By Shawn Loging and Dorothy Sedovic
Published: May. 29, 2024 at 3:25 PM CDT|Updated: 7 hours ago
LABETTE COUNTY, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News) - On a windswept day in Kansas, tools were sharpened, instruments primed and notebooks and pens were in hand, with the goal to add more to the story of a 150-year-old mystery.
“This is the dream come true. This is why I bought the land,” landowner Bob Miller said.
For more than a week in May, an archeological dig in rural Labette County has focused on a field to unearth new clues about the “Bloody Benders” mystery.
“Endless interest on this story. I think a lot of it is not just what they did but how they did it, and also how the mystery of what happened to them because you can write your own ending,” said Miller.
The Benders were a family of four who lived during the 1870s off the Osage Trail near Cherryvale, Kansas. They’ve gained notoriety for their alleged propensity to kill and rob travelers who stopped at their home while on the Osage Trail.
The family is accused of killing the travelers and dumping their bodies into a cellar to be buried later.
It was the disappearance of Dr. William York, believed to have been one of their victims, that drew suspicion to the Benders. The family vanished before a private detective and posse could close in on them. Their home was ransacked for souvenirs and cleared away.
At least 11 people are thought to have been killed by the Bloody Benders.
A lot remains unknown about the Bloody Benders, and ever since Miller bought the land, he’s wanted to add to the story.
“When I bought this property about four years ago, this was my dream: to somehow find out where all this stuff happened,” Miller said. “We know what happened, but we don’t know where it happened and find out what the ground has been hiding for 150 years.”
Miller has been working with the KU Department of Anthropology and the Kansas Geological Survey to find the Benders’ homestead.
“It’s an important site, especially because good people lost their lives here, so it was a makeshift graveyard for a while,” Kansas archeologist Chris Hord said. “To do this work here is a way of honoring, I think, those people. The people that lost their lives here, and there were more people who lost their lives here, I’m sure, than the people that wound up being buried here.”
The archeological dig is taking a close look into the ground to see what new pieces of the Benders’ story can be found.
“This is a really cool site because of the story but because we had such great interest. So, we have a lot of people working on genealogy, the history, kind of their own family’s connections,” said KU Department of Anthropology Assistant Teaching Professor Lauren Norman, Ph.D. “We’re really adding this practical, physical aspect of it.”
Norman is leading a field school with six students and volunteers working toward that goal.
“Last year, some of the same students were here, and they learned how to do geophysical surveys. How to figure out what’s under the ground and then we make hypotheses based on that,” she said.
In addition to that work last summer, there’s also been a deep dive into the historical record.
“I’ve read up on the most recent couple of books about the Benders’ story. Then, I’ve done a deep dive in the winter months. I’ve spent way over 100 hours in researching what happened,” Hord said.
Items have been discovered on this land for years and Miller has now established his own collection.
“It’s exciting because when you find like a rivet or a square nail, was this part of the cabin, what it a horse bridal that it belonged to one of the victims? Did it belong to the Benders themselves? We just don’t know,” Miller said.
His goal is to try and locate specific structures: house, stable, corn crib, well or outhouse.
“Things have gotten scattered over 150 years of farming, so it’s over a several-acre period, but we’re trying to narrow things, and pinpoint the location on a computer, which points to look at closer,” he said.
The field school is a more intensive academic search. Working in small squares on spots identified as promising, the soil is carefully being peeled back. Items found are being carefully documented.
“A lot of archeology is about the artifacts but at least half of what we know comes from where we find the artifacts. Recording their contexts, keeping good records are all part of it,” Norman said.
Her team is working even slower since it consists of students still learning the ins and outs of archeological fieldwork.
“Archeology is typically a very slow process and having people who are learning during that process is even slower. We’re going to be here for 10 days, but I don’t expect us to get too far just because they’re all learning and we want to do it right,” Norman said.
While part of the field school’s focus is to learn more about the Benders mystery, it’s also being used as a learning opportunity for students.
“We do a lot of teaching in the classroom, and we haven’t done a huge amount of fieldwork,” Norman said. “Archeology is really learned in the field. This allows our students, kind of for the first time in a number of years, to really get their hands dirty and practice what they’ve learned.”
One of those students is Dylan Allen. He was here last summer when ground surveying was taking place, and he is now participating in the next phase.
“I haven’t gotten the opportunity to do much digging, so being able to put everything I’ve learned in school to the test, it’s very satisfying,” Allen said.
A Kansas native, Allen grew up hearing the story of the Bloody Benders and is excited to be helping unearth more of its history.
“It really ties you into the community of the area, and you really get an understanding of how important history is to a community and to a community’s identity,” said Allen. “Being a part of this is making it real, almost.”
In the months to come, the items found here will be taken back to the lab, cleaned and studied. Norman said she hopes to have some initial findings to report by this fall, but it will still be a couple of years of work.
The main point of this work is to use what is found and where it was found to add context to the history already known.
“Low and behold, what we’ve been finding is the artifacts that are in the dirt here, in the soil, are proving to be the greatest percentage from that period, in terms of the glass and the ceramics and the nails, square nails,” Hord said. “To most people, it’s just junk. To us, it’s really important data.”
More work is planned for the land this summer. It will continue ground surveying, which could lead to another excavation.
“The story isn’t over. The history is done, but it’s not over. It’s not finished,” Allen said. “It’s really cemented in this project because there’s no house here, but look at how many people are gathered just for digging an empty field.”
A Facebook page is helping to document this effort.
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