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Bass Reeves · Anonymous America

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  Speaker 1: I'm Jerry Broadway, and this is Anonymous America where we
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  dig a little deeper into American history to find those
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  unsung and unknown heroes that someone should have taught you about,
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  but no one ever did. Now you know all about
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  the Lone Ranger, High Old Silver, the mask, the silver bullets,
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  the mysterious law man riding across the frontier, out smarting
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  outlaws and riding away before anyone could even ask his name.
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  You know that character, But do you know the man
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  the character was based on from Hey Dad Productions. This
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  is Anonymous America. His name was Bass Reeves. He was
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  born into slavery, and he became the first black Deputy
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  US Marshall west of the Mississippi, and his career made
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  everything the Lone Ranger did look modest by comparison. Bass
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  Reeves was born a slave in Arkansas around eighteen thirty eight.
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  During the Civil War, he escaped into Indian Territory what
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  is now Oklahoma and lived among the Creek and Seminole
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  nations for years. He learned the land, he learned multiple languages,
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  and he became an extraordinarily skilled horseman and marksman. When
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  the war ended, Bass became a free man. In eighteen
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  seventy five, Judge Isaac Parker, the famous hanging judge of
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  the Western Frontier, was looking for deputies who could operate
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  in Indian Territory because it was some of the most
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  dangerous law enforcement work in the country. So Parker hired
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  Bass Reeves. Over a thirty two year career as a
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  federal marshal, bass Reeves arrested over three thousand felons. He
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  killed fourteen men in the line of duty, always by
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  his account, because they drew first. He was ambushed, He
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  was shot at, had his hat shot off, his head,
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  had his belt cut by a bullet, his bridle rein
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  was shot out of his hand once, and he walked
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  away every time. Bass worked in disguise regularly. He posed
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  as a farmer, a cowboy, a fugitive, anything to get
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  close to the wanted men. He was very famous for
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  his elaborate ruses. He once spent twenty eight days tracking
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  two outlaws through Indian Territory, sleeping on the ground, surviving
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  off the land until he had them. He arrested his
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  own son for murder. The son was convicted and served
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  his sentence. After the trial, Reeves went back to work
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  He was also notably illiterate for most of his life,
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  but he had a photographic memory and memorized every warrant
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  that was read to him, delivering them flawlessly in court
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  purely from memory. Mass Reeves retired from federal service in
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  nineteen oh seven when Indian Territory became the state of Oklahoma.
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  He immediately joined the Muskogee Police Department and worked there
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  until his death in nineteen ten. Bass Reeves was seventy
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  one years old when he passed away, and he worked
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  in law enforcement almost until the day he died, because
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  that's what bass Reeves did. Now. The connection between bass
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  Reeves and the Lone Ranger was long speculated by historians
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  and became more widely documented in the early two thousands.
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  The creators of the Lone Ranger never officially confirmed it,
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  but the parallels, the disguises, the silver, the moral code,
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  the territory, the legend, they're kind of hard to dismiss.
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  As are three thousand arrests thirty two years a man
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  born into slavery who died a law man. That's bass Reeves.
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  That is anonymous America