“Buffalo Jones” was born in 1844, in Illinois, the firstborn of twelve kids. He attended college for two years until he became sick with typhoid fever. 1866 (22 years old) he moved to Kansas to work in the fruit tree nursery business. In 1869 he got married to Martha Walton, and planted hedge and fruit trees. They had 4 kids (2 boys died) and moved west, to north-central Kansas. In 1872 he moved to what is now Osborne county, on 160 acres, with his wife and only child. 1878 he encountered Fultons. ““James R. Fulton and John Stevens, both of them among the founders of Garden City, Kansas, were also remarkable wild-horse hunters.” Jones also collected wild foals, which he raised on cow’s milk. Jones died October 1, 1919, from malaria contracted on his last African sojourn.
“”Forty Years of Adventure” to County Commissioner Joe Gooch, who was with him on his buffalo-hunting expedition in 1868.”
At about 12 years old, while out in the woods, he spent the day to capture a squirrel. He managed to get the squirrel home, who he named “Dick”, and tamed him down.
“One day I was sent to Bloomington, about twelve miles distant, to do some trading. I took Dick (the name I had given the squirrel) along, hoping to sell him for something, as I had made up my mind others could be caught if the sale was made. Dick perched upon my shoulder, and I walked the street for hours, asking all I met if they wanted to buy a pet, but they generally laughed, and said ‘ No.’ Finally a well-dressed man hailed me, and wanted to know if I would sell the squirrel. I told him Dick was a great pet, but if I could get a fair price for him, would sell, and asked what he would give. He said he had a son about my age, a cripple, and he had never seen anything like a squirrel, and knew he would be delighted with it. Finally he offered me two dollars for Dick. It almost took my breath. I had not hoped to receive to exceed fifty cents, and would have been proud of twenty-five. I had never had but one ‘“‘bit’’ (twelve and one-half cents) in all my life, and two dollars appeared like a colossal fortune to me. It was that transaction which fixed upon me the ruling passion that has adhered so closely through life. From that time until this, I have never lost an opportunity in my power to capture every wild animal that runs on legs, as well as some that creep upon their bellies.”
In the summer of 1872 I was an embryo farmer on the new raw prairies of western Kansas, which region just then began to attract immigrants on account of its superiority of soil and climate. I had been a successful buffalo-hunter, had killed thousands simply for their hides, but the idea of my buffalo-rescuing project was but a creature of the brain, not yet perfectly formulated; yet that was the year I determined to ‘some sweet day’ capture a herd, domesticate and perpetuate the species. I captured about a dozen that year, sold them for, seven dollars and a half each, and was delighted to receive even that much.
My Notes:
It is no secret that I don’t have a great opinion of C. J. Jones, I do not consider him to be a ‘savior’ of the American bison. But, I guess he has done some good in spreading the word that they needed help. Because of his dedication to making a name for himself in the way of his crossing the bison with cattle and creating a new breed, he drew the attention of several wealthy and average range men that considered the idea of grabbing a few pure bison for conservation purposes, on the other hand, he encouraged several others to crossbreed.
It’s well known that C.J. Buffalo Jones tried for years to make a go of crossing the bison on cattle, his preferred choice was the Galloway. Even though he advertised and traveled all over the country touting how great they were and even going as far as to say numerous times “in every way a superior animal to the full-blooded buffalo.” The clothes he wore were made from his crosses, a walking advertisement for his cattaloe. He was a salesman…in fact, the first time I read of him being called “Buffalo” Jones was from him. He told a reporter he was given that name because of all the bison he killed. “Why, I’ve killed thousands of them for 50 cents apiece.” A man who claims to have known Jones back in the days of his hunting buffalo said that he was given the name after he put on a buffalo hunt for public viewing and it was not the great exhibition he had hoped. The bison walked out and right through the fence. Another exhibition where he was going to capture a live bison. The bison was reported as being very poor in condition, small and weak. Jones tackled the bison expecting great praise. The funny thing is, in the book “Encyclopedia of Buffalo Hunters and Skinners” he is only mentioned by name one time, and that was to reference a location only. Later he told a reporter that he hunted buffalo for his neighbors, and they hired him. It would have taken quite a crew of skinners to skin all the buffalo Jones claimed to have killed per day. To me, it just didn’t add up. Sure you can kill a hundred a day, but you need a large crew of skinners to be able to secure the hides immediately. That takes time and resources, large enough to have a mention in a buffalo hunting encyclopedia.
Quote found in a newspaper article:
“When the great slaughter began in 1871 he was employed by his neighbors to shoot buffalo at fifty cents a head, and they would follow and secure the hides. His method was what is known as “still-hunting,” and he had averaged from thirty to forty head a day. On one occasion he shot seventy two head without shifting his ground.”
Junction City Kansas June 30 1881 (book came out in 1899)
Buffalo Jones has “writ” a book entitled “Forty Years of Adventure.’ Wonder if it gives in detail all his experience in western Kansas during the boom days? It would be mighty interesting reading if it did.
In the fall of 1883 he traveled to Colorado to view a Cattalo, brindle cow with two calves. (Yearling and a suckling) Which he tried to buy and was not allowed to do so. He then says:“I resolved to try the experiment of crossing buffalo with cattle, so in June, 1884, I made a trip to where I expected to find buffalo calves, which was near the Colorado line, between the Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads. I found quite a number of old ones, but not a calf could be found.” (Letter he wrote.)
“The prefix “Buffalo” was tacked to Jones’ name fifteen years ago. In the early part of
(1961) The Lord of the Beast pg 27 March 18 1877
1886, he organized a buffalo hunt at Garden City In which about fifteen citizens participated. The hunt lasted five days and the hunters killed six buffalo and captured fourteen calves. The young animals were taken to Jones’ farm near Garden City and he began the propagation of the American buffalo. He could not wait until the small herd should multiply and increase and secured eighty-five more bison. These he got near Manitoba, Canada, and while en route from there to his farm in Garden City, he gave exhibitions in all the principal cities. Buffalo meat at that time was selling for fifty cents a pound in Chicago, and Jones thought that by crossing the bison with native cattle he would have a fortune in a few years. But this enterprise proved a failure and a few years ago he sold the last of his stock to Austin Corbin.”
Year after year he would capture young buffalo and proceed with the work of domesticating them. Each buffalo was turned over to the care and nourishment of a milk cow of Texas breed. The cows did not enjoy the association of their adopted offspring, and many a young Buffalo calf was tossed high by a pair of Longhorns, only to fall pierced through some vital part, dead.
Several reporters, other breeders, and some citizens were not generous with the compliments to Jones. Jones said he would not sell any cows, only bulls. Bulls were used to cross on domestic cattle. (marketing strategy I suppose) So he was not promoting the breeding of bison but crosses. In 1888 he started gathering bison from the plains to cross. Stating there were only a couple hundred left. Several times he claimed to have the only herd of bison in the world. (Which was not true of course) he reminds me more of a ringleader of a circus than a rancher or advocate for saving anything. I can just see him now standing on a block in the middle of town, with his bison herd still on the train cars and him shouting “come see the only bison herd in the world.” Then going into the sales pitch of how wonderful his seal cow cross is so much better than a bison. 25¢ for men, 15¢ for women, and 5¢ for children. He made $1,000 in one shipment of bison, charging to view them.
In all the 70 head (give or take) bison Jones claims to have “saved” there were almost as many that died in his attempt to save them. The twenty-old cows he caught and used his herd of tame cows to drive them back to Kansas, later he admitted they all died. Close to half the calves he caught died under his care. Some were teased for amusement while tied to a string, some died of starvation, a couple were packed off by wolves while hogtied, and some were killed by cows that he hoped would raise them.
” I have what Barnum never had, he said, and what Armour cannot corner. I guess they can’t run a corner of buffaloes now. I’ve done that.” C.J.J.
Forty Years of Adventure (2nd calf hunt)
Early on the morning of the 14th of May we were astir and preparing for the day’s work. We could not expect the main outfit up until the following day, and feared we would lose all our calves before it arrived, for we had not a cow with us, of course, and not even a can of condensed milk. It was decided to lasso a range cow, and milk her by force; but at that early hour no cattle had yet come in to water, and there were none in sight among the breaks. All that could be done, therefore, was to try to induce our panting and suffering little captives to drink of the water which we offered them; but they refused to he comforted, and indignantly butted the water pail endways whenever it was left near them, or charged headlong at a wet rag or a stick.
Colonel Jones concluded to go out on the range and try to find the herd again, then to return, and in the evening either rope a range cow, or drive down in the night to meet our team and get some condensed milk to keep the calves alive until the domestic cows would arrive. Accordingly, he, Ricker and Carter started out with all the horses, directly after breakfast. It fell to my lot to remain and guard the camp—a duty which, in view of a possible buffalo-chase, I did not relish very much.
At three o’clock our scouting-party returned. They had not found the herd, but had met two buffalo cows, undoubtedly the mothers of the captured calves, whose maternal instinct had led them to return in search of their offspring. One cow was killed for meat; her udder was full of milk, and as there was no water to be had, the Colonel concluded to fill a canteen with the precious fluid, as the day was very hot. After milking the canteen about half-full he corked it up and tossed it into the spring wagon. After about two hours of travel he concluded to take a drink, but the fluid would not come out, and he concluded there must be a dead mouse or some kind of trash in the can. By close observation it was discovered the jostling of the wagon had churned the milk into butter, which was as solid and yellow as that of the best Jersey right from the creamery, and satisfactory in quantity all of which was left in the can until the camp was reached, when it was extracted, salted, and we had one grand feast of hot biscuits and buffalo butter. The wonderful richness of the milk and deliciousness of the butter nerved our leader up in his endeavors to domesticate this valuable animal.
Why capture calves before you are ready to care for them, knowing you have nothing to feed them?
Colonel Jones now started down the Beaver to meet the team, giving neither himself nor his horses any rest, for it was imperative that we get milk, or we would lose our calves. The little fellows began to look gaunt, their tongues black and swollen, hanging from their mouths, while they continually uttered their hoarse, groaning grunts of complaint.
Manitoba Weekly Free Press Winnipeg, Manitoba Ca Nov 22 1888 Our Buffalo Gone
Warden Bedson’s Herd at Stony Mountain to be Removed to Kansas.
Mr. C. J. Jones, of Garden City, Kansas, arrived on Wednesdays train from the south. This is the gentleman who some months ago purchased Warden Bedson’s herd of buffalo; and his present visit is for the purpose of securing their removal to his Kansas ranche. Mr. Jones has for some years been making a special study of the buffalo; and has at present a herd of about fifty on his ranche. It has been generally supposed that Warden Bedson’s herd was the only one in existence, but this it appears was a mistake.
Mr. Jones caught most of the buffaloes he has on the plains. Occasional bands of these once numerous animals have in recent years from time to time been located in the Western States, and whenever he’ heard of their presence Mr. Jones organized a hunting party and followed them, being frequently gone weeks at a stretch. He lassoed the young ones and took them to his ranche, and in time he gathered quite a large herd. He, like Mr. Bedson, has begun crossing them with cattle, and his experiments have been successful, the half-breed buffalo being an equally hardy and striking looking animal, while it is much less wild in its nature.
Mr. Jones, hearing of Mr. Bedson’s herd, thought that it would be a good move to, if possible, secure them; and thus become the possessor of practically all the buffaloes in the world. He accordingly came some months ago, and succeeded in making a bargain with Mr. Bedson, by which the ownership of the herd passed to him. An attempt since then has been made by a number of parties in Winnipeg to induce Mr. Jones to sell them the herd, which would thus be kept in the country, but Mr. Jones fails to see the point; and in a few days the chief glory of Stony Mountain will have passed away.
The buffalo will be removed from here to Kansas in stock trains, and some fan is anticipated when the time comes for loading the cars. It is expected that there will be a great deal of difficulty in getting these animals, as yet almost untamed, on board the cars. There will be a railroad ride of about 2,500 miles before they reach their new home. Mr. Jones will to-day make arrangements for their shipment.
From reading all the news reports I knew several had died in the process in varying numbers. “In addition to his own captures, Mr. Jones bought forty-two buffaloes in Manitoba, fourteen of which succumbed on the journey south.” Some reports speak as if it was one load, but they arrived in two shipments, the first was the hardest on the bison. How many died en route on the second, I do not know.
The Stony Mountain herd consists of 83 head, as follows: (Grade/crosses)
Females, thorough-bred buffalo 35
Males. thoroughbred buffalo 23
Females, grade 3
Males, grade 5
Calves of 1888 17
Total in all 83
St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Jan 27, 1889 KANSAS LEGISLATORS VIEWING BISON. A Fine Price for a Young Bull – Troublesome to Handle By Telegraph to the POST-DISPATCH.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., January 26, — About one hundred members of the Kansas Legislature, most of them accompanied by their wives, arrived in the city at 5 o’clock this afternoon, on the Santa Fe Rd. They came on the invitation of Hon. J. C. Jones, the buffalo breeder, to see his herd of bison, now on exhibition here, and to take in the sights of the city. The party will remain in the city over Sunday and leave for Topeka on Monday morning. Preparations have been made to entertain them at Midland, where a grand “Dutch treat” has been ordered.
H. C. Jones, in charge of the buffalo herd, yesterday sold one fine 2-year-old buffalo bull to a Western breeder for $500. Great trouble was experienced in cutting the young bull out of the herd, and it was finally found necessary to rope him, tie his hoofs together and haul him to the depot on a dray.
The Daily Republican, Pa. March 13 1890 Buffalo Jones.
We have not only a Buffalo Bill but also a Buffalo Jones. The latter gentleman is Mr. C. J. Jones, and he gets his name from being an enthusiastic reader of the American bison, commonly called the buffalo.
Senator Plumb has introduced into Congress a bill granting to Mr. Jones for a term of years a strip of the neutral ground known as No Man’s Land, south of the Kansas border. The land would be used by Mr. Jones for rearing bison. He has now on his Western land a herd of eighty, which he would remove to No Man’s Land if the lease were granted to him. Jones is the only bison breeder in the world. He has made many attempts to cross the wild animal with the domestic cow. After repeated failures, he succeeded in obtaining a cross between the bison and breeds of shorthorn and Galloway cattle. He showed the senate committee some robes made of hides of the crossed animal. They are like the ordinary buffalo robe but possessing a luster and varied color.
Buffalo Jones says there are now only 1,100 bisons left in America, and of these nearly 400 are in Manitoba and 500 are in captivity. The only native wild herd in the United States is that in Yellowstone park, 200 in number.
The Topeka State Journal Topeka, Kansas Jan 8 1891
Buffalo Jones, who is in the city, is en route to North Platte, Neb., to meet Buffalo Bill and arrange for exhibiting his herd of buffalo in connection with Bill’s Wild West show.
The Inter Ocean Mar. 28, 1892 A BUFFALO CHASE IN 1892
McCook, Neb., March 4. – Editor Forest and Stream, -I witnessed last week, one of the most remarkable feats by a horse I ever saw. “Buffalo “ Jones was on his horse Jubar and desiring to yoke up one of his wildest buffalo bulls (a 3-year-old) he singled him from the herd of about fifty others and endeavored to drive him a quarter of a mile to the corral. To say the buffalo was wiry and nimble does not express it; he was lightening on legs. Mr. Jones succeeded in driving him down an embankment into the valley; the buffalo concluded he could outrun the horse, climb the bank and escape. He made a dash up the valley with all the speed that could be imagined, with Jubar flying to cut him off from the bank. Such a race is only seen in a lifetime. A point of the hill came down into the valley and stood directly in the path of Jubar, and must be scaled or he would lose the game. The roll was about 3 feet high and 5 feet wide where it must be crossed. Mr. Jones urged the steed with is spur just as the horse was nearing the critical point and away the flying horse went with a leap and a bound like that of a rubber ball. It really looked as if the horse had abandoned his feet and was flying in the air, as he held up in space so long. It is needless to say the buffalo did not climb that bank that day, but was corralled and yoked up after the stubborn running and dodging I ever witnessed in my twenty-five years of punching cattle on the plains. We took a tape line and measured the wonderful leap, which was easily done, as the prints of every foot was very conspicuous. Here it is- from front foot of starting to front foot of lighting, 23 ft. 2 in; from hindmost foot of starting to hind most foot of lighting, 28 ft. Then by dividing the difference, we have 25 ft. 7 in. Who can beat it on an up-grade at that? Mr. Jones has five yoke of buffalo bulls pretty well broken to the chariot for the World’s Fair, and Jubar will figure as the champion leaping and cutting horse of the world. – Frank W. Smith.
The Abbyville Press and Banner
South Carolina May 24 1893
A BUFFALO FARM.
A NEBRASKA RANCH ON WHICH BISON ARE BRED.
Cultivating the Ono-Time “King of the Plains,” and Picking From
His Body Fine Fur Which is Made Up Into Cloth.
Five miles west from the city of Omaha, A Neb., grazing over a munificent rolling prairie, may be seen these days, according to the New York Advertiser, a herd of strange-looking animals. A barbed wire fence limits their wanderings, and a group of whooping cowboys, mounted on branded ponies, rounds them up morning and night into a corral, where the curious are permitted to view them at twenty-five cents a view. They are American bison, curiosities even in that Western city and on those hills which only a few years ago shook with the tread of the mighty armies of their ancestors.
There are sixty in the herd, and Jumbo is the monarch. Plainsmen, who have slaughtered his kinsmen by the hundred, say they never saw a finer animal. He weighs 3000 pounds, his brown beard nearly sweeps the ground; his strong, black horns are almost lost in a magnificent crest of silky brown hair, and his shoulders are level with the head of a tall man. “Devilish Dick,” as he is called, is almost as line a specimen, but there is a vicious gleam in his eyes which prevents n very close inspection of his points. Four years ago one of the cowboys came a little too near this tremendous brute, and one sudden toss of the massive head sent the cowboy to the country where there are not supposed to be buffaloes.
This is the C J. Jones herd of buffaloes, one of the few melancholy remnants of the millions that once swarmed over the plains, and almost the only hope of the perpetuation of the species.
Forty years ago it would have been as easy to number the leaves of the forest as to calculate the strength of the vast of bison which swarmed over all the Western plains and hills, from the Mississippi to the Pacific and from Canada to the Gulf. Of all the quadrupeds ever inhabiting the earth, naturalists tell us, no one species ever marshalled such innumerable armies as did the American bison. As late as 1871 it is estimated that there were in the great Southern herd, which covered the country south of the line of the Union Pacific Railway, between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 head. In that year the railroads penetrated the country, and the systematic slaughter began.
The report of the Smithsonian Institution gives these figures for the “hunting” for the three following years:
In 1872 white hunters killed 1,491.489 buffaloes and utilized the hides of 497,163. In 1873 the number slaughtered was 1,508,658 and the number used was 754,329. In 1874 only 158,583 were killed and 126,867 were used. Of the gigantic army of 3,158,730 butchered by white men during these three years over half were left lying untouched where they fell.
To-day even the bones which whitened the plains for miles have disappeared, and there is not known to survive a single specimen in a wild state.
In 1887 there was a herd of 200 under Government protection at Yellowstone Park. There may be a few there now, but none have been seen for a year or more, and they are supposed to have been killed off.
Besides the Omaha herd, there are a few others in captivity, some kept for breeding purposes and others for exhibition. Mr. Charles Allard, in the Flathead Indian Reservation, has thirty-seven head. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show numbers among its attractions a herd of thirteen buffaloes, subject to many dangers from disease and accident that cry little can be hoped from it in the way of perpetuating the species. Mr. Charles Goodnight, of Clarendon, Texas, has nine head. In the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, there are eight. In Lincoln Park, Chicago, there are six head, and in half a dozen other places there are held groups of two and three and several single animals.
With the Jones herd, an earnest and intelligent effort is being made to save the species from utter extinction, and the fact that the animal may be domesticated and make a source of profit has also been demonstrated.
Mr. Jones is perfectly well qualified for this task. He was in the centre of distribution of the great Southern herd from 1866 until their final disappearance and was by profession a buffalo hunter. When the great slaughter began in 1871 he was employed by his neighbors to shoot buffalo at fifty cents a head, and they would follow and secure the hides. His method was what is known as “still-hunting,” and he had averaged from thirty to forty head a day. On one occasion he shot seventy-two head without shifting his ground. He acknowledged that he was frequently ashamed of his work, but with the whole country out hunting, he did not feel like missing his share. In 1873 he began to realize that the wholesale slaughter was beginning to make inroads upon what then appeared an inexhaustible supply of game, and made his first effort to preserve the species. On the Solomon River in Western Kansas, he captured seven calves which he subsequently sold. He went on expeditions to the fast-receding haunts of the animals each year afterward until 1888, and the herd now at Omaha is a testimonial to his courage, skill, and pluck in the chase. Every, one of the adult animals was run down,’ lassoed, and tied with his own hands.
His last and greatest feat was in May, 1888. There was known to be at that time a small herd la the uninhabited “panhandle” of Texas which could not long escape the rifle. With an elaborate ”outfit” of men, horses, and camp equipage Mr. Jones started from Garden City, Kan., to capture it. For forty-two days and nights, the party followed the animals across the Staked Plains until they had finally lassoed or rounded up the entire herd. Only buffalo hunters can realize what such an achievement means.
From this herd “Buffalo” Jones now secures three or four full-blooded buffalo calves each year and a number of half-breeds.”catalo,” he calls them.
“Catalo”
The hybrid product of the buffalo and Galloway cattle is a magnificent animal. Its robe is nearly black, fine, and silky in texture and with a brilliant luster characteristic of the Galloway cattle. For enough of one of these robes to make a coat Lady Foster, wife of Treasurer Foster, of Canada, once offered Mr. Jones §300, saying she preferred it to the seal.
In half-breeds, the domestic animal seems to predominate, and the casual observer might not notice the long hair, the small hump at the shoulders, and the slight shagginess about the head. These catalo have been bred back until they were only one-sixteenth domestic when even a trained eye could see no difference from the full-blooded buffalo.
The profits of buffalo raising are very considerable. The animal feeds cheaply and looks after himself in all sorts of price of two good bullocks. In domestication, his meat is equal to any range beef. One good animal will yield each year fur sufficient to make a blanket. A taxidermist will give from $100 to $500 for his head, and if Mr. Jones’s big bull. Jumbo, were put on the market he would bring $1000.
What the possibilities of domestication may be is yet to be determined. The two big bulls of the Omaha herd are driven to n cart by the owner, and when it is considered that their agility is remarkable for the size of the animals, that their strength is tremendous, and that they have the speed of the average horse, this means something. This novel chariot, with perhaps the whole herd, will form one of the attractions at the World’s Fair at Chicago.
Mr. Jones is more than an adventurer or a speculator, no has become an enthusiast on the subject of buffaloes, and no man ever rode a hobby more honestly or earnestly. When he began capturing these animals he knew no more of their peculiarities than other plainsmen, but his association with them has filled him with a love for the great, shaggy brutes and a zeal for their salvation that is quite sublime in its way.
In beginning the work of subjugation pitchforks were used hymen when going about among the animals, but the buffaloes were intelligent enough to comprehend the nature of the sharp tines, and when the pitchforks were not to be seen they reasserted their majesty. Mr. Jones hit upon the device of having short pieces of gas-pipe plugged at either end with wood and these plugs filled with sharp brads. These weapons were carried concealed, and when animals became demonstrative they were jabbed into the tough hides or hurled at the big bumps with all the force possible. At first, the burly fellows received these attacks with a pained surprise, but in time they apparently concluded that these mysterious prods were a part of man and they had better not provoke attack. At any rate, they have become quite docile under that treatment. Men go among them freely, separating them or driving them about as readily as though they were so many cows.
In connection with his work of domestication, Mr. Jones has experimented with the buffalo’s fur and has succeeded in making a cloth as fine as lamb’s.
Pulling Wool from the Animal
In connection with his work of domestication, Mr. Jones has experimented with the buffalo’s fur and has succeeded in making a cloth as fine as lamb’s wool. Under the long, course hair of the animal is a short fur of the softness of swans down. When the hair is shed in the summer the under fur either falls off or is plucked by hand. In the latter case the animal is tied, and the more unruly are thrown to the ground and their legs fastened by ropes to posts fore and aft. There are ten to twelve pounds of fur on an animal, enough to make a big brown blanket as warm as an old time buffalo robe and as light as a bedspread. This cloth sells as high as $20 a yard. Mr. Jones wears in winter an overcoat made of it and trimmed with the glossy fur of the catalo, and underclothing, stockings and other garments have been woven of the same material. He presented one of the blankets to the Prince of Wales for use as a lap robe, and has received a grateful acknowledgment of the unique gift.
By 1893 Jones was bankrupt and sold all he could.
Clinch Valley News Jeffersonville, VA Aug 4 1893
FEW BUFFALO LEFT.
A CAPTIVE HERD WILL BE TAKEN TO THE FAIR. How the Bison Thrives In Captivity Good Draft Animals and a Source of Revenue In Many Ways. The Catalo
ONE by one the landmarks and traditions of aboriginal American disappear. The deer, the antelope, the elk, and the buffalo, once as numerous as the leaves of the forest, have dwindled away until the private parks and menageries contain almost all that is left of these animals, Few of this generation, says the Chicago Times, have more than a vague conception of the appearance and habits of the American bison, once so numerous in this region that they dotted the grassy ocean of the plains like great black islands of life and motion. The vast southern herd which covered the country south of the line of the Union Pacific Railroad is estimated to have numbered between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 head. The pasture field of this tremendous herd extended from Manitoba on the north to Texas on the south, and from the Missouri River on the east to the base of the Rocky Mountains on the west. These restless animals were continually on the move and from the vanguard to the stragglers at the rear, the herd spread over a distance of from 200 to 300 miles. This vast army of bovines marched in one continuous circuit, passing southward and the eastern line of this great ara and northward on its western margin, but never crossing the Rocky Mountains. This grand migratory circuit was completed every four years and accounts for a condition which often seemed strange even to plainsmen: that is, that buffalo would be found very plentiful in a certain locality one year and the next the hunter would find only a few.
……. Awaiting the last opportunity for a calf on Jubar.
The bison, popularly known as the buffalo, is purely an American animal and differs widely in form and habits from the true buffalo, which is a native of Africa and India. The monarch of our own plains is the American bison, He is a magnificent beast, with a shaggy mane covering his massive head and shoulders, weighing when full-grown sometimes over 2000 pounds and measuring from the ground to the top of his hump often six feet. His skin when first removed is so heavy that a strong man can scarcely lift it.
Bison were once found all over the Mississippi Valley as far east as the Alleghany Mountains) and the battles of the red man are not the only conflicts that occurred upon the western plains. These monarchs of the virgin heath often engaged in deadly conflict, and their loud bellowings of rage and anger as they rushed to the fray rolled like muttering thunder and the plains trembled beneath the rock.
Many of the earlier travelers across the plains have noticed conical holes in the prairie, which were filled with water after each rainstorm. These holes are still to be found in the remote portions of the Western States. They are called buffalo wallows and were made by this animal pawing the dirt out for a considerable space and then deliberately sitting down in the excavation and spinning round and round very rapidly, with heels and head together, until he gradually reamed out a wallow. This he found to be a very pleasant resort directly after a rain, when full of water, as he could dislodge the troublesome gad flies and at the same time scratch his own’ back in a land where rubbing posts or trees were unknown. The history- of the wanton destruction of, these animals by hunters and amateur sportsmen is a chapter of shame.
In 1872 there were killed by white, hunters nearly 1,500,000. The next year more than this number. In the space of three years, 3,158,739 were butchered by white men, and half of the carcasses left to rot untouched when they fell. Their doom was sealed when the Union Pacific stretched its iron trail along the banks of the lone Platte and the grasping adventurer pre-empted their inheritance.
Early settlers at Omaha
Those who have seen the Jones herd at Benson, a suburb of Omaha, have witnessed a picture of the last of the buffalo that no painter can rival. The herd numbers sixty, and for about one year past has been kept in an inclosure well boarded up and resembling a State __ ground; located about five miles northwest of the center of Omaha. Just inside the board fence is a well built and plentifully barbed wire fence, which is the only kind of fence that will hold his lordship, the buffalo bull.
Two of the largest males of the herd are named Sullivan and Corbett, respectively, because of their belligerent qualities. The big buffalo Sullivan would as a calf rush out and knock a man over if he could, and now when full grown will go a mile to meet a man on horseback. Jumbo, the monarch of the herd, weighs nearly 3000 pounds and in as fine a specimen as ever trod the western wilds, with a crest like a storm cloud through which flushes a dangerous light from his eyes when in anger. He has the beard of a prophet and a back like old Atlas that might bear aloft a world upon its broad expanse, his horns measuring 141/2 inches in circumference at the base. Although it is not safe to trust the buffalo too far, viciousness is not a predominating trait of the animal. Many of them are quite docile and will feed from the hand. In his attempts to subjugate them Mr. Jones and is attendants had
Jones with his Catalo Heifers Two Years Old
to use pitchforks to control them, adopting methods similar to those used to subjugating elephants. The pitchforks were soon exchanged for brads or goads, which finally needed only to be shown to command a respectful abeyance from Mr. Buffalo.
The cunning brutes were quick to learn whether a person appearing among them was armed with the goad or not, and no sooner did the intelligent animal find that he was not than he began at once an aggressive campaign against the intruder.
Many of the men carry a small goad under their coats, which if shown is all sufficient. The females are almost as docile as domestic cows and are regularly milked by the attendants. One thing that attracts the attention of the visitor to their winter quarters is the entire absence of any kind of shelter. Throughout the whole of the last severe winter, the herd has not had a board to shelter them from the mort rigorous days. They love the storm and go wild with delight over a driving, whirling blizzard.
This band of buffalo known as the Jones herd is the largest collection of these animals in the world and is truly the last hope for the perpetration of this noble race. Its existence is almost wholly duo to the energy, pluck, and patriotism of J. C. Jones. better known as “Buffalo” Jones. an old time buffalo hunter and a contemporary of Buffalo Bill, with whom he is entitled to divide honors both in Europe and America. Mr. Jones is an experienced plainsman and made his home in the haunts of these animals in the years gone by. Always an admirer of this noble animal, their pitiless fate enlisted his sympathy. With such a man as Buffalo Jones to think was to act, and he resolved to rescue the last of the buffalo. To this end, he established a ranch and built corrals at Garden City, Kan., as a base from which to make excursions to their haunts in the far southwest, in order to secure animals from which to perpetuate the race. On his first excursion, he and his assistants captured grown animals, but these soon died, apparently determined not to live in captivity. In their fury, they often broke their necks in frenzied charges against the walls of the corral. Satisfied that the grown animals were a failure, Mr. Jones resolved to capture young calves, but at first, this plan too was unsuccessful, as the condensed milk upon which he was obliged to feed them did not agree with them, and they also died.
All of these experiments took valuable time, and the hunters and Indians were driving the scattering herds of buffalo farther and farther into the southwest. But such difficulties never daunted the spirit of “Buffalo” Jones. In 1888 he organized an expedition at Garden City, which he determined should be and which was successful. The expedition started April 1 and returned in July of the same year. They captured thirty-seven calves and saved thirty-two of them, all of them under six months old. “Buffalo” Jones took with him on this expedition twenty fresh milk cows to feed the captured calves. No person who has not crossed these arid lands, stretching into the illimitable distance with nothing but sky and plain, without a tree or hill, no birds, no noise, only the silence of the desert, can comprehend the terrors of such a journey. Weak men tremble and strong men grow mad in the presence of this awful solitude.
After traveling many days on the great plains of Texas his men mutinied and refused to go further. They were terrified at the solitude and determined to go back. Mr. Jones told them that they could take the alternative of staying with him or perishing in a hopeless attempt to reach home. The men chose the lesser of the two evils, stayed and lived to participate in an expedition that will go down to history. Through all of these dangers for forty weary days, the buffalo hunters rode over these arid, treeless plains in search of the “little brownies,” who were to perpetuate an almost extinct race.
The buffalo calf very closely resembles in color the dry grass and soil of the plains, and many an embryo bison king has been spared from the fangs of the wolf when its mother was not nearby its resemblance to a tuft of grass. On several occasions, Mr. Jones and his men had close encounters with these hungry scavengers of the desert. Once when having several calves in his charge he took off one garment after another and tucked them under the collars of the different calves and thus preserved them from attack until the wagon could be secured. Their escape was duo to the well-known fact that prairie wolves will not molest anything that has the scent of a human being about it. Mr. Jones killed his last buffalo on this trip. It was a remarkable shot he made, bringing down a huge bison on the run at 300 yards without a sight on his rifle. This buffalo was killed as a necessity to replenish the depicted larder of the expedition. These calves were taken to Garden City, where they grew and prospered. The first and also the last calf captured are in the present herd and are named Alpha and Omega respectively. This band now consists of thirty head of full-blooded buffalo and ten head of catalo. It has been depleted by frequent sales, made necessary to defray the expense of keeping them. The animals sold have gone to private collections all over the country and even to Europe. In fact, nearly all of the buffalo now in existence have been sent out at one time and another from the animals captured on these expeditions.
Mr. Jones took a herd of ten full bloods to Europe in 1890. These animals, like most native Americans, became seasick on the voyage, placed their noses on the deck and groaned in distress, but soon recovered upon reaching the land. They awakened no end of curiosity in Liverpool, and the London Graphic sent a special artist to sketch them, while all of the great dailies gave much space to a description of these strange animals from over the sea.
John L Sullivan
“Buffalo” Jones has made a thorough study of the habits of these animals, and by careful experiments in crossing with native cattle has produced a race which he calls the catalo, a magnificent creature. The head is less clumsy, the humpless prominent, and the hinder parts more symmetrical than in the buffalo. The catalo is far superior to the domestic animal for beef. Steaks cut from its dressed carcass are delicious, and it has been proved that 100 pounds more of porterhouse steak can be cut from the dressed catalo than from the ordinary steer.
‘The females of this race are very superior milkers, and, although the quantity is not so abundant, the milk is far richer than that ‘of the Jersey. The pure-blood buffalo cow gives the richest milk in the world. The robe of-the catalo is as far ahead of the buffalo robe as a buffalo robe is ahead of a sheep pelt. The seal buffalo, as a cross between a buffalo and a Galway cow, is called, is the finest animal of the cattle kind. The robe is nearly black, as fine and glossy as a sealskin, and would make a coat fit for any queen. A Canadian lady of high rank offered Mr. Jones $300 for the skin of one of these animals from which to make a coat, saying she preferred it to a sealskin.
A strange freak of the buffalo is that all calves born in close confinement are females so that to perpetuate the race, room is absolutely necessary. The present herd is about equally divided as regards sex, a fact due to the freedom allowed them. Seven baby buffalo are expected in a few weeks which will greatly add to the interest of the herd, and if they live will very materially increase its value. This will be apparent when it is remembered that each full-grown buffalo is worth fully §1000.
Even the shaggy coat of these animals has been utilized by Mr. Jones and turned to profit. When the shedding time arrives the animals are roped and the great mats of fine brown wool that has protected them in winter are plucked off them, carefully packed, and sent east, to be made into robes, hats, and cloth. The fabric from this material brings $20 per yard. A splendid lap robe made from this buffalo hair was presented by Mr. Jones to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. by whom it is used in preference to all others. “Buffalo” Jones himself is clothed, overcoat, underclothing, pants, coat, vest, shirt, and hat, in garments made from this buffalo wool. Even his boots are made from buffalo hide and the buttons on his clothes from the horns and hoofs of this animal. His great brown buffalo sombrero, the only one of its kind, easily locates him in any crowd.
This herd will be taken to the World’s Fair and there be placed on exhibition by their owner, who will drive four of these huge animals abreast, two of the largest weighing twenty-four hundred pounds apiece, to an old-fashioned rustic Mexican cart with wooden wheels. He will have forged iron bite in the mouths of the monsters and guide them by wire cables attached to a windlass. By this contrivance, he has them under perfect control and can guide them as accurately as a driver can a well-broken carriage team.
The training of these huge animals to drive was a task that required great patience and plenty of help. They were yoked to a cart, the driver holding wire cables for reins by means of a windless, and a cowboy with lariat fast to a buffalo on either side standing by to assist. But the task was accomplished and the bison has learned a new trade. They are very good travelers, in time become quite tractable, and their immense strength would make them valuable as draught animals.
A four-year-old catalo dresses 1200 pounds. This would mean at least 2500 pounds live weight. The buffalo is very easily kept, as is also the catalo, so that much less cost is incurred in raising either than in keeping domestic cattle. Added to this each animal will yield wool enough each year to make a blanket and a taxidermist will pay from $100 to $500 for the head.
Mr. Jones made the Government an offer some time ago to take this herd to Texan, where he would care for and protect them, allowing them to increase unmolested for twenty years if the Government would appropriate the land and means to defray the expense. His request was heeded by Congress which went far enough to set aside the land but failed to make an appropriation for expense.
1894 (Railroad Track)
Evening Democrat Perry, Oklahoma 31 May 1894 Trouble on The Gulf
Buffalo Jones who is well known in this city is evidently having trouble down on the gulf as witness the following telegram: F J Close secretary of the Gulf and Interstate Railway company the corporation that was formed some months ago by the Populists for the purpose of building a line from Manitoba to the Gulf of Mexico, has returned from Galveston and reports that the company has contracted with the Cambria Steel and Iron works, of Johnstown, Pa. for the iron to build the road
The Cambria company is to accept the railroad bond in payment. Close says the road will undoubtedly be built but that work is at a stand-still just now on account of a row with Buffalo Jones the contractor.
Jones it seem has purchased with friends 5000 acre of land and wanted to change the route so as to go through the tract. Objections were raised and Jones virtually slole the title of the original company chartered in Kansas. Jones’ contract stands forfeited but it is thought that a satisfactory adjustment of the difficulty will be made.
Noble Country Patriot Perry Oklahoma June 11 1896 (extract)
In the near future Mr. Jones states it as his intention to go to the Yellow Stone National Park in Wyoming for the purpose of capturing the wild buffalo that are yet roaming in its boundaries. It will be a most interesting procedure and to our people who acquainted with Mr Jones its story will have an irresistible charm.
Through his life as a ‘salesman of his bison crosses,’ he was also involved in government, property holdings, irrigation, and the railroad. In every situation, he had his hand in a side deal to make money. I thought his irrigation was successful, later I read that it was not. It was really sad reading about all his what looked like accomplishments to only end up being a “scheme” as many reports were published. Like he couldn’t get out of his own way. One reporter went as far as to say, “That if the government was having a problem with the Indians, they should tell Jones they need saving” (meaning he could wipe them out, like the bison)
Jones made several attempts after he went broke to try and get our government to financially support his schemes. He wanted them to take over lands, build a fence and pay for all of it, in exchange he would supply his buffalo breeding operations and the government would own half of the produce. (pure and crossbreds) Of course, the government never fell for it. They did offer him the use of some land, but no money for fencing & etc.
During these years when he is broke and trying to stay relevant, he attached his name to any bison herds he knew about or had done business with in the past. Several times he claimed to have “an interest” in Charles Goodnight’s herd. Eventually even claimed to have been there as a team effort when Charles first captured calves to save.
“In a general way the Goodnight herd of buffalo and catalo. In which Mr.and Mr. Goodnight of Goodnight. Tex., and myself have a joint interest, is pretty well known throughout the west.”
“What is true of the buffalo is also true of the catalo, a cross which I originated first in Kansas, and afterward continued at the Goodnight ranch in Texas”
The Philadelphia Times
“Buffalo Jones” was in town a short time on Tuesday morning on his way to visit the Goodnight buffalo ranch out in the Panhandle. While here he presented a copy of his recent book, “Forty Years of Adventure” to County Commissioner Joe Gooch, who was with him on his buffalo-hunting expedition in 1868.
Joe Gooch is not mentioned in the ‘Encyclopedia” either.
1897 /1898 Jones went to Goodnights to purchase two head to train to a cart. “I was at the Goodnight Ranch when Buffalo Jones came down from Garden City, Kansas in 1897 or 1898 and announced that he wanted to buy a couple of buffalo to drive a sled for exhibition purposes. I helped Jones break those buffalo. We got them gentle enough to drive, if you want to call it that. They were yoked to a sled that had a windlass for controlling the team. Jones would stop the team by which would jerk the buffaloes to their knees. To start them again, he would slack the rope. It was as simple as that. Jones’ show drew enormous crowds at all Panhandle towns. But the show ended when it got to Fort Worth, where the Buffaloes went mad from the heat and died.” JT Owens
Jones claimed to have domesticated two bulls to pull a cart. He often used them in his claim they can be domesticated. One of these bulls had already killed his previous owner. As Jones tried to “train” them, it was unsuccessful, so he used a gadget called a windlass. With this, he could force the bison to stop. You can see the nose rings and the contraption attached to their heads for control.
The Topeka Daily Capital Topeka Kansas Jul 30 1896 Buffaloes Exterminated
“Buffalo Jones Says Only a Very Few Are Left. J. C. Jones, better known throughout the United States, Canada and Europe as “Buffalo Jones.” is stopping at the Capitol hotel for a few, days. Being apprised of the fact, a reporter for the Washington Post called upon him and gathered some very interesting facts. Mr. Jones, it will be remembered, undertook to preserve the last herd of buffalo that roamed the plains. They were on the staked plains of Texas, hundreds of miles from any white settlers, and to penetrate the desert and capture them required money, pluck and determination. The task was performed, but it took five years to accomplish it. Mr. Jones captured with his own hands and saved altogether 120 buffaloes. He has furnished these animals to most of the parks in the United States, Canada and Europe. He took sixteen to England four years ago and two of them were reshipped to St. Petersburg to the Imperial Park. The report of the Smithsonian institute for 1889 gives an elaborate account of Mr. Jones services in capturing and domesticating the buffalo. It gives him the credit of accomplishing the “most daring and wonderful feats ever heard or read of.” The reporter asked Mr. Jones a few questions, the first being:
“Can’t you give me a little story about the buffalo for the Post?” Mr. Jones replied: I don’t tell stories about buffaloes; there are too many facts to spend time on stories.”
“Well, facts are what we call stories,” replied the reporter. “You have had lots of experience with buffalo, have you not?” “Yes, sir; more than I should have had. Look here at my crooked finger. I got that by fooling with a buffalo bull, endeavoring to hitch him up for a drive. That was the bull that killed his keeper at Oxford, Neb. Everybody was afraid of him and I bought him at the administrator’s sale very cheap. I hitched him up all the same and worked him until he became conquered and as docile as a native ox. I lassoed him and lashed him to the side of a barn and put a heavy yoke on him. Then I brought out a monster buffalo that was my great favorite and a noble fellow he was hitched them together, forced bits in their mouths with wire cable lines, attached each line to a windlass on each side of a cart, attached the cart to the yoke, loaded it down with stones, locked the wheels. Then I ordered my man to cut them loose. Well, such a ride as I got would put John Gilpin in the background. I finally conquered and Devilish Dick became a favorite work ox. To be sure, this sounds like a ‘story,’ but I have hundreds of photographs at home in all conceivable positions that artists paid dearly for the privilege of securing, and if any one doubts it I can easily prove every word I say.” ‘Are there any more wild buffalo?” Mr. Jones took a long breath or sigh and answered: “There are any, and that is all. About fifty or seventy-five, as near as I can find out, yet remain in the Yellowstone National park. This year will be recorded the fact that the last buffalo has perished. I was just talking with a gentleman from the National park last Saturday and he says the buffaloes are virtually gone. That they were recently slaughtered in the park fourteen on one little plat of ground. The heads and hides are very valuable, and men take desperate chances to get a buffalo. “I have urged the Interior department for years to save the herd in the park, but it appears that the War department has control of the funds for improving the park, and no appropriation is made for rescuing the remnants of the once mighty herd.” “What would you suggest should be done to preserve what buffalo remain in the park?” “There is no use in my suggesting anything; if I do, people will think I’m figuring for a Job, and it will go unheeded. But if the government wants to preserve the buffalo I would be glad to corral them, whether there was any money in it for me or not. I would be glad to save them and divide the herd with the government, or corral them for the government for whatever my service is worth, and leave it to anybody who has authority to act in the premises. I have plenty to do, but if I can be the means of rescuing these animals I am always ready to lay aside everything else, no matter how urgent It is.”
“Do you think it is feasible to capture a herd of wild buffalo?”
“I have done it, and there is no better place than in the park to capture what are left. The greatest canons are walled for miles, so that all that is needed is a fence at each end sufficient to hold a buffalo. It would require skill and a knowledge of the habits of the buffalo to successfully drive them into these natural pastures, but it can and should be done.”
“What have you done with your herd?”
“I sold them to different parties, the last fifty sold to Charles A Hard. in Montana, I also sold him a fine herd of about twenty-five catalo.”
“What is a catalo?“
“A catalo is a cross between the buffalo and domicile cattle. I made quite a success of raising these animals, but it requires much experience to be successful in rearing them.”
“Buffalo” Jones’ Date: 1885-1899 – Kansas Memory Buffalo and cattalo on the ranch of C.J. (Buffalo) Jones, about four miles southeast of Garden City, Kansas. Jones had a plan to breed cattle with the hardy buffalo.
1897
The Kansas City Star Kansas City Missouri Mar 28 1897 Story of Buffalo Jones
How He Captured His Herd of American Bison
He Saw the Last of the Buffalo Die on the Plains- Sold Buffaloes to the Crowned Heads of Europe – His Lastest Scheme.
Every day during the session of the last Oklahoma legislature, a slenderly built man, with piercing gray eyes, a firm jaw and a slouching gait, as if he had spent much of his time on horseback, walked about the house floor with his hands in his trousers pocket. He quelled the small riots that arose among the pages, bringing his hands together like
cracks of lightning whenever the gallery got disorderly. Farmer members would bring in their friends and introduce them to him, saying:
Here, Bill, let me introduce you to Buffalo Jones, our sergeant-at-arms; you’ve heard of him before you came down to this country. He killed more buffalo than you could stack up on a 160 acre farm.
“Buffalo” Jones would then show his buffalo pictures, taken when he had a ranch of them near Garden City, Kas., in the early 80’s. His photographs are about all Jones has left of his prowess as a buffalo killer. His buffaloes are scattered throughout the world – from San Francisco to the hunting forests of the great czar of Russia. Jones tells many wonderful stories of his trip to Europe .where he sold buffaloes to kings and queens and saw the sight of Paris and Berlin. He has only a remnant of the fortune which his animals brought him. The bulk of it was swallowed up in booming towns in Southwestern Kansas.
Jones wears an antique overcoat which resemble a coarse quality of Turkish toweling. The coat is not worth much, but money couldn’t buy the collar, it was cut from a buffalo robe. When that collar I worn out, Jones’s last buffalo relic will have disappeared.
Buffalo’ Jones is growing old, but denies it. His hair is yet unstreaked with gray. His face shows the hard lines of frontier life, but he is agile and frolicsome, and jumped over three foot fence to show. The Star’s correspondent that his fifty-two years did not interfere with his nimbleness. Said he:
I am as good a man now as I was twenty-five years ago. I never used tobacco, never drank whisky, always averaged three square meal a day, steered clear of poker and breathed the pure, fresh air of the Kansas prairie for over thirty years.”
Jones was born in Illinois and was a schoolmate of Joe Fifer. He went to Kansas in going first to Doniphan county. He settled upon a claim in Osborn county four years later, and it was there that his buffalo hunting began. His home was on the south fork of the Solomon river, a region that was black with herds of buffalo in the grazing season. Jones soon abandoned farming, and followed the herd for their hide. Persons who skinned the carcasses paid him for the killing. He had many encounters with Indians who followed the hunters and destroyed the hide. Chief Big Bow of the Cheyenne’s, now at Fort Reno, once came near getting Jones’s scalp, in what is now Beaver county, Oklahoma. Jones was a good rifle shot, acquiring his skill by shooting on horseback running antelope. He did most of his hunting between the Republican and the Smoky Hill rivers.
“I saw in 1886”, said Jones, that the buffalo were being exterminated. I was not hunting then, but I resolved to atone for some of my past cussedness by saving as many as I could. I went on my first expedition that year. I had a complete camping outfit and carried a large supply of condensed milk for the calves. I made a drive of 200 miles and struck the headwaters of the North Canadian river. In No Man s Land. There were probably 1500 buffalo in that locality that year. I saw 600 in one herd. It was impossible to get anything except calves, of which I roped fourteen. Only four were saved, all over six month old dying quickly. There is a strange thing about a buffalo they get so mad in captivity that they can actually will themselves to die, and fall over rigid, and dead as a door nail.
“The next year I set out in the spring for the South Canadian river in Texas, and got on the trail of buffalo near Tuscosa, which is where the Fort Worth & Denver City railway now crosses the South Canadian river. I saw about a thousand buffalo, got sixteen calves, and saved eight. I found that I had made a mistake in not taking milch cows with me.
“On my third trip in 1888 I had a herd of thirty domestic cows. This time I saw only about 600 buffalo. They were being rapidly killed by the hide hunters. I roamed over the same territory that I had explored on my second trip. I had good luck and caught thirty-seven calves, saving thirty-two. I staked out two of them on the prairie one dark night, and had the misfortune to have them devoured by wolves.
“My last trip was in 1889. I started in March and did not get home until July. The buffalo had gone far down on the Staked Plains. It was a hot, wearisome journey over the sand hills. I had kodaks and got many fine pictures. There was a mere handful of buffalo. Only seven calves could be found. These were captured and saved. I determined to secure a many of the old one as possible. They were ranging on a tract of land about 100 mile square. We approached them gradually and got them accustomed to seeing us. They were never given an opportunity to lie down if it could be prevented. We had sixteen good horses, and the herd was followed night and day for forty-two days. They finally became so tame that we could ride alongside of them. I sent to my ranch in Kansas and got my tame herd to toll the wild one off the range, but it was useless. They had a strange instinct of locality. No sooner would we get them off the range than they would wheel and rush back like the wind. They would have blindly trampled us down had we stood in their way. Finally, in despair, we lassoed twenty-two cows, hobbled them and started home, but it was simply time lost, as all of them went mad and died. It was during this trip that I employed Lee Howard, the famous roping expert. I came across him late one afternoon, far out on a prairie. I first thought he was an Indian. He was also catching calves; I gave him $500 for the season. While we were taking a cow and a calf came trotting by. Away went Howard at breakneck speed. His horse was already tired and soon gave out. Howard pulled off the saddle and rode bareback. He caught the calf and dismounted to tie It. His horse, while nibbling grass, was bitten by a rattlesnake and died almost before we knew what was the matter with It. That one calf brought me $800, and is now in the Golden Gate park in San Francisco. I am confident that those were the last range buffalo outside the Yellowstone park. Only three got away from us. They were killed the following winter.
The last buffalo seen by Jones in Kansas was in 1879. There were sixteen in the herd. They were going south, to the Panhandle, and passed just north of his ranch at Garden City. He pursued them, but his horse fell into a prairie dog hole, and the herd escaped. The most memorable migration of buffalo through Kansas was in 1869. Literally millions came from the north on their way south. The plains were black with them for days.
Jones put his captive buffaloes in a big corral on his ranch near Garden City, and his fame as a buffalo breeder spread all over the country. It was he who gave the name of catalo” to the half breeds, a cross between buffalo and domestic cattle. Part of the name, “cat” is derived from cattle, and the other part, “alo,” from buffalo. The pelt of a catalo is superior to that of the buffalo, being smoother, glossier and a rich seal brown in color.
The herd on the Garden City ranch increased to several hundred and were a source of much trouble. Some of the bulls never lost their native fierceness. This was particularly true of a big bull named John L. Sullivan, the master of the herd, who was constantly fighting. He was caught in Texas during the second expedition, in 1887. Many of the herd ranged free on the prairie, but it became necessary to keep Sullivan in a big pasture, surrounded with a high barbed wire fence. He attacked everyone who entered the enclosure and Jones himself was saved several times from being gored to death only by the swiftness of his horse. Sullivan had a trick of tearing corn pens to pieces with his horns. He would toss the planks high in the air and then run from under them to watch them fall. He would come from half a mile away to attack a person who approached the fence. Jones tried to break him of this habit, but failed. He took a croquet ball and filled it with long, sharp spikes, keen as a knife blade. This would be hurled against Sullivan’s tawny side when he came to the fence, and the blood would spurt out in streams. Sullivan soon got on to the curved bulls and never failed to catch them on his massive head, which was usually covered with clay to such a depth that the spiked ball rebounded as if had been thrown against a brick wall.
The ball was afterward attached to a long wire which was tied to a fishing pole. Sullivan was unable to dodge this and always stood at a safe distance whenever Jones tried to use it.
Jones had a team of big bulls which he drove to a specially constructed cart. He frequently drove them to town as he would have driven a team of horses. The lines for the harness were made of wire cable, and the bits were forged by a local blacksmith out of heavy wrought iron. The driver never touched the lines. They were wound around upright windlasses on the cart. The big team was guided by turning the windlasses. An attempt was made at first to drive them without a windlass, but they ran away with six men, who tugged with all their strength to hold them. Buffalo instinctively begin to fight when tied together. The first time Jones team was harnessed they turned head to head and tried to gore each other. It took everybody on the ranch to get them apart.
The trial trip was made on a half mile race track on the ranch. To use Jones’ terse expression, they ran like the devil was after them.” Mile after mile was reeled off and still the wild team lunged ahead. It was apparently an all day job to tame them. Jones exerted all his strength upon the windlass and finally had their head pulled down until their noses touched the ground. The monster team soon became tractable.
One of the team, Devilish Dick,” had been very vicious. He first belonged to God, and then A.H. Cole of Oxford, Neb . caught him,” said Jones, Cole tried to keep him from breaking down a fence to fight a domestic bull that was passing along the road, and threw a clod to turn him back. Dick paid no attention to the clod and Cole turned to get a pitchfork. Dick saw his chance and caught Cole in the side with his horn, mangling him terribly and causing his death.
Jones said that he made nearly $100,000 selling buffalo. Unsuccessful business venture compelled him to sell his herd. The greater part of them, sixty head, were bought by the Flathead Indian, near Missoula, Mont., for which they paid $36,000. They have increased rapidly, though number were drowned several years ago while trying to cross the Missouri river on the ice. The Indian guard them carefully, killing one occasionally as a religious adjunct to some of their pow-wows. John L. Sullivan is still master of the herd.
Jones does not believe that there is a wild buffalo outside Yellowstone park. Said he: “The last one were in Lost park, about eighty miles from Denver, Co!, but they were killed about three years ago. The only tame herd in the southwest is on Charley Goodnight’s ranch in the Panhandled. A strange thing about a buffalo is that the younger female always follow the old grandmothers. said Jones. They seem to propagate in families, and the families can be distinguished by peculiar facial resemblance. No person ever saw a herd of buffalo move in a straight line. They always take a zig-zag course. My explanation is this: A buffalo is a very cautious animal. Their shaggy foreheads prevent their seeing object on either side of them. To prevent surprise from an enemy they walk obliquely to the right, and then to the left, and in that way get an unobstructed view of the surrounding country.
Lost Park still had buffalo
Buffalo Jones is enthusiastic over an enterprise in which he hopes to make a big fortune. Said he: I have organized a stock company to propagate wild animals that are becoming extinct. There is no sentiment in the scheme we are out for the dust. We will establish game preserves in Alaska, and on several of the Pacific islands. I know where I can get thirty buffalo in the Northwest. Here is a letter from Hagenbeck, the animal buyer, in Berlin, who writes that he can get a pair or Russian sables for me, the only captive pair outside of Russia. I have an option on them. We will sell the furs of these animals. We have already silver gray foxes. Moose and several Athabasca marten. We intend to go into the fur business, and to supply zoological gardens with rare specimens. It is my purpose to catch animals in the forests of the British Northwest. I believe that I can capture any wild animal in existence. I once had an order to get fifty antelope for $500 in two weeks. My friends said that I couldn’t do it. I muzzled my greyhounds and started out. I caught eleven kid the first day, and had the fifty corralled in ten days.”
So now he heads for Alaska to ‘save’ the Musk Oxen and Foxes.
The Topeka State Journal Topeka Kansas July 29 1897 BUFFALO JONES’ TRIP. Tells of His Expedition After Big Game.
Perry, Okla., July 29. I believe that the big game with which the forests and plains of the United States, Canada and British Columbia once teemed can be preserved from utter extinction, and it is because I believe thus that I start this week for the north to capture as many specimens of the animals, big and little, that now are becoming so rare that only the most patient hunters ever find even their trail. The expedition which I command is backed by ample capital, and I do not doubt that it is going to succeed. An island in the Pacific has been purchased and the animals will be taken and kept there under the best conditions. I believe that they will increase in numbers. It used to be said that the buffalo would not thrive in captivity. I disproved that by capturing a lot of them from the last free herd that roamed the western prairies of the United States. They thrived so that they increased their numbers to 300, and I increased my bank account well, never mind Just how much, but it suited me. I believe that all our North American game animals, large and small, can be bred in captivity, and my success with the buffalo confirms that belief. The government thought that buffalo would not thrive in captivity and spent tens of thousands of dollars in capturing fine specimens of the “last” herd for mounting and preservation at Washington. I didn’t spend .as much as the government, but I took my animals alive, instead of shooting them, as the “Smithsonian hunters’ did, and they got on so well in captivity that I soon had a herd of 300, from which I supplied a herd of sixteen to the late Austin Corbin of New York, besides stocking many other private and public parks. Like the buffalo the huge shy wood bison and musk ox of the far north are rapidly becoming extinct. Herds of them are very rare, particularly the musk ox, which has been hunted into the solitudes of the Arctic Circle. I believe that the wood bison, the musk ox, the moose, the caribou, the reindeer and the silver gray fox, the martin, ermine and other email and valuable furred animals can be propagated in captivity. I’m going north to capture as many as possible to stock our island. We shall hunt through Canada, British Columbia and up beyond the Arctic Circle. We are prepared with traps to take the animals alive. The big game will be taken with lassos, as I took the buffalo. The task of transporting our captures to our island is a large and expensive one, but we are prepared for it. I cannot at present for business reasons publish the route of my expedition. I shall write of my adventures from time to time. C. J. JONES (“Buffalo Jones.”)
The Leavenworth Times Leavenworth Kansas Aug 11 1897
C. J., or Buffalo Jones of Garden City, Kan., has written a letter from a point 500 miles north of the United States’ line at Edmonton, Canada, in which he says he is now constructing a boat to carry himself and party to Great Slave Lake, 500 miles north of his present location, where he has been informed there is a herd of 150 buffalo, which he expects to corral and bring back to the United States.
No one hears from him for months, many suspect he has died, except for his wife and brother. They still have hope.
This was quite an adventure and very courageous in those times of unknown. Jones killed a dozen oxen for their heads and he captured 5 calves to bring home.
The Natives believed that if their Oxen were removed from their native lands that the other Oxen would follow them. That is why they did not agree to let Jones remove any.
Logansport Reporter, Indiana, Jan. 14 1898 ON A BISON RANCH Attempts at Cross-Breeding Between Domestic Cattle & Buffalo
[copyright, 1897]
Cattle dealers throughout the country, especially owners of the great cattle ranges in the west and southwest, are greatly interested in a widely circulated report that certain western breeders have made a success of experimental cross-breeding of the American bison with domestic cattle.
It is claimed that they crossed breed combines the docility of the domestic animal with the endurance and the large size of the bison, and that the half-breeds grow to maturity in last time than domestic cattle. The flesh, also, is said to be very palatable, and the fur, while retaining all the good qualities of that of the bison, is much softer and finer.
One of the alleged successful experiments is located on a cattle farm a few miles south of Durrant Wis., where, it is said, three bison captured a few years ago have, by cross-breeding, increased to a herd of 43 animals; and the owners of the herd believe that an extension of their method of cross-breeding will bring them a fortune in the near future.
The statement, however, has not been received with much favor by cattle dealers, who are aware of the ill success of several similar experiments during recent years.
Some years ago, when the fact was suddenly realized that the bison was in imminent danger of extinction, the federal government took steps to avoid that calamity by the formation of buffalo farms, where, by careful breeding, at least specimens of the disposed monarch of the prairie could be preserved. Several private individuals also established buffalo farms for the same purpose. One of the most successful of these was that of the late Austin Corbin, the banker, and railroad magnate. His herd originally consisted of 17 buffaloes, but now it comprises nearly 100 head of pure-bred bison, and it is said to be the largest single herd of these animals in the country.
Mr. Austin Corbin, son of their original owner of the herd, when asked for his opinion as to the probability of successful cross-breeding of the buffalo with the domestic cattle, said: “it may be possible, but guided by a knowledge of experiments in that direction made by my father. I would require very strong proof of the fact before believing that it has been, or can be done with success. At the suggestion of the Duke of Marlborough, my father, several years ago, imported a herd of Polled-Angus cattle, some 30 in number, from Scotland, for the purpose of cross-breeding with the bison on our cattle farm at Newport, N.H. The conditions were most favorable, as the bison were thoroughly acclimated and had largely increased in numbers, but the attempt at cross-breeding was almost a total failure. The result was so unsatisfactory that the experiment was abandoned, and we returned to the raising of the bison, deer and unadulterated. The only successful attempts at cross-breeding that I have heard of was that of “Buffalo” Jones, owner of an extensive cattle range in New Mexico. When he was here, some five years ago, Jones claimed that his experiment had been a success: but when I saw him last, six months ago. I judged from his unwillingness to discuss the cross-breeding of bison that his experiment had not continued to be successful. What makes me most doubtful that it would pay Breeders to go into cross-breeding of bison with domestic cattle on an extensive scale is the fact that, while the half- breeds would bring little more than ordinary cattle, the raising of pure-bred bison would pay handsomely. There is no trouble in getting $1000 for first-class buffalo cow and prices range all the way from that figure down to $500. It seems to me that it would pay these Wisconsin breeders to raise the simon-pure article of American bison, rather than the half-breed buffalo.”
Mr. Corbin explained his recent action, in demanding the return of the 25 bison loan by him to the park commissioners, by stating that the animals are in a bad condition, owing to bad water, and the fact that they had not sufficient grazing ground. The section set apart for them contained 70 acres, but only 20 acres are available for grazing. The commissioners refused to increase the area, and therefore Mr. Corbin wanted his buffalo back on his own place, where he could take proper care of them.
1899
“The Indians will not allow these animals to leave the country if they can prevent it because they have a superstition that luck leaves with them.”
Disaster for the Alaskan animals. 1900
SEEKING LIVE MUSK-OX. Efforts of Buffalo Jones to Capture a Few Specimens in Northern Canada.
Buffalo Jones is a hero of the western plains who earned his prefix as a successful hunter of buffalo. In the days when they were numerous he killed thousands for their hides. Many of his adventures as a nimrod and also his encounters with rattlesnakes and hostile Indians have been deemed worthy of preservation and are now recorded in a book called “Buffalo Jones’ Forty Years of Adventure.” The book tells his great ambition to capture one or more specimens of the musk-ox which roves over arctic America and Greenland, and has never yet been brought alive from its native haunts. At the mature age of 53 he decided to make the attempt, and he I also entertained the hope that he might return to civilization with a number of silver-gray foxes, martens and other valuable fur-bearing- animals, for he had conceived the idea that he could make money by propagating them on an island off the Pacific coast.
So in June, 1897, Buffalo Jones, with a large equipment of halters, head stalls and traps for catching and bringing back the animals he was after, went over the Canadian Pacific road and its branch to Edmonton, and down past the dangerous rapids of the Athabasca, to Fort Smith, on the Great Slave river, where the Indian chiefs solemnly informed him that they would not permit him to take live animals out of their country. The story that this was his purpose had preceded him, and it was some time before he convinced the Indians that he really contemplated no such foolishness. He found that unless he concealed his real purpose they would not let him go north at all, and he meant to trust to luck to carry out his plan. He had with him a few white men with dog trains, and in the dead of winter, February 25, 1898, the party started north for the stamping grounds of the musk-ox. They had a few exciting adventures on the way with ravenous arctic wolves, and the cold was too intense for fun, but at last they found musk-ox and after a great deal trouble five calves were secured and brought to camp.
Buffalo Jones thought he was in great luck, but he did not know the Indians he had been dealing with. They had sent a party on his track to see that, he did not violate his promise to take no live animals out of the country. They skillfully concealed the fact that they were after him, and he did not know that there was an Indian within 200 miles when he awoke one morning and found, to his great consternation, that in the dead of night the throats of all the young musk- oxen had been cut.
The main object of his expedition was thus frustrated, and there was nothing to do but to return. He got out of the country by way of the Mackenzie, Porcupine and Yukon rivers, Dawson City and Seattle, and during me perilous and trying journey he lost the five live silver-grey foxes and ten martens he had captured. Bat Buffalo Jones was glad to get out of the wilderness alive, though empty- handed. N.Y. Sun
The Burlingame Enterprise, Mar 8, 1900
WANTS BISON SAVED Col. Buffalo Jones’ Plan Indorsed by Many Congressmen Asks for the Setting Apart of a Large Preserve for the American Buffalo in the Territory of New Mexico
(Special Washington Letter)
“Buffalo Jones” is here, and will remain until he can accomplish the object of his coming.
Congressman Lacey, of Iowa, chairman of the committee on public lands, has introduced a bill “to set apart a preserve for the American bison,” and it is proposed to place this preserved in charge of “Buffalo Jones.”
Inasmuch as Congressman Lacey has great influence in the house of representatives, because he is chairman of the committee on public lands, and inasmuch as that committee will have charge of the pending bill, it seems likely let the measure will, in due season, become a law. It is regarded as a very important proposition by all congressmen who have had time to give it consideration, and a majority of them seem to spontaneously favor it.
The proposed preserve is to be located near the southeast corner of the territory of New Mexico, and is to be 40 miles square. Col. Jones says that any smaller area would be useless for many reasons. In the first place, he says that the buffalo is a living barometer. He can tell when it is going to rain, or snow, or blow and he knows how to conduct himself accordingly. In a range of 40 miles, a buffalo can care for himself, and hide in canyons, or race across the plateaus to dry places when snow or rain are coming. There may be clear weather on one portion of a tract 40 miles square, while exceedingly inclement weather exists in some other part of the tract. Moreover, Col. Jones says that the buffalo is the greatest of all liberty loving animals, and close confinement has caused many a one to die of a broken heart.
I am not a philanthropist,” says Col. Jones. “I am simply trying to do what seems to me a duty. No man has killed so many buffaloes as I have killed, for my victim’s number many thousands. For years I made it my business to kill them, and make money out of their hides. Moreover, in my early days, I used to kill them for sport. Now I deem it my duty to the buffalo, and also to mankind on this continent, to preserve the American bison from extinction. Only a few years ago countless millions of these animals roamed over the plains of North America. They had an absolute title to, and possession of, many millions of miles, as the Indians had to their hunting grounds. They were the invincible tribes of the plains and prairies. They would never have been subdued but for the extension of railroads across the continent. Their territory had been well nigh inaccessible, but railroads made transportation cheap, and immediately there followed a demand, from all over the world, for the beautiful, warm, soft robes of the buffalo.
“The supply had to equal the demand. Millions of buffalo hides annually were sent abroad, and other millions were taken up in our own country. The slaughter became so widespread and of such proportions that annihilation became simply a question of a brief period of time.
“In 1875, when I first began thinking of the necessity of preserving the buffalo, there were fully 1,000,000 still living. Now there are less than 400 left. I estimate that before the trans-continental railways were built there were between 15,000,000 and 20,000,000 of them. When I first seriously talked of domesticating the buffalo I was ridiculed by people who declared that the wildest of all animals could never be brought within the control of man. They said that nothing but a stone wall like the Chinese wall whatever holds them. The vicious old bulls had smashed away a board fence and scattered the rails from rail fences. I tried many kinds of fence, and finally stretched barb wires around a section of 640 acres of land, and kept 150 buffaloes for a year, without any difficulty. The wire itself might have been broken by them, but they accepted it as the limit of their range, and they had no desire to break it. The wired offered no obstruction to their vision, and hence, as long as they could have freedom of site around them, they had no fear of danger, and desire to break loose from a confinement which was made agreeable to them.
“I have demonstrated that the buffalo can be domesticated. I have buffalo milk which is sweeter, richer and more nourishing than the milk of any other breed of cows. The meat of the buffalo is better than any produced by the cattlemen of this country. The tallow is better than any butter that has ever been made, except butter churn from the cream of buffalo milk. With the aid of the government, I hope to be able to preserve for prosperity the finest domestic animal given to man for this continent. Inside of 20 years, there will be 10 full generations of buffalo growing into domestic habits. Their wildness will disappear, and their domesticity will increase by hereditary with each generation.
“I have had considerable experience in taming these animals and teaching them to work in yolks like steers. It takes time and perfect patients. But when they are properly and completely ‘broken’ they become accustomed to restrain, and they exceed and courage and strength any animal subjected by man to assist in his burden of labor. I have a team of seven-year-old bulls one of whom killed a keeper who did not know how to handle him. They are gentle and work well together. They draw feed to the other animals on my ranch in winter and are used in plowing with excellent results in summer time.
“It was very difficult to teach the vicious fellows to carry bits and their mouths. But they do it now all right. I have hemp rope lines of the best material attached to heavy forged iron bits. Formally I had a small windlass attached to each line, and by turning the crank I could control the bulls, no matter how hard they might pull. Nowadays, however, I drive them without the use of a windlass, with as much ease and pleasure as though they were a pair of carriage horses.
“In addition to the superiority of the buffalo cow over any of the standard breeds now generally regarded as the best in the world, her longevity must be considered. I have seen some of them sold that their horns had decayed and dropped off. I saw buffalo cow in a zoological garden which was known to be 31 years old, and I am sure I have seen wild cows 10 or 15 years older. They are good milk cows as long as they live. They are very intelligent, too, and there is no domestic animal that is more affectionate.”
The legacy bill, after carefully describing the metes and bounds of the proposed “preserve for the American bison,” fixes the status of the contract in the following words: “The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to lease to Charles J. Jones, of Topeka, Kan., his heirs and assigns, the tract of land described in section one of this act for a period of 20 years, free of rental charge. Said lease shall provide that the said Charles J. Jones, his heirs and assigns, shall place upon said tract of land, within one year from the passage of this act, suitable inclosures for bison, and no less than 100 full-blooded American bison, of sufficient number of males and females for breeding purposes: that it shall be unlawful to sell, kill, maim or destroy, or otherwise dispose of or removed from said tract of land by the said Charles J. Jones, his heirs or assigns, or any other person or persons whomsoever, any female bison except for sanitary, scientific or humane purposes, during the continuance of this lease, unless the increase should be in excess of one bison to each 500 acres of land in said tract and except the excess of one mailed to every 20 females.”
The bill is a long one, but this extract shows how carefully it has been drawn, in order that the government may be protected, and the bison protected, from any possibility of Jones or any other persons been tempted to take undue advantage of the privilege granted. A penalty is also provided that “any person violating any of the provisions of the act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment of not exceeding 90 days, or both fine and imprisonment.”
“The proposed safeguards in the bill meet with my entire approval,” says Col. Jones.” While I may be honest myself, and the committee may have perfect confidence in my integrity, my life is like all other lives, and may not last and another day. I am 56 years of age and hope to live another 20 years at least. But if my life should be snuffed out I want the work to go on, and I want it so guarded that nobody can willfully use this grant or lease for any personal gain.”
Smith D Fry.
Buffalo Jones wearing a buffalo coat. Too heavy and too warm to work in, the buffalo coat warmed mostly those who had to sit in the cold —Stage Coach drivers and the like. Courtesy Amom Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Oshkosh Daily May 5 1900
The Scranton Republican May 11 1900 PRESERVE THE BISON
From the North American.
Congress seems to be giving but scant attention to the efforts of C.J. Jones and others to save the American bison from utter extermination, but the subject is worthy of serious attention, and it requires prompt and effective action. The promoters of the movement are not actuated by mere sentimental motives, but give strong practical reasons why the bison should be preserved. Mr. Jones has preserved a herd of more that a hundred of the animals in Texas, and has demonstrated that by crossing the bison with hardy breed
of cattle a variety very valuable for beef and for hides can be produced. The cross-breed retains the characteristics that make the bison capable of taking care of himself under conditions that are disastrous to cattle. For example, the bison does not destroy the grass of the ranges but leaves untouched enough of the seed grass to insure the next year’s crop.
When traveling to water or migrating, the bison herds move in Indian file, making a narrow trail and doing the least possible damage to the grazing land. Cattle, on the contrary, destroy more than they eat, and, in fact, they have nearly ruined the bunch grass and gamma ranges of the west, and have reduced by 50% the pasturage capacity of the land.
Mr Jones suggests that of the 30,000 acres of waste land in Mew Mexico and 2,500,000 near the Guadeloupe mountains be reserved for the bison, and that 200,000 acres be granted ti him for breeding grounds, offering to give all the cows to the government and to use the proceeds of sales of surplus bulls for the care of the herd. At the end of 20 years, the entire herd is to be turned over to the government. The position seems reasonable and practical, but a committee of the House has rejected it, and recommended a lease of 20,000 acres to Jones at about six cents an acre per year.
Opposition the proposed plan for preservation of the bison was led by Pedro
Perea, delegate in Congress from New Mexico, who stated before the committee that the buffalo and Indian are things of the past, and should have been exterminated long ago. Perea’s animosity to the Indian is a survival of the conflict that was waged from the days of De Vargas to the American occupation between the Spanish settlers and the wild tribes, but the Apache and Navajo have been subdued, and the restoration of the bison would not revive the hostile activity of the Indians, as Perea seems to fear. The mongrel native population of New Mexico is unprogressive and devoid of enterprise and will not reclaim or make any use of the waste lands of the territory, and therefore any opposition to Jones’ plan by New Mexico lacks reason.
1901
The Conservative – LOC Nebraska City, Nebraska November 21 1901 BUFFALO JONES.
We cannot come to any definite conclusion as to how many Buffalo Joneses there have been, why they were so called and how many of them are now dead. All the papers agree that the “original” Buffalo Jones died the other day in Salina, but his initials vary all the way from H. L. to C. J. We have heard of B. Jones for many years as a dealer in the American bison and had supposed that he had his name from his occupation. We now learn, however, that he was a member of some legislative body, from western Kansas, at a time when his constituents were almost exclusively buffalo, and that this circumstance gave him his fame. And here comes the usually well-informed Atchison Globe, and says that he succeeded in perfectly taming a number of wild birds, and. was called ‘Buffalo through his sympathy with the lower animals.
Is it certain that the buffalo sympathized with the lower animals to any marked degree?
1902
Jones – This is after he found out that it wasn’t true and still repeated it
Quad City Times Davenport Iowa July 8 1902 The Buffalo Bill
Not the Famous Scout and Showman, But the Act of Congress Protecting the American Bison.
(Washington special to St. Louis Republic.) The bill providing an appropriation of $15,000 for the protection and preservation of American bison, or buffalo, is now a law. This was a part of the original bill drawn up and proposed by “Buffalo” Jones of Topeka, Kas., providing for an appropriation of $30,000 for fencing and restocking a portion of Yellowstone park with buffalo. It also called for the establishment of an experimental station for cross breeding various animals of different genera, with a view of obtaining breeds of sheep, goats and cattle capable of enduring the Western winters without shelter or feeding. The experiment station part of the bill was killed, and the $30,000 was cut down to $15,000, but even in the shape that it finally passed it will result in a great deal of good and in the protection of big game in the Yellowstone.
Colonel Jones is in the city and is the happiest man in Washington. The bill does not say who shall have charge of the work of fencing off a part of the Yellowstone Park and caring for the buffalo therein, but this matter has already been settled by the department of the interior inviting Colonel Jones to take charge of the work and by his accepting the place.
BJ Jones was appointed Warden of YNP on July 10, 1902, pays $1,800 a year.
Jones did do a great job providing security to the last remaining Yellowstone bison. He had “Uncle Jim Owens” tending to the bison, while Jones handles the bears.
But trouble still followed him. I have read both, that he was let go and he quit. One story was that he was stringing up bears by their paws and “spanking them.” This was Jones’s solution to a bear problem being an annoyance to tourists. He was bragging about his adventures so much so, that it got back to Teddy and he was let go. Another story was that he was collecting antlers and bones, [teeth], etc., and selling them to others. Which the superintendent warned him about and Jones got mad and quit. In the book Oh Ranger, by Albright and Taylor, said that Jones was asked to handle the grizzle bear problem without hurting the bear. He wrote as if it was one bear. To read Jones’s tale, it was plural.
Why teeth, huh.
“In 1899, Edwin Daniel, a businessman from Chicago, wrote to Forest and Stream about a strange new poaching practice he had encountered during a recent hunting excursion to Wyoming. Just outside Yellowstone, Daniel reported, he had discovered a large number of elk that had been “simply shot recklessly and wantonly, and without any object whatever, except it might be perhaps to get their teeth.” To Daniel as well as too many of Forest and Stream‘s other subscribers, such behavior could only be described as bizarre. As one of the magazines’ puzzled readers put it, “I kept wondering what these felows [sic] wanted with a collection of elk teeth.”
There was nonetheless a rational explanation for such goings-on. Elk teeth or, to be more precise, the prominent upper canines, or “tusks,” of the adult elk had long been used by the Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and other Indian peoples as a form of adornment. The women of the Crow tribe, for example, ornamented their buckskins with hundreds of elk teeth, so that a single costume might weigh as much as ten or twelve pounds. Following the rise of the reservation, these practices became increasingly rare among Indian peoples. In their place, however, there arose another group whose members decorated themselves with elk teeth: the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elk, a fraternal organization founded in New York City in 1868. With growing numbers of club members wearing elk tusks favorite fashions included using the teeth as watch fobs, rings, cuff links, and hat pins the price of the teeth shot upward. “Five years ago I bought them in Idaho for 50 cents,” lamented one club member, “whereas now a pair of fine teeth cannot be had for $5.” Other commentators placed the price even higher, from ten to fifty dollars a pair, depending on the size and coloration, with the larger tusks from mature bulls bringing the best money.
Yet not all the settlers living near Yellowstone were content to gather tusks through legal means. Some, as Forest and Stream‘s correspondents had discovered, killed elk simply for the animal’s two canine teeth. Such illicit “tusking” could often be quite extensive. In 1916, for instance, park scouts reported finding “the bodies of 257 elk which had been killed for their teeth” by “certain lawless individuals” near Gardiner. Trial records from this period tell of tooth hunters who were observed with anywhere from 24 to 270 elk teeth in their possession.” (Forest & Stream)
If you read the annual reports from YNP during those years, you will see the superintendent does mention the bears being a concern in 1902, but later, never says anything remotely that the bears are a tourist problem. In fact, quite the opposite, claiming how much they are enjoyed by tourists. In one year he does mention that there were a few bears that went too far due to food-related issues and a game warden was sent out to confirm and handle it quietly. (Put down privately & quietly)
This drawing that was published makes the act look cute and harmless.
Published by the Montana Standard in 2015 ” (text only)
In the early 1900s, Yellowstone warden C.J. “Buffalo” Jones tried some new tactics to make troublesome bears fear humans, including trapping them, hoisting them aloft, and beating them with a stick. Courtesy Yellowstone National Park”
1904
Bears? Oh, yes, they’re a little___ artistic a little more clumsy. Their forte is a quick and sharp blow when they’re cornered. Yes sir: they can strike a blow so fast you can’t see it. A dog gets after’em maybe, and you see the bear turn and the poor dog is laid out. You find him slashed by Bruin’s claws, but you couldn’t see how he was struck, it was done so quickly.
Old Bruin, clumsy and apparently unwieldy as he is, knows enough, nevertheless, to take advantage of the protection of his hide given by Uncle Sam’s game laws. As if conscious of the recognition he has received, he becomes bold in his attempt to help Uncle Sam all he can in the preservation of his kind. In fact, he sometime becomes so distressingly familiar about the camps of those who take their outing in his precincts that he must frequently be subjected to corporal punishment. He must be “spanked”
The culprit is caught; his paw hoisted by block and tackle until he stands on his toes and the “spanking” is inflicted on him in this strained posture. “We don’t hurt him seriously,” said Colonel. “We just touch him up a bit, generally by a few raps on the nose, so that he will learn to be afraid of people and mend his ways.”
“Buffalo” Jones has names for the familiar bears that he has to punish now and then, such as : John L Sullivan,” “Fitzsimmons,” “Sharky,” etc.,
Photo is purposely distorted. Author Unknown- Actual Photo The branch used to “spank” looks to be a good 2″ diameter.
In each YNP report are the laws listed in YNP.
#1 It is forbidden to remove or injure the sediments or incrustations around the geysers, hot springs, or steam vents, or to deface the same by written inscription or otherwise, or to throw any substance into the springs or geyser vents, or to injure or disturb in any manner, or to carry off any of the mineral deposits, specimens, natural curiosities, or wonders within the park.
Shouldn’t Jones have known these laws?
When Jones left he recommended, “Uncle Jim Owens” to take over temporarily.
The Salt Lake Herald-Republican Salt Lake City, Utah · Monday, February 23, 1914
(extract) Most of the information concerning the wild animals of the Kaibab is secured from “Uncle Jim’’ Owens a trapper and hunter of repute. He has been employed as game warden in Yellowstone park and the experience gained there led to his appointment in the Kaibab During his first three years as warden he has brought in 125 cougar pelts and has killed hundreds of coyotes and wolves His record is five full-grown cougers in one day.
In forming the American Bison Society,
There was some contention in forming the society. Baynes wanted Hornaday to move faster and was relentless in wanting him to be president. Hornaday did not want the position because he was so busy with what he was already in charge of. He gave in and became the president. Baynes was trying to gather members and Hornaday didn’t think that was his job. Without Hornaday knowing, Baynes sent a letter to Jones:
Harold Baynes as Secretary wrote to C.J. Jones to invite him to be a member. Jones wrote to Hornaday :
“Well I just sat down and wrote him if the man who had spent a lifetime in several fortunes in their preservation and who actually rescued 58 out of the 82 from which all are Buffalo was not entitled to be an honorary member of such a society, I would just keep on with a little society of my own. It is such a joke I think I shall have to give it to the press.”
They did make Jones a horary member.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Brooklyn, New York Mar 5 1904
BUFFALO JONES’ LECTURE. Game Warden of the Yellowstone Tells of his Lifetime With Wild Animals
Colonel. C. J. Jones, better known as “Buffalo Jones.” The game Warden of the Yellowstone National Park, and an author, hunter, scout and explore, delivered and interesting lecture last evening before the Men’s Club of the Church of the Pilgrims. Remsen and Henry streets. His subject was “A Lifetime With Wild Animals,” and he told of some actual experiences and thrilling adventures during his career. Colonel Jones is known as the preserver of the buffalo, and few persons are more familiar with the haunts and characteristics of North America’s wild animals. Colonel Jones includes in his topic on wild animals a reference to the American bison or buffalo, which he has been so successful in domesticating, that he drives 18 in harness and shows lantern slides of an actual photograph. Mr. Jones is known as the originator of a new race of animals known as the catalo, of which he showed several views. The idea of infusing the blood of some of the hardy buffaloes into the American cattle struck him one day, and after many disappointments he finally accomplished the purpose and name the cross catalo, cat, from cattle, and alo from buffalo. His trip into the arctic regions in search of the musk ox was in interestingly described.
The study of animal life and lore is so simple, said Colonel Jones, that one can almost understand what some of the animals are saying. Animals have instincts and they require little or no teaching from their mother, but the mountain lioness teaches her cubs to step in the exact tracks made by the dogs and by her, so that when the hunter comes across several tracks in each direction he is almost sure to be confused, unless he knows something about the characteristics and instincts of the mountain lion. He showed a magnificent picture of an American rattlesnake, the most dangerous pest in the rugged West. He said he and his partner had discovered that the buffalo has fourteen ribs on each side, where as all other animals of the same family have twenty-six.
“They are the most nimble animals I have ever seen, as far as their hind legs are concerned,” said Colonel Jones, “and I never saw a mule who could fan the air faster than the American bison “ when Colonel Jones went into North Canada in search of the musk ox, he said the Indian natives objected to having any of these rare specimens taken from their territory, as it was their believe that all other animals would follow. “They believe the musk ox is God of all animals,” declared the lecturer.
“I often wished I could go off on an old-fashioned wolf hunt in Russia or Siberia, as you all hear about, but, gentlemen, I don’t want any more of it. They came so close to me that I had to take my ax to them.” The speaker then took his listeners into Yellowstone Park and its wonders by exhibiting some rare views which Colonel Jones, as the government game warden, could alone secure. He said travel in the park was growing so enormously that the hotels are doubling their capacity. Then he showed views of a terrace, of natural water and sediment formation, that had with years assumed the shape of a pulpit. It was called Pulpit Terrace. Some fine views of the Yellowstone geysers admitting steam and water from the earth which such force that the roar could be heard for five miles, were shown. Yellowstone Lake, 8000 feet above New York city, was shown by the stereopticon. Colonel Jones secured a fine photograph of the den of a mountain lion under some timber which had been covered by willow sprays. In front of this animal retreat were the carcasses of nineteen elk which had been devoured by the lion.
“They lie in wait for an elk to come along,” he said, “and then spring upon the gentle creature until she drops. Then the lion digs out the liver of the elk. They are the greatest destroyers of game and can seldom if ever, be seen in the day time in the park. The coyote is another of the worthless indestructible animals of the park who kill the elk and mountain sheep in great numbers. They have a howl which will greatly aid the hunter in capturing them if he can imitate the noise which they make and make them think that another coyote is near. Of course, no hunting is permitted in the park, although it is necessary to shoot the coyotes and mountain lions occasionally. They have all sorts of bears in the park but, as a rule, they are quite tame. When a bear gets bad he drives the cook out of the kitchen and helps himself.
“You wouldn’t believe it, but we spank those bears when they do that. I get a block and fall and attach it to the heavy bough of a tree, leaving a loop on the ground, and when the Bears steps into the slip news we hoist him up head downward, get a good switch or stick and spank him severely. We crack him over the nose and then over the hind legs and actually make him think we are going to beat him to death. Then when he is lowered we have no fear. The last one I spanked, when turned loose, made a record mile down the side of Mount Washington and we never had any more trouble.”
Colonel Jones told briefly about the president’s trip to Yellowstone about a year ago. He found President. Roosevelt on the side of a hill, about sunrise.
“Ha, ha, “ said he, “I’ve got you now and I am going to shoot you,” said the warden.
“Wait a second,” said Mr. Roosevelt, as he threw back his coat, showing a large hunting knife. Then Warden Jones press the button and took a fine snapshot of President Roosevelt, which he exhibited last night. It would take a week for Colonel Jones to relate the many amusing anecdotes in his career. The views alone required much time to exhibit. He has been a feature of the Sportsman’s show in Madison Square Gardens which closes to-night.
Photo from Yellowstone National Park files.
In 1905 Jones finally got some use out of government land in the Grand Canyon.
The Topeka Daily Capital Nov 10 1905 “BUFFALO” JONES AND HIS “CATTALO” ROBE
Topeka Man Has at last Succeeded in Getting His New Fur Producing Animals Scheme on a Business Basis
Special to the Capital.
Washington, Nov. 9.- “Buffalo” Jones of Topeka has at last got his scheme for the preservation of the bison and the production of a new fur-bearing animal on a business basis, and in the course of a short while, perhaps a few months, the “cattalo robe” will commence to be regularly quoted on the market.
Mr. Jones passed through Washington this week and had a talk with President Roosevelt, who is much interested in everything relating to big game life in the West.
Mr. Jones has already started a ranch down on the western edge of the *Grand Canyon, where they are rearing buffalo and cattalo and carrying on experiments with Persian sheep. Possibly through the intervention of the President, Mr. Jones may get the loan of the buffalo bulls that will soon have to be thinned out of the Yellowstone Park herd, and this will mean a substantial addition to the breeding stock on the forest reserve grazing land.
The pride of “Buffalo” Jones’s life just now is a cattalo robe that he is carrying on to New York to show some friends there and which he will afterwards take back west with him. Cut square, the skin is about eight feet each way, of a glossy blackish-brown, very soft and with hair not quite as long as a bear’s.
“Buffalo” Jones was game warden for Yellowstone park for some years, resigning his position last spring.
The Topeka Daily Capital Topeka, Kansas, Nov 29, 1905 BUFFALO MEAT FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER
Twenty Head of the Few Remaining Bison Will Be Slaughtered for Holiday Trade if There is Demand for the Meat.
If the people of Topeka want to eat buffalo meat for their Christmas dinners though Wolff Packing company proposes to slaughter and placed on sale the meat from twenty head of buffalo and to supply the epicures with buffalo steaks, roast, tenderloin, pot roast, and tongue. The average price for this rare meat will be twenty cents per pound.
“Buffalo” Jones, formerly game Warden of the Yellowstone park who has a buffalo ranch in Arizona, has made a proposition to the Wolff company to furnish them with twenty buffalo. The company will not accept the offer in till it is sure of being able to dispose of the meat. Charles Wolff, president of the company, said last night that twenty cents per pound would probably be asked for the meat.
The animals that will be slaughtered are not hybrids. They are the real thing, the genuine buffalo, the kind that Masterson used to kill in such prodigious quantities on the outskirts of Dodge city and the kind Prince Alexis, from Russia to Kansas to kill. These shaggy hunchback’s of the plains will be killed for the same reason that Bat killed them – for their hide. The carcass is only a secondary consideration. One would naturally suppose that owing to the rarity of the buffalo such an animal would be worth more alive than slaughtered but such is not the case. Mr. Jones says that he can get $1,200 for each of the hides, and that at this time of the year the hides are in their best condition for making of robes.
According to a recent magazine article there are now only about 230 full-blooded buffaloes in existence. There is not supposed to be anything especially toothsome about buffalo meat that the fact that this will likely be the last chance for anyone to have even a taste of buffalo meat it is thought will cause a great many people to want it. This is likely the last time that buffalo meat will ever be sold in a way permitting an ordinary purchaser to buy it. Much has been said about the shameful slaughter of the buffalo and much is now been said in favor of the national government taking some action toward perpetuating the now almost extinct species.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Sept 16 1906 Uncle Sam’s Bureau of Information for Sportsmen How the Government Advises the Hunters When and Where They May Seek for Game (extract)
But the fact that the herd in the Yellowstone preserve has more than doubled — has increased, in fact, from twenty-one to fifty-six – within a few years, is in augury of why it can be done for the bison elsewhere in the country. The American Bison Society, of which President Roosevelt is the head, is diligently studying the problem, and the saving of the most picturesque of our native animals ______ to be_______.
Uncle Sam is also co-operating with private enterprises in the work of bison preservation. A large tract of government land has been leased of a nonminal rental to James Phillips, better known as “Scotty” Phillips of Pierre S.D., with the understanding that the area is to be used as a range for his private herd of bison. Another tract, in Arizona, on the western edge of the Grand Canyon, has been admittedly least to C.J.Jones _ “Buffalo” Jones – who is not only rearing bison, but making experiments and crossbreeding them with Galloway cattle. The hybrid resulting from this cross is named by Mr. Jones the “cattalo”. He recently brought to Washington a “cattalo robe,” as skin about 8 feet square, covered with a glossy, soft, blackish-brown hair, not quite as long as the fur of a bear. The Bulls of the cattalo hybrid like the jacks of the mule species are sterile as are also the quarter-blood cattalo bulls; but the ‘eighths’ are fertile, according to Mr. Jones.
Forest and Stream
April 13,1912 Where the Credit Belongs
There is a long story connected with this purchase, but I will not tire you with it, except to say that Colonel John Pitcher should have all the credit for the establishment of this buffalo herd in the park. The cows came from the Allard band and the bulls from the Goodnight herd. The Government paid for them. C. J. Jones was sent there with his brother to care for them at a salary of 1,800 per year, and that was all the interest he had in the buffalo in the Yellowstone National Park.
Every thing is of record at the superintendent’s office at Fort Yellowstone. The establishment of the buffalo herd is not the only thing that Col. John Pitcher should have credit for in connection with the park. There should be credit given where it is due, and surely Mr. Burns ought not to give it where it is not due. T.E. Hofer
The Topeka State Journal Topeka, Kansas Jan 18 1913
TALES OF BUFFALO
Elbert Hubbard Writes of Jones of Garden City.
Born in Hell’s Bend Near Writer’s Birthplace.
Elbert Hubbard, one of the distinguished admirers of Buffalo Jones, has the following to say of Garden City’s former citizen:
Eleven miles to the east of where I was born. In McLean county, Illinois, Is the classic district known as Hell’s Bend, was born Buffalo Jones, the best man who ever put his legs over a cayuse.
Buffalo Jones is getting along towards 70 years of age, but Time has treated him gently. He is lithe, lanky. agile and loves a horse, Buffalo Jones has preserved the buffalo from extinction. Through his energy, in catching the young buffalo on the plains and domesticating them we now have herds or fine specimens at least. In a great number of parks and zoological gardens all over the world.
Jones took two cowboys and ten Colorado horses and went to Africa, with the intent of rounding up those savage things which are supposed to claw, chew, destroy and consume everything that comes in their pathway.
Here, in America, he had captured mountain lions, dozens of them, full-grown, by lassoing them, hog-tying them, placing a bag over their mouths, then putting the beast on a horse and carrying the animal triumphantly into cam p. eventually selling him to some circus.
His Tour a Triumph.
Buffalo Jones is not afraid of anything that has claws or teeth. He had captured dozens of mountain lions, and this filled him with a desire to go across the sea and do in Africa, in a bigger way, what he had done in America. His tour was the triumph of the American cowboy and the American horse.
The wild boar chases Buffalo Jones and Lovelace, the cowboy, chases the boar. They bring his pig-Ship down close to the camera. They rope him, throw him end over end in the dust, tie him, and play horse with him to their hearts’ content. Then they simply unrope him, give him a kick, and off he goes into the desert to find his family and tell about being chased by a go-devil-a-horseback. So they catch giraffes and zebras.
The zebra, we are told, is never subdued when caught full-grown; but the camera shows us. Buffalo Jones throwing his rope over a wild zebra, jerking him endwise and tying him fast.
Cowboy Rides the Zebra.
The cowboy Jumps off this horse, rushes up to the zebra, unties the rope and as the zebra gets up. on his feat, the man leaps to his back, without saddle or bridle, and away goes the zebra kicking up -he yellow dust of Africa and all the time the cowboy is basting him over the head with a Stetson, his thrill ki-yis filling the circumambient ether.
The next thing is to catch a lioness. full-grown, wild, and the most terrible “animile” on earth. The lion is king of the beasts but Mr. Lion always gets out of the way when Mrs. Lion talks piccolo.
Buffalo Jones shows us pictures of how he chased the lioness through the tall grass, – how she hides, then turns about, leaps after her pursuers, follows them, changes her mind and starts to run away.
Catching the Lioness.
The Americans are right after her. Jones flings a rope, catches her by the hind foot. Lovelace throws and lands the lady by her front legs. The horses stand stiff, holding the beast captive.
Buffalo Jones ties her feet and muzzles her mouth. They cut down trees, make a sort of a raft or stone-boat, place the Queen of the Jungle on this stone-boat, attach their lassoes to the raft, tie the lassoes around the horns of the saddles, mount and away they go.
Dozens of animals they roped chetahs, wildcats, leopards, warthogs, ebhas and never a weapon used. Not an animal injured or hurt. Some of them, no doubt, were, badly scared and have had nervous prostration since, for fear Buffalo Jones would come back.
Nothing more romantic, nothing more poetic, nothing more courageous was ever seen in forum of coliseum, on field or flood, than these feats of Buffalo Jones and his cowboy friends. Within two seconds of disaster they stood in their stirrups and flung their rope into the face of danger, laughing at Death.
Bully boy. Buffalo Jones. Hell’s Bend is proud of you so is the whole United States. And a few of us love you, you grizzly old rogue with the boyish heart. Ki-yi, and yet again, kl-yi.
“1914, at the age of seventy, Jones made a second trip to Africa, this time to rope and capture gorillas. On this trip Jones contracted jungle fever and suffered a severe heart attack. His health never recovered and he spent his last years in Topeka, Kansas, where he died October 2, 1919.”
Douglass Tribune Douglass, Kansas Dec 1 1922 Sold Buffalo Herd as Sheriff
Talking over old times in western Kansas the other day, Sheriff Lingenfelter made the remark that he believed he was the only man in the state of Kansas who ever had the experience of selling a herd of buffalo to satisfy a debt. The incident occurred in the year 1890 when he was sheriff of Finney county, of which Garden City is the county seat.
Garden City at the time was the headquarters of C.J. .(“Buffalo”) Jones, an old frontiersman who had conceived the idea of preserving at least a remnant of the vast herds of buffalo then fast disappearing from the western plains. Being an old buffalo hunter himself and knowing the habits and haunts of the bison he had managed to collect at the time of which Mr. Lingenfelter was speaking quite a sizable herd. These he had crossed with native cattle and produced a mixed breed which he named “cattalo,” having some of the endurance, and hardiness, of the native species, but with a portion of their wildness bred out of them. Had his financial ability been equal to his judgment and skill in capturing and rebreeding these then rare animals he would have undoubtedly have made a great success of his enterprise.
But Jones was, like the majority of. the early plainsmen, free-handed and improvident and money melted away rapidly in his hands: In the course of his buffalo hunting operations he had, become indebted to one of the local banks in a sum of between $7,000 and $8,000, as Mr. Lingenfelter remembers. The creditor went into court, obtained a judgment, and to satisfy his claim had an execution levied against Jones’ only visible property, his buffalo herd. Mr. Lingenfelter as sheriff served the writ and took possession of the buffalo then numbering thirty-seven of the full-bloods and seven of the half-breed cattalo. He hired a man named Rennick to keep and feed the animals pending the completion of the legal formalities of advertisement and sale.
One of the young bulls in the herd was reported by the caretaker as being too unruly to handle and Mr, Lingenfelter went into court and secured an order from the district judge to have the animal killed. Then they had a repetition of the old-time buffalo hunt on a small scale and everybody who wanted to get a taste of buffalo meat The sale was duly held and the animals disposed of, most of them finding their way into parks and zoological collections, while a few later turned up in the Frank Rockefeller herd out in Kiowa county and the Goodnight herd in the Teas Panhandle -Wellington Monitor Press
Mr. Jones is more than an adventurer or a speculator, no has become an enthusiast on the subject of buffaloes, and no man ever rode a hobby more honestly or earnestly. When he began capturing these animals he knew no more of their peculiarities than other plainsmen, but his association with them has filled him with a love for the great, shaggy brutes and a zeal for their salvation that is quite sublime in its way.
ONE by one the landmarks and traditions of aboriginal American disappear. The deer, the antelope, the elk, and the buffalo, once as numerous as the leaves of the forest, have dwindled away until the private parks and menageries contain almost all that is left of these animals, Few of this generation, says the Chicago Times, have more than a vague conception of the appearance and habits of the American bison, once so numerous in this region that they dotted the grassy ocean of the plains like great black islands of life and motion. The vast southern herd which covered the country south of the line of the Union Pacific Railroad is estimated to have numbered between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 head. The pasture field of this tremendous herd extended from Manitoba on the north to Texas on the south, and from the Missouri River on the east to the base of the Rocky Mountains on the west. These restless animals were continually on the move and from the vanguard to the stragglers at the rear, the herd spread over a distance of from 200 to 300 miles. This vast army of bovines marched in one continuous circuit, passing southward and the eastern line of this great ara and northward on its western margin, but never crossing the Rocky Mountains. This grand migratory circuit was completed every four years and accounts for a condition which often seemed strange even to plainsmen: that is, that buffalo would be found very plentiful in a certain locality one year and the next the hunter would find only a few.
ONE by one the landmarks and traditions of aboriginal American disappear. The deer, the antelope, the elk, and the buffalo, once as numerous as the leaves of the forest, have dwindled away until the private parks and menageries contain almost all that is left of these animals, Few of this generation, says the Chicago Times, have more than a vague conception of the appearance and habits of the American bison, once so numerous in this region that they dotted the grassy ocean of the plains like great black islands of life and motion. The vast southern herd which covered the country south of the line of the Union Pacific Railroad is estimated to have numbered between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 head. The pasture field of this tremendous herd extended from Manitoba on the north to Texas on the south, and from the Missouri River on the east to the base of the Rocky Mountains on the west. These restless animals were continually on the move and from the vanguard to the stragglers at the rear, the herd spread over a distance of from 200 to 300 miles. This vast army of bovines marched in one continuous circuit, passing southward and the eastern line of this great ara and northward on its western margin, but never crossing the Rocky Mountains. This grand migratory circuit was completed every four years and accounts for a condition which often seemed strange even to plainsmen: that is, that buffalo would be found very plentiful in a certain locality one year and the next the hunter would find only a few.
This drawing that was published makes the act look cute and harmless.
