The text alleges to be a firsthand account of many important events in the early American West: Hobbs claims to have been a member of Kit Carson's exploratory party, fought in the Mexican-American War, and the prospected during the California Gold Rush.
[3] Notable texts that have cited Hobbs' book include Captives and Cousins by James F. Brooks, The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen,[4] and The Apache Wars by Paul Andrew Hutton.
[6] In January 1878, Hobbs was committed to a Cincinnati, Ohio insane asylum “as a lunatic.”[7] Sometime later that year he was moved to the National Soldiers Home in Dayton, where he continued giving his well-rehearsed lectures to the other inmates.
[11] Several chapters from Wild Life in the Far West are set in California's Inyo County, primarily taking place during the so-called Owens Valley Indian War of the 1860s.
In 1874, he ran passages from Wild Life in the Independent under the heading "Another Chapter of Those Lies," while also inviting local citizens to write in with corrected versions of tales from Hobbs' book.
"Dad" Moore wrote to the Independent correcting Hobbs' error-filled account of the January 1865 McGuire family murders at Haiwee Meadows and subsequent Native American massacre at Owens Lake.