"Buckskin Johnny" Spaulding Cabin

John T. “Buckskin Johnny” Spaulding built this log cabin in 1876-77 with his brother-in-law, Thomas J. Davis, using logs felled in the Black Hills and hauled by team to the original site on Lower Redwater, 2½ miles southeast of here. It was the first home on the Redwater and in what became Butte County, serving as a home for Spaulding and for Mr. and Mrs. Lucinda Davis and family. An experienced scout familiar with the ways of the Sioux, Spaulding acted as lookout from Sundance Hill, warning settlers when war parties approached the junction of the Belle Fourche and Redwater Rivers. He lived here for 20 years until wanderlust took him west to California in 1896, where he was reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Nettie. They married in 1927 after a 53-year separation. In 1926 he returned to Belle to visit his sister, Lucinda Davis, and he received military honors at his burial in 1932.

Belle Fourche, South Dakota · United States