Buffaloes on Antelope Island Contradict Plaint
That Their Species Is Rapidly Becoming Extinct
The Salt Lake Tribune, April 23, 1911
Eighteen Calves Added to the Herd
This Spring: Queer Animals Live-in Natural Wild State:
The Strenuous Career of “Boaz”, the Hybrid That Would Not Be Tamed;
When Great Bands Dotted Western Plains
……18 little buffalo calves are doing their best to prove that the race of buffalo – or bison, as the naturalist still persist in calling the American buffalo – is not becoming extinct. These eighteen little buffalo calves were born this spring on Antelope Island, and are now up part of the increasing herd started on the island of quarter of a century ago by John E. Dooly.
……The Antelope Island herd of buffaloes now comprises all told seventy head of the monarchs of the plains. It has been slowly increasing since the original herd was established, but it’s increase was never as marked as this year. The Antelope Island buffaloes are of exceptional interest because they are a part of the remnant of the great herds of millions of buffaloes that once ranged throughout the continent. Ernest Seton Thompson’s census of American buffalo alive in 1908 showed approximately 2000 buffalo remaining from the 75,000,000 estimated to have existed in America in 1830.
Nearly Extinct in 1898
……This census, however, showed that the number of buffaloes was now slowly increasing. In 1898 the buffalo was practically extinct. There were all told not more than 800 alive in that year. Of these about one half were then in the wild state in northwestern Canada. Of those then wild there are now estimated to be about 300 still running wild. The other buffalo still in existence comprise a large herd fostered by the Canadian government, Buffalo Jones’s herd in Oklahoma, a Texan herd, a herd in Montana, the government herd in Yellowstone National Park, the Dooly herd on Antelope Island and a few score scattered around at various zoological gardens.
……At Antelope Island in 1905 the herd numbered 27. Prior to that time the increase had been very slow. Only a few calves were born each year and the herd did little better than hold its own in numbers. From that time on, however, the increase has been more rapid. Two years later there were 40 in the herd and now it numbers 70. If this rate of increase continues the herd, within another decade, will number several hundred.
……This makes possible the belief that through almost extinct the buffalo race may rally and continue through the centuries, though it is certain that it will never attain the vast numbers that once thronged the great plains from the Alleghenies to the Rockies and even went to the west of the Rockies.
Trail Marked With Skulls
……When Brigham Young and his pioneers crossed the plains and came to settle Utah they mark the “Mormon Trail” with buffalo skulls, on which were written legends as guides to those who should follow as to the path to Utah. These buffalo skulls were found in great quantities by the pioneers on their journey. The bleaching of the skulls on the range marked the beginning of the end of the buffalo.
At that time one vast herd of millions of buffalo roamed the Rio Grande almost to Hudson’s bay. The great range was the feeding ground for this vast herd. A combination of circumstances conspired to and the career of the buffalo. Early encroachments of civilization to the east limited the territory over which the buffalo might roam. Civilization and the buffalo did not agree.
……Originally the buffalo, the Indian and the wolf shared the great plains. The buffalo furnished food and warmth for the aborigine. There was no great demand by the Indians four buffaloes, and no serious inroads on the buffalo were then made by the savages. Slaying of buffalo was then not an easy task. The Indian with his primitive weapons had all he could do to keep his tribe supplied with meat and robes from the buffalo.
……But with the advance of civilization the buffalo was doomed. White man’s weapons the buffalo hunting easy. The white man killed the buffalo for is me and for his hide. Then he began to kill the buffalo for a past time. Before the white man’s guns, the buffalo moved westward. And the Indian followed the buffalo. The Indian learned to use the white man’s guns and he to learned to slay for pleasure. At the time Mormon migration buffalo was west of the Mississippi, but on these vast plains he still existed in great numbers. Then came the railroads. The construction of the Union Pacific was of times blocked by the passage of a great over the right of way. Grades were often leveled by the passage of the buffalo.
Period of Commercialism
……Finally the great herd was cut in two by the transcontinental railroad. Then the hunters came on express trains and with Winchesters picked off thousands of beautiful specimens. The buffalo robe and coat industry was growing. It was the rage to wear of buffalo overcoat. The gathering of robes became a commercial enterprise and the end of the buffalo was near at hand. In one year 2,000,000 buffalo skins were gathered and it is estimated each skin represented the death of for animals. Young buffalo were killed for meat. Some people considered buffalo tongue a great delicacy in many animals were killed merely for their tongues.
……In Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, buffalo hunting became quite an industry and the millions slaughtered annually quickly exterminated the great southern herd. Although it was realized that the entire buffalo race was quickly being exterminated, no provision for the protection of the animals was made. The northern herd shared the fate of the southern herd. The animals were pushed farther to the north by the hunters, where the blizzards and the wolves aided in the extermination.
Another factor in the great decrease of the animals was race suicide. During the last fifty years the percentage of increase of the buffalo has been very small in comparison with other animals, seldom more than 5%. Of the calves born a large percentage was male, while the case with other animals is that the majority of the animals are females.
……This fact has been developed recently through attempts to establish large herds and it has been a question in the minds of naturalists as to whether or not the buffalo undisturbed by the invasion of the white race would not have become extinct in time through race suicide.
Buffalo Jones is responsible for the creation of a new species. By mating cattle and buffaloes he has been able to create this species known as catalo. A combination, three quarters buffalo and one quarter range cow, has proven a decidedly hardy and productive animal. The meat is somewhat coarser than beef, but is not as strong as that of buffalo. The cost of maintaining such an animal is much less than that of range cattle and Buffalo Jones believes that catalo raising will prove profitable. The animal is as hardy as the buffalo and is well able to withstand the wintry blast. The catalo will live for weeks without food and will find a comfortable existence on a range considered worthless for grazing purposes.
……Several experiments in raising catalo have been conducted in the Dooly herd on Antelope Island. A cross between Herford cattle and the buffalo has been obtained that is large and hardy. In every instance save one the catalo has been the of a buffalo cow, sired by a domestic bull. In only one instance has a catalo than the calf of the domestic heifer.
……This instance was a result of an experiment conducted on Antelope Island. I Herford cow with considerable difficulty raised a monstrous hybrid, half buffalo and half Herford. This hybrid was born on March 4, 1904, the date of the inauguration of Pres. Roosevelt, and was promptly christened “Teddy.” Recently his name, for some reason, was change to “Boaz.” Perhaps his nature was not fierce enough to justify the name of “Teddy.”
……“Teddy”remained with his mother all of the time, refusing to run with the buffalo. He was large and in color resembled the Herford. His coat was black, within an immense shaggy mane hanging low from his shoulders and extended over his head. His for head was blazed and his horns short and blunt like the buffalo. He was constructed much after the buffalo within an enormous head and a large, on his shoulders. He was much larger than average buffalo and he was almost as large as the largest buffalo known. He was much larger than the other catalo heretofore produced and disposition was even more ferocious than that of the buffalo.
Keep Close to Mother
……When undisturbed this mammoth catalo would graze quietly with the rest of the Herford herd, always keeping close to his mother, who appeared tiny in comparison to her huge offspring who in three years time had become full-grown, but who still preferred to graze near his mother. “Teddy” resented the approach of man and was always ready to fly to the defense of his mother whenever he thought she was in danger.
……“Teddy”became quite an attraction at Antelope Island, especially for naturalist who examined him at a safe distance. He had upset all the “dope” because scientists had declared that no such animal could be so created. In the words of the farmer who viewed the hippopotamus they declared emphatically:” it’s a lie; there ain’t no such animal.” Finally they called him a freak and let it go at that.
……Finally show people saw exhibition possibilities in “Teddy” and he was purchased for touring purposes. His capture was interesting. After he had easily snapped a number of rawhide lariats tossed by cow men about his shaggy neck and charged the Mustangs on which his would-be captor were mounted, it was decided to resort to strategy.
……A large cage was built and placed out on the range on the island. All sorts of tempting grain and feed were placed inside of the open cage and every effort made to induce the monster to go inside. For several days he disdained the temptations, but finally he was attracted and stepped inside. The trap was so arranged that when “Teddy” once stepped inside he was a prisoner. This he did not seem to mind until the food supply was gone. Then he discovered that he was a prisoner.
Does Stunt in Show
……“Teddy” roared loudly and attacked the cage viciously. It was strong, however, and that protesting catalo finally wearied in his efforts to get out. He was hauled away in triumph by the show people. Then he was christened “Boaz” and began his tour about the country. In captivity he was measurably tamed. The man who brought him feed and water he soon looked on as a friend and he never protested when the keeper entered the cage. As far as can be learned no one else ever tried. Spectators at a safe distance from the cage were kept in a state of constant terror by the bellowing, threatening animal.
……The exhibition tour was not of financial success and on a judgment an Ogden man finally came in possession of “Boaz.” The appetite of the monster was enormous and Ogden creditor soon devoutly wished “Boaz” back with the show people. Finally he was disposed of to another and amusement enterprise and is again touring the country and providing material for the lecture of the “harker.”
The transportation of ”Teddy” alias “Boaz” from Antelope Island was not the only transportation of animals from the island. A number of attempts, most of them successful, have been made to ship buffaloes from the island. Every year or two Mr. Dooley exchanges buffalo calves with the Montana herd in order to improve the strain of both herds. In most cases these calves are separated by some ruse or another from their mother when they are very young and transported as quickly as possible. Experience has taught buffalo owners that healthy young buffaloes as they become older are hard to handle.
Starves Himself to Death
……Some years ago John E. Dooly decided to present the late John Sparks, Gov. of Nevada, with the young buffalo for his large stock farm. Mr. Dooly’s cowboys roped several young buffaloes, but each on finding himself taken captive through himself headlong breaking his neck. Finally one was separated from the herd and driven to the barnyard. A cage was built for him and he was placed inside of it. Then he was transported successfully to Gov. Spark’s farm. There the young buffalo refused to eat. A vicious hunt forestalled all efforts of the ranch hands to make friends with him. On the range where there was excellent pasturage the young buffalo refused to eat and soon grew so weak and starvation that he could not stand. Still he resisted all efforts to make him eat and he was finally shot to and his sufferings.
……The buffaloes at Antelope Island are theoretically in captivity. Actually they are as wild as their forebears which roamed the plains long before the arrival of the white man. They live on the wild range and do not encroach on the cultivated portion of the island. The wild buffaloes Only a few have been domesticated and these few animals remain close to the ranch house, they are educated taste been satisfied by the domestic food that the wild provender of their roaming kin.
……The wild buffalo on Antelope Island have exactly the same traits that characterize their ancestors and__noted by the early naturalist who studied the wild buffalo. There is ___ ways a king for the herd, but his government is as unstable as that of ____ head of a South American republic.
Revolutions are constant and so ____as the King buffalo can put down ___insurrections he is the recognized _____r. When he fails he is not only ____ osed, but ostracized. Conflicts are constantly going on between the old buffalo who is leading the herd, and the younger Bulls who are ambitious to succeed him. Ungrateful great-grandson’s of the monarch are always leading as an attack against him. Long experience wise generalship and superb strength often wins for the monarch, but he grows older and his adversaries ____ powerful and skillful his ___ totter. Finally the old bull is best and expelled from the herd and a new leader of the attack on the old bull is recognized as the king. The —-____ of the King buffalo is about the years.
Doesn’t Emulate Jeffries
……An ostracized and deposed monarch never tries to “come back.” He becomes grouchy and melancholy as ___ as very vicious. He ranges by himself and often lives to an extreme old age. Last winter in a buffalo hunt on the Antelope Island eight at bees ex monarchs were slain. They were all old, but despite their age and loss of power they were in the full glory of ____ majesty of their beautiful heads and coats.
……One of these old bull estimated to be nearly 25 years old, was one of the largest buffaloes ever measured. His head, coat and bones were sent to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington D.C. Some of the others also will be mounted, while the robes of some will be made into rugs. All of the heads will be mounted. On account of the age of the old bulls the meat was to tough and some of it was used for food.
……The Antelope Island buffalo herd is beginning to attract attention all over the country and the news that it’s growing larger will be received with genuine pleasure by all Americans, who look upon the buffalo as symbols of the power and the freedom of the country. Thousands of tourists a year asked to see the buffaloes when they come to Salt Lake, but many of them are unable to do so. This summer a large number of both parties had planned to cruise among the islands and the lake, none of which is most attractive then Antelope Island, the _____of the buffaloes, and it is hoped their arrangements may be made to transport a greater number of tourist to the island this year than ever before in order that the buffaloes may be seen and listed among the wonders bounty by the Great Salt Lake
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Part of the Dooley herd on Antelope Island
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Reading Times, Pa. Dec 15, 1911
A PENNSYLVANIA BISON HUNT
A REMINISCENCE OF PIONEER DAYS
by Henry W. Shoemaker
……Buffaloes were plentiful and Central Pennsylvania until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when all, accepting a half dozen stragglers, were slaughtered in a single week, two men being responsible for the extermination of what was a distinct species of these noble animals. The Pennsylvania bison were more closely allied to the wood bison of Canada Northwest, then to the buffaloes which once roamed our western plains.
……Pennsylvania bison grew to an enormous size, were darker, and their hair curly hair and crisper than the buffaloes we know. On account of living in a mountainous country they did not carry much superfluous flesh, and their long legs made than agile runners. In the summertime they could be found in bands of about a dozen individuals grazing on the high plateaux and on mountain sides where new grass had come up after the forest fires.
……In the winter they congregated into vast herds and descended into the protected valleys, where they dug out the grass from under the snow, and during storms huddled together for mutual protection. They had a habit of following a leader, and if this brute moved in a certain direction the rest followed, often to the peril of the entire herd. As the years went by, and the country became more closely settled, their range grew more limited and their numbers decreased.
……By 1770 no bison were seen in the West Branch Valley, as 20 years of relentless trapping had made them to wily to approach that region. They still penetrate the valley to the south, however, but were never left unmolested. When the news century began there were bands aggregating five hundred animals scattered over all the highlands between Middle Creek and the southern edge of the Bald Eagle Mountain.
……These wintered together, as in years past, their assembling place being generally some rocky height in the Seven Mountains. Their method of assembling was curious. The leader on reaching the chosen spot would commence and innocent bellowing, which would be taken up by the first bull within hearing, and sent on by him to the next, and so on, until all had received the signal to get together for the winter. They would begin to troop in the direction of their chief, whom they obeyed implicitly.
……This was the pioneers’ favorite time to hunt them. They would wait along the buffalo paths which stretched across the valleys and over the mountains, and lucky were the bison who reached the rendezvous. Despite this, the completed gatherings presented a formidable appearance, and would have caused consternation to a modern hunter.
……The winter of 1800 – 1801 was unusually severe, and the buffaloes were driven to dire straits to keep from starvation. Hunting had become so persistent that they hesitated to come down permanently from their retreats in the Seven Mountains. They made forays into Penn’s Valley, Stone Valley. Poe Valley and Middle Creek Valley, but every time retreated with unsatisfied stomachs and sadly decreased numbers.
……During a spell of thawing in January, 1801, the carcasses of a dozen aged bulls and cows were found in the Bear Meadows. In the latter part of that month was a blizzard of unprecedented severity. The famine stricken buffaloes forgot their fears, and one night moved in single file down their old-time path to the valley of Middle Creek.
……A backwoodsman who saw them counted three hundred and forty-five in the procession, and probably a score of stragglers followed in the course of the next few hours. They were led by “Old Logan,” a coal black bull of immense size, which seemed to the settlers to have a charmed life. His spacious sides scarred with bullet marks and wounds left by attacks from wolves and half of his tail was missing.
……The pioneer who counted the procession of coarse took a shot at the big fellow, but his gun miss fire, and on examination found it was out of order. That ended his hunt for the day, and he had to content himself with recounting his experience, without having a trophy to show for it.
At daybreak the buffaloes were at the foot of the mountains, grazing out over the dreary, snow-buried valley. There was a log cabin occupied by a young man named McClellan and his family about a quarter of a mile below where they were huddled together. The hearty young pioneer copied the brutes and lay in wait for them until they got into motion again and filed down the hollow of the stream which flowed from the mountains into Middle Creek.
……When they reach a point opposite the cabin they were surprised by a fusillade which laid low first one, then a second, then a third, and a fourth of their number. More would have fallen had not the Hunter directed so many volleys at “Old Logan.” His impenetrable hide rolled off the bullets and he ambled away grunting amicably.
……Four buffaloes before breakfast was a good bag, and the delighted nimrod set to work skinning them, and cutting out the choicest proportions of flesh, giving his most careful attention to the tongues. The four carcasses proved to be those of young cows, the meat of which was most highly prized, and there was less to leave to the wolves and ravens than had the victims been old bulls.
Half a mile below where they had been ambushed the bison fell into better luck. Martin Bergstresser, a recent arrival from Berks County, had cleared a nice sized farm by the creek, and his first seasons hay crop, a goodly pile, stood in the lea of his big log barn. It was needed to give feed for the winter to a number of cows and sheep, and team of horses, of which the former Berks countlan was the proud possessor. The animals were siding close to the stack, when they scented the approaching buffaloes, and commenced lowing and bleating with terror.
……Led by “Old Logan” the famished herd broke through the rail fence, and crushing the farm animals beneath their mighty rush, were soon making short work of the hay pile. Bergstressor was cutting trees nearly a mile away when the stampede occurred, and he had not heard the bellowing of his livestock, the screams of his wife and daughters would have brought him back. He dropped his axe, and picked up his gun, hurrying over stumps and rocks to the scene of the onslaught.
Like his neighbor, McClellan, he singled out “Old Logan, “ as the first object of his attack, but it was wasting ammunition. His eldest daughter, Katie, a girl of eighteen, brought out a fresh musket, and shot too large buffaloes, which excited the herd so much that they turned away from the stack.
At this juncture McClellan appeared and shot two more. Evidently the animals possessed a strong communal feeling, for when they saw their companions kicking convulsively and covered with blood, they set up the most pitiful groaning imaginable.
……“Old Logan,“ who had been more worried by the pioneers’ dogs then by their bullets saw the time had come to move, and striking a trot, led his party out of the barnyard and up the creek. When they had gone it looked as if a cyclone had swept across the premises.
The barn was standing all right, but the fences, spring-house and hay stack had gone, and six cows, for calves and 25 sheep lay crushed and dead among the ruins. Luckily the horses were safe and sound in the stable, although one had become so excited he got cast in his stall, and was rescued barely in time.
……McClellan lingered around a couple of hours helping what he could to repair damages, and offering his sympathy to all the Bergstressers. Then he started homeward, but when he got within sight of his clearing he uttered a cry of surprise and horror.
Three hundred buffaloes were snorting and trotting around the lot in which his cabin stood, being sold numerous that the house was obscured by them. Boldly the pioneer rushed through their rearing masses, only to find “Old Logan” standing guard in front of the cabin door. Too terrified to reason correctly, he aimed his musket and fired carrying an ugly whole in the big bulls throat.
Enraged by blood and pain, the monster wheeled about, and plunged headlong through the door of the cabin. Being their leader, the herd were accustomed to follow him blindly, so when he disappeared into the cabin the rest strove to do likewise.
……Vainly McClellan fired his musket, and when the ammunition was exhausted, he drew his knife into the beasts’ flanks to try to stop them in their mad course. Inside the cabin were his wife and three little children, aged five, three and one year, at least they weren’t there when he started on the hunt a few hours earlier, and he dreaded to think of their awful fate. He could not stem the tide, and the brutes continued filing through the doorway and tell they were jammed in the building as tightly as wooded animals in a toy Noah’s Ark.
……No sound came from the victims inside, all he could hear was the snorting and bumping of the giant beast in their cramped quarters. The other bison outside stamped their hoofs, moaning with disappointment. Seeing he could do nothing more, he was about to go back to Bergstresser’s for help, when he saw his neighbor and three other men, all carrying guns, coming out of the woods.
They had heard the noisy animals a mile a way, and formed themselves into a posse. McClellan signaled them to remain where they were, and ran towards them. They held a hasty council of war, deciding that the only thing to do was to tear down the log cabin, in the hopes that perhaps some of the family had hit in a corner, and were still living.
……Two of the men ran back to the Bergstresser’s wife and daughters, twenty-five dead bison were lying in the lot. The live ones would not leave as long as “Old Logan” remained wedged in the cabin but remained stupidly clustered around the door.
The five men, armed with axes and with heavy poles for battering rams, repaired to the rear of the shack and began the work of demolition. It had been built to last, but the determined man Sioux made a generous opening, out of which the bison headed by “Old Logan” like giant bees from a hive.
The site of the King of the buffaloes with his bearded throat a mass of clotted blood, was too much for McClellan. He seized a gun and shot the brute through the head. The old fellow was slow to die, running bellowing hideously for three hundred yards before he fell and became rigid. The entire herd followed him, and surrounded is prostrate form, the air resounding with their moans as they battled with one another to lick his wounds.
……The men entered the cabin, and were horrified to have their worst fears realized. On the earthen floor, crushed deep into the mud by the impress of the cruel hoofs were there remains of the unfortunate McClellan’s wife and three children. Strong man of the woods that he was he dropped down in a faint and it was over an hour before he could be resuscitated.
When he came in himself he was led, trembling like a leaf to the Bergstresser’s home, and put to bed. It was useless to follow the buffaloes anymore that day, as all the men were out of ammunition. They buried the mangled bodies of the family under the earthen floor and the log cabin, walled up the door and the opening that had been made to let out the buffaloes, leaving them to sleep their last sleep in what was so recently their home, but now their mausoleum.
……When that bereaved husband and father recovered sufficiently he suggested to Bergstresser that they exterminate the surviving bison. Bergstresser was enthusiastic over the idea, and the two men started on horseback, one riding towards the river and the other towards the headwaters of Middle Creek, to invite the settlers to join a hunt of extermination.
……Meanwhile there was another heavy snowfall, that every man invited excepted with alacrity. About fifty hunters assembled at the Bergstresser home, and marched like an invading army in the direction of the mountains. They were out two days before discovering their quarry as the fresh snow had covered all the buffaloes paths. The brutes were all huddled together up to their necks in snow in the great “Sink” in the White Mountains and the hunters, looking down on them, estimated their numbers at three hundred.
……When they got among the animals they found them them from cold and hunger, but they had been physically able they could not have moved so deeply where they “crusted” in the drift. The work of slaughter quickly began. Some use guns, but the most killed them by cutting their throats with long knives.
……The snow was too deep to attempt skinning them, but the tongues were saved, and these the backwoodsman shoved into the pockets of their leather coats until they could carry no more.
After the last buffalo had been dispatched the triumphant huntsman marched down the valley, singing German hymns. It was a horrible sight they left behind them. Three hundred dead buffaloes stood upright in the frozen “crust,” most with jaws broken, and all with tongues gone, and the ice about them resembled a shoot of crimson glass
……Later in the season some of the hunters returned to see if they could procure a few of the hides, but the alternate freezes and thaws had rendered them worthless. In the spring and summer travelers crossing distant ridges could notice one portion of the sky black with pinions of huge birds. They were the carrion-seekers, bald eagles, golden eagles, a half dozen kinds of hawks, buzzards, ravens, crows, which picked clean the bones of Pennsylvania’s last herd of bison.
……Whether they deserve their awful fate because the dumbness of “Old Logan,“ their leader, caused the trampoline to death of a pioneer family is difficult to judge, but they paid the penalty, and their executioners were content to rob posterity of these valuable game animals. To this day the barren flat where the McClellan’s cabin stood is known as “The Buffaloes Field,“ and on winter nights it is averred that the tramp of hoofs is herd incessantly pounding the hard earth in a ghostly stampede.
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Bisbee Daily Review, Az. Jan 9 1911
CATTALOES PROVE GREAT SUCCESS
……FORT WORTH, Tex., Jan 5 – it will be remembered that Colonel Charles Goodnight shipped three specimens of his cattaloes, or cross between the buffalo and a black breed of cattle to the Fort Worth market last week to be slaughtered and tested as to the percentage of beef each produced on the block.
……Armour & Co., slaughtered the animals and estimated that percentages.
The three cattaloes consisted of half-buffalo cow, 21 years old: a three-quarter buffalo cow 18 years old, and a sixteen buffalo bull, 2 years old. The two cows had the appearance of a buffalo in having a large, on their shoulders, but the bull yearling was a straight-back animal, jet black and very fat. At two years of age the youngster presented a beautiful appearance and showed up as an excellent beef animal.
……“It is my firm belief,” stated Colonel Goodnight, on bringing these animals for test, “that the breeding of cattalo will revolutionize the cattle industry in this country, in so far as raising market cattle is concerned.
……“It is a fact that the cross between a buffalo and a cow makes a good big percentage. Some months ago a cross-breed steer was shipped with some cattle to Kansas City and that animal killed out 67 percent. The animals that I have here are old and our grasp at but I am confident that they will kill out an excellent percentage.
……“The cattalo is superior to cattle in several ways. In the first place, they lived to a very old age and are easily kept. They will live were cattle starve. Then meat of the cattalo is nutritious and tender. In fact, I think the cattalo outstrips the cattle for market purposes in every instance.”
The animals were killed as per announcement and their dressing percentages were as follows: Three quarter buffalo cow 64.08: half-buffalo cow 60.55; one-sixteenth buffalo bull 57.24. Tallow 4.47, 4.48 and 3.44 respectively.
……It will be noted as bearing out the prediction of Colonel Goodnight that the greater the preponderance of buffalo blood in these animals, the greater that proportion of edible meat and fat. As ordinary cow that dresses over 50 percent is considered as doing extraordinary well; yet here are percentages of 60 and 64. Such records are good for bed steer of the best beef breeds.
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The Gazette Globe, KS Oct. 23 1911
……President Taft ate buffalo steak last night at Pierre, S.D. The buffalo was killed yesterday by Sioux Indians, hired by a moving picture outfit in Chicago. The movie picture man wanted to get a real buffalo hunt on his films and so he camped on the plains running out from the ranch of the late “Scotty” Phillips, who in his day made it his business to breed buffaloes. Phillips’ buffalo farm has more than 200 of the shaggy headed creatures and is the largest buffalo range in the world.