Jacksboro: Where Kiowa Chiefs Stood Trial

Jacksboro became county seat of Jack County in eighteen fifty-eight, named for brothers William and Patrick Jack, both veterans of the Texas Revolution. The Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach started running through town that same year, connecting it to the larger world before the Civil War intervened. But Jacksboro's most consequential moment came in eighteen seventy-one, when Kiowa chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were brought here to stand trial for the Warren Wagon Train killings, making it one of the first places where Indian leaders were tried in a civilian court for crimes committed against local settlers. That trial drew reporters from across the country and shaped federal Indian policy for years to follow.