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Show - ti Gitint Buffalo Herd Roams Only in the Henry Mountain area of Garfield County can today's American see what early Americans commonly saw a free-roaming herd of giant buffalo. Hunted indisciminately for years, the enormous herds were reduced almost to extinction. American folk heroes such as Buffalo Bill and Kit Carson gained much of their fame from their skill at killing the big, bulky buffalo. Slain mostly for sport, the buffalo found little value on the glutted market where its hide brought little money. Buffalo tongue was a prized delicacy and the animals were often ' killed for their tongues which were cut out with perhaps the hide with reserved land and government protection. Utah's buffalo herd, over 200 strong, ranges in some of the roughest and toughest terrain in the state. Consequently, few people ' except ranchers, hunters, or cowboys living in the remote Henry Mountains ever have the exciting experience of watching a scene from America's past as the herd stirs the dust as it moves along. The herd was started in 1941 with three bulls and 15 heifers obtained from the Yellowstone National Park herd. They were released in the Robbers Roost area north of the Dirty Devil River on the San Rafael Stirring dust as It moves along, the only free roaming buffalo herd in the nation removed and the rest of the animal left on the plains. In the 1800's some 60 million buffalo (bison) roamed freely like a giant black sea across the prairies. They provided food, clothing and shelter for the American Indians, but by 1889 there were barely a few thousand of the magnificent animals remaining. The Indians, who watched their source of food, clothing and shelter disappear with each rifle shot, went on the warpath. Ultimately a few voices made themselves heard and Congress took note of the carnage before the buffalo completely disappeared from the American scene. Like their red-skinned contemporaries, con-temporaries, they were provided desert where some six weeks later the bulls scattered, two going north and one going south. The following spring another release of five bulls was made with the cows baited into a corral for the occasion. Two days later the gate . .was opened and three more heifers joined the herd. Later in the summer all but two moved to the Burr desert east of the Henry Mountains. The two, both cows, moved eastward to the Robbers Roost country where they were later joined by a young bull which had been roped by a local rancher, trucked into his ranch and released to the care of the two females. |
