Cowboy Tombstone – Jefferson, Oklahoma

If you travel across northern Oklahoma on the Oklahoma Adventure Trail, you will run across two markers close together – a Cowboy Grave marker and the Old Sewell Stockade. If you are not careful, you can miss one or the other, thinking the are one GPS waypoint. One is on the north side and one on the south side of the road. Both are about a mile south of the old ghost town of Jefferson, Oklahoma.

The marker on the south is what I call “Cowboy Tombstone”. It was erected in 1937 by the Pond Creek and Medford Lions Club and says:

“On this spot lie buried two cowboys who gave their lives in winning the frontier to civilization. Tom Best road south from Kansas in 1872 to join the Texas cattle drivers, but was killed by hostile indians a short distance north of this point. Ed Chambers, in 1873, rode north with a herd from Texas, and he, too, was killed by Indians about a mile southeast of here.”

It seems to me a bit odd that this marks the spot where two cowboys died, out of hundreds or thousands that died all across Oklahoma during the 1800’s. Still, this is a cool marker to visit if you are in the area.

You can download the GPS waypoints below:

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