Building the Union Pacific railroad across the Great Plains had its challenges. While constructing the railroad across the Great Plains, the Union Pacific faced relentless attacks from the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho tribes. Of course, besides, the tribes trying to push back what they saw as encroaching Americans of their lands, the tribes saw the construction of the railroad as an attack on their hunting grounds. It's believed that the tribes united over a common threat to their way of life.
As a result, tribes regularly attempted to disrupt the railroad's progress across their territory. The railroad was attacked and harassed relentlessly. Livestock was continuously rustled by tribal raiders. Railroad surveyors were particularly vulnerable because they went on their own ahead of the work crews. Of course, while several railroad surveyors were killed, most of the railroad workers who were killed died from Indian attacks on work crews and terrorizing isolated station towns.
In August of 1867, the Union Pacific Rail Road realized they had not received a telegraph for several days from their Plum Creek Station which is present-day Lexington, Nebraska. What they didn't know was that on August 6th, a war party of Cheyenne cut the telegraph wires near Plum Creek Station.
For some reason, Union Pacific didn't associate their downed telegraph line with a Cheyenne war party or the possibility of trouble. Instead, they simply dispatched a five-man repair crew on a handcar to restore communication. One of the men sent to find out why communication had stopped was their lineman William Thompson. Thompson was from England and new to the frontier.
It was already dark when the five-man crew aboard their handcar approached their destination. In the dark, they didn't see that their way was blocked with railroad ties placed on the tracks. They ran into the ties and their handcar derailed. Disoriented and in the dark, the five men had no idea that they had fallen into a trap.
A war party of more than two dozen heavily armed Cheyenne warriors on horseback engulfed the railroad workers. Soon, all of the Union Pacific men except Thompson were killed.
Thompson was left for dead after he had been shot in the shoulder and scalped. It is said he miraculously survived by playing dead. Of course, it's also said he may have lost consciousness. Either way, at one point the Cheyenne left.
What Thompson didn't know was that a train that was sent right behind the five-man repair crew also ran into railroad ties placed on the tracks as a barrier. Besides the 17 railcars being derailed leading to a battle with Cheyenne warriors, the resulting wreck killed two crewmen who were crushed beneath the train's boiler. The engineer, fireman, and conductor were also killed.
Thompson is said to have regained awareness of his situation after the war party left. Besides finding his co-workers dead, he also found his severed scalp. Since the Cheyenne at the 17-car derailment were some of the same Cheyenne who ambushed Thompson and his co-workers, he figured that it must have been dropped during the chaos of the second battle at the 17-car derailment.
Union Pacific sent out a second rescue train the next day. While I have no idea how Thompson found his bloody scalp in the dark, it's said that when a rescue team arrived, they placed it in a bucket of salt in hopes of preserving it. And no, I have no idea if they thought it could be reattached -- but they did take Thompson to Omaha where there was a doctor that they thought would try to re-attach the scalp.
In Omaha, Thompson saw Dr. Richard C. Moore to see if it could be reattached. Sadly, Dr. Moore could not reattach it. Dr. Moore described Thompson's wound as follows: The scalp was entirely removed from a space measuring nine inches by seven. The denuded surface extended from one inch above the left eyebrow backwards. There was also a severe tomahawk wound. Thompson was in such excellent health, that his recovery was rapid. Thompson had severe neuralgic pains on the right side of the head and face, but in about three months all pain ceased and nearly the entire surface was cicatrized or scarred. Thompson would have an irregularly shaped bald patch for the rest of his life.
Since different tribes had different methods for scalping their victims, the scalping beginning over the left eye and was cut in a diamond pattern was seen as the Cheyenne method of scalping.
As for William Thompson's new life on the American Frontier, it was short-lived. After he recovered, he returned to his native England. Supposedly, he left America "evidently thinking that the wild and woolly West was too strenuous a neighborhood for peaceful residence."
So what happened to William Thompson's severed scalp?
For almost 75 years, the scalp was displayed in a bell jar. Today, it’s stored in an acid-free archival box and brought out for display on special occasions or upon requests made in advance.
So now, other than William Thompson surviving being scalped, he is the only survivor of Native Americans sabotaging the iron rails themselves. And to answer the big question of why didn't he bleed to death from being scalped?
Believe it or not, though it's said that infection had started to set in when he was taken to Omaha where Dr. Moore tried to re-attach the scalp, the bleeding stopped on its own soon after the scalping. The reason that the bleeding stopped might sound unbelievable. It's said the Nebraska night was so warm that Thompson's blood glutted quickly. The summer heat stopped the bleeding. Imagine that.
To read about another scalping survivor, check out the story of Robert McGee -- Scalping Survivor 1864
Tom Correa
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