This day inTexas History: The First Commercial Hunt of the Plains Buffalo

[Suzuki Johnny]

Once numbering in the millions, the American bison was almost eradicated by mass production buffalo hunting, but the animal is now making a comeback.
MATT STRINGER DEC 26, 2023

Texas Buffalo Bison Hunt 1874 Emil Oberwetter and John Logan skinning a buffalo
Emil Oberwetter and John Logan skinning a buffalo during a hunt in 1874. Original photograph by George Robertson and published by William Oliphant. Image obtained via the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

An iconic creature that embodies the American West, the Plains Buffalo, or American Bison, occupied the grasslands of the Texas Panhandle and Great Plains for thousands of years, coming to North America via the Bering Strait from Asia ages ago.
The buffalo, much to its misfortune, played a key role in helping a growing nation. One animal provided a considerable quantity of highly desirable meat, and their capes were used for clothing and other useful goods.
American Indians not only prized the buffalo, but the animal was seen as critical to their existence. Nearly every part of the buffalo was used in some fashion to support making the goods used in their everyday lives.
For Indians who couldn't afford to lose an animal critical to their way of life, the loss of significant numbers of buffalo led to numerous clashes with buffalo hunters, including the Battle of Adobe Walls.
The transcontinental railroad's completion set the stage for what would become known as the Great Slaughter. The railroad provided ease of ability to get products to market, and soon the economics of a market flooded with buffalo meat caused the prices to drop, leading hunters to shoot more buffalo to make the same profits.

This downward spiral was said to have kicked off in Texas with the first commercial hunt on December 26, 1874.

The hunt was organized and led by Joseph McComb, who led a party consisting of himself and two other men: John Jacobs and John W. Poe.
The trio set out from Fort Griffin, near modern-day Albany, Texas, with ox-drawn wagons.
That season, the group killed some 2,000 bison and sold the hides for between $1.50 and $2.00 apiece. According to the Texas State Historical Association, this kicked off a hunting spree by McComb, who killed some 12,000 buffalo over a five-season period.
Word spread and buffalo hunters quickly flooded the Great Plains with the ensuing rush generating a staggering volume of bison product.

Some 200,000 bison capes went across the Fort Worth auction block each day during the height of the hunting, and millions of pounds of buffalo bones were used to make fertilizer. By 1880, the great American Bison was nearly extinct.
Estimates at the time placed the remaining number of buffalo in all of North America at under 1,000 animals, after over four million bison were killed during the Great Slaughter.
Mary Ann Goodnight, the wife of famed Texas rancher Charles Goodnight, urged her husband to do something about the dwindling species. After capturing some of the remaining calves, Goodnight started what would become known today as the Texas State Buffalo Herd.

Today, under the supervision of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the herd calls Caprock Canyon State Park home. With numbers rebounding in the tens of thousands in multiple states thanks to help from the herd, the Goodnight family’s vision to restore the iconic animal to its once abundant numbers is being fulfilled.

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https://thetexan.news/texas-history/tod ... dd5f5.html

[MadCow]

Ignorance is bliss..

[Suzuki Johnny]

In reading a book about Quanah Parker it describes the systematic elimination of the Bison herds as a means to eradicate the last of the Commanche culture, as the Buffalo were their main food source. Very interesting book titled Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne.

[Yooper]

In reading a book about Quanah Parker it describes the systematic elimination of the Bison herds as a means to eradicate the last of the Commanche culture, as the Buffalo were their main food source. Very interesting book titled Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne.

The U.S. had it's share of dark days in the past. No excuse, but every country I can think of had their share of times they would sooner forget.

[Herb]

The eradication of the Bison actually had 2 uses. In addition to the reason already given they needed to go to make it possible to settle the plains area.

[Tbeck]

I became interested in buffalo after the wife and I went to Yellowstone back in 2010. I've read just about every source I could lay my hands on. There's some interesting history surrounding that animal for sure.
Several folks have already spoken to a couple. The government supported the hunts/slaughter's because it assisted with the goal of eliminating native people, and I think Herb mentioned setting the plains? That and it made room for herds of cattle the nation had a growing appetite for.
The article relates a demand for buffalo meat and hide's, and that might have some truth to it but most of the demand had long since passed by the time the slaughter's were in full swing which contributed greatly to necessitate more killings to achieve the same income.
The buffalo we see in most areas of the USA are not plains buffalo but rather woods buffalo that were imported into the USA from Canada in order to bring them back from the brink of extinction. I'm sure there's probably a good many plains buffalo in the Texas area from the conservation efforts and I read somewhere that some of the plains buffalo were introduced to herds of wood's buffalo for the same conservation purposes.
Definitely an interesting topic.