William “Billy” Dixon scouted the Texas Panhandle for the Army and hunted buffalo for the train companies. Dixon led the founders of Adobe Walls to the Texas Plains, where he knew buffalo were in abundance. The group of 28 men and one woman occupied the outpost of five buildings 15 miles northeast of Stinnett. The outpost was attacked on June 27, 1874, by a band of 700 to 1200 Indians, and that is when Dixon went into the history books for firing “The Shot of the Century” which effectively ended the siege. The stand-off continued into a third day, when a group of Indians were noticed about a mile east of Adobe Walls. It is said that Dixon took aim with a quickly borrowed .50-90 Sharps buffalo rifle and fired, knocking an Indian near Chief Quanah Parker off his horse almost a mile away on his third shot. The Indians then left the settlement alone. Dixon is one of eight civilians in the history of the U.S. to receive the Medal of Honor.
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