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Killing of Cows & Spikes 1907 LA Huffman Collection
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The Billings Gazette
Billings, Montana Jan 22, 1907
NEW HYBRID IS VALUABLE
CATALO ALMOST AN IDEAL BEEF ANIMAL
HAS AN EXTRA RIB
In Addition to Supplying Superior Meat, Robe Resulting From Cross Is Much Finer and Better Than That of the Buffalo.
From Saturday’s Daily. Canyon City, Texas, special:
Charles Goodnight, a noted cattleman of the Panhandle of Texas, proposes, if the consent of the ‘Texas state government and financial aid of congress be given, to form an association for the establishment in Paladuro canyon, near Canyon City, of a preserve for buffalo and other wild animals native to the southwest, and also of a ranch for the propagation of a breed of beef animal which he has named “catalo,” the same being a cross of the buffalo and the thoroughbred domestic beef animal.
The canyon is a chasm in Paloduro creek, one of the headwaters of Red river, and is about 50 miles long by five to 10 wide. It begins with a series of precipices, by which it falls about 200 feet, and thence by sharp declivities until its greatest depth is 1,200 or 1,500 feet. Through the entire distance, the little stream traverses a narrow valley, and all the way on both sides the walls are almost perpendicular.
The valley is fertile land and is covered with a growth of large forest trees, which, wherever it is possible for them to take root, even climb the rocky bluffs. These trees are the pecan, the elm, the hackberry, the walnut, the sycamore, the cottonwood and the cedar. The cedar attains an enormous growth and is claimed by scientific men who have visited the canyon to be the same as the cedar of Lebanon of scriptural fame. The trees of the canyon and the bases of the bluffs which confine it are covered with wild grapevine, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and other climbing vegetation. Beneath it all the creek meanders, sometimes flowing peacefully, but more often brawling its way over rocky precipices.
In the bluffs, nature has mare caves where bear, wolves, wildcat, and panther live, and in crevices smaller fur animals make their homes. In the depths of the forest deer and antelope abound. In the trees, song birds build their nests, and high up in crags of the bluffs eagles have their eyries. In the deeper waters of the creek, game fish abound, beaver build their dams and muskrats burrow in the yielding soil. It is nature’s retreat for the wild, and to save the native wild animals from extinction Mr. Goodnight is willing to head a movement to collect them in pairs or herds and place them in the canyon for future preservation.
If the two governments will do their part Mr. Goodnight offers to give outright to the association a herd of more than a hundred buffalo which he has preserved on his ranch. This is the only herd of the American bison in the southwest, where it formerly found winter pasture in herds of countless thousands, and Mr. Goodnight thinks it ought to be preserved by government here on its native heath. Mr. Goodnight would corral the buffalo and. the catalo on the prairie adjacent to the rim of the canyon. The other animals he would confine in separate corrals in the depths of the canyon.
He chooses the prairie for the buffalo and for the cross-breed because the native grasses of the plain are nature’s food for these animals. They will eat other food, but they prefer the native pasture, and in no other part of America are these grasses so nutritious as here in the midst of the Staked plain, or El Llano Estacado, as the early Spanish adventurers named it three centuries and a half ago. The land is not public domain but enough, including the canyon, may be purchased for the use Mr. Goodnight proposes. Indeed, many large holders have offered for a nominal price to convey to the proposed association lands which they own in the canyon and bordering it.
Must Be Done at Early Day.
The transfers must be done soon, however, for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, by its main line and a branch from Canyon City, is daily carrying a great immigration into the fertile and cheap lands of this country, and values are sure to advance; and so Mr. Goodnight and his associates naturally are desirous, of pressing negotiations to an early conclusion. For El Llano Estacado, once feared and shunned by travelers of the plain, has become, by the, discovery of shallow water, by increased annual rainfall, and by scientific farming, a land of cotton, of fruit, of garden, of wheat, of corn, and of alfalfa, and other forage crops, unsurpassed by any other region in the great west. It especially is the domain of beef, as nature intended it to be when it made it the pasture of the buffalo and population is crowding in to continue the work of nature, only substituting for the buffalo the Herford, the Shorthorn, and the Polled Angus. It marks the end of vast ranges, cut it means many cattle growers instead of few, and more cattle and better beef.
The most interesting part, of Mr. Goodnight’s scheme, is the propagation of his cross-breed, the “catalo.'” It is no doubtful experiment that he seeks to unload upon the government, but a certain and assured fact. The cross, by years of breeding, is a success, and Mr. Goodnight, who is an honorable man of wide reputation, gives his word that it is a better beef animal than the best known domestic strains have yet produced. The domestic animal is a better show animal and will take the premiums, but Mr. Goodnight declares that his “catalo” will make better beef and more of it. Mr. Goodnight does not claim that his cross-breed, has reached perfection yet, but he says that even now it is better beef than the domestic. The cross mixture, he says, is too much is its infancy yet for any one to foretell the ultimate result, but he has gone far enough to know that buffalo blood can be introduced into common cattle, and, properly mixed, it will make a great difference in the value of beef cattle. So far as he can see now, it is a matter only of patience and money to obtain any strain one may choose; that is, to get any proportion of buffalo blood into domestic cattle that may prove to be the best.
Mr. Goodnight established his buffalo herd in 1878. Indians and whites alike were killing off the migratory herds, and he conceived the idea of saving some for preservation and future propagation. So he caught a few young ones, which were the beginning of the herd he now is willing to place in a national preserve. Four years afterward the idea of crossbreeding the buffalo with the domestic animal occurred to him, and now he has a herd of that strain also. Mr. Goodnight is not willing to give the public his process of cross-breeding not until the government will consent to take up the work. However, he makes no secret of the character of animal he has produced.
How to Provide More Sirloin
He crosses the buffalo with the Polled Angus, and by certain and proved processes he has made a larger animal than the domestic and better beef. The buffalo has 14 ribs instead of the 13 of the domestic, and it has been only a matter of perseverance for Mr. Goodnight to perpetuate the extra rib in the catalo. This gives length of sirloin and back to the new animal, thereby adding 200 or more pounds to the most valuable meat.
He also has preserved in the cross the hardihood and the instincts of the buffalo. The mixed bloods, as the buffalo, do not eat the poisonous loco weed; they do not run from heel flies and thereby take off fat; they are immune from blackleg and all other diseases of domestic cattle; they never lie with their backs downhill they keep their heads to storms and do not drift; they do not kill out the range, and more of them graze on a given quantity of pasture; they put on more flesh to the quantity of fool consumed; their digestion is better than any other domestic animal, they have a greater windpipe and stronger lung power; their intestines and stomach are very small and their flesh thick.
It is Mr. Goodnight’s observation that the buffalo have more intelligence than other animals, and this the catalo inherit. They also have a better memory, and thereby they never wander from home ranges. Their brain is protected better, having a double skull and a muscular formation between. The mixed bloods are more easily handled than the original domestic animal, and they rarely ever fight and do not want to run. They take life easy, and their longevity is 25 per cent greater than the domestic. When they rise from the ground they get up fore feet first, and they have more strength in sickness to get up than other animals, They never venture into mires. They will eat waste that other cattle refuse. They are animals. They use little water, and they never muddy the pond. They are fond of salt, but they do not gorge themselves with it.
Since the buffalo never have been used for beasts of burden, the collular tissues of their fat is characteristic of all wild cattle, and this the catalo inherit. For instance, the meat is better marbled than the best domestic breeds; there are no muscular streaks of lean and fat, and while they carry plenty of flesh, their tallow is less by 100 pounds than that of the domestic. The hump of the buffalo contains a nutrient from which in times of hunger or thirst the system draws sustenance, and thereby they can take more steps and go longer than any other cattle without suffering. The average natural life of the buffalo is at least 40 years. Mr. Goodnight has on his ranch a buffalo cow 27 years old.
C J. Jones of Kansas, better known as “Buffalo” Jones, has an experimental catalo farm of similar character it the Grand canyon in Arizona. Mr. Jones has been working on this cross breed the past 15 years. He finds greater value in the quality of the robe.
Collecting and propagating this herd of buffalo and breeding the catalo have cost Mr. Goodnight much time, patience and money, and although it has been and still is a labor of love for him, he is willing for the government to take the work over. For he now is 70 or more years old, past the age of active usefulness, and since he has nobody to hand it down to, he wants to make sure that what he has so well undertaken will not be suspended or abandoned. He believes in the catalo he has made a beef animal superior to any other breed, and that the next generation will even improve upon it. President Roosevelt, it is said, has signified a willingness to recommend the project to congress, if Texas will cede jurisdiction of the canyon.
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The Hope Pioneer
Hope, North Dakota January 24, 1907
A Buffalo Roast
From Casselton Reporter:
Through the courtesy of Hon. Frank Lynch, the owner of what is said to be one of the largest buffaloes in the country, the people of Casselton and vicinity will enjoy a treat next week, in the shape of buffalo meat. Buffalo meat is considered a delicacy by gourmands and good feeders of all nations, but on account of its scarcity is seldom seen on the menu of even the most noted caterers, although Delmonico and other caterers of national reputation are willing to pay enormous prices for this delicacy, some even offering as high as four dollars per pound for it, if it could be obtained.
The buffalo has been corn fed for a number of months, and now weighs about 2000 pounds and is in excellent condition. The hair on the head and neck is very long and thick and the hide is in prime condition. The hide will be tanned and the head mounted by J. D. Allen, the celebrated taxidermist of Mandan, N. D. The head, when mounted will be worth in the neighborhood of $1000 and the robe will be worth about $100.
The animal will be paraded next Monday about one o’clock, he will be weighed, have his picture taken and will then be conducted to the slaughter house of Wm. Echternach, where the noble beast will meet death “at the hands of the executioner.
After the death agonies have ceased, Professor Echternach and his-able assistant, Mr. Frank Spooner, will proceed to divest the body of the head and the hide and prepare the carcass for consumption. The meat of the buffalo will be distributed, free of charge, to the residents of Casselton and vicinity on Thursday the 24th day of January, and the head, hide and carcass will be on exhibition at the meat market from the date killed until Thursday.
All those who wish to have a cut of delicious buffalo meat are invited to call at Wm. Echternach’s meat market on the above mentioned date and take advantage of Mr. Lynch’s generosity.
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“Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes Driving the Only Team of Buffaloes in the World”
“Copyright, 1906, by Ernest Harold Haynes, Meriden, N. H.”
Original vintage lithograph postcard, 1906-07
This photo is on loan from Historic Photos
It was also published in the paper below
The Sun, N.Y. Jan 27, 1907
A CHANCE FOR THE BUFFALO
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Manitoba Morning Free Press, Jan 2, 1907
Buffalo Will Never Disappear
…… Ernest Thompson Seton has been making an estimate of the number of buffalo which once roamed over the plains of the central part of this continent. His estimate is 60,000,000, and this is believed to be fairly accurate, though some estimates put the number at almost double this. An accurate census of the buffalo living at the present time puts the number at 1,697. These are nearly all in captivity, only about 400 roaming in the wilds of the far Northwest. The number in captivity has increased from 256 in 1859 to 1,297 in 1906. Mr. Seton says that the number of bison in captivity is rapidly increasing, and that there is no reason why this should not go on so long as there is a desire to maintain the increase. Considerable success has attended the attempts to interbreed bison with common cattle. The hybrid is called a “catalo,” and the advantage it possesses over, and cattle is that it’s hide, or ”robe,” is worth more than the entire body of the steer. It is also very hardy, and lives out on the plains during winters that would be fatal to domestic cattle.
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Trenton Evening Times Jan 21, 1907
BISON HERD WILL ROAM NEW YORK
……Nine Square Miles of Territory to be Set Aside in the Adirondacks
New York, Jan 21 – I heard a bison will be roaming over some of the Adirondacks State lands within a year if the efforts of the American Bison Society succeed. They are acting on the idea that the only way to keep the bison alive is to turn animals loose and let them return to their natural state. To this end the society passed a resolution at its annual meeting in the American Museum of Natural History that steps be taken to secure the enactment of a law in the state of New York setting apart nine square miles of the State land in the Adirondacks region and appropriating $15,000 for the purchase and maintenance of a herd of fifteen bison.
……The resolution was offered by Prof. Franklin W. Hooper, director of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. It was unanimously passed. Director William T Hornaday of the Zoological Park, the president of the association, said: “Prof. Hooper’s is the first proposal to engage this State in the preservation of the bison. It is surprising that no one thought of his plan before. The interest in the bison is widespread in this State. The State has taken no part in scientific expenditures such as the museum’s of New York and Brooklyn and the geological park. The State can’t use State lands to harbor the bison and so provide for them at comparatively small cost. The necessary animals could be bought at not over $350 each. The $15,000 would provide for that and for fencing in, tending and winter fodder for the herd for two years.”
……The society is investigating at the same time the feasibility of starting herds on the Western Government lands. A motion was passed to examine the fitness of the Crow and Flathead reservations in Montana for bison preserves. Prof. Morton J. Elrod of the University of Montana was requested to report on this question.
The annual election of officers of the society was held. President Roosevelt and Earl Grey, Governor of Canada, were re-elected as honorary president and vice president. William T Hornaday, the president, and Ernest Harold Baynes of Meriden N. H., the secretary, were re-elected, A. A. Anderson and Prof. F.W. Hooper were elected vice presidents, Madison Grant of New York, Frederic H Kennard of Boston, Dr. T.S. Palmer and Gifford Pinchot of Washington and W. I. Underwood of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were elected to the executive committee.
……“The purpose of the society is to save the buffalo,“ said Mr. Hornaday. “The notion that he will not breed in captivity is wrong, that he is married extinction for all that. The young born in captivity are undersized and weakling. There are now only about 2,000 bison left, including those in captivity. Five hundred of the wild ones are in that Peace River country in the Canadian northwest. The wolves there, according to Robert Bell of the Canadian Geological Survey prey upon them, killing not adult males, but practically all the calves.
……“The wolves in the region are abundant, because lack of game keeps hunters out of the country. The bison themselves are preserved. The wolves loiter near a bison herd until their moment comes. I Runs out a way from its mother and a pack of wolves tear its throat before the parent can come to its help. When the herd moves away the wolves come back to the calf.
……The Canadian herds will decrease until something is done to exterminate the wolves. We need to try and perpetuate the bison in our country without depending on the Canadian herds.”
……E.H. Baynes, secretary. Of the society showed specimens of buffalo wool. A woolen manufacturer who tested this wool said that it is superior in certain ways to ordinary wool of the same length, and particularly useful for goods where toughness is required. There is a possibility that bison might be turned to profit by collecting their wool at this season when they cast it.
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The Sun, N.Y. Jan 27 1907
A CHANCE FOR THE BUFFALO
BISON SOCIETY’S EFFORTS TO PREVENT ITS EXTERMINATION
Only About 2000 of the Animals Now Alive – Conditions Which the Society
Thinks Call for Government Action – Breaking Young Buffalo to Harness
It is estimated that some 2,000 buffaloes are now alive, counting the Canadian herd, estimated to contain 500. Yet it is supposed that at the close of the civil war there were still millions of them on the plains. It is to protect enough of them to prevent the absolute extermination of the species that the American Bison Society was organized.
The virtual extermination of the species came with almost startling suddenness. Hundreds of men set out to hunt the buffaloes as usual in this season of 1884, to hunt them as they had done in this season of 1883. They could not find any. The buffalo was gone. The parties drove back to the towns empty-handed, wondering what had become of the race of the buffaloes.
So sudden was the extermination, the and caught the killers themselves unprepared. The Smithsonian Institution was caught without an adequate set of specimens. An expedition under William T. Hornaday had to be sent out in haste to secure the specimens.
A herd of four hundred animals remained in Yellowstone Park. Poachers have reduced it to eighteen animals. There is one wild herd left in Canada, and the poachers are not allowed to get at it. These animals, perhaps five hundred, range over Peace River country, southwest of the Great Slave Lake. They thrive and propagate, but cannot raise their young.
The wolf pack’s beset them. No number of wolves dare to try to pull down the bull bison or even the cows, but they ambush the calves. A frisky calf is pretty sure to stray off a few rods from his mother sooner or later. That is when the watchful pack gets at him.
His throat is torn open in an instant. In the next, the parent has charged up to protect him. Too late and the killers have started back for their cover.
At a safe distance, they sit on their haunches, lick the blood and hair off their jaws and watch. By and by the bisons move away, to pasture further. The wolves find the Where he has fallen. If the wolves could be exterminated these last wild bison thrive in spite of short pasture and deep snows. But the wolves are doing well. The Canadian bison herd seem not likely to last longer than the present generation.
The other animals are in captivity. Shows and menageries keep a great part of these. These are besides several herds belonging to Western ranchmen. They total several hundred head.
In the East there is the Corbin herd, in Blue Mountain Park near Meriden, N .H. This herd of about 130 head has been carefully pure blooded. It is said to be free from the taint, and among captive bison, the crossed with domestic cattle.
The Western herds have been sometimes allowed, sometimes made, to cross with domestic cattle. The younger animals in these herds are, therefore, in most cases likely to be of in pure race. The proportion of pure blooded buffalo and these herds constantly decreasing.
Such are the conditions making for the final annihilation of the species to-day, according to Ernest Harold Baynes, who is fighting for the bison.
Only eighteen true wild buffalo remain in this country to-day-those in the Yellowstone Park. Of captive animals, there are still a number left, mostly those taken before the end of the great killing and their offspring. But these are all exposed to one danger or another.
The ranch buffaloes breed hybrids. It has become hard to get a pure blooded animal from the ranches. The confined animals In menageries and private shows, if pure, do not breed well. They breed but deteriorate. Small bones, short legs, loose tendons and large bellies marked the second and third generations.
The parked buffaloes are the best off. Private herds are permitted to range at large over private reserves. Several such private herds still exist – wealthy people’s fancies.
Well parked, as the Corbin herd in New Hampshire, and the Whitney herd on October Mountain, the animals really thrive: they breed regularly and grow hardy, well formed young. The future of the parked private herds is precarious, though, because they are private. Their existence depends on the fancy of individuals.
The owner may tire of his pets, or his heirs may not be inclined to maintain them on valuable lands. Their future is uncertain. These are the conditions that have made it seem necessary to Mr. Baynes and his associates to ensure preservation by surer means. They believe that the State or the national Government should provide this means.
One of the earliest supporters of the movement was President Roosevelt. He lent to the organization of the buffalo preservers, like the American Bison Society, his name as honorary president. W. T. Hornaday of the New York Zoological Park, President David Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford University, Dr. T. S. Palmer of the Biological Survey, Gifford Pinchot and Prof. F.W. Hooper of the Brooklyn Institute are interested in the movement.
Mr. Baynes has been busy propagating popular interest in the scheme. He believes that besides the usual method of lectures, pictures, and writings he has found an original way. He has enlisted the help of the buffaloes themselves.
He secured access to the Corbin herd and borrowed two likely young bull calves. After a year of training, these were driven in team with rains and bit at shows and exhibitions in New England last autumn.
The bison Wants to fight about an hour after he is born. Training Mr. Baynes bison team was no easy matter. Nobody but a naturalist and student of animals, perhaps, could have done it.
Mr. Baynes was a sprinter of some form in college days. That also helped. Some of the first lessons consisted in sessions in which the team to be chased him about the lot. The calves had been taken only a few months old, so that no harm came of it.
By-and-by the pair were induced to abide bridle and harness. After a longer while, they were taught to obey the rain. The hardest lesson was to teach them not to run away every time they felt frisky.
For long time the naturalist hanging on in a light wagon behind a team of madly careering bison was a familiar figure on country roads about Meriden and pleasant weather. There were spills now and then, too; but gradually the calves were broken of their habit of running away. They had done it chiefly for deviltry, their master supposes, and not from nervousness such as makes horses run away. Once taught that the trick was in bad form, they became as steady as soldiers, in refused to break step for the reddest devil carts.
Mr. Baynes became aware of the merit of his bison team as a means of interesting people by the interest that he found that he was taking in them himself. They were amusing company, and awed combination of playfulness, pugnacity, and strength. He had begun on them when they were only a few months old, and not near half-grown. That was the safest age for experimenting with them. They are not yet three years old. Their manners combined the playfulness of the puppy and the strength of the ox. They liked to roll and tumble about and were quite unaware of their weight and strength.
They had and an adventurous liking for long trips over new roads. An attractive looking road was a temptation for them to take the bit into their teeth. Light footed, they like to pull the naturalist over the steeper mountain roads.
On one such trip, they pulled the driver and another, with the weight of baggage, over one of the neighboring ranges and back, a distance of some thirty miles, New Hampshire measure, and a day. The trip gave them appetites and a longing for home.
When they struck the familiar home trail they disregarded the rule about running away. The expedition reached home in dashing style, with the riders hanging to the wagon for dear life.
To the animals credit they behaved perfectly at the Boston Sportsmen Show, where they were a great success in their mission of arousing interest.
Mr. Baynes points to what the American Bison Society and its friends have already accomplished and believes that much will be done. The Government has accepted a herd of twelve buffalo and will put them on an area of fifteen square miles set apart on the Wichita a reservation. There they will be taken this year after calving time. They are expected to return to their wild habits and to thrive, with little care. Without mischance they will increase rapidly, the scientists believe. This is the type of colonization which the society aims for.
Its intention is to secure the planting of similar herds on various Government and State lands. The animals in these colonies are to be virtually at liberty within a large fenced area and to be left to find their own food as far as possible. By this means it is hoped to insure that perpetuation of living examples of the once mighty animal.
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The McCook Tribune
McCook Nebraska Mar 22, 1907
Buffalo Heads Expensive
RELICS OF DEPARTED BISON ARE BECOMING VERY SCARCE
Few of the Mounted Trophies of Almost Extinct Monarch of the Plains Are Now for Sale at Any Price
Kansas City Mo Mounted buffalo heads are becoming scarce buffalo head in good condition will sell readily for $400 to $1,200 according to size and condition.
And only 30 years ago thousands of them were left to rot upon the western plains.
Not many weeks ago Frank Rockefeller of Cleveland brought a buffalo bull to Kansas City from his ranch in Kansas He sold the meat to a butcher. But the head and hide he sent to his home. It was a magnificent specimen.
Mr. Rockefeller valued the head and hide at $1,200 said Weber but it was not for sale at any price. The old buffalo weighed 2,500 pounds Think of it buffalo bull weighing more than a ton long beard hung from his chin and his coat was shaggy. But the buffalo was 27 years old.
Along in the lates 70s, officials of the Kansas Pacific railroad bought 38 buffaloes that were shot on the plains of Kansas. A buffalo head was the roads trade mark These 38 specimens were handsomely mounted and distributed throughout the towns along the length of the road. Some of these heads are still seen in the offices of the Union Pacific railway. One is in the Kansas City ticket office at Ninth and Walnut streets.
“I do not know its value now.” said Thomas A Shaw the assistant ticket agent But I should say $1,000 would not buy it.”
In the museum at the public library is the head of a big buffalo bull which has a history. The animal was one which roamed the plains in the Panhandle of Texas the leader of a herd. He was a surly brute when captured on the Goodnight ranch in 1899 and loaded in a car for Kansas City. A butcher who wished to supply some fancy meat for his customers bought him and sent him to a packing plant to be killed. But the buffalo taught the butchers a lesson in “buffalo-ology.”
The old bull was driven Into the killing chute. The man with the ax steadied himself and swung a terrific blow squarely between the animals eyes. But the old bull shook his shaggy head and bellowed. Again the executioner swung the ax. This time the bull objected to such tiring torment and leaped from the chute.
“Bring a rifle,” ordered the chief executioner and we’ll shoot him. The rifle was brought but the bullets rattled off his hide like shells from armor plate.
“Lasso him!” was then ordered
When the bull was down he was again shot but little damage was done. The butchers in desperation then wound the lariat about the old bulls neck and choked him to death. But he died game, fought until unconscious.
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Okolona Messenger
Okolona, Mississippi, April 24, 1907
Buffalo Herds.
“There are not all told, more than 1,500 buffalo remaining in the United States and Canada,” said “Mr. C. J. Jones of Grand Canyon, Ariz. Mr. Jones has for years borne the sobriquet of “Buffalo Jones,” because of his efforts to perpetuate the bison breed. He is also distinguished for his successful experiments in crossing the buffalo with the domestic cattle, producing a high-bred animal, to which he has given the name of “catalo.”
“The largest single herd of buffalo remaining.” said he, “is owned by the Flathead Indians of Montana about 400. The second largest is on the Austin Corbin estate, in New Hampshire. Next comes the herd of Scotty Phillips, in North Dakota, and there is also a fair herd on the big ranch of Mr. Goodnight in the Texas panhandle. The catalo, a cross between the bison and common cattle, is an animal that has the traits of both progenitors; not so wild and hard to manage as the buffalo, and yet a good bit shyer than its dam.”
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The Atlanta Constitution, May 26 1907
Surrender Park
(extract from article)
……Other attractions is added to Surrender Park beside the sumptuous stables. He has introduced there the American buffalo, the American wapiti and other species of elk from other countries. The wapiti, as all naturalist know, is noted for its big antlers. Mr. Winans has a notion that by cross-breeding with other varieties of big-horned deer he may improve even on the wapiti’s splendid spread, and his experiments thus far had made him very sanguine of success. He has also tried crossing the buffalo with domestic cattle, but has not yet succeeded in evolving the ”catalo,” as “Buffalo” Jones, of American fame, calls the hybrid animal which he has produced.
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The Dickinson Press
Dickinson Dakota Territory June 22, 1907
Buffalo
Howard Eaton of Wolf, Wyo., formerly of the Custer Trail ranch, is without question the best authority on buffalo in the United States. This week he told the PRESS that he estimated that there were but 1200 buffalo left in the world. He recently returned from Beaver Hill park, near Edmonton, Canada, from delivering to the Canadian government 250 young buffalo from the Flathead reservation in Montana. The cows and calves, probably numbering as many more, will be transferred to their new grazing grounds in August, and this will clean up the bison of the aforesaid reservation.
The Canadians paid around $400 per head for these buffalo and it is now conceded that they drove a shrewd bargain with the Americans. Mr, Eaton foresaw that to let this herd of buffalo pass from the United States would be a serious mistake and he journeyed to Washington in hopes of securing, government aid in retaining the same in this country. President Roosevelt, an old acquaintance of Mr. Eaton at Medora in the early eighties, was very anxious to have Congress make an appropriation for the purchase of the Flathead buffalo, but our congressmen were more interested in appropriations which would give them political prestige and so the project of government ownership in this country was abandoned.
Mr. Eaton believes that within a few years the Canadian government will be advertising excursions, from the states to their country with the greatest buffalo herd in the world as the chief attraction. Two or three years ago Mr. Eaton put 18 buffalo into the Yellowstone National park and the number has already increased to 50, showing that under proper conditions the former monarchs of the great western plains will thrive and multiply.
Many of the city parks have a few buffalo, the small park herds in Chicago perhaps being the most successful of any confined to small areas in the United States. Near Pierre, in South Dakota, James Phillips has 125 buffalo. By special arrangement, he has the use of government lands for pasturage. There is also a good buffalo herd of 150 in the mountains of New Hampshire.
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The Weekly Herald
Amarillo, Texas, July 18, 1907
THE GOODNIGHT RANCH AND THE BUFFALO
By William Penn Anderson, Livestock Agent Of the Southern Kansas Railway
Goodnight, Texas, July 10. Editor Daily Panhandle:
Dear Sir. Under the heading of the “Passing of the Buffalo,” an article has been going the rounds of the current publications to the effect that the lust of the buffalo have been shipped out of Texas that Colonel Charles Goodnight has recently sold the last of a small (?) herd that has for several years kept on the famous Goodnight ranch to the British government and they have been shipped to the purchasers. Both on the authority of Colonel Goodnight and from my own knowledge, I am able to state that the article in question is wholly and totally at variance with the facts and will not attempt a reviewal in detail of a common error of opinion which largely obtains as to the passing of the Buffalo.
The article in question says that the Goodnight Buffalo herd has been sold to the British government and shipped to. Canada and that the efforts to perpetuate them has been a failure. On the contrary, no proposition has ever been made to Colonel Goodnight by any agent of the British government or otherwise to purchase his Buffalo, none have been shipped and never before have they been in finer condition or more prolific than during the present season. Already twenty calves have been born in the pure bred herd bringing the number of pure Buffalo up to eighty head.
This same alleged news item refers adversely to Mr. Goodnight’s efforts to cross breed the buffalo with domestic cattle, pronouncing his efforts a failure. This statement is in the same category with the rest of this unwarranted libel. A fixed type of quarter-Buffalo and three-quarters domestic bloods has already been established here so that it can be perpetuated by proven fertility on both sides. While there is young stock coming on that will no doubt enable this breeder to fix a type of half bloods with fertility on both sides, there is also a certainty that the quarter-blood sires successfully mate with three-quarter, seven-eighths and full-blood Buffalo cows with whom they have been reared and it is simply a question of their maturity to demonstrate their further fertility. For over fifty years It has been known on the frontier that the male Buffalo raised with domestic cattle would successfully cross with such cattle in the production of female offspring but that when the resultant calf was a male that either the mother cow or calf would die but that by breeding the pure Buffalo to the half-blood the birth of a three-quarter buffalo blood male could be produced and that such animal would be non-fertile.
While the female line could be bred on indefinitely until the domestic blood retained would be almost eliminated, however, to continue this character of breeding the blood of the pure bred Buffalo could be extended along these lines only by having the Buffalo in his native purity to draw on. Many of the practical breeders have been of the opinion that if It were possible to produce a half-blood male that there was a probability that such an animal might prove fertile and by so doing that the blood of the Buffalo might be carried on for ages in the blood of domestic cattle so that the original type of the Buffalo could be produced at the will of the breeder. Acting along that line of thought many prominent cattle breeders thought they could take the male calf from the cow by cesarean-section. Out of fourteen experiments where Buffalo bull calves were sired only two were partially successful, that of Governor John Sparks of Nevada and W.S. Vanata of Fowler, Indiana. In the former case the calf was taken from the cow alive but died immediately and in the case of the latter, the calf lived for several hours. While these heroic efforts were in vain, Colonel Goodnight conceived the idea of approaching the problem another way and bred pure Angus bulls on half-blood Buffalo and Angus cows with the result of the production of unusually proponent sires which are now in use on the “Cattalo” cows of the quarter-half, three-quarter, seven-eighths and full-blood Buffalo heifers above alluded to: the product of which now comes without the fatality which attended breeding the other way. Thus Mr. Goodnight’s efforts in the interest of scientific breeding has overcome-what by some was regarded as natural barriers for the successful cross breeding of the Buffalo and domestic cattle, producing what he pleases to call the .”Cattalo” and should the male offspring of these quarter-Buffalo sires bred to a seven-eighths heifer, (the offspring of which would be a nine-sixteenths) prove fertile, and there is every probability that they will, then without further experiment it will be practically demonstrated that the Buffalo Americanus can be carried forever in the blood of domestic cattle and reproduced at the will of the breeder. Although the facts of this complicated work are as I have crudely presented them above, it was not Mr. Goodnight’s desire that anything authoritative concerning his efforts should be given out as scientific fact until his present generation of “Cattalo ” arrived at maturity and put the question of their successful perpetuation beyond the possibility of a cavil on the part of closet learned sceptics. There is now about 150 head of variously graded and bred “Cattalo” on the Goodnight ranch and there is no doubt about the perpetuation of the full bred herd in its purity nor is there in my mind .any doubt but that the “Cattal” in the near future will furnish cross bred sires from which the Buffalo can be bred back to his exact form in a few generations.
This great “wild cattle” preserve, in my opinion, will mean more to the future of Texas and America than the British wild cattle at Chillingham means to the English nation. I, therefore, seek this means of correcting an erroneous idea which has become prevalent through ignorance of existing facts.
In this connection, I hope you will Indulge me in correcting another error eminating from the fertile brain of other closet naturalists or romanciers which credits Mrs. Mary A. Goodnight with the management of this herd of Buffalo and a large cattle ranch, together with a galaxy of other strong-armed yellow-backed masculine heroines purported to be in the same line of business out West. While it is true that it was through Mrs. Goodnight’s suggestion and sentiment that the wild Buffalo was enclosed on their native heath with a view of perpetuation and to her Mr. Goodnight cheerfully accords the credit and calls her the nominal owner thereof, she is the very antithesis of the Amazonian “cow girl” (illustrated In all of the paraphernalia of the wild west show) represented as managing the “round ups” on the vast ranch of her late husband; as pictured currently, while said “late husband,” in the full robust manhood of a well spent life, continues serenely to care for a fine herd of Polled Angus cattle and Persian sheep together with his Buffalo and “Cattalo” herd, much after the manner of a large fine-stock farmer in central Missouri, and the vast ranch so frequently .alluded to as dotted over with farms in the possession of similar fine sock farmers in the midst of which, near the station and village of Goodnight, is a brick built college which was practically founded by the Goodnights and where at the recent commencement over, a hundred students were participating in exercises in which Mrs. Goodnight took enthusiastic interest as the school is the result of one of her benefactions; and in consistency with her life work as an educator; since she herself is one of the pioneer teachers of Texas who taught one of the earliest schools at her old home at Weatherford, Texas, which was attended by many pupils who have since become prominent in the affairs of the state. So much for the perversity of the “penny-a-liner” of the yellow press who so persistently distort facts to earn a precarious living. As to the future of the Goodnight Buffalo preserve, the school, children of the Lone Star state, when the proper time comes on a basis of ten cents per capita can perpetuate this Buffalo herd where they are now located without assistance and will probably do so.
It is to be regretted that a greater number of people have not interested themselves in the domestication of the Buffalo, the wildness of which is due to their timidity and not to their ferocity since they became tractable with gentle and kindly treatment. Of course here on the Goodnight stock-farm that part of the place set apart for the Buffalo consists of herbage covered hills, canyons and plains, watered by spring streams, covered with variety of grasses and other vegetation, which was the habitat of the present herd of Buffalo which thrives upon it this tract of land was especially selected for perpetuating this herd of Buffalo by Colonel Goodnight and remains in the state of nature existing when this preserve was fenced and set apart for this purpose.
So in the meantime, the colonel will undoubtedly continue to manage his own affairs as successfully and in the same public spirited manner, as he has in the past and will give to the world as the result of his labors, not only a new race of cattle with the added valuable characteristics, but practically verifying what was believed to be possible by Darwin, Spencer, Agassiz. Rothschilds, and others all of whom except the latter have passed to the great beyond, and who entertained the belief that at some period of unrecorded time the same experiments now being demonstrated by Charlie Goodnight was brought about on the European Continent. Respectfully,
WILLIAM PENN ANDERSON.
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The Morning Astorian
Astoria, Oregon, September 18, 1907
UNWIILLING TO GO
Pablo Buffalo Make Trouble for Cowboys.
REFUSE TO GO INTO CANADA
Old Time Cowboy Stunts Pulled Off While Men Try to Get “King of Plains” Into Freight Cars Exhibit of Magnificent Horsemanship.
MISSOULA, Mont., Sept. 17.– ?T. K. Luxton, representative of a newspaper in Banf, Alberta, with Superintendent Douglas, of the Banf National Bank, and Alex Ayotte, the local representative of the dominion government, came down yesterday from the reservation, where they had been to see about the buffalo to be taken to Alberta, which it was expected would be ready yesterday for the loading. The gentlemen came back without having seen any loading, but they saw the buffalo under splendid conditions and witnessed some of the finest riding that they ever saw anywhere.
“It was magnificent,” said Mr. Luxton yesterday at Missoula. “Out on the big flat beyond the Pablo ranch, there were two bands of the buffalo. In one of these, there were 60 head. These were easily handled and were in the corral when we left. In the other band there were more than 200 and they were bad ones, they had in their number a lot of the renegades and they refused to be corralled.
The Pablo cowboys are splendid riders and their mounts were all as fine horses as could be found anywhere, they were the best horses that I ever saw, but the buffalo were too much for both men and horses. They were not corralled when we left and there will be a hot chase before they are penned.
“There was a race that must have taken each one of the horses 35 miles before they got the buffalo in the corral. I never saw such horses, they were splendid. They ran with the buffalo and when the corral was reached they were reeking with sweat and they were all in – every bit in. They had pluck left, however, and they ready for the fray when the chute was reached.
“But they had run themselves out. They really had hardly strength enough left to stand, yet they tried their best. The men were about as tired as the horses and it was a great sight to see the desperate effort that was made to check the buffalo when they broke away at the sight of the chute and scattered.
“The horses were too weak to hold the maddened brutes and although the effort was a good one the big beast broke away and there up again that night. But I never saw such fine work with horses as we saw there. It was a show worth seeing.
“Mr. Pablo will make another trial Saturday. He has added to the size of his group of riders and there will be 50 picked men with the best mounts on the reserve when the trial is made. It is believed that this time the effort will lie successful and that the buffalo will be corralled at the Pablo ranch by Sunday.
“The hand will be cut in two for the drive to Ravalli and the loading will begin as, soon as the beasts can be brought down to the railway. This will be next week sometime. What day nobody can tell.
“The buffalo are certainly loyal to their native soil, they are not willing to leave the United States and it is hard work to get them loaded for Canada. But they will be loaded soon and the herd will be sent across the line, though I should not be surprised if Uncle Sam bought some of them yet.”
Mr. Luxton and Mr. Douglas went to Butte last night to see the big mining camp, and they will spend a day or two there looking over the sights of the greatest of its kind on earth. Then they will go back to the reservation, getting there in time to see the buffalo placed on the cars.
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The American Bison Society sent 15 bison to the Wichita Reserve Bison Refuge on Oct. 11, 1907.
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/
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Chicago Daily Tribune Dec 4, 1907
FREAK “CATTALO” AT SHOW.
Curiosity Striped Like a Zebra Comes from Indiana –
Cross Between Buffalo and Common Cow.
……One of the few “freak” exhibits at the livestock show was the cattalo exhibited by W.S. Vannatta of Fowler, Ind. The cattalo is a cross between a buffalo, a Hereford, and a Jersey, and the one on exhibition at the stockyards is the only one in this section.
The animal is striped like a zebra and has been attracting much attention of stockmen, few if any of the visitors ever having seen this strange hybrid. The crossing of buffaloes with cows was first tried in Salt Lake a few years ago on the buffalo farm at Antelope Island, where the largest herd of buffalo in the country now is. There are said to be four cattalos at Antelope Island at present. The Fowler (Ind.) Animal is the only other cattalo in this part of the country.