FORT BRIDGER,
WYOMING
JULY 20, 1999—
Marvin
the Road Dog would have been honored
to touch noses with Thornburgh, but we arrived a century
too late. Wyoming's favorite canine passed away in 1888,
dead from a mule kick after a decade-long life worthy of
a Louis L'Amour novel.
A
Dog and His Friends:
That's Thornburgh on the floor at the far right, and
his best buddy "Buck" Buchanan in the middle
(wearing a top hat) |
Thornburgh
got his name in 1879, when he survived an Indian attack
that took the life of Major T.T. Thornburgh. The dog became
a sort of "camp follower," winning friends and
admirers far and wide as tales of his heroism spread.
He
captured a commissary thief and received a stab wound in
the process. He warned soldiers of an attack in time to
save themselves and keep their horses and mules from stampeding.
He saved a young boy from drowning, and he saved a man's
life by intercepting his attacker's knife-wielding arm.
The marble headstone of
Thornburgh the Dog,
c.1879-1888 |
Thornburgh
had many fans and benefactors, but it wasn't until "Buck"
Buchanan came to work at Fort Bridger that he found a real
human soulmate. They were inseparable until one of Buck's
mules delivered the blow that ended Thornburgh's life on
September 27, 1888. A grief-stricken Buck had an elaborately
carved marble headstone inscribed with this
epitaph:
"Man
never had a better, truer, braver friend.
Sleep on old fellow,
We'll meet "Across the Range."
According
to the ranger at Fort Bridger, Thornburgh is the only dog
ever to have received a military funeral. Buck Buchanan,
on the other hand, is believed to lie in an unmarked grave
in a cemetery in Salt Lake City.
