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Description
Cowtown Days, annual festival..........celebrating Baxter Spring's rich western heritage. During the mid to late 1800's, our town was the primary destination for the large cattle drives herding their beasts towards the large markets in the east. During it's heyday, Baxter Spring's was a rip roaring town full of cowboys, indians, brothels and bars. Baxter Springs is primarily rememberd for a Civil War skirmish, whereas the famed Quantrill's Raiders disquised themselves in Union Army uniforms and ruthlessly massacred 100 Union Soldiers heading back towards their fort, which stood here in Baxter. A few days later, William Quantrill and his horde of Confederate Rebels, which included the likes of Jesse and Frank James as well as the psychopathic killer, Bloody Bill Anderson.....descended upon the town of Lawrence Kansas, murdering every man and boy they came across and laying waste to the town and the women who had led a peaceful life, prior to Quantrill's Raid. After the Civil War, the James gang came back to Baxter Springs and held up the town bank. By then, the town was in decline.....since the building of the railroads west. No longer did the cowboys have a need to drive their cattle the great distances to get them to market. Later, in the 1900's.......our bank was robbed by the infamous Bonnie and Clyde Barrow. Baxter Springs has the distinction of being the only town to be held up twice by Bonnie and Clyde.

Description
Cowtown Days, annual festival..........celebrating Baxter Spring's rich western heritage. During the mid to late 1800's, our town was the primary destination for the large cattle drives herding their beasts towards the large markets in the east. During it's heyday, Baxter Spring's was a rip roaring town full of cowboys, indians, brothels and bars. Baxter Springs is primarily rememberd for a Civil War skirmish, whereas the famed Quantrill's Raiders disquised themselves in Union Army uniforms and ruthlessly massacred 100 Union Soldiers heading back towards their fort, which stood here in Baxter. A few days later, William Quantrill and his horde of Confederate Rebels, which included the likes of Jesse and Frank James as well as the psychopathic killer, Bloody Bill Anderson.....descended upon the town of Lawrence Kansas, murdering every man and boy they came across and laying waste to the town and the women who had led a peaceful life, prior to Quantrill's Raid. After the Civil War, the James gang came back to Baxter Springs and held up the town bank. By then, the town was in decline.....since the building of the railroads west. No longer did the cowboys have a need to drive their cattle the great distances to get them to market. Later, in the 1900's.......our bank was robbed by the infamous Bonnie and Clyde Barrow. Baxter Springs has the distinction of being the only town to be held up twice by Bonnie and Clyde.