Historic Ozark - The Bald Knobber's Demise Traditional Cache
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Historic Ozark - The Bald Knobber's Demise
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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A Brief history of the disbanding of the Bald Knobbers.
The coords take you to the monument that marks this event.
You are looking for a Magnetic Key Holder.
***Please do not attempt after dark***.
For more detailed information relating to the history of the Bald
Knobbers, please read the book:
"Bald Knobbers--Vigilantes on the Ozarks Frontier" by Mary Hartman
and Elmo Ingenthron, 1988
There were 3 groups of Bald Knobbers. The original group was the
Taney County group brought together by Nathaniel Kinney. Soon after
a group was formed in Christian County with the help of
Kinney.
Their Cheiftan was "Bull Creek" Dave (David Walker), and then in
1885 a group also formed in Douglas County
with the help of Nathaniel Kinney as well. Their leader was Joe
Walker, brother of David Walker.
The history relating to this cache involves the Christian County
Bald Knobbers.
The Taney County Bald Knobbers officially disbanded on April 10,
1886.
Soon after the Bald Knobbers of Douglas County disbanded as
well.
The Christian County Bald Knobbers didn't disband until March 1,
1887.
All though these were official dates, none of the groups really
disbanded until after
the hangings that took place in Ozark on May 10, 1889.
On May 10, 1889 Three men were hung for the murders of Charles
Green and William Edens.
The three convicted men were John Matthews, William (Billy) Walker,
and David (Bull Creek Dave) Walker,
All were members of the Christian county Bald Knobbers.
There was also another Bald Knobber, Wiley Matthews, convicted of
this crime.
However, he made a succesuful escape on Januray 23, 1889 at 1:00
a.m. in the morning.
He was never found, and 24 years later some others ran into him
living under a different name in Arkansas.
John had escaped, also, but he fell and injured himself and was
later found and turned in to authorities.
What made these hangings different than any others is that the
prisoners insisted,
that Sherriff Zack Johnson perform the execution, not a stranger
that gets paid to hang people.
The Sherriff said; "What if I bungle the job?". The Sherriff had
never seen gallows, let alone erected one,
but the prisoners insisted and Johnson consented to handle the
hangings himself.
It was the worst decision he could've made. He did in fact bungle
the job.
That is what makes this piece of history almost more
disturbing than the murders that these men were convicted of
commiting.
This is not the proudest history of the Ozark Moutain region, but
it is still part of the regions history.
What was intended to bring law and order back to the region after
the Civil War, ended up turning into chaos.
If you haven't completed the Grave Hop Cache, I highly recommend
it.
Grave Hop #2 will take you to the graves of David Walker and his
son William in Sparta
Grave Hop GC735C
***NOTE*** Please if you find my cache take the time to post a log
and not a copy and pasted one.
I took the time to hide the cache so you could find it, take the
time and tell me about your journey to my cache.
Thanks and Happy Caching!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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