556 



HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 



* ^HF- qRk' 



THE HERD ON ITS RANGE. 



THE WICHITA NATIONAL BISON HERD. 



Presented to the Nation by the New York Zoological Society. 



It seems strange that the East should under- 

 take the task of restoring to a permanent basis 

 in the West an important wild-animal species 

 that was destro_yed by the men of the West. 



Greed and blood-lust is not, like the tariff, a 

 local issue. It is thoroughly cosmopolitan. 

 Wherever there is found an abundance of wild- 

 animal life, there will be found also the buz- 

 zards of commerce destroying life and "wreck- 

 ing" carcases. It was the men of the West 

 who got up the wild and bloody orgy of the 

 buffalo plains, and left bcliind them only foul 

 carcasses, poisoned air and desolation. 



Strange to say, however, the West has shown 

 little more than a bystander's interest in the ef- 

 fort now being made to establish the American 

 Bison species on national ranges with such a de- 

 gree of permanency that it will endure for the 

 centuries of the future. Most of the appeals of 

 the Bison Society for contributions from beyond 

 the head of the Ohio River have fallen on deaf 

 ears and tightly-closed purses. The West as a 

 whole has yet to learn what it is to give dollars 

 for the preservation of wild life ; but the record 

 of W^yoming and Colorado in feeding starving 

 Elk, last winter, constitutes a fine exception. 



For many j^ears, various individuals have 

 urged Congress to "do something" for the Bison. 

 I think it was the efforts of Col. "Buffalo" 



Jones, of Kansas, that finally resulted in the 

 establishing of a national Bison herd in the 

 Yellowstone Park. It cost a mighty effort, 

 backed by the Biological Survey, to secure 

 through that grand champion of wild life. Con- 

 gressman John F. Lacey, of Iowa, the sum of 

 $10,000 for tliat nucleus. 



Later on, the New York Zoological Society 

 conceived the idea of a corporate sacrifice in be- 

 half of the Bison, and proposed to the govern- 

 ment a partnership arrangement for the found- 

 ing of a new herd. The Society offered a 

 nucleus herd of 15 pure-blood Bison as a gift, 

 delivered on the ground, provided the National 

 Government would set aside 12 square miles of 

 fine grazing grounds, on what once was the 

 range of the great southern herd, fence it in, and 

 permanently maintain the herd. 



The offer was promptly and graciously ac- 

 cepted, the money involved was immediately 

 voted, and the fence was erected in a very satis- 

 factory manner. Without any unnecessary delay, 

 the Zoological Society selected 15 of the finest 

 Bison in the Zoological Park herd, and with 

 most generous aid from the American and Wells- 

 Fargo Express Companies (who carried the herd 

 free of all cost), the gift was delivered at the 

 southern boundary of the Wichita National Forest 

 and Game Preserve in southwestern Oklahoma. 



