Of the numbers of these animals, none of the authorities seem to agree. Robert M. Wright of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the earliest pioneers, recently published a book entitled “Dodge City, the Cowboy Capital.” He gives the estimates prepared by men living at the time, as to the number of buffalo. I present his remarks at some length as indicative of the difference of opinion even among those familiar with the Great Plains, of their numerical extent. It is safe to assume, however, that there were between 25,000,000 and 50,000,000 buffalo in the West in the year 1850.
“I wish here to assert a few facts concerning game, and animal life in general, in early days, in the vicinity of Fort Dodge and Dodge City.[[54]] There were wonderful herds of buffalo, antelope, deer, elk, and wild horses, big gray wolves and coyotes by the thousand, hundreds of the latter frequently being seen in bands and often from ten to fifty gray wolves in a bunch. There were also black and cinnamon bears, wildcats and mountain lions, though these latter were scarce and seldom seen so far from the mountains. General Sheridan and Major Inman were occupying my office at Fort Dodge one night, having just made a trip from Fort Supply, and called me in to consult as to how many buffaloes there were between Dodge and Supply. Taking a strip fifty miles east and fifty miles west, they had first estimated it ten billion. General Sheridan said, ‘That won’t do.’ They figured it again, and made it one billion. Finally they reached the conclusion that there must be one hundred million; but said, they were afraid to give out these figures; nevertheless they believed them. This vast herd moved slowly toward the north when spring opened, and moved steadily back again from the north when the grass began to grow short, and winter was setting in.
“Horace Greeley estimated the number of buffaloes at five million. I agree with him, only I think there were nearly five times that number. Mr. Greeley passed through herds of them twice. I lived in the heart of the buffalo range for nearly fifteen years. I am told that some recent writer, who has studied the buffalo closely, has placed their number at ninety million, and I think that he is nearer right than I. Brick Bond, a resident of Dodge, an old, experienced hunter, a great shot, a man of considerable intelligence and judgment, and a most reliable man as to truthfulness, says that he killed 1500 buffaloes in seven days, and his highest killing was 250 in one day; and he had to be on the lookout for hostile Indians all the time. He had fifteen “skinners,” and he was only one of many hunters.
“Charles Rath and I shipped over 200,000 buffalo hides the first winter the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad reached Dodge City, and I think there were at least as many more shipped from there, besides 200 cars of hind-quarters and two cars of buffalo tongues.”
A Kansas newspaper (Dodge City Times, August 18th, 1877) remarks:
“Dickinson County has a buffalo hunter by the name of Mr. Warnock, who has killed as high as 658 in one winter.—Edwards County Leader.
“Oh, dear, what a mighty hunter! Ford County has twenty men who each have killed five times that many in one winter. The best on record, however, is that of Tom Nickson, who killed 120 at one stand in forty minutes, and who, from the 15th of September to the 20th of October, killed 2,173 buffaloes.”
Colonel Richard I. Dodge, who spent thirty years on the Plains, commenting in 1880 on the value of the buffalo to the Indian, says:
“It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize the value to the Plains Indians of the buffalo. It furnished him with home, food, clothing, bedding, house equipment, almost everything. Without it he is poor as poverty itself, and on the verge of starvation.
“Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front to rear. Other years the northward journey was made in several parallel columns, moving at the same rate and with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred or more miles.