Sunday Read: Bison History and Books

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Hope you are having a great weekend!

Dad offered to write today piece for us, so you get a break from me for 24hrs.

This is his "Sunday Read" email, some fun literature and stories... if you are interested in the beginnings of the "Greatest Comeback Story in History" read on.. if not, go have a great day... it's a fairly long piece today.

grab a fresh cup and I think you will really enjoy it. It's packed with good stuff.

Here is the promised "opt in" link for these Sunday reads if you do want to continue receiving them from Dad. Herdwear: Sunday Reads List

also, since it's Sunday, I am not even gonna put products at the end, or try and sell you anything today. Figure we should give you something of value to read occasionally, instead of just trying to sell you stuff.

Do have some good stories and recipes lined up for this week, just have to write them, so that's something I get to do. Today I get to rebuild a couple freeze dryers, and finish scraping and tanning a hide, because we do tend to do silly stuff for fun. If you need us, just call or write, we are around.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Ron and T, and the crew here at the BWC

Time for another "Sunday Read" ... and a bit more, have quite a few book recommends here today.

Today is a short - 6 page - snippet out of a 1951 book (reprinted in 2011).

Snippet available here. Reprinted full book available here, Original ... you best sit down before you ask the price!!

In the meantime, Ron has gotten a very interesting request .... which he passed on to me to answer. So, I thought I would share both the "request' and the "answer'. Read on below ... but first, the next page from "The Cowboy". The part I have had reprinted (basically to recapture the Charles Goodnight part of the great JA {James Allard} ranch) is just 6 pages. ... all set out here.

For more great "Cowboy" reads, click the link below or just put "Cowboy" in the search bar.

Now here is that question I need to answer:

"Hello Ron,

I hope that this email finds you both doing well.

I need some book recommendations ole book wise one. Can you please refer me to the best books to consider for the following people-

1. Michel Pablo

2. George Bird Grinnell

3. William Hornady

4. Charles Goodnight

5. Buffalo Jones

6. Am I missing someone in this historical group?

Thank you for your time and considerations and look forward to talking soon. A. D.

That is a pretty dang complete list of the early "gang" who were instrumental in saving the bison from extinction around 1878.

So now our reply, A.D., Cecil Miskin here. I will set out below a selection of great historic and a few contemporary "reads" on the gang that helped keep the bison from extinction.

As to whom you might have missed of the bison saviors, let me suggest these others ... for the moment.

First would be Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight, Charles Goodnights wife.

She is actually credited with getting Goodnight interested in bison and more to the point, getting him to round up bison calves from the bison mothers he had his workers kill ... bring them to her and let her bottle raise them. That was the beginning of Goodnight's herd.

On her, the current best material may well be Jane Little Bodkin's work (actually the book is not coming out until next year).

There is not a lot on Molly, unfortunately, but having had a good bit of time with Montie Gooden, the closest then living "relative" to the Goodnights, and her daughter, Elizabeth Magar, I have had a chance to listen to the best oral history available.

William Hornaday, Teddy Roosevelt (of course), Ernest Harold Baynes and Martin Garretson.

These 4 were all involved with the formation of the Original 1905 American Bison Society. The influence they wielded along with the financial clout went just as far to preserving bison as the Western ranchers named above did.

So, it will be a relatively long ...but incomplete list at the bottom of this email. Incomplete as I am away from Goodnight; have far less memory than I would like and have to rely on what I have on the website. Given another couple weeks and I can get more titles to you.

I think, however, that there will be more than enough to keep you busy between now and then.

As importantly, thank you for your list of "want to reads". Both impressive and so much valuable understanding of what it took to get us to today with bison.

Best wishes. Cecil, Theresa, Ron, Bob and the rest of us here.

OK ... here we go with the list I promised:

Please keep in mind that some of the books we have are "First Edition" or "Limited Printings". Many of those we only have one copy.

However, do not despair if you find a "sold out".

I often can find copies of reprints of many of the historical works (and sometimes additional First Editions.... so if there is a book you want and it either says sold out or the price scares you,

email or text me and I will see what I can find for you. That work?

on Goodnight: Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman

by J. Evetts Haley Second book on Goodnight

(after you read the first)

Charles Goodnight, Father of the Texas Panhandle

"Father' is a very well done companion book by a very well qualified researcher and author -William "Bill" Hagan - that was designed to "fill in" some of what Haley left out - Goodnight's later years

Michael Pablo: Not many books just on Pablo: Rhonda Frazier has a very through write-up on Pablo on her "All About Bison"

Also in Return to the Wild

there is good discussion of how this herd (usually referred to as the Pablo-Allard Herd helped stock the Banff bison re-wilding)

George Bird Grinnell: If you want to read his writings, then

When Buffalo Ran, Jack Among the Indians or The Cheyennes.

Books about George Bird Grinnell

would be:"The Father of American Conservation" and "Last Stand"

William Temple Hornaday:

his report on his travels west to actually "count" the living bison,

"The Extermination of the American Bison", as published in the

Journal of the Smithsonian Institution

in 1889, is a great place to start. And then his truly seminal work,

"The American Natural History"; plus "Tales From Natures Wonderland"

and/or "Wild Animal Interviews". Keep in mind that Mr. Hornaday was a scientist and an egotist ... and wrote like both. But in his defense, he was right way more often than not.

A superb and well done read (from a non-scientific point of view) about Hornaday is "Mr. Hornaday's War"

C.J. "Buffalo" Jones Last of the Plainsmen, by Zane Grey

and "40 Years of Adventure"

Scotty Phillips -"The Buffalo King" Nancy Veglahn

Ernest Harold Baynes - His two trained bison; War Whoop and Tomahawk

Martin Garretson. "A Short History of the American Bison"

and/or "Recalling the Buffalo"

Teddy Roosevelt (of course)

"Hunting Trips of a Ranchman""Hunting Trips of a Ranchman""The Works of TR"Return to the WildThe American Bison Society - Biographical / Historical Info

(from the Denver Public Library)

The American Bison Society was founded on December 8th, 1905. Dr. William Temple Hornaday served as its first president and Theodore Roosevelt agreed to be an honorary president. The founding mission of the Society was the permanent preservation and increase of the American Bison and the protection of North American Big Game.

In 1905, only two herds (a total of twenty -nine bison) were protected by the federal government. One herd was in the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., and the second in Yellowstone National Park. The Society lobbied for protective legislation. In 1907, land was allocated for bison within the National Wichita Forest Reserve in Oklahoma. The next year, Congress created the National Bison Range in Montana. The Society solicited funds and donated forty bison to begin the herd.

The Society solicited funds and donated forty bison to begin the herd. They also contributed bison to three other reservations: Fort Niobrara, Nebraska; Wind Cave National Game Preserve, South Dakota; and the Pisgah National Game Preserve, North Carolina. Many of the bison were acquired from ranchers, such as Colonel Charles Goodnight, Charlie Conrad, Austin Corbin, Charles J. "Buffalo" Jones and Scotty Philip who raised herds commercially.

In its work to establish new bison herds, the American Bison Society created detailed census records on all bison, whether on public land or on private ranches. Using questionnaires sent out nationally and internationally to ranchers, zoo directors, and national park directors, the Society published a series of census reports from 1908-1934 of bison in the United States and overseas. Included in the census reports is a count of the wisent, the European bison, living in Europe and Russia. William P. Wharton worked on the census while he served as secretary for the Society, however, Martin S. Garretson, who became secretary in 1918, undertook most of the work. In 1927,

Garretson published The American Bison. This work was revised and a second edition published in 1934.

From the 1920s through the 1940s, the Society expanded its work by bringing attention to endangered game animals and waterfowl. In the 1920's, the automatic shotgun and the automobile gave hunters the ability to shoot large numbers of game while no bag limits existed, causing drastic reductions in the number of game species, especially migratory waterfowl. The American Bison Society, working through its membership, sent letters and stories to the press and worked with federal legislators and officials until legislation was passed which protected migratory birds. The Society was also a catalyst in the protection of pronghorn antelope and elk (wapiti). In the early 1950s, the American Bison Society formally disbanded.

The Book Hoard has been updated since Ronson Page's return from his "Summer Camp". The Current Book Hoard Books

The other "reads" I have .... authentic re-prints from the records of the Original American Bison Society .... a bit more drudgerious (if that is a word) but you can follow along with exactly how, who and when the Society got it's job done. Can you handle the truth??

Reports of the ABS

OK, no more today and probably not next Sunday either. There will be more, of course, in good time. Hope you enjoyed the read .... and if not ... and you want off this readers list, just email me - Cecil@HerdWear.net and I'll not send any more. I will try not to use these mailings for products (well, I guess books ARE products ... only to share my collection of great historic articles and stories.

Until next time, my best wishes to all of you.

Cecil

Herd Wear Distribution center·10565 Juliet John Road, CLARENDON TX 79226-5125, United States

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