By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
There are many miraculous and heartbreaking events that took place in our Bowen family history, dating back over three hundred years, allowing for the Lost Sand Creek Site to be discovered. If any of these events had gone differently, Chuck Bowen would not have made his historical archaeological discovery of the real Sand Creek village site and battleground areas.
Our Bowen family history in the U.S. starts with Moses Bowen, who led his family to the colonies from Wales in 1698–the Bowen line goes back to before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Moses brought his two-year-old son, John, and wife with him.
At only two years old when his father, Moses, brought their family to the colonies, it’s a miracle John survived. Many people that sought new life in America suffered death due to a lack of water, food, sicknesses, among other things on the ship ride overseas. The trip from the Wales area to America took about six weeks.
Had John died on the voyage to America, our Sand Creek discovery would not have happened—the Bowen family ranch in Colorado would have also never came to be.
John had eight children and had sons that fought in the Revolutionary War in the Battle of Kings Mountain, including Rees, who was killed, and Robert, whose line we come down from.
Had Robert died in battle, the Sand Creek discovery would not have happened.
Robert was born in 1740 in Augusta, VA. He had 11 children: five boys and six girls.
And with every generation of our Bowen ancestors in the U.S., something miraculous happened that kept the line going.
Our line continues through Robert’s son, Charles, born in 1791 in South Carolina. He was married in 1817. Charles would settle in Mississippi and was a pillar in his community—he was a founder of the town of Oxford and the University of Mississippi. Charles had seven children. Six of his seven children were girls. He had one son, William.
If Charles didn’t have a son, our Sand Creek discovery would not have happened.
A nearly identical situation happened with William. He was born in 1830 on July 4. He had five children: four girls and one boy. William was in the first class of the University of Mississippi at 18. Just like other ancestors, he only had one son, keeping the Bowen family line going.
William was a Confederate soldier and signed up to fight at Corinth. Union soldiers destroyed his town, Water Valley, MS in 1862, and his home was burned. Somehow the family desk survived—it was sent to be restored in Memphis. See a picture of the desk in our blog here: OleMissHero
Had William died in the battle at Corinth, our Sand Creek discovery would not have happened. Over 600,000 were killed in the Civil War.
William’s son was Charles Butler Bowen, born in 1862 during the second year of the Civil War, in Water Valley, Miss., and at a young age of about 15, was sent west with the P. B. Cole family who settled first in Missouri in 1877. He suffered a tremendous loss at a young age. His mother died when he was 11. The family had lost everything during the Civil War. Union troops destroyed their town, the same year he was born.
Had Charles Butler stayed back east, our Sand Creek discovery would not have happened.
After moving west at 15 with the Cole family, they would settle in the Medicine Lodge, KS area about 1881. He would later manage a store in Mingona, KS, near Medicine Lodge, and it was at that store he met Elizabeth Mills, who would become his wife. They married in a log cabin between Medicine Lodge and the nearby town of Lake City in 1886. Shortly after their wedding, Charles went on to Texas, near Darrouzett, to build them a one room sod and frame house, as they believed that area would provide them a great opportunity. He went back to Kansas to get his bride, and when they got to Texas, they found their new house had been blown away by a wind storm. They decided not to give up. Their next house was built in a dugout pit close to where the sod house was built. They found a door from the sod house and used it in the dugout house. A road scraper was used to dig out most of the pit for the house. This house had two rooms and was dug into the side of the hill, which created three side walls for the dwelling. However, they suffered yet another loss.
Elizabeth went with Charles Butler to work on the railroad. When they returned home, they found their home and all of their possessions were destroyed by a prairie fire. Not wanting to admit defeat and move back to Kansas, they still felt Texas was where they should be. After that, they lived in a tent near the dugout, but it was destroyed by wind. A neighbor helped restore the dugout as it had been before the fire. They lived there for four years—the first dugout house had a dirt floor but the new one had a wood floor, a shingled roof and was wallpapered with newspapers. They would move to the head of First Creek in 1890 and file on a homestead which was the beginning of their cattle ranch. Charles Butler had three boys and two girls. His son Claude is who our line comes down from.
Had Charles Butler and Elizabeth admitted defeat and moved back to Kansas, our Sand Creek discovery would not have happened and the Bowen ranch in Colorado would also not happen.
Claude was born in 1890 in Tim City, TX, shortly before the family moved to First Creek. After his father’s death in 1909, he managed the ranch that he would eventually own, up until the late 1940s. He had two daughters and one son: Anna Beth, Esther and Charles, known as Buster. Claude, who was Chuck’s grandpa, suffered a devastating loss in the 1940s.
His daughter Anna Beth was killed in a home explosion the same year Buster’s plane was hit by a 40mm shell in WWII, in 1945. Buster served as a navigator on a B-25 bomber. The escape hatch on his plane was hit, and he was hit with shrapnel that went through his parachute and flak suit—he lived with small pieces of shrapnel in his back the rest of his life. A few years after her death and Buster returning from the war, Claude and his wife Mary would buy a ranch on Sand Creek in Colorado in 1948. The following year, Buster would marry Frances Taylor and they would buy the adjoining ranch on the creek. Read about Buster’s plane attack here: BusterWWII
Had Buster not survived the plane attack in WWII, the Sand Creek discovery would not have happened.
Anna Beth’s death was extremely hard on the family—had Anna Beth not been killed, they may have stayed in Texas. It was an incredibly heartbreaking event that was a catalyst that led to a new life in Colorado. It can be difficult to understand why certain things happen.
Had the Bowens stayed in Texas, the Sand Creek discovery would not have happened.
Buster’s son, Charles, known as Chuck, was born in 1952–he’s had a lifelong love for the family ranch and at a young age, he wanted to make an archaeological discovery.
“For roll call at a Chivington Indians 4-H Club meeting, we were asked to write what we wanted to be when we grew up. When we got home, Momma asked why I had written rancher. I told her it was easier to spell than archaeologist,” Chuck Bowen said (We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site).
A stage station was Chuck’s first dig when he was 15. Read about it on page 84 of our book.
The Bowens’ new life in Colorado paved the way for Chuck to grow up on Sand Creek. It was his backyard. He knew every trail and bend in the creek—he knew the land like the back of his hand. Chuck has spent over 70 years on Sand Creek—no one else has spent anywhere near that amount of time on that part of the creek. When he studied firsthand accounts looking for places to search for artifacts with a metal detector on the Bowen family ranch, owned by his parents, he knew precisely the areas eyewitnesses described.
In the early 70s, Chuck was traveling from Lamar with two friends, back to college in South Carolina. The three of them would take turns driving the 1,300 miles straight through. Steve was driving, Chuck was the passenger and Dave was in the back seat. Steve drove nearly all night long, and about 100 miles passed Nashville on I-40, early in the morning, they hit a bad rain storm and a huge gust of wind pushed Chuck’s Volkswagen Bug into the back dual of a semi. The car then went off the interstate between two guardrails. If it had been another quarter of a mile, they would have ended up in a river. The police officer said if they had hit the front of the tire, it could have sucked the car under the truck. The truck driver saw the luggage that was on top of the car flying across the interstate and was the only reason he knew the car hit his truck.
Chuck and Steve got out of the car to survey the damage. They then realized Dave was not with them—he was still in the car. Afraid he didn’t survive the accident, they checked on him. He was asleep in the backseat.
All three walked away without a scratch.
Had Chuck not survived the car accident, the discovery of the Lost Sand Creek Site would not have happened.
The path for Chuck Bowen, along with the assistance of his wife, Sheri, to discover the Lost Sand Creek Site, was paved by multiple ancestors. Our ranch on Sand Creek isn’t just where we found the location of Black Kettle’s village and running battle areas, that ranch represents those many generations of Bowens that made tremendous sacrifices, suffered heartbreaking family deaths, and made life changing decisions that led to the Bowens settling in Colorado.
Before Chuck could begin searching for artifacts on his parents’ cattle ranch, he would need their permission. Buster gave Chuck his blessing.
From our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
One of my first concerns was what would I do with the artifacts.
‘Daddy, what would you like me to do with the artifacts I find?’
‘You can do whatever you want. I’m not interested in them, and don’t know why anyone would want to dig them up in the first place.’
One day I took him metal detecting and we found a bullet.
Had Chuck not gotten the blessing from his parents to search for the Sand Creek village site and battle areas, the Lost Sand Creek Site would not have been found.
Buster and Frances were well aware of Chuck and Sheri’s Sand Creek discovery—they attended land owner meetings with National Park Service leadership and they also sat in and observed while NPS historian, Jerome Greene, and NPS archaeologist, Steve DeVore, sat around a card table with Chuck in his living room for over two hours viewing and identifying artifacts Chuck found at the Lost Sand Creek Site.
There were deaths at Sand Creek in the 1864 battle on the Indian side and soldier side—the Bowens also suffered death at Sand Creek. In 1970, at only 15, Chuck’s brother, Greg, died in a drowning accident. That part of Sand Creek, where Chuck found battle locations and the Black Kettle village site, has been in the Bowen family for 75 years. The Cheyenne and Arapaho were only camped there for about two weeks, per the orders from Fort Lyon to leave the area of the fort and camp along Sand Creek. Read more about that here: IndiansSandCreek.
It was truly blood, sweat and tears, of over 300 years, that led to finding the real Sand Creek location.
If the Lost Sand Creek Site had not been found, the truth would not be known.
Learn about the Bowens’ Sand Creek discovery in our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site. Click on the Buy the Book tab in the top right corner. This book provides a detailed description of what artifacts were found, where they were found and how that tells a story far different than the traditional massacre claim. There are over 100 photos of artifacts and maps detailing what was found and how far the real site is to the NPS’ incorrect site.
It’s not just a location change—it’s a story change.
Truth matters. Truth wins.
