The Forgotten Black Lawman Who Inspired the Lone Ranger — Bass Reeves

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Hollywood gave the Lone Ranger his mask and his horse, the Old West was full of riders and lawmen whose real stories were far more compelling. The History Guy shares the life of Bass Reeves, an African American Deputy U.S. Marshal who kept order across a violent and rapidly changing frontier. His work as a tracker and lawman became part of the folklore that later reached radio, comics, and television.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who is simply known as
the History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of
thousands of people of all ages on YouTube. The History
Guy is also a regular contributor here on our American Stories.
The Lone Ranger with his cry of Hio Silver has
become an American institution, ranking up there with Paul Bunyan

(00:34):
in the realm of folklore and legend. Here's the History
Guy with the fascinating story behind the Lone Ranger.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
The world, it seems, enjoys a good Western. Movies about
the American wild West were the most popular genre in
Hollywood from the early beginning of film through the nineteen sixties,
and the genre of Western was being used to describe
films as early as nineteen twelve. Stories in the American
West have been popular across a number of genres, from
books and comic books to film and radio. Wild West adventures,

(01:08):
usually featuring cowboys and gunslingers, have gained worldwide popularity, as
popular in Europe and in Asia. It seems as they
are in the nation where they supposedly happened, But the
Western as an entertainment genre only rarely depicts the reality
of life from the American frontier, and the intersection of
fiction and reality offers an interesting glimpse into both the
world of the entertainment viewer and the real Western pioneer.

(01:31):
And there is a great example of that in one
of the most popular of the fictional Western heroes and
the little known real Western lawmen, who were the closest
thing to the Hollywood legend. So return to us now
to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out to the past,
come the thundering hoof beats of the great horse Silver.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
I return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
A Lone Ranger arrives again. The Lone Ranger first wrote
into the hearts and minds of listeners courtesy Detroit area
radio station w x y Z, with the title role
voiced by actor George Seaton, who later won to Academy
Awards for screenwriting and said that he invented the famous catphrase,
Hi Oh Silver because he couldn't whistle. W XYZE aired

(02:20):
over three thousand radio episodes of the show, featuring a
Texas ranger who fought outlaws accompanied by his faithful Indian
companion Tanto. According to the story, The Lone Ranger was
one of six Texas Rangers who were caught in an
ambush by the despicable Butch Cavendish gang. Later, a friendly
Indian appears upon the scene and finds that one of
the Rangers has survived. Tanto buries the dead Rangers, but

(02:43):
makes six grave markers to hide the fact that one survived.
He then nurses the injured Ranger back to health. The
Rangers forced to wear a mask conceals identity since he
was supposed to have died as he fights for justice
against Butch Cavendish and his gang. The show was a
classic wen and was popular partly because of the rangers
strict moral code, which represented American values at the time

(03:06):
and included phrases like to have a friend, a man
must be one, and all things change but truth, and
that truth alone lives on forever. He only used silver
bullets because they reminded him that life is precious and,
like the bullets, shouldn't be wasted. Along with the radio show,
The Lone Ranger spurred two film serials in the nineteen thirties.

(03:27):
A popular television show that ran over two hundred and
twenty episodes between nineteen forty nine and nineteen fifty seven,
two different cartoon series, a newspaper comic strip that ran
for more than thirty years, dozens of adventure novels and
comic books, a video game, and hundreds of various toys,
and seven feature films. And, in one of the lesser
known connections, The Lone Ranger spawned a popular spinoff property

(03:50):
wherein according to the original radio program, Dan, the Lone
Ranger's nephew, who appeared in both the radio show and
on television, had a son who again took on the
role of bass crime fighter as the Green Hornet. But
the popular fictional character raises a question, was there a
real Lone Ranger. The answer is possibly. In nineteen fifteen,

(04:12):
novelist Zane Gray wrote a novel called The Lone Star Ranger,
which itself was adapted for four different feature films. The
character in the novel is fictional, but the novel was
dedicated to a real Texas Ranger named John Reynolds Hughes.
Hughes was known as one of the most effective of
the Texas Rangers, and notably when another Texas Ranger captain

(04:33):
was killed in an ambush. Hughes, one of the Rangers'
best trackers, relentlessly pursued the gang that had committed the ambush,
somewhat like the story told in The Lone Ranger. While
he was a rancher in Travis County, Texas, Hughes had
tracked down a group that had stolen horses from his
and other ranches. After the attention of the Texas Rangers,
who recruited him, he served as a Ranger for twenty

(04:54):
eight years, the Texas Rangers longest serving member. Well Hughes
certainly inspi tired, saying Gray who had traveled with him.
It is less clear that he inspired the Lone Ranger,
but his was certainly a story of a dedicated Texas Ranger.
But when talking about the Lone Ranger, there's another story
as well, that of Lawman bass Reeves, who was, according

(05:15):
to one biographer, the closest real person to resemble the
Lone Ranger. Bass Reeves was born a slave in eighteen
thirty eight, and, as was common at the time, took
the last name of his owner. Sometime in the early
eighteen sixties, he parted ways with that owner, some say
because he had a fight with his owner after a
card game, and others credit talk of freeing the slaves
during the Civil War, but for whatever reason, Reeves escaped

(05:38):
slavery and went to live in Indian Territory modern day Oklahoma,
living among Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek Indians and learning both
the territory and many of the people's languages. He became
a crack shot with both a pistol and a rifle.
After the war, when the Thirteenth Minute passed and he
no longer had a fear of being returned to slavery,
he moved to Arkansas, where he became a successful rancher

(05:59):
and had ten children. Indian Territory was notoriously lawless, and
many outlaws fled there to escape justice. In eighteen seventy five,
President Grant appointed a new judge of the US Court
for the Western District of Arkansas with the goal of
addressing lawlessness in the Indian Territory. The judge then appointed
a former Confederate general as the new U. S. Marshal,

(06:20):
who then hired two hundred deputy U. S. Marshals, some
of whom were among the most famous lawmen of the West.
Having heard of Reeve's knowledge of the Indian territory and
familiarity with its people, the new Marshal hired him as
one of those deputies. Bass Rheves became the first black
deputy U. S. Marshal west of the Mississippi. He served
for more than thirty years and in that time arrested

(06:42):
more than three thousand outlaws. He survived numerous gunfights, even
having his belt and hat shot off, but never once
took a bullet. He was one of the most feared
and respected lawmen of the territory. He was known for
dressing fastidiously and for wearing two Colt pistols with the
butts past forward for a quick draw, as was common
for many Americans of the time and certainly former slaves.

(07:04):
He never received a formal education and so never learned
to read and write. Before he went on patrols, which
could take months at a time, he would have someone
read the outstanding warrants to him, which he could recite
from memory. At first reason seem nothing like the Lone Ranger.
He wasn't even a Texas Ranger and was never shot,
more or less nurse back to health by a faithful

(07:25):
Indian companion, but deputies in the Indian Territory would often
travel only accompanied by a posse member who would be
a Native American. Although he was most known for riding
a red stallion with a white blaze that highly resembled
Tanto's horse Scout from the Lone Ranger television series, he
was also known to ride a white horse, and while
he did not wear a mask, he was known to

(07:45):
use disguises when catching outlaws. It is not hard to
see how this dedicated lawman traveling alone with his Indian
companion catching the bad guys could be seen as as
one biography described him, the closest real person to resemble
the Lone Ranger. In the end, there's no compelling evidence
that either John Reynolds, Hughes or Bass Reeves directly inspired

(08:05):
the creation of the radio character. The creators of The
Lone Ranger, in fact indicated that the character was inspired
not by real lawmen, but by Robin Hood and the
Western actor Tom Mix. But both Hughes and Reeves certainly
bore some resemblance to the legendary masked hero and remind
us that the lone lawman to spensing justice on a
wild frontier is not completely a fabrication of the entertainment industry.

(08:28):
There were, in fact some actual good guys in the
wild West, even if they did not always wear a
white hat. It is telling that Hughes and Reeves were
somewhat similar stories. Both had spent time and largely when
the skill that served them in the Indian territory. Both
have been successful ranchers, where they developed a vested interest
in protecting the people settling the frontier from lawlessness. Both

(08:50):
served long and distinguished careers in law enforcement, part of
the special breed that bridge the gap between the wild
West and the modern era, and both were true heroes,
even though neither is nearly as well known as the
fictional Bone Ranger. Bass Reeves died of kidney disease in
nineteen ten at the age of seventy one. John Hughes,
in ill health and depressed as all of his old

(09:11):
friends had passed away, treachically took his own life in
nineteen forty seven. He was ninety two.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
And what a great job by the history guy. And
as is so often the case in fiction, it's often
a merger of fact and fiction, and it's hard for
anybody to remember a great story by the history guy.
Go and google his name and check out his work
on YouTube. The story of the man behind the mask,
the real Lone Ranger, exposed here on our American Stories