1. FINDING BIGFOOT
Joseph Luther and Gary Carson
Submitted to
Texas Archeology
4.25.2015
TAS members Joseph Luther and Gary Carson have spent the last two years on a historical
archeology project at the old Big Foot Wallace Ranch in Bandera County. This site was recently
accorded at Tex Site trinomial as 41BN252. Other members of the Old School research team
were Don Wilson, Pam Haylock and Juan Gonzalez.i
William A. A. Wallace was born 3 April 1817 in Lexington, Virginia. After his brother and a
cousin had been killed in the Goliad Massacre, Wallace traveled to Texas to "take pay out of the
Mexicans." He was a soldier in the Texan Army and battled General Adrian Woll's invading
Mexican forces near San Antonio in 1842. Wallace then volunteered for the Somervell and Mier
expeditions. Big Foot ended up a prisoner in the Perote Prison, surviving the "black bean"
incident.
Given his liberation, Big Foot Wallace enlisted in the Texas Rangers under John Coffee Hays,
serving until the outbreak of the Mexican War. He was a Lieutenant in Capt. R. A. Gillespie's
Company of Texas Mounted Volunteers during the War. He again operated as a Ranger during
the 1850s, fighting border bandits as well as Indians. Big Foot famously drove the mail hack
between San Antonio and El Paso. During the Civil War Wallace stayed in Texas to help protect
the frontier from depredations by Indians, deserters, and Union soldiers.
Big Foot Wallace is one of the most famous settlers of the Medina area. On August 21, 1849, he
was granted 320 acres of land about five miles above Medina. This was not a desirable area
because it was deep in Indian Territory.
“A few months after I had settled on the Medina River, I concluded that it would be good policy
to enter into a regular treaty with the Lipans, who, at that time, occupied all the adjacent
county.”ii
The Bandera County histories have often mentioned Wallace Creek, the Big Foot Wallace Ranch
and photographs of the extant corncrib. In a dinner conversation in 2012, the property owner
casually mentioned that the corncrib was on his land. A field expedition was soon organized.
The field team from Old School Research worked on this site from August 2013 to February
2014. The Tex Site form was file on 14 February 2014. Cultural materials observed include
dense pottery and ceramic, foundation stones, wellhead, and iron ranching artifacts. All appear to
be mid to late 19th century artifacts. The ruins of the corncrib are nearby to the cabin site. No
excavations were conducted as the site sits on the bedrock of a Glen Rose formation. The site
had been disturbed by ranching operations.

4. i Old School Research ~ Historical Archeology. www.oldschoolresearch.net
ii John C. Duval. The Adventures of Big Foot Wallace. Philadelphia: Claxton, Ramsen & Haffelfinger. 1871.