Buffalo in Kansas


Buffalo in Kansas - Page 2

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Of all the four legged animals that have lived upon the earth, probably no other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of buffalos, living at any given time during the history of the species previous to 1870. From 1820 to 1840 it has been estimated that approximately 652,275 buffalos were killed by buffalo hunters, the total value of which, at $5 each, would be $3,261,375. Where Indians killed one for food the the hide and tongue hunters killed fifty. This incessant slaughter was kept up year after year, thousands of hunters -- whites and Indians -- being employed for no other purpose than to kill as many as they could. Buffalo Bill Cody was once engaged in this business and is said to have killed 4,280 in 18 months, while thousands of others were likewise engaged of whom no record is had. In 1871 several thousand hunters were in the field and it is estimated that from 3,000 to 4,000 buffalos were killed daily.
Slaughtered For the Hide, Harper's Weekly, 1874. This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

The building of the Pacific railroads divided the buffalos into two large herds that ranged on either side of the Platte River. The estimated numbers in these herds at this time was about 3,000,000 each and it was never thought by western men in those days that it would be possible to exterminate such a mighty multitude. But, the same improvident work of destruction continued and by 1875 the southern herd had been exterminated. The northern herd in 1882 was thought to number about 1,000,000 head, but by 1883 it was almost annihilated, and Sitting Bull and a few white hunters that year had the distinction of killing the last 10,000 that remained.

This wholesale slaughter of the buffalo brought about more than one uprising among the Plains Indians, who foresaw the total destruction of their food supply, and some bloody wars were the result. During the construction of the Kansas Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroads the buffalos were so numerous as to impede work, and on more than one occasion, trains were derailed by running into herds.

After the extermination of the southern herd a new industry sprang up, the bones of the slaughtered millions being carefully gathered and shipped back east, where they were ground into fertilizer to be used on the impoverished farms of the older sections. Thousands of carloads were shipped, the average price paid being from $4 to $6 a ton.

Charles J. "Buffalo: Jones, for many years a resident of Kansas, succeeded in a measure in domesticating the buffalo, and made experiments in crossing them with the Galloway breed of cattle, the product of which was called the Catalo, taking primarily, the characteristics of the buffalo.

To save the animals from total destruction the United States secured a number of buffalos and placed them in Yellowstone National Park where they could be free from molestation. This small herd increased very slowly owing to losses of calves through predatory animals. By the early 1900s, outside of a few public and private collections, the buffalo had entirely disappeared.

Compiled by Kathy Weiser/Legends of Kansas, updated April, 2010.

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Today, buffalo can once again be seen in several places in Kansas. The Maxwell Wildlife Refuge is one the few places where wild buffalo can still be seen. The refuge is located six miles north of Canton, Kansas just off Highway 86. There are also a number of private ranches where herds can be seen, and some even hold buffalo hunts. Many others sell buffalo meat both locally and nationally.

Buffalo at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, courtesy Travel Kansas

About the Article: The majority of this historic text was published in Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Volume I; edited by Frank W. Blackmar, A.M. Ph. D.; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912. However, the text that appears on these page is not verbatim, as additions, updates, and editing have occurred.

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