The amazing 'Doc' Carver

1872 was an eventful year in Southwest Nebraska. That was the year that Frontier County was officially organized. It was also the year of the great Grand Duke Alexis buffalo hunt near Hayes Center, and it was the year that W. T. "Doc" Carver took out his claim on land near Wolf's Rest (present day Holbrook).

Doc Carver, originally from Illinois, was one of the best known residents to come out of Frontier County -- certainly among the most colorful. There were stories that Carver was a dentist turned homesteader, but he never fixed anyone's teeth. Nor was he a farmer. His mother, who followed him to Nebraska after a few months, was much more of a farmer than he was. She brought with her fine poultry, consisting of chickens, pea-fowl, and ducks. She also brought a collection of flower seeds, which she used to brighten their homestead. And perhaps, most importantly of all, she brought with her the area's first piano, which became an important magnet for early social gatherings.

The piano almost did not make it to the Carver homestead. On the way from the railroad the wagon carrying the piano got stuck in swampy ground. They simply could not hitch enough horses to the wagon to pull it out of the mire. So, the freighters covered the curious instrument with buffalo robes, and it remained in the soft ground for several months, till the soil dried out enough for them to continue on to the homestead.

Doc Carver seemed to be interested in only one thing -- and that was shooting -- rifles, pistols, shot guns -- it didn't matter. Already a good shot when he arrived, he worked at his craft, shooting targets and local game, until he became arguably the best shot in the world.

In the late 1870s the railroads were offering lucrative contracts to hunters to supply buffalo for hides and meat for Eastern markets. Doc Carver was born for that profession, and over the next few years killed an estimated 30,000 buffalo, earning him the unofficial title of Champion Buffalo Hunter of the Plains.

However, in 1873 another hunter, one Buffalo Curly, disputed that title. A match between the two men, with a cash prize of $500, was arranged. Each man, on horseback, would kill as many buffalo as he could, using just one horse, and just one run. The event, along Frenchman Creek, attracted a large crowd of trappers, hide-hunters, Indians, soldiers, and visitors. Indian scouts, trailing along on their ponies marked each man's kill -- red flagged arrows for Carver, blue flagged arrows for Buffalo Curly.

Doc Carver, aboard his favorite horse, Surprise, quickly out distanced and out shot Buffalo Curly, and claimed the prize with a count of 160 buffalo killed. Those in attendance were greatly impressed with the spectacle, but Buffalo Curly was furious, claiming that Carver had taken unfair advantage, and swore to kill Doc Carver "someday."

(Instead, a few years later Buffalo Curly, real name Jack McCall, killed Doc Carver's friend, Wild Bill Hickock, in a Deadwood, S.D. saloon -- for which he was hung.)

It was for this startling exhibition of shooting that Carver probably got his nickname. The Indians who witnessed the buffalo hunt afterwards referred to Carver as "The Great Bad Medicine," dispensed by one, "Doc" Carver.

In 1876, the year of the Custer Massacre, Carver left the plains and went to California, where he began his career of performing at shooting exhibitions and toured from California to New York at fairs and celebrations. It was a lucrative business in that time, when shooting a gun was looked upon as the ultimate manly virtue.

After successful tours in the United States, Carver went on to triumphal exhibitions in Europe and around the world. He earned high praise and many honors from royalty, from the Queen of England to Kaiser Wilhelm, in Germany.

In 1883 Carver joined up with his old friend, Buffalo Bill Cody, in producing the world's first "Wild West Show."

Their opening show was in Omaha, and was favorably received there and in every locale where they played, but the egos of the two men were too great to continue together, and after one season the partnership was terminated with some animosity. Each man went his own way with his own version of the Wild West.

Demonstrations of Carver's shooting prowess were the feature of Carver's version of the Wild West Show, and they were magnificent. In one 6-day competition in 1885 Carver astounded his audience by breaking 60,000 glass balls with his shot gun. Doc Carver regularly accepted challenges from his audience, but he still had no trouble boldly proclaiming to be "The World's Best Rifle Shot" up to the time of his death.

However, in mid-1880s Doc came up with an idea that revolutionized his show. Reportedly, he recalled an incident back on the Medicine Creek, when he was attempting to outrun outlaws. When he started over a bridge, the structure gave way and he and his horse were thrown into the stream below.

He was surprised that neither he nor his horse were hurt in the fall. He thought that the event could be turned into a public attraction. Toward that end, his son, Al, constructed a ramp leading up to a platform some 40 feet above a tank of water.

Horses were trained to dive into the tank of water from the platform, with a rider aboard. It proved to be a popular attraction, and when the traveling Wild West Show was discontinued it remained a mainstay at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City until the 1970s, when pressure from Animal Rights Activists stopped the act.

The attraction was not without its troubles. One rider was killed when his mount slipped and fell at an awkward angle into the tank. To add glamour to the act, Carver's daughter became a rider. Later his daughter in law, Sonora (Al's wife), took over the principal role. (In the '30s she was severely injured in a fall, which left her blind, but only a few weeks afterward she resumed her act, diving countless times aboard a horse into the tank of water. When questioned about her accident she would reply. "Bad things happen to people; but you can't let them get you down."

Her life story was recreated in a Walt Disney movie, Wild Hearts Can Not Be Broken, in 1991. Though blind, she was still able to listen to the movie. She died in 2003 at the age of 99.)

Doc Carver and Buffalo Bill Cody never did repair their friendship, and in the later years both men were quite hostile toward each other. Carver disparaged Cody's life on the range, and openly disputed his claims as a buffalo hunter. Cody, in turn, dismissed Carver as an insignificant voice of the past. By the time of Cody's death in 1917 he had fallen upon hard times, and was no longer the larger than life personification of the Old West. Carver's show, on the other hand, had adapted to the times, and was thriving, as a feature on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City at the time of his death in 1927.

Carver had traveled the world, playing before Kings and Queens, yet he never did forget his roots in Frontier County Nebraska. In a letter written from Vienna, Austria, to W.H. Miles, his old friend and fellow pioneer at Wolf's Rest, Doc Carver said, "I have made Medicine Creek famous all over the world -- where I am proud to have hailed from."

Doc Carver died in 1927 and was buried, beside his mother, in Winslow, Illinois.

Source: Early History of Frontier Co. by W.H Miles, NE History Magazine, vol X