Hi, I’m the History Guy. I have a degree in history,
and I love history. And if you love history too, this is the channel for you.
The world, it seems, enjoys a good Western. Western films were the most popular genre
film from pretty much the beginning of film, all the way up through the 1960s.
And Western fiction has been popular in a number of different media, from books and comic books,
to radio and television. And it's a worldwide phenomenon that is this popular, it seems,
in Europe and Asia, as it is in the country where the stories supposedly occur. But of
course Western fiction only rarely accurately represents life on the American frontier,
and so the intersection between fiction and reality offers us good insights, both into the
consumer of Western fiction, and the reality of Western life. And a good example of that
is in one of the most popular of the fictional characters of the Wild West, and the little-known
lawmen who most resembles that character, and it is a story that deserves to be remembered.
So return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear!
From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse, Silver!
The Lone Ranger first rode into the hearts and minds of listeners courtesy of Detroit area radio
station, WXYZ. With the title role voiced by actor George Seaton, who later won two Academy Awards
for screenwriting, and said that he invented the famous catchphrase “Hi ho Silver!” because he
couldn't whistle. WXYZ aired nearly 3000 radio episodes of the show, featuring a Texas Ranger
who fought outlaws accompanied by his faithful Indian companion, Tonto. According to the story,
The Lone Ranger was one of six Texas Rangers who were caught in an ambush by the despicable Butch
Cavendish Gang. Later a friendly Indian happens upon the scene, and finds that one of the Rangers
has survived. Tonto buries the dead Rangers but makes six grave markers, to hide the fact that one
survived. He then nurses the injured ranger back to health. The Ranger is forced to wear a mask
to conceal his identity, since he was supposed to have died, as he fights for justice against
Butch Cavendish, and his gang. The show was a classic Western, and was popular partly because of
the Rangers strict moral code, which represented American values at the time, and included phrases
like “To have a friend, a man must be one.” and “All things change, but truth, and that
truth alone, lives on forever.” The Lone Ranger only used silver bullets because they reminded
him “That life is precious, and like the bullets, shouldn't be wasted.” Along with the radio show,
The Lone Ranger spurred two film serials in the 1930s, a popular television show that ran over 220
episodes between 1949 and 1957, two different cartoon series, a newspaper comic strip that
ran for more than 30 years, dozens of adventure novels and comic books, a video game, hundreds of
various toys, and seven feature films. And in one of the lesser known connections, The Lone
Ranger spawned a popular spin-off property, where according to the story in the original radio show,
the Lone Rangers young nephew Dan, who appeared in both the radio show, and the television show has
a son who eventually takes on again, the role of a masked crime fighter as, the Green Hornet. But the
popularity of The Lone Ranger begs an interesting question, was there a real Lone Ranger?
The answer…is possibly. In 1915, novelist Zane Grey wrote a novel called the Lone Star Ranger,
which itself was adapted for four different feature films. The character in the novel is
fictionalized, but the novel was dedicated to a real Texas Ranger named John Reynolds Hughes.
While he was a rancher in Travis County, Texas, Hughes had tracked down a group that had stolen
horses from his, and other ranches. That drew the attention of the Texas Rangers,
who recruited him. He served as a Ranger for 28 years. The Texas Rangers longest-serving member.
Hughes was known as one of the most effective of the Texas Rangers, and notably, when another Texas
Ranger Captain was killed in an ambush, Hughes, one of the Rangers best trackers, relentlessly
pursued the gang that had committed the ambush. Somewhat like the story told, in the Lone Ranger.
While Hughes had certainly inspired Zane Grey who knew, and respected Hughes,
it's less clear whether he was an inspiration for The Lone Ranger. But he was certainly
an example of a dedicated Texas Ranger and like the story had doggedly tracked
down outlaws who had killed other Texas Rangers in an ambush. But when talking
about the Lone Ranger there's another story as well, that of lawman Bass Reeves who was,
according to one biographer, “The closest real person to resemble the Lone Ranger.”
Bass Reeves have been born a slave in 1838, and as was common at the time,
he had taken the last name of his owner as his own. Sometime in the early 1860s he parted ways
with that owner. Some stories say that's because he had a fight with his owner over a card game,
another says that he simply had heard that Lincoln was planning to free the slaves.
But for whatever reason, Reeves escaped slavery and went to live in Indian territory, modern-day
Oklahoma. Living among Cherokee Seminole and Creek Indians, and learning both the territory
and many of the people's languages. He became a crack shot with a pistol, and rifle. After the
war when the Thirteenth Amendment passed, and he low longer had to fear being returned to slavery,
he moved to Arkansas where he became a successful rancher and had ten children. Indian Territory
was notoriously lawless, and many outlaws fled there to escape justice. In 1875, President Grant
appointed a new judge of the US Court for the Western District of Arkansas with the goal of
addressing lawlessness in the Indian Territory. The judge then appointed a former Confederate
General as the new US Marshal, who then hired 200 deputy US Marshals, some of whom were among the
most famous lawmen of the West. Having heard of Reeves' knowledge of the Indian Territory,
and familiarity with its people, the new marshal hired him as one of those deputies. Bass Reeves
became the first black deputy US marshal, west of the Mississippi. He served for nearly 30 years,
and in that time brought in more than 3,000 wanted outlaws. He survived numerous gunfights,
and despite having both his belt and his hat shot off in different gunfights, he never himself took
a bullet. He was one of the most feared and respected lawmen of the Indian Territory.
He was known for dressing fastidiously, and for wearing two Colt pistols with the butts
faced forward for a quick-draw. As was common for many Americans of the time,
and certainly former slaves, he had never received a formal education and so never learned to read
and write. Before he went on patrols, which could take months at a time, he would have someone read
the outstanding warrants to him, which he could recite from memory. At Reeves might seem nothing
like the Lone Ranger, he wasn't even a Texas Ranger, and was never shot, more or less nursed
back to health by a faithful Indian companion. But deputies in the Indian Territory would often
travel only accompanied by a posse member, who would be a Native American. Although he was most
known for riding a red stallion with a white blaze that highly resembled Tonto’s horse Scout from
the Lone Ranger television series, he was also known to ride a white horse. And while he did not
wear a mask, he was known to use disguises when capturing outlaws. It is not hard to see how this
dedicated lawman, traveling alone with his Indian companion catching the bad guys could be seen as,
as one biographer described him, “The closest real person to resemble the Lone Ranger.”
In the end, there's no real evidence that either Bass Reeves, or John Ronald Hughes inspired
the fictional character of The Lone Ranger. The creators of the character actually didn't mention
any real lawman at all, they said the Lone Ranger was inspired by Robin Hood, and the actor Tom Mix.
But both Reeves and Hughes bore some striking resemblance to the legendary masked ranger,
and they show us that the vision of a lone lawman, dispensing justice on the wild frontier,
is not merely a fabrication of the entertainment industry. It is interesting that both Reeves and
Hughes had some similar backgrounds. Both as young men had spent substantial time in Indian Territory
where they developed the skills that would serve them later as lawmen. Both had been successful
ranchers which provided them with a vested interest in protecting the people, the frontier,
from lawlessness. And both have long, and distinguished careers, as lawmen. Part of that
special breed of people who bridge the gap between the Wild West, and the modern world. And both were
most certainly heroes, even though neither one is nearly as well-known as the legendary Lone
Ranger. Bass Reeves died of kidney disease in 1910 at the age of 71, and John Reynolds Hughes,
who was in ill health and depressed over the fact that all his old friends had died, tragically took
his own life in 1947, he was 92. But Bass Reeves is a great example of one of the things that
Hollywood has largely gotten wrong over the years. To watch the Golden Age of American Westerns you
might have guessed that the frontier was settled only by white cowboys. In fact, an estimated 20 to
25 percent of the Western Cowboys were black, where the independence of the range offered a
relative equality, even though they still faced discrimination, and were often given the least
favorable tasks. It is those true stories of the West that deserve to be remembered .
I'm the History Guy. I hope you enjoyed this edition of my series, five minutes of history,
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