Comanche

The Battle of Adobe Walls

A bit of frontier history, told to the narrator by the men who made it. EDWARD CAMPBELL LITTLE Drawings by Harvey T. Dunn The Kansas buffalo hunters invaded the Texas Panhandle and the Llano Estacado in force in the spring of 1874; in five months it is said they slew a hundred thousand bison. The deserted Adobe Walls, a station established by Spanish friars, French Canadian hunters or General Howe’s soldiers, was selected as the rendezvous for these hunters, who came from Dodge City, one hundred and seventy-five miles away.  Three ‘ business houses’ and a blacksmith shop gave token … Read more

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

1907 Buffalo Tracks Where did the buffalo at Wichita come From?   THE WICHITA BISON HERD. Presented to the Nation by the New York Zoological Society. It seems strange that the East should undertake the task of restoring to a permanent basis in the West an important wild-animal species that was destroyed by the men of the West. Greed and blood-lust is not, like the tariff, a local issue. It is thoroughly cosmopolitan. Wherever there is found an abundance of wild animal life, there will be found also the buzzards of commerce-destroying life and wrecking” carcasses. It was the men … Read more

1821-1830

<< Previous  Next>> 1821-1830 ACROSS THE PLAINS WAY BACK IN 1821 The Journal of a Trip of M. M. Marmaduke  From Franklin Mo to Santa Fe The  story of a trip across the plains from Franklin Mo to Santa Fe made In 1824 Is vividly told In the Journal of M M Marmaduke later lieutenant governor and governor of Missouri published in the October number of the Missouri Historical Review. Capt William Becknell made the same trip in 1821 and the Journal of his expedition was printed in the Boone’s Lick Advertiser in 1823, but even though his was not … Read more

1875

<< Previous  Next>> The Decline of the Buffalo.  Chicago Daily Tribune Chicago , Illinois Jan 2 1875  BUFFALO ROCK This was formally a part of the main north bluff, from which it became detached during some great natural convulsion, perhaps in the Glacial or Draft epoch. The rock is St. Peter’s Sandstone, overlaid with a thin bed of good coal, and above the usual Drift series. It’s surface covers some 80 acres. The canal and the railroad run through the deep natural cut between it and the main bluff. It is a prominent landmark, and is interesting as being the … Read more

Comanche

Texas, -Derivation of the name.- …… Comanche claim to be the lineal descendents of the empire of Montezuma, and the only legitimate owners of the whole Mexican country. The Chiefs say that when Cortes landed in Mexico, he found the country torn to pieces by internal factions and was enabled, by employing the disaffected chiefs, to raise a force to seize upon their capital. Those chiefs believed if they could destroy the power of Montezuma, they could easily dispatch the Spaniard, and have the control of the country in their own hands. But too late they ascertained that they had introduced … Read more

1916

<< Previous  Next>> / The Daily Deadwood Pioneer Times Deadwood South Dakota June 2, 1916 (extract) At Wind Cave National park the government has set aside a big game preserve. Here is one of the largest herds of bison in the country, and many elk and antelope. Adjoining the government preserve is a state preserve set aside by South Dakota. The state preserve consists of more than 40,000 acres and contains a larger herd of bison and more elk and antelope than the government preserve. / The Pittsburgh Press Pittsburgh Pennsylvania June 18, 1916 “Pawnee Bill,” Soon to Exhibit Here, … Read more

1909

<< Previous  Next>>   1909  The White House Theodore Roosevelt ordered the carvings on the main stone mantel be changed from lions to North American bison heads.   / / The Scranton Republican Scranton, Pennsylvania Jan 9, 1909 CARE OF THE BUFFALO Not so many years ago the youth of this country was inspired by thrilling stories of buffalo hunts. It was one of the most fruitful themes that was ready for the hand of the cheap sensationalist. But the bison, as it is called, no longer roams the western wilds at will. Demand for buffalo robes practically resulted in … Read more

1800’s

<< Previous  Next>> Plains Bison Mysteries That Remain Part I:  The Buffalo Population and Why It Crashed By Gene Gade President, Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation Volumes have been written about buffalo. Most emphasis has been placed on the historic period, immediately after the use of the Vore Buffalo Jump stopped (about 1800) through the era of Anglo American expansion into the Plains to the near-extinction of bison some 80 years later. How Many Buffalo Were There? Estimates of bison numbers vary from 30 to 75 million. 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 are the most common numbers cited as total buffalo population in … Read more