Transforming Dodge City: From Buffalo Grounds to Cowboy Town

Why did Dodge City transform from the Buffalo capital to the Cowboy capital, and what did this mean for the American southwest? Join us as we journey through the economic upheavals that shaped this iconic city, tracing the steps of hunters like J. Wright Moore and John Webb as they pursued buffalo herds into the Texas Panhandle. We tackle the controversial notion that buffalo hunters' treaty violations were excused by the economic gains of the buffalo trade, especially during the financial despair following the 1873 stock market crash. Additionally, we uncover how the Western Cattle Trail spurred Dodge City's growth, while acknowledging the relentless struggle of Native American tribes fighting to safeguard their resources and way of life.

Explore the technological divide that escalated clashes between westward-moving Americans and Plains tribes. We illuminate the profound importance of the buffalo to the Plains tribes, comparing it to a one-stop resource vital for their survival. The episode delves into the relentless efforts of these tribes to protect their cherished buffalo, drawing parallels to any society’s instinct to defend its fundamental resources. Join us for a nuanced perspective on this cultural conflict, providing a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics during this transformative period in American history.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

Brad, on November 1st 2024, you are scheduled to present on Dodge City's transition from a Buffalo capital to a Cowboy capital and its economic impact on the southwest. A crucial event in this transition was the Battle of Adobe Walls and its effects on the region's financial stability. One significant impact was the disappearance of the buffalo south across the Arkansas River. To tackle the absence of buffalo in the known hunting grounds, Jay Wright Moore and John Webb explored the Texas Panhandle in search of new buffalo herds. After five days of riding, their report discovering many grazing buffaloes caused excitement among other hunters, despite initial concerns due to the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867. Brad, how can you address the viewpoint that the buffalo hunters' disregard of established boundaries was justified due to the buffalo trade's economic significance and the buffalo population decline?

Speaker 2 1:38

Well, mike, that's kind of a loaded question, I'd say, and I guess, to be perfectly honest, I don't know that it necessarily was justified. In today's world it's kind of a popular narrative that the buffalo hunters and American civilization and the westward expansion at the time was just inherently evil. Due to the mass slaughter of the buffalo and the disappearance in such quick. That's kind of become the dominant narrative. While I don't necessarily disregard the facts in that, in that it did happen, I think that's a judgment call that applies modern sensibilities to a world in which that didn't apply. Another thing that it really doesn't take into account is a major factor going on in not just the United States but really the world at the time.

Speaker 2 2:39

The stock market crash of 1873 is actually a major player in the game here, of course, just coming out of the Civil War 10 years earlier, but the nation was still recovering from five years of war, and then the stock market crash of 1873 happened, putting a number of people across the country completely out of work. The railroad was it being constructed across the nation ran out of money. It stopped Again. You had all these people who were moving west, who had no way to earn a living except hunting buffalo. This was an economic opportunity the likes of which were unparalleled. Really, at the time it didn't take much of a hunter to just bring in cash hand over fist by selling buffalo meat, buffalo hides Certainly when the, as we addressed in this podcast, when the new technologies for tanning the buffalo hides into leather successfully took off, that created a new boom in demand for buffalo.

Speaker 2 3:53

So the fact that there were herds and, yes, the treaty of 1867 did set boundaries that were disregarded this certainly wasn't the first treaty that had been disregarded by either side. I'm not 100% blaming the white hunters for this, but the money was there, there were people who needed it there and it happened. I think the certain factors contributed to the buffalo extermination happening much quicker than it otherwise would have, but it would have initially anyway. Successful ones at that were also the same ones who in their later years, when they saw their livelihood declining, actually went to their state and federal governments and helped to enact legislation on saving the buffalo who were left so it. They were the savior and the cause of their own destruction.

Speaker 1 5:09

I guess the cause of their own destruction, I guess, brad. We also know that in 1874, after the Buffalo Hunters returned to Dodge City, really kind of failed at their expedition. We know that the Western Cattle Trail was just developing and it was noted that the trail was passing by Dodge City, headed north to Nebraska. The Buffalo and the Red River War what was its effect on the Western Trail, the cattle industry and the economics of Dodge City.

Speaker 2 6:06

Dodge City's geographic location is the stuff of just mythic proportions. It really is. I think if Dodge City didn't exist where it did, something else would have had to, just based on how everything just really seemed to kind of fit right there at that little junction as the Western Trail. The cattle needed a market that was coming north, needed a market that was coming North. Uh, the railroad stopped just just West of Dodge as it uh continued and initially continued on through into Colorado. Uh, the need for a safe uh trail to traverse was paramount. Uh, the the Buffalo herds, and certainly the Indian population that dominated the region, uh, was not really going to let that happen. So in one way it was one issue that kind of gave rise to another. Hunting, thinning out the herds, yes, did kind of move the Indian populations out of the region as well, giving safe passage to the Texas cattle coming up north to places like Dodge City and even beyond.

Speaker 1 7:31

Brad, also in conjunction with this is at one time the buffalo was thought to be a boundless resource. As you said earlier, even the Indians doubted at first that these vast, thundering animals could ever be vanquished. In 1867, the buffalo count in the southern plains was estimated nearly 50 million. But by the 1870s tanneries worldwide discovered the wonders of buffalo leather and the great slaughter began. What would you say to someone who argues that the actions of the Comanche Cheyenne, kiowa Arapaho and Kiowa Apache were driven by legitimate need to protect their resources and way of life from encroachment by the white hunter?

Cultural Clash and Buffalo Preservation

Speaker 2 8:26

Well, mike, on one hand we do have several accounts of old buffalo hunters who, in their later years, commented that one thing that they weren't really taking into account was all of the other hunters across the prairie who were doing exactly the same thing that they were. So while a single hunter, or even a small group, could take out really hundreds of buffalo, they could still see the millions of buffalo out there on the prairie and didn't think that they were leaving a dent. However, when all of the other hunters out there that were doing the exact same thing, the decline, once it started to happen, happened exponentially. Some of these old hunters also said in their later lives that their biggest regret was having anything to do with that They'd come west to live the west and wound up civilizing it and sort of regretted that to some extent. And another point that I think we need to address is that rarely in world history do you have two civilizations so extremely opposed on opposite ends of the technological spectrum as the westward moving Americans and the essentially stone age people that were the American Indians. Um, that just doesn't happen a lot. And when two civilizations like that but heads there, there's just no way around that. There is going to be conflict. There's very little in the way of exchange of ideas. On one hand one side just they're not technologically advanced enough to appreciate the ideas coming from the other side. And the more technologically advanced society, just they don't want to have no concept of sort of living off the land that the American Indians had gone to a fine art over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. There was no way around these two people's button heads. It just it couldn't happen any other way, sadly.

Speaker 2 10:45

So I do think, yes, that the American Indians, especially the Plains tribes, since that's what we're talking about here in the Buffalo hunt, were absolutely justified in trying to maintain their livelihood. The Buffalo was everything to them. I hate to use the analogy, but the buffalo was their Walmart. Everything that they needed they could get from the buffalo Possibly a bit of an exaggeration, but almost everything that they needed came from the buffalo. From sewing needles to thread, to meat, to tallow, to keeping them warm, the dung making fire everything came from the buffalo. It was their life. So of course these people would protect it. Anyone would. Whatever you have that you can't survive without, you're going to protect with your life, your fortune and your sacred honor, so to speak.