U.S. Deputy Marshall Bass Reeves, the REAL Lone Ranger

U.S. Deputy Marshall Bass Reeves: "The First African American US Deputy Marshall West of the Mississippi River" and the Real Lone Ranger
U.S. Deputy Marshall Bass Reeves was born in July of 1838 in Paris, Texas and passed in January of 1910, in Muskogee, Oklahoma of Bright’s Disease. Due to his extensive career and accomplishments he is considered to be one of the most outstanding frontier heroes in United States History. He is interred in the old Union Agency Cemetery in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

As a black slave in Crawford County, Arkansas, Bass Reeves was owned by William Reeves. When Reeves was eight, he was taken with his owner to Texas. Bass wasn’t taught to read, but his owner shaped him into a skilled gunman.
How Reeves got his freedom is speculation, but many say that he beat the sh*t out of his former master and then fled into Indian Territory. Then Reeves lived in Arkansas among the Five Civilized Tribes, became fluent in their languages, married and bore children, and made a living by being a farmhand.

Over the course of Reeves’ 32 year career, he captured around some 3,000 criminals and killed 14 of them. He was never shot, but did have his hat shot off of his head several times. His disguises ranged from cowboys to women in order to catch outlaws. Reeves did have an Indian sidekick to help him trap criminals and rode on a white (or gray) horse. He retired in 1907 and died in 1910.

For More Facts about Bass Reeves, Click Here: Bass Reeves Facts