Cummins’ Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World

Nice Photograph of the famous

Cummins Indian Congress and Wild West Show

from a Stereograph.

1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition ~ St. Louis Worlds Fair ?

Click to Enlarge & then click new image once again to enlarge further

This stereograph has been in one of my folders forever, so when I recently came across it again I decided it should be added to the blog.

I believe this photo may be from the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. Looking at the photograph, the oyster house restaurant sign seen on upper left appears to be named Pike Oyster House which would have been for The Pike, the name of the street the show was located on.

Also note the sign for Custer Massacre and Battle of Little Bighorn right above the Oyster House sign. During the Fair's run, on Sept. 15 (St. Louis Day) a re-enactment of the battle was held with Col. Cummins playing the part of Custer! The scene also seems to be of a "Fair" event with people strolling in a large open area (The Pike was 90ft wide) and a striped event tent set up at extreme right side of the photograph.

The Cummins Indian Congress and Wild West Show was originally organized and put together by Col. Fred Cummins for the 1901 Pan American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York. After putting it together, he liked the show so much he decided to make it a permanent show and as shown in the photo above, his show was still alive and in progress at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. Cummins had several years of managing Wild West shows, during 1898/99 he had managed the Trans-Mississippi & International Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska.

The entrance to the Wild West Indian Congress show was on The Pike (the main 90ft wide thoroughfare with attractions lining both sides). The actual performance area however was actually located off the official fairgrounds which has given historians a reason to think his show was a late entry into the Exposition ~ Below is a photo of The Pike (Photo Credit: St. Louis Worlds Fair Society)

The Cummins show was not a small endeavour! Cummins had assembled over 1000 individuals (Performers, Native americans, Cossacks, Cavalry etc.) to participate in this show.

Of the native americans he assembled, there were 51 tribes represented and an incredible group of 28 famous Indian Chiefs: Geronimo, Joseph, Wolf Robe, Calico, Red Thunder, Hard Heart, Rocky Bear, Lone Wolf, Seven Rabitts, Black Horse, Flat Iron, Black Bird, Long, Bull, Painted Horse, Henry Standing Bear, Red Shirt, Two Strikes, Last Horse, Eagle Horse, Black Heart, Red Star, Lone Star, Afraid of Bear, Jack Red Cloud (Son of Red Cloud), American Horse, No Neck, WM. Sitting Bull, Hollow Horn Bear.

Jack Red Cloud and American Horse were veterans of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and within months after the close of the Exposition, Geronimo, American Horse and Hollow Horn Bear rode in Teddy Roosevelt's 1905 Presidential Inauguration Parade. After the tragic Battle of Wounded Knee, American Horse traveled to Washington and protested to the government against the Wounded Knee tragedy. The Cummins Wild West Show also had star performers such as a very young Will Rogers (performing under a stage name at that time) and a future world champion roper, Be Ho Gray.

The shows run was anything but routine: At the end of one performance, Col. Zack Mulhall and one of his assistants Frank Reed (shows boss hostler) got into an argument with the result that Mulhall shot Reed twice ~ but only wounded him.

Mulhall, by accident, also shot and permanently disabled an 18 year old St. Louis teenage boy and another show employee in the stomach when he tried to stop the ruckus. (* Zack Mulhall had an 80,000 acre ranch in Oklahoma Indian Territory which had spawned off two other famous Wild West Shows: Miller Bros. 101 ranch & Pawnee Bills Wild West Show).

Mulhall was arrested but soon released on bail, but Exposition Management refused to allow Mulhall to enter onto the Fairgrounds again, so Mulhall set up his own show just blocks away from the Exposition Fairgrounds called it Col. Mulhalls Congress of Rough Riders and Ropers. At this same time, the 750 indians in the show, led by Geronimo, had displayed their unhappiness with Mulhall with the result that the Cowboys supposedly snapped their revolvers at the indians. (Not wise if that in fact happened!)

Many of the cowboys left the Cummins show to perform with Mulhall, Will Rogers managed to perform with both. Within months, Mulhall seems to have smoothed over his problems between he and Geronimo as Geronimo had decided to appear as a special guest in Mulhalls show.

What a Show ~ Meet me in St. Louis!