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Salt Creek Tour Dates

As of right now there haven't been any upcoming Salt Creek concerts or tours revealed for the States. Sign up for our Concert Tracker to get alerts when Salt Creek performances have been revealed to the itinerary. For up-to-date announcements pertaining to Salt Creek concerts, take a look at our Tour announcements page . In the meantime, have a look at other Bluegrass performances coming up by Bridget Kearney , Steve Martin , and John Cowan Band .

Salt Creek Concert Schedule

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Salt Creek showed up on to the Bluegrass scene with the appearance of tour album "Occult Box (Deluxe Edition)", published on N/A. The song was instantly a success and made Salt Creek one of the top new great concerts to attend. After the debut of "Occult Box (Deluxe Edition)", Salt Creek announced "Occult Box" on N/A. The album "Occult Box" remained one of the favorite tour albums from Salt Creek. The Tour Albums three top songs included , , and and are a hit at every performance. Salt Creek has released 7 more tour albums since "Occult Box". With over 0 years of albums, Salt Creek most popular tour album has been "Occult Box (Deluxe Edition)" and some of the best concert songs are , , and .

Salt Creek Tour Albums and Songs

Salt Creek: Out of the Sky

• EVERYONEISTHESAME
• Thorn in My Side
• Where is the Sun

Salt Creek: Our Own World

• Lock the Doors
• On Your Road

Salt Creek: High Horse

Salt Creek: Where Strangers Go

• Window Shade
• Weathervane
• Taste the Floor

Salt Creek: If You Were There

• What You Would Hear
• Highway Lights
• Electricity Is Humming
• Swim in Time

Salt Creek Concert Tour Questions & Comments

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• Concert schedules for all Salt Creek concerts are revised on a regular basis.

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• Introduction—Salt Creek and City Nature
• Bayboro Harbor
• Bartlett Pond
• Lake Maggiore
• Willow Marsh
• Conclusion—Fragmented Headwaters
• McCabe United Methodist Church
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Draining Paradise: A Tour of Salt Creek in St. Petersburg, Florida

Urbanized streams take us into the heart of a city's history. When a creek becomes a culvert, protections disappear. St. Petersburg's Salt Creek, a fragmented stream that feeds the Gulf coast of Florida, flows northwest from the Pinellas Peninsula into Tampa Bay. This culverted and fragmented waterway runs counter to a tourist destination's official story, providing a study in the recovery of urban environs. If we can reconnect a disjointed creek, can we also heal the rifts in our human communities?

Introduction—Salt Creek and City Nature

St. Petersburg has always been two things: a resort town and a product of the segregated South. Known affectionately as the Sunshine City, St. Pete claims the Guinness World Record for sunshine (as a can of local craft beer will tell you, 768 consecutive days). This winter haven boomed in the early twentieth century. White vacationers and retirees flocked here for the weather, often to relax on the green benches (hence the beer) that once lined Central Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare and longtime racial divide. African Americans first migrated here to build the railroad and work the tourist economy, building tight communities over time.

Off the tourist map, Salt Creek remains absent from view, for reasons both geographic and social. Because the water flows in a northeast direction, starting from the middle of Pinellas County then into Tampa Bay, the creek falls off the orderly cadastral map. Avenues go East-West and the streets North-South, while Salt Creek cuts a diagonal course. Most of the creek's banks are culverted, so its "nature" does not adhere to conventional labels of leisurely consumption. Racial divides further hide this fragmented waterway, and the environmental merges with the Sunshine City's flickering, all-too-easily-denied Jim Crow past.

Today only a handful of locals can trace Salt Creek's full course. The best way is to start at the mouth, Bayboro Harbor, just south of the city's previously moribund but now skyrocketing downtown. As one journeys southwest, going upstream, the creek services a working port (properties now eyed for luxury housing). The creek passes under a mangrove cover and empty lots, owned mostly by absentee speculators. The city's sizeable population of street people, who use its shielded banks for shelter, are the principal stakeholders here. Under Fourth Street, a major north-south corridor, Salt Creek opens into mangrove-shrouded Bartlett Pond. Beyond the pond, it crosses under Twenty-Second Avenue South, also a major thoroughfare, before vanishing into a culvert through Harbordale, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Pinellas County. Dammed at the north-south running Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street (or Ninth Street, to old timers), the channel opens into Lake Maggiore, historically an estuarine body of water, now maintained as fresh. Beyond the lake, finally, Salt Creek splits into several other unnamed sources.

Recovering an urban waterway is no easy task, as it requires travel across both time and space. This tour, "Draining Paradise," attempts to render visible our everyday—yet hidden—lives, where water meets land. Because Salt Creek pays no heed to squared-off boundaries or cornered streets, and because property claims trump natural processes, it suffers neglect. In a city founded upon leisure—moreover, with a disenfranchised working class needed to produce that leisure—what counts as "nature" inevitably falls along social, economic, and racial lines. A continuing legacy of inequity shapes environmental priorities. Yet Salt Creek's history is complicated . Water quality intersects with social structures, though not in any simple or straightforward way. The words and conventions we use to describe natural beauty fill in few gaps, nor do current models of environmental justice fully apply. This aquatic system passes through several different neighborhoods—white and Black, rich and poor, protected and industrialized, through parts of town in clear neglect and others in good health. The social constructs fragment the hydrology until a citizenry can no longer see itself in nature. So how do we teach ourselves to see the parts as one whole? Can we come together as a community by cognitively remapping a forgotten stream? If so, what terms do we use? What's the storyline for a creek that has become a ditch?

I first stumbled upon my problem quite by accident, as an extension of my job as an English professor at the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus. I came to USF as a part-time instructor, tasked with developing a course called "Rivers of Florida." For several semesters, I ventured with students in canoes and kayaks onto the state's many spectacular wild and scenic rivers—traveling hours for peak nature experiences amid awesome alligators, long legged wading birds, and floodplains filled with cypress—waving trails of Spanish moss over the slick obsidian water. Despite the beauty of our surroundings, student essays from the "Rivers" classes were mostly pedestrian paeans to the "real Florida" and laments for a vanishing nature. Tired of burning class time and fossil fuels, and bored with cliché writing, I turned to nature close to home—Salt Creek, whose mouth empties right onto our campus.

As a white northern transplant, I have learned how a recovered past opens channels for seeing a difficult present. Every metropolitan area holds its own hydrologic history, buried or forgotten. What I offer in this short trip is a lesson in how cities render nature invisible; how what we count as nature is either valued or subject to abuse, and how those decisions follow social lines; and how past, present, and future landscapes intersect. To cross into our fragmented waterways, I must add, requires humility. The divisions rendered in our shaping of the natural world remain. And so the fundamental challenge: to come together, as one community, cleaning our rivers and streams, while at least recognizing—if not starting to heal—the rifts between us.

The creek's industrialization had begun. In 1913 the dredgers worked their way further up the channel, yoking the tidal "Salt Run" to Florida's violently enforced economic and social order. As standard histories recount, the area boomed through the first decades of the twentieth century, with a soggy landscape shaped to property developers who then marketed an affordable paradise for white tourists and transplants; this same paradise needed a labor force, and segregation shaped the landscape as much as the pleasures of outdoor leisure. An invisible line along Central had already divided the city into north (white) and south (African American) sides. African Americans moved to St. Petersburg in search of work and the city council sharpened boundaries where people of color could live. A 1931 charter amendment sought "to establish and set apart in said city separate residential limits or districts for White and negro residents." This redlining, impossible to enforce and revised many times, imprinted the city's demographics permanently, shaping everything from voter registration to school funding and supermarket locations.

Has the creek been subject to the same racial violence as Black bodies ? It depends on who you ask, though this much is true: segregation in St. Petersburg remains unfinished business. Redlining language remained in the city charter until 1963; through the Jim Crow era, three lynchings were reported in Pinellas County (low for bloody Florida); and various groups such as Pinellas Remembers (which successfully placed an Equal Justice Initiative marker at the site of a 1914 lynching) continue the important, uphill work of healing. Environmental and social histories undoubtedly intertwine—the question is "how?"

From its early boom years, access to nature came through a front and back door. North of Central Avenue, tourists enjoy Instagram-worthy waterfront parks, showcasing urban amenities alongside Tampa Bay. Today, these parks receive the overwhelming bulk of public funding and remain fiercely guarded by a proud citizenry. The adjacent working waterfront to the south was slated for industry, and set on a course for exploitation. Starting in the 1920s, city leaders commissioned engineering studies, supported business and secured federal money to construct an "industrial harbor." Salt Creek housed oil storage tanks (inevitable spills to follow) and just upstream, a dairy and flash-freeze seafood plants. As industry left in the 1970s, the creek would serve as a site for drugs and illegal sex and squatters, and now, for fast food and a Salvation Army support center. Locals recognize the creek (if at all) from a sharply-arched bridge over Third Street known as "Thrill Hill," or as the place where a sleeping homeless woman tumbled off a seawall and lost her arm to an alligator.

In the creek, I confront my own ambivalence towards Florida. I revel in the completely undeserved, over-the-top natural beauty. I also feel overmatched by the state's ugly, obdurate social history. When my own patience runs out, I drop a kayak near the mouth and make a favorite circuit. I enter by the harbor, paddle through the marina, then under the bridges at Third and Fourth Streets, into a hidden wilderness. Past the last dredge line, not far beyond the old trolley bridge, ice cream plant or seafood fast-freeze facility, the docks and crumbling piers give way to a mangrove tangle. Under Thrill Hill, Salt Creek is both wilder and more polluted. The paradox is striking, even in its own way, charismatic. The overlooked canopy serves as a bird sanctuary, where long legged waders roost and nest. Styrofoam and plastic bottles meld with mangrove prop roots. Fecal bacteria levels spike well past acceptable levels. We are still trying to figure out the cause—excrement from the street population, which the city pushed from parks in the tourist center to the poorer southside; guano, which accumulates in the concrete channel because seawalls and dam upstream block the tidal flow; or maybe broken sewer lines.

My route takes me roughly halfway to Lake Maggiore, mostly by industrialized lots left abandoned for speculation. Past the Dollar General and McDonalds, I push through the choking mangroves, then slip under another low-slung bridge at Eighteenth Avenue South. From here the creek opens into Bartlett Pond, a small aperture all but choked off due to overgrowth. I have seen snook roil below the black, murky surface. I've also seen a prize game fish, floating ominously on the surface of the muck. Osprey watch from their nests in the light posts by the athletic fields. Were it not for the hum of traffic, I could be in the 10,000 Islands of the Everglades. Instead I have found Nature in the heart of a city.

At Bartlett Park, tucked behind Twenty-Second Avenue and Fourth Street, Salt Creek opens into a muddy pool. This little pond adjoins two of St. Petersburg's main thoroughfares, but badly eutrophied and surrounded by mangroves, rarely merits a second look. My wife Julie has lived three blocks away and driven past Bartlett Park for twenty years, but did not know there was actually water behind the brush. A little fishing dock used to provide access on the east side, away from the street and from the park's interior. Vandals, or maybe the homeless on a cold night, burned the outer decking. Repairs to the dock then came slowly and were poorly done. After I called to complain, the parks department blocked off the charred sections, shortening the entire structure.

St. Petersburg and Pinellas County pride themselves on their parks, yet the allocation of amenities follows a classic script in inequity. A Pinellas County park map is literally a reverse image of racial demographics . Docks served by the county's white residents include ADA-compliant handrails, fish cleaning stations, and overhead shelters to protect visitors from the harsh sun or sudden rain. Residents in south St. Pete's poorer Black neighborhood instead get this charred shell, over an overgrown pond my spouse never even knew existed—where health officials deemed the water unsafe to fish or swim.

Economics and social history shape the landscape, but because the history is forgotten and on-the-ground-economics vanish into everyday life, that landscape is tough to read. Bartlett Park embodies this contradiction. Behind the stump of a dock, tennis balls thwock back and forth at the St. Petersburg Tennis Center . Founded in 1926, the municipal courts are a vestige from the early twentieth century, when the neighborhood afforded vacation cottages for winter residents and renting tourists. The court's location seems anomalous, though like every other chapter of the city's history, it can be explained through the local lodestars of leisure and race. The center serves as a throwback to St. Petersburg's peak years as a populist paradise, when white northerners suffering from cold found relief in the mild climate, bay breezes, the foliage, and sport.

The contradictions and shifting dynamics across time and space make Salt Creek difficult to explain. Lime green tennis balls lob over the chain link fence, down the sidewalk, and into the watershed. Environment and community relations cannot seem to find the same page. I struggle personally with my own blindness, fumbling with good intentions. After several years of my teaching along this waterway, graduate students culled together a self-produced book called Salt Creek Journal . During an Earth Day celebration at Bartlett Park, I palmed a copy of the paperback to my city council representative. She actually read the book, then convinced me to form a real group with the same name as the pedagogical fiction—Friends of Salt Creek. For several years, pulled into service, I led the group. We defined goals, calling ourselves a community group centered around nature, not so much preservationist. We met small, consistent successes. Foundation money flowed our way, though before we were logistically prepared to take on projects; we had a grant before we had a bank account. For clean ups, environmental groups like Tampa Bay Watch and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program (who do admirable work advocating for marine health) bring enthusiastic white volunteers from outside, though our constant reminder has been to build from within the neighborhood. The local Keep America Beautiful office wants to drop in cypress trees without asking people who live there.

Advocacy puts well intentioned theory to the test. We have to pull out the Thoreauvian "realometer." In our rhetoric and scholarly discourse, one might wax optimistic about bringing together environmental and social justice, building what my local Sierra Club chapter calls a "Black-Green" alliance. But in practice, we learn the hard way, starting by acknowledging the depth of the rift of our divides. We can get the grants but we cannot exact meaningful change. As a white-led group, Friends of Salt Creek seems to have a offered a strategic wedge for easy volunteerism; our group checked the box for "underserved community." Over summer 2021, we drew from a Tampa Bay Estuary Program grant to support an artist in residence program at the local community center. Four artists (two white, two African American) met under a central pavilion, working most closely with kids. The children here are predominantly Black, with many coming from foster homes. White kids go to tennis camp, steps away, taking after-school lessons for $200 per week. Kids from the adjacent Frank Pierce Center are not accustomed to access. The pavilion where we met backs onto the chain-link fences of the neatly rolled courts. At one point, a child passed a gate left open, usually locked, leading to the public court. "Wait," the child asked, "can we go in there?"

The same could be said for the pond. Our entry points to nature are shaped by economics, power, and race. The points of access disclose social boundaries. Where equivalent parks offered sheltered docks and piers, the only dock here is a burnt out stub. The city clears and maintains lakes in other parts of the city, opening code-compliant "windows" through the mangrove; here, the water remains hidden—out of sight and degraded.

The folly, this not-just-semantic amnesia, has been expensive. Newspapers chronicle a twenty or thirty year cycle of restoration and waste . Eutrophication, fish kill, dredge Crisis, quick fix, repeat. In 1940, ten years after construction of the new dam, the city's Evening Independent would report:

City sanitation crews were burying hundreds of pounds of dead mullet and trout along the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore where they washed up after being killed by what [is] believed to be excessive vegetation gases in the shallow waters of the lake.

The lake remains awash in contradiction, mismanaged and lexically confused. The dam along MLK seeks to split salt and fresh water. Circle south, past some houses, by a ­­fire station, and a mostly abandoned park. Spin further southwest and much of the land is sheltered by a beloved sanctuary, Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. Along the same tract, adjacent to the preserve, a city dump turns over mulch. At the base of Twenty-Second Street, historically the central corridor for St. Petersburg's African American population, sits a park. The north section fronts Maggiore Shores, originally a white neighborhood, then middle-to-upper-class Black, and today, increasingly white again. Each of the stakeholders holds a claim to the park—some smaller, some larger. Mostly white environmentalists aligned with Boyd Hill argue for removing the dam and restoring the ebb and flow of "Salt Lake." Older home owners in the Maggiore Shores neighborhood (to the north) want cattails around the edges cleared to improve their view; the current water management plan keeps salinity down and serves as flood protection. The only unifying factor is the cattails circling the lake, indicating low water quality. The common denominator is eutrophication; the argument is how to solve the problem. Renamed with a faux history, mispronounced, and managed against its natural flow, this once-tidal lake suffers from being something it is not.

On the south shore of the same Lake Maggiore, Salt Creek changes names (again). Then it disappears (again). The precise point of disappearance, ironically, occurs in a beloved nature park, Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, at one of the finest visual prospects in the entire city. A boardwalk on the Willow Marsh Trail faces North, towards downtown. Off in the distance, beyond the lake, cumulus clouds tower over one another, dramatically framing a vast blue horizon and restless skyline. Anhinga roost in a nearby island, and below, any number of species of ducks, moorhen and long-legged waders nudge through spatterdock and duckweed. Common sights are marsh rabbits and alligators, the mother gator often with her yellow-striped young brood. The visitor's map to the preserve marks this particular boardwalk as part of the Willow Marsh Trail, which presumably would make this area "Willow Marsh." Technically, the water forms part of a Salt Creek branch. Trail maps to the preserve, however, do not even mark a stream.

City nature has no place in a "nature preserve." At a point where an urban waterway should be most visible, even celebrated, the comedy of hide-and-seek intensifies. A waterway (now flowing due South) switches names. By the semantically confused lake, it disappears from the map altogether. Why? Because discursive "Nature" and the natural hydrology do not align. Near the Boyd Hill visitors center, hikers have unknowingly crossed Salt Creek. It is the little brook that trickles past an outdoor classroom, by the raptor rehabilitation center, and eventually reaches back to the edge of the nature preserve, where it runs under a chain link fence. Here, the creek becomes a culvert. And with subtle semantic shift, stewardship declines.

The aquatic thread snaps. We lose the connection. In a wealthy suburban neighborhood, the headwaters of Salt Creek runs through a maze of backyard overgrowth, accessible only with permission. To trace the creek now is to trespass. Care falls to individual whim or the conscience of private owners. One particularly zealous environmentalist has dutifully planted native cypress in the bottom, hoping to stabilize the sandy banks and restore habitat; elsewhere, the low-lying area remains mostly a jungle of invasive taro and wild ginger. Further south, where the planner John Nolen proposed a green corridor along the area's natural swale, the St. Petersburg Country Club has engineered the creek's headwaters into a series of water hazards for its golf course. Landscapers mow up to the edges of the artificial ponds along the golf course's back nine.

Again, the aquatic thread splits. There are actually two larger branches feeding Lake Maggiore, the second no easier to trace. In its western course, the stream feeds a lake from a city tract along Dell Holmes Park. From here, it runs due West down a channel, where it parallels a public golf driving range. Canoes and kayaks rarely paddle this channel. The alligators are unusually large. One could go missing here altogether. If I am to put in at Lake Maggiore, I double check my life preserver.

The unnamed, culverted west branch cuts anonymously across public land. I can paddle upstream, with a city mulch processing plant to the left, and a drop-off site for brush to the right. The stream parallels the east-west running Twenty-Sixth Avenue South. Chain-link divides the landfill and private property, in this case two of the more prosperous historically Black churches in the city—St. Augustine's Episcopal and McCabe United Methodist. The location of these churches, or more accurately their relocation , figures into the last half century of city history. Both congregations served Jim Crow neighborhoods closer to the center of town, the middle class Campbell Park and poorer Gas Plant communities. Both neighborhoods were razed in the 1970s and 80s. Following a national trend, in which federal roads targeted Black areas, Interstate i-175 cut the Campbell Park neighborhood in half, running straight over homes where pillars of the African American community lived.

Ten years later, as if by design, the city razed the Gas Plant in the name of urban renewal, leveling a neighborhood to construct a domed stadium. The Tampa Bay Rays (Raze?) now play in the dome, Tropicana Field. But the team's owners (buttressed by city government and a newspaper that depends upon sports for daily copy) declare the thirty-year-old dome obsolete. Once again, the area awaits real estate redevelopment, with little probable return for the people displaced under the banner of "urban renewal" and promises to "get it right." St. Augustine's Episcopal relocated during the 1970s, moving from property now near the interstate, away from a community that has since scattered, and rebuilding on the rich soil of a former nursery near the head of Salt Creek's long swale.

Where the creek ends remains an open question. According to an environmentalist friend who lives along the south shores of Lake Maggiore, the creek was historically sheet flow, tracing without record or immediate course through pine flatwoods. If I push a kayak further west, past Lake Eli, I trace the drainage ditch, almost to the churches that run along Twenty-Sixth Avenue. Just north of an arrow-straight culvert alongside the parking lot of McCabe United Methodist, the stream unceremoniously ends. The culvert takes a sharp turn at the boundary of church and city land, then runs north, along a straight ditch to north-south running Twenty-Sixth Street. On the other side of the street, Salt Creek finally disappears into underground maze of sewers. And from there, who knows?

Conclusion—Fragmented Headwaters

McCabe's presence at the headwaters embodies a painful chapter of St. Petersburg's history. The congregation of this century old church coalesced around segregated areas, along the eastern edge of the Gas Plant neighborhood. The congregants built the former church themselves, laying their spiritual home on the Black side of a segregation boundary. The interstate and dome destroyed the old structure, and today, the site is now a nondescript concrete parking garage. The current pastor, Reverend Jana Perkins-Hall, speaks clearly of the betrayal:

Black people got together, during that particular time of economic disenfranchisement, pooled their resources and physically built, brick by brick, this place of worship. They were there for fifty years before they were relocated . . . For what?

About the Author

Thomas Hallock received his PhD from New York University. He is the author of From the Fallen Tree: Frontier Narratives, Environmental Politics and the Roots of a National Pastoral, 1749–1826 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003) and the co-editor of  Early Modern Ecostudies: From the Florentine Codex to Shakespeare (New York: Palgrave Macmilian, 2008),  William Bartram, the Search for Nature's Design: Selected Art, Letters and Unpublished Manuscripts (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), and Travels on the St. Johns River: John and William Bartram (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2016). He recently published a series of travel and place-based essays that explain why he loves teaching the American literature survey, A Road Course in Early American Literature : Travel and Teaching from Atzlán  to Amherst (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2022).

Berkes, Fikret. Sacred Ecology . Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2017.

Cunsolo, Ashlee, and Neville R. Ellis. "Ecological Grief as a Mental Health Response to Climate Change-Related Loss." Nature Climate Change 8, no. 4 (2018): 275-281.

Gieryn, Thomas F. "A Space for Place in Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 26, no. 1 (2000): 463-496.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Whiston Spirn, Anne. "Restoring Mill Creek: Landscape Literacy, Environmental Justice and City Planning and Design." Landscape Research 30, no. 3 (2005): 395-413.

Cunsolo, Ashlee and Kiemia Rezagian. " Ecological Grief: The Mental Toll of the Climate Emergency ." The Canadian Climate Institute. July 10, 2021. https://climateinstitute.ca/ecological-grief/.

Ellis, Neville and Ashlee Cunsolo. " Hope and Mourning in the Anthropocene: Understanding Ecological Grief ." The Conversation. April 4, 2018. https://theconversation.com/hope-and-mourning-in-the-anthropocene-understanding-ecological-grief-88630.

Hallock, Thomas. " This Map Details Florida's Disappearing Native American Landscape ."   Smithsonian . September 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/map-details-florida-disappearing-landscape-180978364/.

Plumer, Brad and Nadja Popovich. " How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering ." The New York Times. August 24, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-global-warming.html.

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• Salt Creek Dive Tour

Salt Creek is a shore accessible salt water dive site, located in Port Angeles, WA with a maximum depth of over 60 fsw and average visibility of 15-20 ft. Explore the wonders of Salt Creek with our Dive Tour. Book your unforgettable adventure now!

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• Service Duration: 03:00 Hours
• Address: 3506 Camp Hayden Rd, Port Angeles, WA 98363 ( Map )
• More Info: State Park requiring a Discover Pass or day use fee paid directly to the park.

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Description.

Salt Creek Recreation Area is located on the Northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula and considered by many to be the best dive site in Washington. The park consists of 196 acres and 90 campsites and houses many fortified bunkers from a World War II defense site. Underwater you will find: wolf eels, telia anemones, sculpin, sea cucumbers, sponges, and urchins, along with a kelp forest. This is no ordinary kelp bed, it is thick, dynamic and exciting to navigate through and houses lots of sea life. The bottom contour mimics the rocky shore, and comprises shelves, channels, overhangs and large boulders all covered in colorful invertebrates.

The entry and exit can be a bit tricky when there is any amount of surf. Surge can be very strong during these times and there is the possibility of being tossed up on the rocks. Recommended for advanced divers only.

The site also offers restrooms, showers and campsites for tents and RVs.

It is recommended to dive this site as part of a multi day package to get the most of out of diving the Olympic Peninsula area.

Warm non alcoholic beverages and snacks are provided during surface intervals. If you have any allergies or food restrictions let us know prior to the tour.

What to bring: 

• Diver certification card
• Scuba and exposure gear (wet or drysuit)
• Surface exposure gear (hat, jacket, sunglasses)
• Dry clothing for post dive

Each certified diver is required to book separately in order for us to remain compliant with the training and insurance agency.

To cancel a reserved guided tour, you must provide at least 24 hours notice. No shows will be charged a fee equal to the group size of their reservation.

Please note scuba equipment is not included with the dive tour. Please reserve your equipment in advance through our partner Lighthouse Scuba of Tacoma over the phone or when booking your tour.

Dive site address:  3506 Camp Hayden Rd Port Angeles, WA 98363

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Salt Creek Recreation Area Guide (15 FUN Things to Do!)

Curious if Salt Creek Recreation Area is worth visiting?

I RV camp at Salt Creek Campground almost every year with my husband, and I never tire of this incredible place.

In this article, I share fifteen fun things to do at Salt Creek. I even share what not to do! 

This ultimate guide also includes insider tips–I’ll tell you which campsites are the best based on my firsthand experience–and answers frequently asked questions.

Let’s go!

Why Salt Creek is Worth Visiting

With so much to see within the national park, I understand why places outside its borders may not make it onto a visitor’s Olympic National Park itinerary.

But one of Salt Creek’s most attractive qualities is that it’s only a two-hour drive from the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal, the beginning of your driving journey after leaving Seattle.

Getting to Rialto Beach takes another hour, which adds two hours of total drive time to your park tour.

To be clear, Rialto Beach is worth the extra driving.

But for those who would rather spend those two hours recreating, Salt Creek is an alternative destination offering 196 acres of outdoor activities and beach adventures.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Crescent Bay features the best beach in Port Angeles. This stunning sandy beach and its remarkable sea stack are the prime reasons we return to RV camp here.

This recreation area also features the vestiges of Camp Hayden, part of our nation’s coastal defense system during World War II.

Stay at least one night if camping is an option, to give yourself time to explore the different coastlines and terrains here.

Best things to do at Salt Creek Recreation Area

1. camp at salt creek campground.

Quick and easy access to the beach along Crescent Bay is the main reason to camp here.

Campsites are located on a bluff overlooking the water. After a short walk down a flight of steps, you arrive at the rocky shoreline and breathtaking sights of Washington’s rugged and wild coast.

I’ve included an entire section on Salt Creek Campground in this guide below.

2. Take a walk along Crescent Bay

With its dramatic bluffs and a forest that ends where the sand begins, Crescent Bay captures all that is unique about Olympic Peninsula beaches.

When the tide is low, you’ll see an abundance of mussels, along with sea kelp and bullwhips.

This dynamic beach teems with activity, from eagles flying overhead, crabs scurrying across the sand, or windsurfers providing free entertainment.

We’ve even seen a baby seal pup here! More about that story is below.

TIP: For the best experience possible, check the tide chart to explore at low tide.

3. Explore Crescent Bay’s sea stack

At low tide, you can walk to a sea stack adorned with evergreen trees and other vegetation to explore around it. I don’t recommend climbing onto the sea stack because it may not be safe, and it’s a refuge for wildlife.

The most important thing to remember is to watch the tide as it comes in. 

RELATED POST: Guide to Crescent Beach WA (RV Park Review & Things to Do!)

4. Explore Tongue Point Marine Life Sanctuary

Tongue Point Marine Life Sanctuary is a strip of land similar in shape to a tongue that juts out from the coastline. It’s rocky, so wear sturdy footwear with good traction.

The tide pools here are fun to explore, but the activity I love most at Tongue Point is simply looking out onto the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We sit on the rocks close to the steps and watch the ocean waves. It’s a perfect spot to watch the sunset.

Salt Creek’s shoreline is a designated Marine Life Sanctuary. Marine sanctuaries help to protect and preserve important habitats. Please be careful where you walk and do not disturb the ecosystems you observe.

5. See marine mammals and wildlife (maybe even whales!)

One year, we saw a seal pup stranded on the rocky shoreline. My instinct was to help it back into the water, but a ranger was on-site to ensure visitors did not disturb it. She speculated that it was time for this pup to learn how to swim and forage on its own.

We stayed to watch it even after she left. Of course, humans being humans, a family with energetic young boys got too close to the pup and probably scared it. 

The Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits humans from touching and interfering with seals. If you see a seal on a shoreline, stay 300-ft away. Give it space!

Many campers have reported seeing whales from the numerous cliffs, trails, and viewing points at Salt Creek.

6. Hike to a small waterfall on your way to a hidden cove

We’ve never hiked the entire Striped Peak Trail. Instead, we always take the trail to the left at the fork, Cove Trail.

Aptly named, Cove Trail takes you to a cove.

Before you arrive at the cove, you’ll walk along a trail lined with large rocks covered in lush moss. Then you’ll pass a small waterfall surrounded by ferns and other native plants.

What’s remarkable is how quiet this hidden cove is when the campgrounds are full, and crowds gather on the beach.

We’ve had this cove all to ourselves on two occasions, and we relished our time beachcombing, taking photos, and simply sitting and enjoying the view. 

7. Hike Striped Peak Trail

The trail’s mileage and elevation gain depends on how you hike it and which resource you use for guidance.

Hike it as an out-and-back trail (using AllTrails ) or a loop trail (using Washington Trails Association ). You’ll hike 5 – 7.5 miles with approximately 1000 – 1200 ft of elevation gain.

I recommend trekking poles, especially during the rainy seasons when the trail gets slick and muddy. You may encounter downed trees that you can step over.

Enjoy views of Vancouver Island, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Olympic Mountains along the trail on a clear day.

8. Explore Salt Creek tide pools and marine life

We’ve been coming here for about a decade, and our tide pooling experiences here have always been incredible.

You’ll see rock faces covered with barnacles, bright green sea anemones, tons and tons of mussels, and sea stars.

9. Explore WWII bunkers

Camp Hayden was established in 1941 and abandoned by the U.S. Army only seven years later.

The landscape has taken over the old bunkers here, adding to their interestingness.

There’s even two bunkers that you can drive through.

10. Kayak or SUP

We’ve camped here in early spring, the height of summer, and late fall in varying weather.

Sometimes, the water is calm; sometimes, the waves are unruly. Calmer water provides excellent conditions for kayaking or stand-up paddling.

11. Surf or windsurf

The wind can kick up here. And when it does, this is a fantastic place to surf.

We once watched in awe as a windsurfer navigated around Crescent Bay’s massive sea stack. I was nervous watching him because I thought he might head straight into the sea stack. Thankfully, he did not!

Note that the water here is frigid, so wear a wetsuit.

12. Play volleyball, basketball or softball

The kids will not get bored here—a volleyball court, basketball court, and softball field round out the playground area.

13. Play horseshoe

Next to the playground area is a designated horseshoe pit. Bring your own set of horseshoes to ensure that you can play.

You may even see horses here; hikers sometimes report sharing the trail with them.

14. Walk along the creek

Salt Creek snakes its way onto the beach, where you can walk alongside it while marveling at the beach’s forested cliffs.

15. Host a picnic, BBQ or day event

On our way to the hiking trails, we saw groups gather at the day-use reservable picnic shelter.

The day-use shelter area costs $100 per day and includes tables, a sink with hot water, electrical outlets and an electric cooktop, barbeque grills, and a fireplace.

What NOT to do

I’ve watched from afar while people grabbed sea stars from tide pools here, bagged them up, and took them away, and I regret that I did not dare to stop them.

I wish this did not have to be said, but please do not take any marine life from the tide pools or beaches.

Clallam County legislation prohibits all harvesting or removing marine life, including clams, mussels, oysters, sea stars, and anemones. 

Where is Salt Creek

Salt Creek is located on the Strait of Juan de Fuca side of the Olympic Peninsula, just twenty minutes west of downtown Port Angeles, outside the boundaries of Olympic National Park.

How to Get to Salt Creek

Traveling to Salt Creek from Seattle is an adventure in itself.

I recommend taking a thirty-minute ferry ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island . Washington State Ferries are clean, comfortable, and spacious.

Head to the deck on a clear day to see incredible  Mount Rainier views . 

The drive from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal is roughly two hours and enjoyable, particularly after crossing the Hood Canal Floating Bridge.

The Hood Canal Floating Bridge opens for boats. Check the status of the bridge here.

Once you’re over the bridge, it won’t be long until you’re on US-101, the highway that loops around Olympic National Park.

If you have a few extra hours, take a detour to walk the beach at the Dungeness Spit in Sequim, a great introduction to Olympic Peninsula beaches. 

TIP: Stock up on food and drinks at Country Aire Natural Foods in Port Angeles.

Salt Creek Camp ground

Salt Creek Campground is run by Clallam County Parks and is open year-round.

92 RV and tent-only sites are available: first-come, first-serve, and reservable sites. The camp host will tell you that it’s always possible a spot will be available, even if it’s peak season.

Tent camping sites (no hookups) are $45 per night. RV sites are $55 per night. If you’re a Clallam County resident, you’ll pay $35 for campsites and $40 for utility sites.

Note that you’ll be charged a $15 non-refundable reservation fee.

You can only make reservations for camping trips between February 1st and October 1st at least seven days in advance.

Salt Creek Campground’s reservation system opens on January 1st for the same calendar year. Make your summer reservations in January to ensure you secure a campsite!

RV sites are close to one another and don’t offer much room or privacy, but the upside is that full hookups are available, and there’s much to explore outside of your camp spot.

Without a doubt, Salt Creek Campground is an excellent place to camp. 

The bathrooms and showers here are clean and tidy. The grounds are well-kept, and walking paths connect all the different areas.

➥ TOP CAMPSITE PICKS:

Standard campsite 58 is above the water and next to steps that lead down to a rocky beach. The view is incredible, and you can enjoy a fire with an ocean view. A smaller RV can be parked here, but come prepared to level your RV. Standard campsites 76, 77, 78, 82, 84, and 86 are along Bluff Trail, which offers fantastic views and quick access to Crescent Beach.

Salt Creek Area Hotels: Where to Stay if Camping is Not an Option

Nearest cabins.

Crescent Beach & RV Park is just minutes away from Salt Creek. But only two cabins are available here, along with tent sites and RV sites.

Downtown Port Angeles is twenty minutes away and offers hotels for every budget.

Best Budget Spot

Super 8 by Wyndham is well-maintained and clean. I’ve stayed in their Efficiency Room, which is like a small apartment, and would stay again.

Best Mid-Range Spot

Olympic Lodge by Ayres is the best hotel in the downtown Port Angeles area. The customer service here is excellent.

Salt Creek Weather

Dry or dry-ish weather is essential to take advantage of all the outdoor activities offered here.

Your best chance for dry weather is from late June to early September.

If you plan to visit in an RV, stormy winter weather on Washington’s coast is exciting if you’re prepared with the proper gear.

And foggy, misty, or overcast weather can add a moody feel to Olympic Peninsula destinations.

What to Pack

No matter the season, be prepared for cool and rainy weather.

✔ JACKET – A zip-up softshell jacket with a hood is always a good idea in case the wind kicks up. I recommend finding a zip-up jacket made of fabric that breathes well and wicks away moisture.

✔ RAIN GEAR – A Gore-Tex jacket is essential when visiting this region, no matter the time of year.

✔ STURDY SHOES – Wear sneakers with good tread. A step above that would be hiking shoes. The rocky shoreline can get slick, and sturdy shoes are a necessity.

Salt Creek FAQs

🐶 are dogs allowed at salt creek.

Yes! Dogs are allowed at Salt Creek. They must remain on a leash that is no longer than 8-feet. 

💻 Does Salt Creek Campground have Wi-Fi?

No. Salt Creek Campground does not offer Wi-Fi.

I’ve found that my AT&T service is unreliable here. Sometimes I can log into Instagram and post photos. But more often than not, I’m not able to.

Wrap-Up: Salt Creek Recreation Area & Campground

There’s no better place on the Olympic Peninsula for camping, hiking, tide-pooling, and many other outdoor activities than this incredible recreation area.

If you’re planning a national park tour, I highly recommend stopping at this destination just outside its borders to discover why locals love it.

Meeshka is the founder of Sand & Elevation. Living between two mountain ranges - the Olympics and the Cascades - she spends her free time in the mountains and on the coast, hiking, climbing, and exploring the outdoors. Meeshka helps other nature-loving adventurers by writing comprehensive guides to the Pacific Northwest's best destinations.

301 Salt Creek Lane,  Mexico Beach, FL 32456

Single Family

Jeff M Swayze

Dr Horton Realty Of Emerald Coast, LLC.

Last updated:

September 24, 2024, 07:37 PM

About This Home

Introducing Salt Creek, the newest townhouse development in Mexico Beach. Salt Creek is located right on the edge of Bay County, you will find beautiful beaches of the Gulf of Mexico within walking distance, and local restaurants and shopping close by. These homes offer easy access to Tyndall Air Force Base (just a 15-minute drive), Panama City Beach (30 minutes away), and downtown Port St. Joe (only 20 minutes away). This is a 4 bedroom, 2.5-bathroom townhome. On the outside of these units, you will see quality Color-Plus Hardie Board exteriors, complemented by prairie-style doors and 30-year dimensional shingles. Convenience meets security with steel garage doors equipped with openers, weatherproof outlets, hose bibs, and Kwikset deadbolts on all exterior doors. As you enter inside, you will feel right at home with beautiful EVP flooring at your feet, leading you to the open living room and kitchen or the spacious upstairs. In the kitchen and bathroom, you will find gorgeous quartz countertops, beautiful white cabinetry with brushed nickel hardware, and stainless-steel appliances in the kitchen. Stay cool at the beach with energy-efficient cooling and heating systems, Low-E insulated windows with screens, and water-saving elongated commodes. For added security, every home comes equipped with a Safe Haven Surveillance system, Skybell doorbell, Honeywell thermostat, and DEAKO Smart Switches. Rest assured with a one-year builder's warranty and a ten-year structural warranty. Escape the hustle and bustle with a peaceful community atmosphere free from heavy traffic and short-term rentals.

Built in 2024

Price Summary

$216 per Sq. Ft.

Last Updated:

21 day(s) ago

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1,710 Sq. Ft.

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Salt Creek Golf Club (Chicago)

Salt Creek Golf Club

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Tee times are now available up to 7 days in advance!

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Happily ever after starts at Salt Creek!

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Charity event? Corporate gathering? We can’t wait to hear from you.

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Feeling hungry? Our bar and grill is not to be missed!

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IT’S YOUR SHOT!

Grab your clubs, & get over to the golf course.

Whether you’re playing 9 or 18 holes of golf, our  Executive Golf Course  is a perfect choice. Set amidst gently rolling terrain, mature trees, and beautiful ponds, Salt Creek’s 3,985 yards, par 63-course challenges players of all skill levels with tree-lined fairways and strategically placed sand bunkers. Afterward, you can unwind with your friends in our popular The Bar & Grill with a refreshing drink or a delicious meal.

Salt Creek Golf Club is open 7-days a week, year-round, weather-permitting *

Private Events (weddings, retirement parties, baby showers)

Corporate Events (team outings, charity tournaments, executive gatherings)

1051 N PROSPECT AVE. WOOD DALE, IL 60191 Site A (630) 773-0184

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Casa Cayuco Eco Adventure Lodge +

Salt Creek Community Tour

Celebrations and traditions, Traditional knowledge, Aquatic life, Forests and mangroves

One of the most exciting and important aspects of Casa Cayuco’s eco-experience is getting to know the people and customs of Salt Creek. The local indigenous village is home to all the lodge employees and their families. It’s a very special place and the most integral part of Casa Cayuco's mission. Included with every stay is a short guided tour and boat transfer through Salt Creek’s mangrove channel.

Your accommodation

Casa Cayuco Eco Adventure Lodge

The accommodation package includes the stay, full board (3 meals) and round-trip transportation from Bocas Town for 2 guests. Nestled at the edge of the jungle, just a few steps from the beach, this remote location offers guests the opportunity to truly get away. Be part of the adventure while cultivating harmony with the planet, local community, and those around you. Their six spacious rooms sleep between two and six guests. Every one offers a slightly different experience, either nestled in the jungle or overlooking the sea, adjacent to the main lodge. All rooms are built in an open-air style that gives you the impression that you are outside.

Amenities and services

• Electricity 24h
• Outdoor Area

Your Activity

Available experience

• Mosquito net

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Other information

English, Spanish

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Bank transfer, Cash, Paypal

Cancellation policy

Reservations made on Vaolo are subject to a standard cancellation policy. Here are the fees that apply in the case of a cancellation or a no-show on the part of the traveler.

No cancellation fees. Travellers can cancel their reservation free of charge up to 7 days before their arrival date.

Travellers must pay 50% of the first night's stay and 50% of the first day's activity.

Travellers must pay 100% of the first night's stay and 100% of the first day's activity.

Getting there

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Travel Guide

Email signup, trail guide, book your next meeting in greater phoenix, the salt river.

Arizona's iconic Salt River has been a source of innovation and recreation for Greater Phoenix residents area for thousands of years. The 200-mile river provides much of the water supply for Greater Phoenix, thanks to canals, pipelines and reservoirs — the latter of which creates many of the  nearby lakes that we enjoy: Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt lakes all act as reservoirs for the Salt River. 

The best-known segment of the river (formally the Lower Salt River ) is located about 40 minutes from downtown Phoenix in Mesa, where visitors and locals go mainly for two reasons: tubing and wild horses. We'll tell you everything you need to know to enjoy your experience on the river, including what to bring, when to go and other things to do. 

Because the Lower Salt River is located in the Tonto National Forest, you will need to purchase a recreational day pass to explore the area. Passes, which cost $8, can be purchased at multiple stores and gas stations throughout Greater Phoenix, as well as directly on site. Find nearby gas stations in the map below.

Salt River Tubing

Salt river kayaking, salt river wild horses.

Spending a day tubing the Lower Salt River is easily one of the most popular summer activities in the Greater Phoenix area. You'll see a mix of families, couples and friends bringing along waterproof speakers, coolers filled with plenty of drinks and snacks, and everything else you need to enjoy the real-life lazy river. For tubing pros, you'll notice groups have their tubes tied together with rope to make sure they don't get separated. 

Arizona's Salt River Tubing & Recreation

Arizona's Salt River Tubing & Recreation is your one-stop shop to experience some Salt River tubing. The service — which operates from May to September — provides you with a rental tube to float in as well as a shuttle to drop you off and pick you up for $19 (plus tax). Rentals are available daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (The rental services is open until 6 p.m. to return tubers on the shuttle.)

9200 N. Bush Highway, Mesa 480-984-3305 saltrivertubing.com

Go Tubing Independently

If you'd prefer to avoid the crowds, fees and occasional wait times, you can always opt to go Salt River tubing independently. You'll need to bring your own inner tube, of course, but you'll also need to bring two cars — leave one parked at your starting point and the other parked at your ending point — otherwise you might be in for a long walk. 

There are six recreation sites with parking lots along the Lower Salt River (Arizona's Salt River Tubing & Recreation stops at four of them):  Water Users , Blue Point , Goldfield , Coon Bluff ,  Phon D Sutton  and  Granite Reef .

While tubing brings the majority of river guests, there are plenty of people who enjoy kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) along the Lower Salt River. The river is perfect for either experienced or first-timer paddlers, since you can just let the river's current gently lead you downstream and enjoy the views. Most kayakers and paddleboarders opt for early morning river rides for several reasons: you can beat the heat, avoid the tubing crowds, and increase your chances of spotting the area's famed wild horses (more on that below).

Like tubing, kayaking and paddleboarding along the Lower Salt River can be done independently or with a guide. Check out REI Co-op Experiences or Riverbound Sports Paddle Co. , who schedule guided tours as well as provide rentals. For those who are looking for something a bit more extreme, Arizona Rafting hosts whitewater rafting tours further north in the Salt River Canyon.

Paddling the Salt River

A leisurely float puts river goers up close to wild mustangs, blue herons and bald eagles.

As if the beautiful scenery surrounding the Lower Salt River wasn't enough, one of the most jaw-dropping sights found along an 18-mile stretch of the river are the wild horses — also known as mustangs — who call the river home. The horses roam along the banks where many visitors kayak and tube, and can easily be spotted along your route, depending on the time of day. 

Where did the Salt River wild horses come from?

Research suggests that the wild horses are descendants of Spanish horses, brought to Arizona in the 17th century by Spanish missionary Father Eusebio Kino. The Tonto National Forest was established in 1902, and the horses had long been living in the area by then. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that there are less than 500 wild horses remaining in Arizona. 

Though it is not a native species, the wild horses are protected under the Salt River Horse Act, enacted into law in 2016. 

Where can I see Salt River wild horses?

You can spot the wild horses throughout the 18-mile stretch of the Lower Salt River that encompasses the six recreation areas, but historically, the horses are most commonly seen at spots close to Saguaro Lake, including Phon D. Sutton Recreation Area, Granite Reef Recreation Area and Coon Bluff Recreation Area. 

Because the horses are looking to avoid the summer heat and cool off as much as we area, they are most often seen within two to three hours of sunrise and sunset, when the weather is cooler. If you go out for an early morning kayak or float, you'll most likely spot a few along your ride. 

Remember, these horses are wild animals. Make sure to be respectful of their space, not to feed them, and if you've brought your dog along, make sure it's leashed and doesn't approach the horses. 

How long does it take to go down the Salt River? 

Depending on where you start and stop, it takes anywhere from two to six hours to venture down the lower Salt River.  

Is Salt River safe to swim in? 

You can swim in the Salt River, but be aware that the water is not as clean as your typical swimming pool because of all the folks and animals who use the river daily. If you do decide to swim, try to avoid ingesting any water. 

Are there rapids?

The Lower Salt River is primarily Class I rapids, one of which can approach Class II during certain flow rates. If it's Class III and IV rapids you're after, you'll find world-class whitewater recreation on the Upper Salt River. Please note: Although the names are very similar, these two segments of the river are very different and the Lower Salt River is perfect for all skill levels. Something you can do to make sure you're prepared for any rapids is keep an eye on kayakers and tubers ahead of you to see where the flow of water is going. 

Is the Salt River dangerous? 

The Salt River is not dangerous, but you should still prepare for an outdoor adventure. Here’s some things you’ll likely need: 

Water shoes: the river is not all that deep, so your feet will touch the riverbed at some point. It can be rocky and mossy, so have some shoes that can handle that terrain. 

Sunscreen: chances are you're going to the river during summer, and as you know, it gets hot! Make sure you have plenty of sunscreen and apply it often.

Water: even though the Salt River can be a leisurely ride, it's still important to hydrate and have plenty of water. 

Dry bag or waterproof storage: you don't want your phone to get wet! Have something with you to make sure it stays dry so you can get some sweet photos.  

A sheet or large towel: Wet it and drape it over your tube for a comfy barrier between your skin and the hot black rubber of the tubes.

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Salt Creek Prairie Salt Creek Fight and Warren Wagon Train Massacre

Michael Trevis

Michael has a BA in History & American Studies and an MSc in American History from the University of Edinburgh. He comes from a proud military family and has spent most of his career as an educator in the Middle East and Asia. His passion is travel, and he seizes any opportunity to share his experiences in the most immersive way possible, whether at sea or on the land.

Part of our in-depth series exploring the forts of Comancheria

Brit Johnson/Turtle Hole Fight | Cottonwood Springs | Overland Stage Near Salt Creek | Salt Creek Fight | Salt Creek Fight/Second Story | Satanta, Satauk (Satank) and Big Tree Arrested | Sherman Arrests Kiowa Chiefs at Fort Sill | Trial of Kiowa Chiefs, Satanta and Big Tree | Warren Wagon Train Massacre | Indian's Account of Warren Wagon Train Massacre

Picture from the book, Encyclopedia of Indian Wars , by Gregory F. Michno.

Salt creek fight, w.c. "uncle billy" kutch at monument on the site of the salt creek indian battle. it is between jean and olney, about one mile north of highway..

The following story is W.C. Kutch's first-hand acount of the Salt Creek Fight taken from the book, History of Jack County , by Thomas F. Horton.

During this battle we had lost two hundred cattle, thirty-one head of horses, the pack mule, all our bedding, our provisions, and our ammunition was just about out when the fight ended.

Salt Creek Fight/Second Story

Further Ref: History of Young Co ., by Judge P.A. Martin, as published in the Graham paper, and W.C. Kutch's own account of this fight, as published in the Star-Telegram and Graham paper. Clippings from these papers were furnished by J.B. Terrell, but we are unable to supply the date.

Overland Stage Near Salt Creek

On May 31, 1870 the Overland Stage was attacked near Salt Creek, eight miles east of the old Fort Belknap. The driver was killed and the mail was carried off. From signs of the body, evidently death was caused by bullets. The Indians were believed to have been Kiowas.

General W.T. Sherman's Tour of Inspection

The Federal authorities in Washington, who held the Whip of State, were exceedingly slow to offer necessary relief in suppressing Indian depredations along the West Texas frontier. The delay, which cost hundreds of lives of all ages, was, perhaps, partly occasioned by the constant clang of writers and citizens in the east and north who were urging more peaceful and benevolent relations with the Indians; criticizing the early frontiersman for defending their just rights. They were often charging that a great per cent or a majority of the Indian depredations were being done by outlaws and renegade whites who were disguised as Indians. Even, today, many citizens and scholars hold that view.

While the authorities and people in the east and north were urging peaceful relations with the Indians, and the establishment of more treaties, which were invariably disregarded, the savages were slaying men, women, and children along the West Texas frontier. But the pleadings and prayers of the early pioneers were continually being sent to Washington urging better protection. Finally their prayers and petitions bore fruit, but not until many citizens had been slain. Gen. Sherman made a tour of inspection for the purpose of ascertaining, if possible, the true state of affairs on the frontier. As we shall later see, Gen. Sherman's trip was made at an opportune time.

He was accompanied by Inspector General, R.B. Marcy, who conveyed the old California trail in '49, the Red River to its sources in '52, and helped survey the Indian Reservation in '54.

They reached Galveston, April 24, 1871, and four days later arrived in San Antonio, the historic old metropolis of the Southwest. While Sherman and his command passed through Boerne, then described as a town of a dozen houses, a discharged soldier, who conducted the local school, informed Gen. Sherman he was obliged to go constantly armed on account of the hostile Indians. The following day, Gen. Sherman, Gen. Marcy, and their associates reached Fredericksburg, then a town of 1000 inhabitants. May 5 they passed Mason, where a very few German families were then living. The following day, the command camped at Mendarville, then described as "A village of three houses and a small store, located one mile from the old Spanish Fort San Saba, a large structure of solid masonry." From here, the command proceeded to Fort McKavett, and reached Kickapoo Springs May 9. According to General Sherman's report, this spring was a mail station, where a picket of four soldiers was kept, and noted for Indian attacks. May 10, the command passed through Fort Concho, and then proceeded to old Fort Chadbourne which was reached two days later. From Ft. Chadbourne, the command passed through the ruins of old Fort Phantom Hill May 13, reached Ft. Griffin May 14; and old Ft. Belknap, May 16. The post was then, of course, deserted, but General Sherman ordered that a detachment of troops be sent from Ft. Richardson to these old government buildings, for Indians had been troublesome in the vicinity. May 17, they reached Ft. Richardson at Jacksboro. In describing the day's journey, the report said:

"We passed immense herds of cattle today, which are allowed to run wild upon the prairies, and they multiply very rapidly. The only attention the owners give them is to brand the calves and occasionally go out to see where they range. The remains of several ranches were observed, the occupants of which have either been killed or driven off to the more dense settlements, by the Indians. Indeed, this rich and beautiful section does not contain, today, (May 17th, 1871) as many white people as it did when I (Gen. Marcy) visited it eighteen years ago, and if the Indian marauders are not punished, the whole country seems to be in a fair way of becoming totally "depopulated."

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier , by Joseph Carroll McConnell.

Warren Wagon Train Massacre

The following story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier , by Joseph Carroll McConnell.

William Tecumseh Sherman, General of the Army, traveled north on an inspection tour of the forts. He was accompanied by Inspector General Randolph B. Marcy, who had been retained by United States government twenty years prior for several explorations, including, blazing a southern route to Santa Fe, locating the head waters of the Brazos and the Red Rivers and, with Major Neighbors, establishing suitable locations for the Indian Reservations. Sherman and Marcy were accompanied by two staff members and only fifteen calvary men.

Mackenzie dispatched his Adjutant, R.G. Carter, and a detachment to intercept and escort the General and his party. This precaution was prudent, considering the 80 plus miles the party traveled between Ft. Griffin and Ft. Richardson, at its midpoint, crossed the Salt Creek Prairie, considered one of the most dangerous places on the entire United States frontier. These were the closest settlements to the Indian Territory (United States Indian Policy did not allow pursuit of the Indians onto the Reservations) so they were not only most convenient targets of short raids, but also the first and last targets of opportunity for longer raids.

Sherman gracefully declined Carter's assistance indicating an air of nonchalance which suited his political philosophy about the degree of danger presented by Indians. When Marcy pointed out to Sherman that the area was dramatically less inhabited than it was when he had passed through there twenty years prior, Sherman pointed out the houses were spaced far apart and did not indicate serious concern on the part of the builders for Indian defense.

Sherman believed a large portion of the raiders to be ex-Confederate renegades, and he had written to General J.J. Reynolds, commander of the department of Texas:

"I have seen not a trace of an Indian thus far, and only hear stories of people which indicate that what ever Indians there be, only come to Texas to steal horses... and the people within a hundred miles of the frontier ought to take precautions such as all people do against all sort of thieves... but up to this point the people manifest no fears or apprehensions, for they expose women and children singly on the road and in cabins far off from others as though they were in Illinois."

Sherman's party crossed Salt Creek unaware that they were being watched by a Kiowa raiding party of one hundred fifty warriors, led by Chiefs Satank and Satanta, accompanied by the mysterious medicine man, Maman-ti. Upon their ascension to the top of the hill, Maman-ti consulted with his owl, a symbol of death to the Kiowa. They feared even to look at an owl, which was fortunate for Maman-ti because his was only an owl skin with button eyes; he could blow air into the owl skin causing the wings to flap. He told the braves the owl warned against attacking the first target they saw, but glory would be theirs if they waited for the second. Luckily for Sherman, they saw his party first. Sometime later, traveling in the opposite direction towards Ft. Griffin, the Warren wagon train and its teamsters were the unfortunate ones.

Satanta (White Bear) blew his trumpet signaling the attack. As they charged, the drivers attempted to circle their wagons. Addo-etta (Big Tree) and Yellow Wolf cut off the lead mules, scoring the first two coups. The teamsters opened fire, wounding Red War Bonnet, a Kiowa, and killing Or-dlee, a Comanche. Big Tree shot one of the drivers out of his seat. Light-Haired-Young-Man, a Kiowa-Apache, was knocked off his horse and carried from the fight.

The warriors circled the train, their fire killing three more drivers and wounding a fourth. The remaining seven bolted through a gap in the -circling Indians and sprinted -toward the timber around Cox Mountain. Two more died as they ran and a third was injured. The Indians didn't pursue them into the timber, returning to their primary interest, the booty in the wagons. They continued circling the train, unsure of the number of defenders still remaining. An inexperienced young Kiowa, named Hautau (Gun Shot), charged a wagon. As he touched the canvas to claim it, Samuel Elliott, lying wounded inside the wagon, shot him in the face. Elliott was overtaken and chained, face down, to a wagon tongue and roasted over a slow fire.

At this time in Ft. Richardson, Sherman was receiving local citizens who related their individual accounts of the Indian atrocities they had encountered. The settlers recounted hundreds of deaths, and kidnappings in the depredations which had occurred over the last decade. Sherman was polite but unmoved, and spent the evening at a reception in his honor attended by the officers and their wives. Later that night he was awakened from his sleep and informed of the fate of the wagon train on the road he had just crossed. Now visibly moved, he ordered Mackenzie to take a detachment to investigate the report, and if true, to pursue the raiders even to the Reservation.

Mackenzie departed with four cavalry companies consisting of over two hundred men, and headed west along the Butterfield Road in a heavy rain storm. Confirming the report, Mackenzie searched to the north for over 20 days with no success. On June 4th, the detachment arrived at Ft. Sill to find the leaders of the raid in chains and Sherman already departed, continuing his inspection tour into Missouri.

A Quaker Indian agent, Lauwrie Tatum and Colonel Grierson, commander of Ft. Sill, greeted General Sherman upon his arrival at the fort on May 23. When informed about the wagon train massacre at Salt Creek, Tatum stated that Satanta's tribe was reported off the reservation and he would make inquiries, several days later when Indians picked up their rations. When asked, Satanta, in a proud statement, had not only condemned himself, but also Big Tree, Satank and Eagle Heart as accomplices.

When given the information, Sherman, lacking authority to make arrest on the reservation, asked Tatum to call the chiefs to a meeting on the porch of Colonel Grierson's home at the Fort Sill. A large number of chiefs gathered and Satanta again confirmed that it was he that had led the raid, and if anyone said different, they would be a liar. Sherman stated that Satanta, Satank, Big Tree and Eagle Heart were under arrest and would be sent to Texas to stand trial for murder, and that the Kiowa tribe would be responsible for returning the mules stolen in the raid.

Satanta then changed his story, saying he only went along to blow his bugle (signaling commands to his warriors and confusing the commands given by the army) and observe the young men learning to be warriors. Kicking Bird offered to produce a large number of mules in retribution, but pleaded that they not arrest the chiefs.

Then the shutters around the porch banged open and dozens of previously concealed soldiers brought their rifles to bear on the gatheNative Americans who had weapons concealed beneath their blankets. In the next few seconds, one warrior was killed and Eagle Heart escaped. The remaining three suspect chiefs were arrested and put in irons and confined awaiting their deportation to Texas.

On the morning of June 8th, Mackenzie and his troops left Ft. Sill, escorting the wagon containing the three manacled chiefs on their way to stand trial in Jacksboro. Satank told a Caddo scout "Tell my people I died beside the road. My bones will be found there. Tell my people to gather them up and carry them away." The old chief then covered his head with a blanket and began his death song.

Over the next mile he had chewed enough of his hand off to escape a manacle. With a concealed knife, he stabbed one of the guards in the wagon and grabbed a rifle but before he could fire, Corporal John B. Charlton killed him. The soldiers left his body by the road approximately where he predicted he would be, and proceeded to Jacksboro with the surviving two chiefs.

The trial was a nationwide media event, as it was the first time raiding Indians had been made to stand trial for their deeds in the community where they committed their crimes. Newspapers across the country carried headlines stating that twelve Jacksboro jurors had found them guilty of murder -and that Judge Charles Soward sentenced them to be hanged.

General/Texas Governor Edmund J. Davis Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Governor Edmund J. Davis was ultimately pressured to overturn the sentence. He was swayed by two sound arguments, first that the Kiowa would be easier to control if there existed a possibility of the Chiefs being returned, and second that Indians feared confinement more than death. Thus, on August 2, 1871, he commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.

The chiefs were sent to the Huntsville State Penitentiary and paroled in 1873. They immediately violated their parole by leading new raids into Texas and both were eventually rearrested. Satanta died of a fall from an upper story window while in prison. Big Tree was eventually released and helped establish and became a deacon in a Baptist church in Oklahoma.

Mrs. Barbara Belding-Gibson points out in her book, Painted Pole , that the freeing of Satanta and Big Tree was a successful ploy by Lone Wolf to get them released. He represented himself to the U.S. as premier chief of the Kiowa and one who could speak for the Comanche. He insisted he would have to confer with Big Tree and Satanta before he could go to D.C. and make a treaty. The Indians were transported to St. Louis to meet with Lone Wolf then returned to Huntsville while he went to Washington. There he declared he couldn't control his young warriors without the aid of Big Tree and Satanta. If they weren't going to be released, he promised there would be open warfare. The United States representatives agreed without authority and then pressured Governor Davis to release the Indians.

Indian's Account of the Warren Wagon Train Massacre

The following story is from the book, Carbine & Lance, The Story of Old Fort Sill , by Colonel W.S. Nye; Copyright © 1937 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Colonel R. S. Mackenzie, 4th Cav

From Ty Cashion's book, A Texas Frontier:

Sherman ordered Colonel Mackenzie to assembly a unit to gather details and pursue the war party. The detachment arrived at Salt Creek Prairie the next morning "in a perfect deluge of rain." The men were unable to discern the scene clearly until they came right up on the bloated corpses lying in several inches of water. The debris of the fight was scattered everywhere-"here and there a hat, an Indian gewgaw, and a plentiful supply of arrows." A soldier who observed the fallen teamsters remarked that they resembled porcupines. All of them had been "stripped, scalped, and mutilated." Some were beheaded, their brains "scooped out"; fingers, toes, and genitals of others protruded from their mouths. Those who survived the initial onslaught lived only to endure live coals heaped upon their exposed abdomens. The worst horror befell one of the men whom the soldiers found chained between two wagon wheels and "burnt to a crisp," his limbs drawn and contorted from being roasted alive. The dispatch that Mackenzie sent Sherman convinced the general that more than a half dozen years of reports pouring out of Texas were not, as he suspected, the fanciful exaggerations of grasping frontiersmen anxious to tap the federal dole.

[Carter, On the Border with Mackenzie , 81-82; Nye, Carbine and Lance, 131; M.L. Crimmins, "Camp Cooper and Fort Griffin," WTHAY 18 (1941): 42; Capps, Warren Raid, 42-54ff.]

...The most telling change was a more aggressive military policy that began to take shape following Sherman's 1871 tour of the Texas frontier. If the power of decision had been left to the general, the army would have invaded the plains forthwith, compelling the Comanches and Kiowas to choose between annihilation and surrender. While the War Department failed to get carte blanche for conducting all-out war, it was nevertheless able to scrap the primarily defensive strategy. At long last Sherman won a consensus for staging winter campaigns. The conditions, though arduous for both sides, still favored the better-equipped U.S. Army.

[Wooster, The Military and Indian Policy, 152-53; Sherman testimony, 43d Cong., 1st sess., H. Rep. 384, pp. 270-84.]

Another effective measure was combining the contiguous military departments of Texas and the Missouri. The results, however, were mixed. From old Camp Cooper in October 1871, Colonel Ranald Mackenzie led a large column of troops atop the Cap Rock, where he twice suffered the ignominy of absorbing a Comanche anabasis. The Indians' first strategic withdrawal, on October 11, netted the warriors about seventy army mounts; a little over a week later, as a blue norther whipped across the plains and canyons, the Indians created a welter of confusion in a nighttime strike that allowed their families to escape. Despite the setbacks, Mackenzie learned from his mistakes. The next year he surprised the Comanche camp of Chief Shaking Hand near the mouth of Blanco Canyon, killing more than a s score of Indians-including several women and children-taking 120 captives, and burning the lodges. With their winter stores destroyed and many of their families held under guard at Fort Concho, the first Quahadie bands surrendered at the Comanche reservation late in 1872.

[Sheridan, Record of Engagements, 5; Carter, in On the Border, 162-96ff., related his participation in the 1871 campaign and produced a detailed but sometimes suspect account. See also Hamilton, Fort Richardson, 108-19, 129-33; Richardson, Comanche Barrier, 361-65; AG, Chronological List, 49, 52.]

African brit johnson, dennis cureton and paint crawford.

African Brit Johnson and his colorful career, during the early days, always commanded the respect and esteem of those acquainted with his activities. Brit had been reared on the frontier among the white citizens, and although he was an African in fact, in many respects, was not in ways.

During the latter part of January, 1871, J.B. Terrell, who still lives at Newcastle, was in Fort Worth and met Brit Johnson, who was there to try to sell his cattle to Dave Terrell. African Brit told Mr. J.B. Terrell that he was going to leave the following day, which was Sunday, for Fort Griffin. Brit, as a consequence, returned to Parker County, where he prepared to make his last journey.

African Brit was then living near old Veale Station. After loading his provisions in a bois-d'arc wagon, he started for Ft. Griffin, and was accompanied by Dennis Cureton, who was the slave of Wm. Cureton Sr. at the time of his death in 1859. Brit was also accompanied by Paint Crawford, who was a former slave of Simpson Crawford, one of the first settlers of Palo Pinto County. The three Africans had been living on the frontier for approximately fifteen years.

Turtle Hole Battle Site from the book, Encyclopedia of Indian Wars , by Gregory F. Michno.

About the second night out, African Brit Johnson, Dennis Cureton, and Paint Crawford, camped at the Turtle Hole, at the head of Flint Creek, about nine miles north of Graham, and on the north side of the road. The next morning, Indians slipped over the hill from the east, and charged the three frontier colored men. According to reports, the Indians had previously told African Brit they would kill him if he were ever found out alone. African Brit's companions ran, but Brit stood his ground and sold his life as dearly as possible. All three were killed and seventy-two empty shells found around African Brit's body, told the story of his bitter fight. No doubt, he made several feathered savages bite the dirt. Brit and his companions were buried near where they were killed, and on the north side of the old Fort Worth-Fort Belknap military road.

And here in an unmarked grave, at the end of his long winding trail, that led to many ranches and cow camps in western Texas, and Indian villages in Oklahoma, lie buried the bones of African Brit Johnson. He was a faithful friend to the whites, was highly esteemed and respected by frontier citizens, and helped write much of the early history of Young and adjoining counties.

Note: Author personally interviewed: J.B. (Blue) Terrell, who conversed with African Brit in Fort Worth the day before he started on his last journey, and who passed African Brit's grave, about the second day after he was killed; Mann Johnson; Henry Williams; F.M. (Babe) Williams; F.M. Peveler; John Marlin; Uncle Pink Brooks; Jeff (Cureton) Eddleman, who was also a slave of Wm. Cureton, mentioned above; A.M. Lasater; Walker K. Baylor, son of General John Baylor; James Wood; and many others who lived in this section of the time.

The following second story is from the book, Carbine & Lance, The Story of Old Fort Sill , by Colonel W.S. Nye; Copyright © 1937 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Into the spring of 1871 the raids waxed in both numbers and cruelty. The worsening situation was in part a response to the overtures of a peace commission that entertained a delegation of Plains chiefs in Washington, D.C. Just as Buffalo Hump in 1845 had registered his condemnation of a similar gesture by executing a crushing raid on Mexico, his progeny now vented their wrath on Texas. Hardest hit were settlers between Forts Griffin and Richardson, due south of the raiders' reservation near Fort Sill, Indian Territory. In Young County the Indians killed four African Americans, including Britt Johnson, a "hero of the Elm Creek raid." After scalping, emasculating, and disemboweling him, they stuffed his pet dog into his abdomen. Not far from that place they attacked another man and scalped him alive. Emboldened warriors twice attacked settlers within gunshot range of Fort Richardson, and by the fifth month of 1871, Indians had killed fourteen pioneers.

[Nye, Carbine and Lance , 123-24; Allen Lee Hamilton, Sentinel of the Southern Plains: Fort Richardson on the Northwest Texas Frontier, 1866-1878 , 71; Neighbours, "Elm Creek Raid," 88-89; McConnell, Five Years a Cavalryman , 696-702; Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas , 549-51.]

Other incidences where captives were retrieved by Brit Johnson.

Ben Blackwell Elonzo White and Sarah Kemp Thomas Rolland

Cottonwood springs.

Most army officers of the time were beneficiaries of elegant educations. Dodge's forays through the Oklahoma Cross Timbers in the early 1830s not only included his soldiers but Catlin, the artist, several natural scientists and journalists. Marcy's party fortunately included his good friend, William B. Parker, whose journal provides us with a beautifully written account of unsettled Texas.

Whilst lying in our tents, about noon, we described some objects advancing over the brow of the hill in front of camp, and soon found them to be a party of To-wac-o-nies and Waco’s on their return from Fort Belknap.

They halted a short distance from our camp, and the women commenced putting up their temporary shelter, from sun and storm, which they constructed of boughs, skins and blankets…

The chief (an ugly old creature, a fac simile of a superannuated monkey,) soon rode up, and dismounting near his half finished lodge, threw himself upon the grass, whilst his wife-about to become a mother-stopped her work, immediately, to unbridle, unsaddle and tether his horse, for of course, he disdained the smallest labour or assistance to her.

The principal use the wild Indian makes of his wife or wives is to wait upon him, she takes his horse and attends to it when he halts, saddles, bridles and brings it up when he wishes to ride, cooks his meals, puts up the temporary lodge or shealting, and dresses what skins may be obtained in the chase, in fact, does all the manual labour necessary in their wandering life.

Her lord lounges, sleeps, drinks, smokes, eats, fights, hunts, and not unfrequently, rewards her with a sound drubbing, the only extra physical exertion he ever makes.

In the afternoon, the old chief made us a visit. He was full of affection for the whites, and showed us a certificate of character, (no doubt written by some worthless scamp, as we ascertained the old fellow to be a most arrant knave and horse-thief,) from which we learned his name to be Ak-a-quash.

He was very importunate in his begging propensities, and not at all modest in his demands, as the sequel proved.

He wanted meat, tobacco, flour, coffee and sugar, not salt meat either, for that he got at Belknap; and taking up some yellow sand in his fingers, he said, “Belknap suker so.” Meaning that he wanted white sugar; pretty well for a wild Indian, living the precarious life they do. We told him he must be satisfied with what he could get, not what he wanted, and he did not refuse what we offered him.

…In the evening the Captain, Doctor, and Major Neighbours arrived. They brought with them three Delawares and a Shawnee, the addition to our Indian force which we expected, thus making our corps of guides and hunters six strong.

Major Neighbours was a fine looking man, in the full vigor of manhood, about six feet two inches in height, with a countenance indicative of great firmness and decision of character.

He was the Indian Agent for Texas, and joined the expedition to assist in the explorations and locations, a service which his great experience and judgment peculiarly fitted him for.

The Delawares and Shawnees fraternizing so well, are often employed together on such expeditions. Another Version & More

Satanta, Satauk (Satank) and Big Tree Arrested

May 20, Gen. Sherman, Gen. Marcy, and their escort, departed from Ft. Richardson and reached Ft. Sill May 23. They were visited by Lowrie Tatum, Indian agent for the Comanches and Kiowas. He reported that he had been able to accomplish but very little in civilizing his Indians, that they paid no attention to his injunctions, and continued their forays to Texas where they depredated upon the settlements. He further stated that the Indians must be made to feel the strong arm of government, a policy many people pled for long before the War between the States; and further stated that the Indians should be punished when they perpetrated their atrocities.

May 27, about four o'clock in the evening, Satanta, Satauk (Satan), Kicking Bird, Lone Wolf, Eagle Heart, and other Indians came to the reservation to draw their rations. Shortly afterwards, Satanta the Bengal tiger of the wild tribe, boasted that he and 100 warriors had made the recent attack upon the train between Ft. Richardson and Belknap, that they killed the seven teamsters, and drove away forty mules. He further said:

"If any other Indian claimed the credit of it, he would be a liar - that I am the man who commanded." Satanta then pointed out Satauk (Satank), Big Tree, and Eagle Heart, as being participants in the raid. This news was then conveyed to Gen. Sherman, who ordered the chiefs arrested and sent to Jacksboro, Texas, to be tried. Eagle Heart escaped. Satanta, Satauk (Satank), and Big Tree were arrested. When Satanta was carried before Gen. Sherman, he began to feel, perhaps, he made a mistake in confessing the crime, so he considerably changed his story. Satanta, according to reports, in substance told Gen. Sherman that he was present at the fight, but did not kill anybody himself, and that he took no part in the controversy, excepting to blow his bugle; that his young men wanted to have a little fight, and take a few white scalps; and that he was prevailed upon to go with them, merely to show how to make war. He further stated that he stood back during the engagement and merely gave directions, that sometime ago the whites had killed three of his people, and wounded four more, so this little affair made the account square; and that he was now ready to commence anew and be friendly with the whites. Gen. Sherman informed Satanta that it was a very cowardly thing for 100 warriors to attack ten poor teamsters, who did not pretend to know how to fight. He further told Satanta that if he desired to have a battle, the soldiers were ready to meet him any time. When Satanta learned that he was going to be sent to Texas and tried in the court, he said he preferred being shot on the ground. About that time, however, Kicking Bird, another chief, who was not as wicked as Satanta, arrived, and pleaded with Gen. Sherman to release the chief. When they were not released, trouble at Ft. Sill seemed imminent. In fact, some of the Indians rushed for the gates, and when they were halted by the sentinels, one of them wounded a guard with an arrow. The Indians were also told they must return the forty-one mules they had captured. June 6, following, Gen. McKenzie started overland with Satanta, Satauk (Satank), and Big Tree, for Ft. Richardson. Before they proceeded a great distance, however, Satauk, (Satank) became so desperate, he was shot.

After the chiefs were arrested and before Gen. Sherman left Ft. Sill, agent Tatum told the General that he was glad that Satanta and his associates committed the deed, and made the confession just when he did for it gave Gen. Sherman an opportunity to witness the actual conditions along the frontier. He also stated that he would have been glad if Lone Wolf had been arrested, for he is one of the boldest and most troublesome men in his tribe. Agent Tatum then stated that it had been his opinion for a year, that the Indians must be controlled by force as they had disrespected all treaties.

Sherman Arrests Kiowa Chiefs at Fort Sill

The above story is from the book, Indian Depredations in Texas , by J.W. Wilbarger.

Trial of Kiowa Chiefs, Satanta and Big Tree

Picture of satanta, courtesy of western history collections, university of oklahoma library.

Satanta and Big Tree were safely carried to Fort Richardson, and there securely imprisoned in the guardhouse at the post. It was, of course, necessary to keep them under a heavy guard. The trial of Satanta began July 4, 1871. Judge Charles Seward was on the bench, and Governor S.W.T. Lanham, of Weatherford, District Attorney. The Court appointed Thomas Ball and J.A. Woolfork to represent the defendants. A severance was granted by the Court, and Satanta tried first. T.W. Williams, John Cameron, Evert Johnson, H.D. Varner, F. Cooper, Wm. Hensley, John H. Brown, Peter Lynn, Pete Hart, Daniel Brown, Lucas P. Bunch, and James Cooley constituted the jury that tried Satanta. Col. McKenzie, agent Tatum, and Thomas Brazeale, who was wounded, were important witnesses against the Indian chief. The attorneys for both the State and defense made eloquent speeches, and the trial was one of the most spectacular court proceedings ever held in the United States, and conducted in a little frontier courthouse, in a little frontier town. Jacksboro, however, just at that particular time, was enjoying considerable prosperity on account of the local military post. People traveled many miles to hear the trial, and according to reports, standing room could hardly be found in the court house. Satanta, himself, was allowed to speak, and his speech, which was interpreted, in substance, as follows:

"I cannot speak with these things upon my wrists, (Holding up his arms to the iron bracelets) I am a female tribesperson. Has anything been heard from the Great Father? I have never been so near the Tehannas (Texans) before. I look around me and see your braves, female tribespeople and papooses, and I have said in my heart, if I ever get back to my people I will never make war upon you. I have always been the friend of the white man, ever since I was so high, (indicating by sign the height of a boy.) My tribe has taunted me and called me a female tribesperson because I have been the friend of the Tehannas. I am suffring now for the crimes of bad Indians - of Satauk (Satank) and Lone Wolf and Kicking Bird and Big Bow and Fast Bear and Eagle Heart, and if you will let me go I will kill the three latter with my own hand. I did not kill the Tehannas. I came down to Pease River as a big medicine man to doctor the wounds of the braves. I am a big chief among my people and have great influence among the warriors of my tribe - they know my voice and will hear my word. If you will let me go back to my people I will withdraw my warriors from Tehanna. I will let them all across the Red River and that shall be the line between us and the palefaces. I will wash out the spots of blood and make it a white land and there shall be peace, and the Tehannas may plow and drive their oxen to the banks of the river - but if you kill me it will be like a spark in the prairie - make big fire - burn heap!"

We only regret that space will not permit the publication of speeches of S.W.T. Lanham, and the other attorneys.

Satanta was given the death penalty.

The trial of Big Tree immediately followed, and he too, was punished accordingly. Upon recommendation, for fear of Indian uprising, Gov. E.J. Davis commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.

Then August 19, 1873, Gov. Davis upon recommendation of President Grant and others, paroled the Indians to their tribes. Consequently, they were escorted from Hunstville back to the reservation but their conduct was such, their paroles were soon revoked, and Satanta then returned to the penitentiary, November 8, 1874. Big Tree who also disregarded his parole, escaped, but Big Bow was sent to the penitentiary as his hostage. Concerning the conduct of Satanta and Big Tree in the Huntsville penitentiary, Col. Thomas J. Goree, the superintendent, reported as follows:

"Previous to his parole, Satanta did very little work - sometimes picking wool and pulling shucks for mattresses, but only working when inclined to do so. Since his return to the prison he has done very little work with the exception of bows and arrows. He is in bad health and suffers from rheumatism, and very often goes to the dispensary for medicine. He begs tobacco from the prisoners, visitors, and everyone he sees, very often sitting up all night chewing it. He has never worked outside the prison.

"Before parole, Big Tree worked constantly bottoming chairs, and became very expert, and could put in as many or more cane bottoms as any other hand. Big Tree was punished once, by being placed in the stocks, for being disrespectful to a guard. Satanta had never been punished. Both were very found of tobacco and whiskey. Satanta was and is very much addicted to the use of opium, and I have been informed that he has used it for fifteen or twenty years. He prefers opium to whiskey."

W.A. (Bud) Morris and Joe Bryant, of Montague County, conversed with Satanta while in the penitentiary. W.A. Morris also had several conversations with Satanta. June 19, 1878, Satanta asked Mr. Morris if he thought the government would ever release him, and when Mr. Morris replied in the negative, Satanta looked somewhat despondent. The next morning, this wild old warrior of the plains, who, perhaps, felt his case was hopeless, committed suicide by jumping from his window.

What effect, if any, did the arrest and imprisonment of these two chiefs have upon their tribes? Lawrie Tatum, the Indian agent at Ft. Sill, said:

"The effect of arresting some of the leading Kiowas and sending them to Texas to trial, has been to more effectually subdue them, than they have ever been before. On my requisition sent, they have delivered to me, forty good mules and one horse to replace the forty-one mules shot during the fight, and stolen during the Satanta raid."

He also recommended that some of the Comanche tribes, who still lived on the plains, and were unsubdued, be forced on the reservation. As long as they were there, depredating on the settlements, and encouraging the reservation Indians to do accordingly, the Indian hostilities would not cease.

The tour of General Sherman, and the subsequent arrest of Satanta and Big Tree was the beginning of the ending of Indian hostilities, along the West Texas frontier. To be sure, a few years transpired before the Indians were finally subdued. But beginning with this tour of inspection there was a radical change in government policies toward the Indians of Texas and Southwest.

Note: Author personally interviewed: Mrs. Ed. Wolfforth; B.L. Ham; Joe Fowler; James Wood; A.M. Lasater; Martin Lane; Newt Wood; W.K. Baylor; Henry Williams; Mann Johnson; W.A. Ribble; Tom Ribble; and many other early citizens who lived in Jack, Young, Palo Pinto and Parker Counties at the time. Also examined records on file in the District Clerk's office at Jacksboro.

Further Ref: Smythe's Historical register of Parker Co .; Five Years a Cavalryman , by H.H. McConnell; Lawrie Tatum's reports of the trial and arrest of the chiefs, as found in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1871. Also report of Gen. J.J. Reynolds, in the report of Sec'y. of War for 1871.

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This excellent hiking and camping trip offers you the opportunity to explore one of the most remarkable landscapes in Utah’s famed Canyon Country as we explore the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. The high desert of the Colorado Plateau is best exemplified in this unparalleled wilderness, sculpted over millennia by wind and water. You’ll spend your days hiking narrow canyons & endless slickrock, getting up close and personal with incredible sandstone arches and canyons. Each day holds a new and exciting adventure and your nights are spent in a beautiful and secluded campsite where impossibly dark skies are splashed with most incredible display of stars to be seen in the lower 48 states. The Needles District is a favorite destination of your guides and the look forward to sharing it with our guests.

Type: Hiking & Basecamp

Days: 4 Days

Distance: Up to 35 miles

Difficulty: Intermediate

Origin: Moab, UT

$1,875/person

(plus Utah sales tax, 6.5%)

Meet your guide early for a brief orientation and then it’s off to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park for our first hike. Our introduction to Canyonlands begins with the 7.5-mile loop through Squaw Canyon and Lost Canyon, offering slickrock vistas, quiet canyon stillness, and freshwater springs...a rare site in this otherwise dry landscape. After our hike, we will head to our secluded campsite, get set up, and settle in for the evening. Enjoy a delicious meal prepared by your guide. 

Driving Time:  2 hours Hiking 

Distance: 7.5 miles 

Lunch, Dinner 

We will have an early breakfast before we head out for a full day of exploring. Today we head further into the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park to explore this area that is famous for its unique landscape of colorful sandstone spires and endless canyons. Our destination for today is Chesler Park, a beautiful, grassy expanse surrounded by colorful rock spires. If time permits and we’re feeling adventurous, we can explore the nearby Joint Trail, featuring exciting, deep crevices sometimes no more than 3 or 4 feet wide! Afterwards, we return to our camp for another delicious dinner and settle down for some well-deserved rest.

Driving Time:  20 minutes 

Hiking Distance: 9 to 11 miles 

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner 

Another day of adventure and exploring! Today we head for a spectacular 150-foot high natural arch located deep in the Needles backcountry. We will trek through Elephant Canyon, a narrow canyon that features mostly flat hiking but fantastic scenery. The final quarter mile of the hike involves a steep scramble up a slope to the impressive view of our destination: Druid Arch. After some time enjoying the view and a picnic lunch, we will return the way we came. 

Driving Time:  10 minutes 

Hiking Distance:  11 miles 

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner  

For our final day, we’re off to enjoy one more day of Canyonlands’ endless panoramic views and redrock hiking. The hiking opportunities are many and varied, so the day can be customized to suit the abilities and desires of the group. Adventurous hikers might enjoy the scenic Peekaboo Trail. The Slickrock Trail is a pleasant walk through the unique geology of Canyonlands and provides a wonderful overall perspective. Or fill up the day with a variety of shorter walks to ancient ruins and incredible viewpoints. Whatever the group decides, the final day will prove an amazing and fitting conclusion to your Canyon Country adventure. The group will say farewell and part ways back in Moab around 4pm. 

Hiking Distance:  3-7 miles 

Breakfast, Lunch 

Driving Time: 2 hours

What's Included

• A professional, licensed and medically trained guide
• All necessary gear: backpack, tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, trekking poles
• All cooking/eating gear: bowls, cups, utensils (your guide will prepare all meals)
• All meals from a light breakfast on Day 1 through lunch on the last day + trail snacks
• Roundtrip transportation from your hotel in Moab, UT
• Park entrance fees and camping permits

What's Not Included

• Transportation to/from Moab, UT
• Lodging the night before/after the trip
• Clothing, raingear, and footwear
• Personal toiletries, sunscreen
• Water bottles/hydration bladder
• Headlamp or flashlight
• Guide gratuity (suggested ~15% of trip cost)

*Upon booking you will receive a detailed trip information packet

How Many People Are in The Group

Most trips will accommodate 6 people plus one guide. On occasion, a group may be as large as 10 people plus 2 guides.

Are There Age Restrictions?

Children under the age of 12 are generally not permitted on regularly scheduled trips. This restriction may be negotiable on private tours. Please contact us with any questions regarding this policy.

How Do I Sign Up?

In order to confirm a reservation, we require an initial deposit of $250 per person, with the final balance due 90 days prior to the trip’s departure. If you book a trip within 90 days of the trip’s scheduled departure, then full payment is due at the time of booking.

Once we confirm availability, you will be provided with an online registration link. Your deposit is payable online by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or ACH transfer.

Travel Logistics

Where does the trip begin/end.

This trip will begin/end in Moab, UT and you will need to spend the night prior to your trip’s scheduled departure in Moab. You will want to fly into either Grand Junction (2 hour drive), Salt Lake City (4 hour drive) or Moab.

Where do we meet our guides?

You will meet your guide at the specified hotel at 6:30am  the morning your trip departs. The hotel breakfast starts at this time and we will eat together and have a brief orientation. We will go over the itinerary, expected weather (and how this might affect what clothing you bring…or leave behind), food, and answer any last-minute questions. We will also hand out day packs for anyone who needs them.

What time will we get back on the last day?

Expect to be back in Moab by 5pm at the latest on the last day of the trip. Many trips will return earlier but we cannot make any guarantees. In general, it is recommended that you do not plan to fly home on the same day your trip finishes. Since each trip has slightly different logistics, feel free to contact us with specific questions related to the expected return time for your trip.

2024 Trip Dates

Click on a date to request a reservation! Or contact us to request custom dates.

• Sep 24-27, 2024

2025 Trip Dates

• Apr 29-May 2, 2025
• Sep 23-26, 2025

Don’t see your dates? Custom dates may be available!

Call 1-928-525-1552 or email us for details., guest testimonials.

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List of Services

“Our Canyonlands trip was one we won’t soon forget. The Needles District is a hiker’s paradise and everyday was filled with unbelievable scenery. Druid Arch, Peekaboo, Chesler Park...all simply amazing. And the campsite was awesome! We felt like we had the place to ourselves. Our guide was as incredible as well: patient, attentive, fun, informative, and a great chef. He knew exactly when we needed him and precisely when to sit back and let us push our limits on our own. I can’t think of a better way to spend 4 days hiking and camping. FSG has this stuff down perfectly!”

Call or email us with any questions.

(928) 525-1552 or

Top-Ranked Tour Company

Don’t take our word for it. More than a thousand 5-Star reviews on TripAdvisor will attest to the quality of our adventures.

Exceptional Guides

Our guiding staff consists primarily of seasoned veterans who have been guiding professionally, full-time, for a decade or more. In addition to their extensive experience, our guides are fun, accommodating, approachable, entertaining, polite and just plain good people.

All-Inclusive Tours

We’re at work, you’re on vacation! We take care of all the logistics associated with a backcountry adventure and handling all the dirty work. Gear, food, permits, transportation…we have you covered and it’s all included.

Local Experts

The Southwestern U.S. is our home and our passion. We’ve been exploring this region for decades and know it intimately. This is our niche and nobody does it better.

Why Travel With Fsg

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