Fort Griffin Echo November 8, 1881
Que Ti Que Ranch, Aug. 20.
Geo. T. Reynolds, Esq.
Dear Sir:
I send Mr. Smith to turn your cattle so they will not pass through our range He will show you around and guide you until you strike the head of this stream and then you will have a road. The way he will show you is nearer and there are shorter drives to water than any route you can take. Should you come by here you will have a drive of 35 miles to make.
I hope you will take this advice as yourself and I have always been good friends, but even friendship will not protect you in the drive through here and should you attempt to pass through, be kind enough to tell your men what they will have to face as I do not wish to hurt men that do not understand what they will be very sure to meet.
I hope you will not treat this as idle talk for I mean every word of this and if you have any feeling for me as a friend or acquaintance you will not put me to any desperate actions. I will not perhaps see you myself but take this advice from one that is and always has been your friend.
My cattle are now dying of the fever contracted from cattle driven from Fort Worth therefore do not have any hope that you can convince me that your cattle will not give mine the fever this we will not speak of I simply say to you that you will never pass through here in good health.
Yours truly,
C. GOODNIGHT
Hon. John F. Lacey, assemblyman from Iowa, recently inspected the Wichita Game Preserve. (Nov. 1906)
During my stay in Oklahoma I interviewed many old-time plainsmen and Indians. Among them were Charles Goodnight; Ben Clark, the old Government scout who hunted buffalo during the days of Custer’s campaign on the Canadian River; Quinnah Parker, Chief of the Comanches; Kiawa Dutch Pennah, a man 80 years old, who had been captured by the Indians when a child, and had lived with them almost continually since then. All of these men had hunted buffalo in the early days some of them on the very land now being considered for a buffalo range.
Although I questioned all of them closely, with but one exception I was unable to learn that buffalo in those days had died of any contagious disease. Mr. Goodnight said that when cattle came into Texas the buffalo died of Texas fever. Aside from this report, all agreed that there were few deaths among the herds outside of the regular
mortality among the old bulls and cows, or the very young calves that occasionally died during severe winters.
Texas fever is the only questionable point worthy of consideration in connection with propagating buffalo in Oklahoma. Just how serious it will prove to be can be told only after the buffalo have been put on the range. There may be ways of treating the buffalo so that they will be immune to the disease. From the time that I arrived at Cache I heard of Texas fever among cattle. Naturally the question arose, “Are buffalo susceptible to Texas fever?” The only way to settle the question was to talk with men who had raised buffalo in or near the fever district. Accordingly, I decided to visit Mr. Charles Goodnight, of Goodnight, Tex. , the 101 Ranch at Bliss, Okla. , and Major Gordon W. Lillie at Pawnee, Okla. The information gained from these gentlemen was as follows:
While Mr. Goodnight had never lost buffalo from Texas fever, he feels convinced that they are susceptible to it, basing his belief on the experience of others. Mr. C. J. Jones (“Buffalo Jones”) took two of Mr. Goodnight’s buffalo to Sherman, Tex. (in the fever district) , and they were there just long enough to get the fever, which killed them. On the other hand, Mr. Goodnight sent four buffaloes to San Antonio, which is also in the fever district, and he thinks they are still living.
Mr. Joseph Miller, president of the 101 Ranch at Bliss, bought a herd of buffalo in the fall of 1904. He has never taken buffalo into the fever district. The fever quarantine line is about a mile west of his buffalo pasture, yet Texas fever has not affected his herd. The buffalo that he got in the spring of 1905 he bought from the Allard ranch in Montana, and soon after arriving they began to die, and he had lost 15. They would first refuse to eat, stood alone with heads down, and seldom lasted more than two or three days.
All of those that died were examined by a Dr. Johnson, of the United States Department of Agriculture, who failed to discover any ticks. He pronounced their death due to “change of altitude, excitement of being transferred and climatic fever.”
From Major Gordon W. Lillie (“Pawnee Bill”) I learned more of Texas fever affecting buffalo than from any other person. Major Lillie says that in 1895 he had with his Wild West Show 7 head of buffalo. He took them on a trip through Texas entered at Dennison , and traveled through Dallas, Temple and Wahatche, coming out at Shreve- port, La. The trip consumed six weeks, and all seven of the buffalo died . They came originally from the Jones herd at Garden City, Kans. The State Veterinarian pronounced the cases Texas fever.
In 1905 Major Lillie showed within five miles of the Texas line. He had with him five buffalo. All were taken sick, and two died. His show was about to go into winter quarters, so he hurried the three sick ones to Ohio, where, he thinks, the cold weather killed the ticks and saved them. The Ohio State Veterinarian pronounced the disease Texas fever. A taxidermist that examined the skins of the two that died said they were literally covered with ticks.
Major Lillie says that cattle die of Texas fever all about Pawnee, some but a few yards from the range in which his buffalo are kept; but his buffalo in a fenced range at Pawnee have seemed to be immune. Thus far Texas fever has not affected his herd. To his knowledge Colonel Cody lost eight or ten buffalo during one of his trips through Texas, and Major Lillie is sure that it was Texas fever. The second time that Colonel Cody went to Texas with his show he left all of his buffalo at Guthrie, Okla. From this it will be seen that buffalo are susceptible to the Texas fever tick. Buffalo have never been kept in the Wichita section of Oklahoma since fever-stricken cattle have been brought there. Cattle die of the fever in this section by the hundreds. It now remains for some of the Government experts on this disease to tell us whether there is any way out of the difficulty. I have stated the facts as I found them and as they were told to me by men of truth and experience.
If buffalo are brought to this range Mr. W. H. Quinette, of Fort Sill, an experienced cattle dealer, says that he thinks it advisable to unload them at Fort Sill and haul them in from there. The danger of the animals becoming infested with the fever ticks would be less than if they were unloaded elsewhere, for the Government is careful not to bring infected cattle on the military reserve through which the buffalo would pass.
The Kansas City Star
Kansas City Missouri Apr 15 1905
BUFFALO TO OKLAHOMA
A Plan to Take Yellowstone Park Herds South
Guthrie Ok April 15— President Roosevelt’ hunting trip in Southwestern Oklahoma has encouraged sportsmen and naturalists in the territory to hope that he may become sufficiently interested in the Wichita mountain game preserve of 58,000 acres to use his influence in having the park stocked with larger game such as buffalo elk deer and antelope. Originally it was intended that the government should undertake the propagation of only grouse in the park. Dr. Penrose of Philadelphia, who explored the park preliminary to its segregation as a game preserve did not favor its being made the home of large game
There is substantial evidence however for the statement that the Wichita mountain region was a favorite range for buffalo, elk, etc. in the early days. Men living now in Oklahoma saw vast herds of buffalo in the mountains and even now though rarely elk antlers are found in places protected from the fires that have burned over the county at intervals for many years. Grass and water are found in abundance and the winters are mild enough to permit livestock to forage until spring. Certain Oklahomans have undertaken to secure in Washington an order for the removal of the buffalo herd in Yellowstone park to the Wichita preserve and to have “Buffalo” Jones now in the Yellowstone made custodian. The herd has never thrived in the Yellowstone Jones declares that the greatest enemy of the buffalo there is the mountain lions which kill the young calves and threaten the herd’s extinction. Jones has killed more than 150 mountain lions since he has been employed in the Yellowstone. Jones favors the removal of the herd to Oklahoma and it is said that he would be pleased to be made custodian of the Wichita preserve. The proposition will be laid before President Roosevelt upon his return to Washington. W T Little of Perry is in correspondence with sportsmen in different states asking their assistance. The only serious question about the success of moving the buffalo is that the Wichita preserve is more or less infected with Texas fever, and buffalo brought from a northern range might become inoculated and die. In the days when the buffalo herds migrated annually from north to south and then returned they undoubtedly were immune to splenetic fever. But the Yellowstone herd having been so long in the north probably has lost its immunity. A heavy wire fence is now building around the preserve the distance being about sixty-four miles. If the preserve should be quarantined and closed against Southern cattle for a year or eighteen months the fever ticks would die for lack of sustenance and the danger of fever overcome.
An expert from the bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture has been ordered from Great ‘Falls, Mont., to investigate the disease and try to save the rest of the herd.
The Great Falls Leader Wed, Feb 05, 1919
Disease Killing Buffalo Livingston Mont Feb 5 — A mysterious disease which recently appeared among buffaloes in the Yellowstone National Park killing a number of the animals and rousing fear that the largest herd of buffaloes in the world may be wiped out is being investigated by officials of the park and of the bureau of animal industry, according to Lieutenant I. Wallman of the bureau of animal industry, who left Livingston for Gardiner to take blood cultures in an effort to isolate the germ responsible for the disease. The herd comprises more than 200 head of buffaloes which have thrived and multplied under government care.