Abilene’s Man with a Star
James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok gets his likeness everywhere in Abilene, Kansas, where he served as lawman in 1871.
But his predecessor, Thomas James Smith, while not completely forgotten, is certainly overshadowed—even if Smith earned more respect from locals, and Texas cowboys, than that “Prince of Pistoleers.”
Following “Bear River” Tom Smith is no easy task.