not âThe Goingsnake Massacre,â David Kennedy, U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith curator, said. âThis was the bloodiest gunfight that ever took place in the American west that the military wasnât involved in.â
The Truth About Wild West Gunfights Shutterstock
By Joseph A. Williams/Jan. 22, 2021 11:53 am EDT
Shootouts in the Wild West are, in the popular imagination, full of stereotypes. Many movie-goers have seen Clint Eastwood as a lone drifter coming to mete out justice through the barrel of a gun or an all star team of gunslingers defending a village ravaged by bandits. The Wild West, and in particular its shootouts, are engraved into popular culture.
But are these shootouts true?
The violence of Wild West shootouts has many surprising historic kernels of truth. Where it differs is that these affairs of quick death were even more violent than imagined, and there was often little distinction between good guys and bad guys. Many of these gunfights involved brutal individuals who sometimes worked on the side of the law and sometimes did not. In most cases, drunkenness and gambling were involved. In some cases, the historical events reveal outstanding bravery, which see