Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....The First Inhabitants 1930
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Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas

CHAPTER I 
THE FIRST INHABITANTS

  The buffalo and the Indian were the first inhabitants. Gove county was a great
buffalo range. Its natural vegetation is the short, curly mesquite grass known
as "buffalo grass." The country is full of the spots known as "buffalo wallows."
These are shallow depressions, averaging perhaps a rod in diameter, where the
buffalo was accustomed to roll and wallow in the dust if the ground were dry or
in the mud if the depression happened to contain water. Why he did this is the
buffalo's own secret, but it was probably for the same reason that the domestic
hen takes a dust bath or our domestic cattle rub against fence posts. With the
passing of the buffalo these wallows became again covered with grass, but not
with the original buffalo grass. In them the prairie blue stem found lodgment,
and the difference in vegetation marks out the spot and makes the buffalo wallow
noticeable from a considerable distance. When the sod is still unbroken these
spots are found everywhere. Probably there was not a quarter section in the
county without its buffalo wallow, and some had scores of them.*

* Note 1.

  In places on these prairies are found circles of maybe fifty or a hundred
yards in diameter where the vegetation is of different species from the buffalo
grass within and without the circle; this vegetation "greens up" earlier in the
spring than the buffalo grass and then the circle is very conspicuous. Old
buffalo hunters say that these rings were made by the buffaloes when a small
hero was menaced by an attack from wolves. The cows and calves would bunch up
and the bulls would pace round outside them ready to beat off the attack if it
should be made; this trampling cut through the sod and killed the buffalo grass,
and grass of other species came in.

  The buffalo had ceased to exist here before the settlers came. Few persons now
living in the county ever saw a buffalo. This is because of the wholesale
slaughter of the species which commenced as soon as the white man began to
appear upon the plains. The buffalo was stupid and inoffensive and fell an easy
victim. As the Pacific railroad advanced across the plains its first passengers
were the buffalo hunters and its first business was the shipping of buffalo
meat. The railroad advertised excursions to the west "to Hunt the Buffalo." The
roundtrip from Leavenworth was ten dollars; the railroad reached Gove county in
1868.

  The first mention I have found of Gove county towns is as buffalo hunting
stations: "Coyote, 336 miles from K. C. Many buffalo are slaughtered here and
their hides and meat shipped east." "Buffalo, 352 miles from K. C. This being
the present center of the buffalo range they are found here in larger quantities
than at any other point on the road." "Grinnell, 364 miles from K. C.— two large
turf houses built for the purpose of drying buffalo meat."

  These items are taken from "Weston's Guide to the Kansas Pacific Railway" for
1872, four years after the railroad reached Gove county.

  It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the buffalo soon disappeared. The
number of buffalo hides thrown on the market was enormous. Leather was cheap. It
was the fashion in those days to wear high topped boots; now economy compels us
to wear low cut shoes. Some of the buffalo meat was saved—more of it was wasted.
A decade or so later the impecunious homesteader gathered up the bones and
bought flour with the proceeds. Now nothing remains to testify to the existence
of the buffalo except the buffalo wallows and the buffalo horns, which latter
have outlasted the bones and are common enough to this day.

  Much sorrow has been expressed for the wanton destruction of the buffalo.
Perhaps this sympathy has been misplaced. There is a story that the legislature
of Texas once had up for consideration a bill for the protection of the buffalo.
General Phil Sheridan, then commanding the army on the frontier, appeared before
the legislature and made a speech against the bill. He said in substance "We
have got to get rid of the buffalo before we can get rid of the Indian. As long
as the buffalo exists the Indian can live and we can't conquer him. When the
buffalo is gone we can starve the Indian out." Those who understand the
diabolical savagery of the wild Indian on the war path will appreciate the point
which the general made. The buffalo had to go before the plains could be made
habitable for the white race.


Additional Comments:
History of Gove County, Kansas
by W. P. Harrington

Gove City, Kan.	1930


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