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[article provided by Pat Morris. Thanks!]

Buffaloes have history in Arizona
By Dale Hajek - The Arizona Republic

<http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/0224buffside.shtml>
02/24/2000

So how did buffaloes get to Arizona?
Credit a guy named J.C. "Buffalo" Jones.
According to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Jones tried to raise
Galloway cattle on the Kaibab Plateau in the late 1800s. But the cattle didn't
fare well during the long, dry summers, so he thought cross-breeding them with
buffaloes would make for a hardier strain.
Jones obtained a special buffalo grazing permit from his friend Teddy
Roosevelt, and in 1884 he traveled to the Palo Duro River Valley of Texas to
pick up some members of a remnant wild herd that had been rounded up between
1878 and 1880 on the Goodnight Ranch.
With the help of another friend, "Uncle" Jimmy Owens, Jones rounded up 57 head
and shipped them to Garden City, Kan. Jones sold part of the herd there but
also shipped 30 to 40 head to Lund, Utah.
 From there, they were trail-herded 200 miles to House Rock Valley on the
Kaibab Plateau, arriving in July 1905. In 1906, Jones obtained 87 head from a
herd in Montana. That brought the total number of buffaloes on the plateau to
about 125.
Jones tired of it in 1909 and rounded up all the buffaloes he could and
shipped them to Fort Sumner, N.M. Fifteen to 20 animals were left in the
valley and became Owens' property.
The herd increased to about 98 head, and in 1927 they were purchased for
$10,000 by the state of Arizona. The House Rock herd continued to graze in the
valley and benefited over the years from the introduction of other buffaloes
from the Federal Bison Refuge in Oklahoma.
The Raymond Ranch herd, established in 1954, was made up of 42 head from the
House Rock herd and from Wichita, Kan.
There also was a third herd, established in 1949 on then-abandoned Fort
Huachuca. When the military decided to reactivate the fort in 1954, the
buffaloes were removed.
 

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