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The Historical Occurrence and Demise of Bison in Northern Utah
Buffalo on a cliff wall in southern Utah. From Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Breaking the Wilderness, 1905.
The Historical Occurrence and Demise of Bison in Northern Utah
BY KAREN D. LUPO
WHEN PEOPLE ENVISION BISON (OR BUFFALO), most will picture large herds meandering across the vast plains of North America. While northern Utah probably will not come to mind, archaeological and historical evidence indicates that these massive mammals once widely roamed across much of the region, at times in great numbers. Archaeological evidence shows that bison were hunted by native peoples in Utah at least 10,000 years ago and possibly earlier.1
Archaeological sites with bison bone and dating to Fremont times (A.D. 400-1300) are clustered in the northern part of Utah, especially in the Willard Bay area on the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. However, petroglyphs of bison found as far south as Kane County attest to the former range of these animals.2 Late nineteenth and early twentieth century explorers and naturalists observed bison skeletons in Echo Canyon, Utah Valley, Gunnison on the Sevier River, Parowan Canyon in Iron County, on the shores of the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, in remote locations above the timber line (11,800 ft.) in the Uinta Mountains, and in valleys of the Wasatch Mountains.3 The number and distribution of these finds led early naturalists to conclude that bison were widespread and common historically, at least until just before the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in 1847.4 However, these skeletal remains were undated and may have been much older than their date of discovery implies The most compelling evidence is found in historical journals or other records of sightings of live animals. Early travelers and explorers were interested in and often made mention of game animals in their journals because they supplemented their meager and sometimes exhausted food provisions. For Utah this evidence is limited and shrouded in a veil of mystery involving legends, oral traditions, and fact.
Probably the earliest historical reference relevant to bison in the Utah area is related by Baron La Hontan in 1689.5 While staying with a group of Indians near the headwaters of a tributary to the Mississippi River, La Hontan met four slaves These slaves claimed to be members of the Mozeemlek nation from a distant land with a large salt lake. They allegedly supplied the cities and towns surrounding the salt lake "with great numbers of little calves" that were used for food and clothing. The validity of this report has been questioned by scholars, and some regard it as purely fictional, but there are striking parallels between elements of this story and the geography and cultural history of the Great Salt Lake area. 6 For example, the Mozeemlek slaves had thick bushy beards similar to those worn by some Utes as later described by Escalante.7 Some of the western Ute bands were known to be purveyors of buffalo meat and robes and ranged as far south as Taos, New Mexico, by 1680 and probably much earlier.8 Finally, there are marked similarities between the inland salt lake surrounded by cities or towns in La Hontan's story and the Great Salt Lake surrounded by archaeological villages.9 The earliest eyewitness accounts of bison in northeastern Utah were recorded during the Dominguez Escalante expedition.10 Journal entries from early September 1776 report buffalo tracks along the White River near the present Utah/Colorado border. Later, at least two buffalo were killed by expedition members near the Green River in Utah. They also encountered mounted Comanches in pursuit of 'Yutas" who had been hunting buffalo in their territory By September 25, 1776, the expedition had arrived in Utah Valley and reported that bison were available not far to the north and northwest of Utah Lake.11 This entry was undoubtedly based on information provided by the Utah Lake Utes (Timpanogotzis) who stated that fear of the Comanches kept them from hunting in those areas. Although the Utah Lake Utes knew of bison, there is no mention in the Dominguez-Escalante journals that they possessed buffalo skins or dried meat. In fact, the Utah Valley Utes are referred to as "fish-eaters" and provided dried fish to the Spanish expedition for provisions.
Subsequent reports by trailblazers and fur trappers dating from the early nineteenth century unmistakably place bison in areas adjacent to Utah, including the Green and Bear rivers in southwestern Wyoming and along the Bear, Snake, and Portneuf rivers in southern Idaho.12 One of the earliest is an 1811 observation made by the Astorians of Shoshoni bands from southeastern Idaho hunting bison along the headwaters of the Green River in Wyoming.13 Later, the Ashley-Smith expedition reported that bison were abundant in Wyoming along the Green River in April and the Bear River in May 1825.14 Captain Bonneville's expedition hunted bison on both the Portneuf and Green rivers in 1833-34.15 According to Osbourne Russell, bison were abundant along the Portneuf River in southern Idaho in 1836; but by 1840 only scattered skeletons remained, and the buffalo trails appeared abandoned and were overgrown with grass. 16
Despite numerous reports of bison in parts of southern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming, their presence and distribution in Utah is far less clear. If the claim of Louis Vasquez, a partner of James Bridger, is believed accurate, herds of bison were seen in the Great Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1822.17 In an October 29, 1858, newspaper interview, Vasquez reported that he and a party of trappers were camped in the Cache Valley in 1822 when a severe snowstorm forced them to descend the Bear River and move into the Great Salt Lake Valley where they saw bison herds. Details of this report are believed to be at least partly inaccurate because Vasquez was probably not in Utah until 1825-26.18
A more reliable sighting of bison in northeastern Utah is reported in the journals of Peter Skene Ogden. In 1824-25 Ogden and William Kittison led an expedition sponsored by the Hudson's Bay Company into the Snake River country (southeastern Idaho and northeastern Utah). Journal entries dating between May 1 and May 13, 1825, report that buffalo were encountered along the Deep Creek River near modern Preston, Idaho, south to the Cache Valley of Utah.19 But bison were not mentioned in areas farther south such as Ogden Valley or along the Weber River. In 1828-29 Ogden led another expedition through northern Utah, traveling northeast along the southern base of the Grouse and Raft mountains and east to the Malad River. On December 26, 1828, Ogden was camped north of the Great Salt Lake and could see the lake surrounded by fog in the distance.20 He wrote:
The country we travelled over this day is covered with cedar trees, and from the quantity of buffalo dung and tracks in the spring of the year must be most abundant, at present no signs of any. .. . As we were on the eve of encamping we were rather surprised to see our guide coming in advance with a cheerful countenance and informed us he had seen an indian who reported to him that buffalo were not far off, at the same time not numerous. 21
A few days later when the group was camped near the Hansel Mountains, Ogden mentioned that attempts by hunters from his group to find bison were unsuccessful. He believed it was because buffalo were only abundant in this area during the spring.22 By late March of 1829 Ogden's group was trapping along the Bear River In reference to the territory north of the Great Salt Lake, Ogden noted: "So far as I have seen of the north side is truly a barren country, buffalo have travelled thus far, but not in numbers nor do I believe they visit here annually of course not to be depended on by travelers who may desire to follow their tracks."23
Of all the early explorers in Utah, Jedediah Smith had the most familiarity with the Great Salt Lake area. Surprisingly, he made little mention of buffalo in his journals but did note the overall lack of game in this area. Between 1826 and 1827 Smith led an expedition to California that traversed much of Utah from north to south. At the journey's onset on August 7, 1826, he was camped along the Portneuf River in southern Idaho hunting buffalo and provisioning his party for the journey south into Utah He noted: "I was well aware that to the south as far as my acquaintance extended there was but little game and experience had learned me in many a severe lesson the necessity of providing a supply of provision for traveling in gameless country."24 No mention was made of encounters with live buffalo as the party traveled south along the shores of the Great Salt Lake and into Utah Valley. The only mention of bison made by Smith was in late August, east of Utah Lake: 'Very old buffalo skulls and from their appearance I suppose that it is many years since the buffalo left this country. They are not found beyond this place."25 A penciled notation, referring to the limit of the buffalo in the area of the Uinta Basin, was made on the party's map. 26 But Smith did not travel into the Uinta Basin during the 1826-27 expedition, so it is unclear why this notation was made or on what information it was based.
The following year only three members of the original expedition made the return trip from California to Utah In late June 1827 Jedediah Smith, Robert Evans, and Silas Gobel crossed the Great Salt Desert en route to a rendezvous in the Bear Lake Valley. During this treacherous crossing the group happened upon an Indian family near Skull Valley. They possessed remnants of buffalo robes and indicated that many buffalo could be found a few days' travel to the northeast.27
When Smith and his party finally reached the Salt Lake Valley, the only game mentioned were deer and a grizzly bear. Reporting on the journey in aJuly 17, 1827, letter to Gen. William Clark, Smith commented on the lack of game in the Great Salt Lake Desert and reported that bison did not range south of Utah Lake.28
In August and September of 1830 Warren Angus Ferris was trapping in northeastern Utah and mentioned buffalo near, but not in, the Cache Valley, although the exact location of this sighting is unclear.29 Later, he made no mention of bison on a visit to Utah Lake in September and October of 1834.30 But in November 1834, as Ferris was traveling east of Utah Lake, he reported seeing Ute Indians returning from bison hunting (presumably in southwestern Wyoming or possibly the Uinta Basin) with loads of dried meat on horseback.31
At about the same time, in July 1833, Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, camped in southern Idaho, dispatched a group of men to explore the Great Salt Lake under the command ofJoseph Walker. In preparation for this undertaking, Washington Irving noted:
The country lying to the southwest of the mountains, and ranging down to California, was as yet almost unknown; being out of the buffalo range, it was untraversed by the trapper, who preferred those parts of the wilderness where the roaming herds of that species of animal gave him comparatively an abundant and luxurious life Still it was said that the deer, the elk, and the bighorn were to be found there, so that with a little diligence and economy there was no danger of lacking food. As a precaution, however, the party halted on the Bear River and hunted for a few days, until they had laid in a supply of dried buffalo meat and venison.32
The Walker expedition made its way south along the Raft River in northern Utah to the extreme northern shore of the Great Salt Lake and from there journeyed west towards the Raft River Mountains. Zenas Leonard, a free trapper who was part of Bonneville's expedition, accompanied Walker on the 1833-34 trip which eventually led to California. He reported that they killed their last buffalo somewhere on the northwest side of the Great Salt Lake in August 1833.33
There are few firsthand accounts of buffalo killed in Utah after this date In 1877 Joseph A Allen cited Henry Gannet, astronomer with Ferdinand V. Hayden's survey, who reported that the Mormon Danite Bill Hickman claimed to have killed the last buffalo in Salt Lake Valley about 1838.34 But there is no evidence that Hickman was in the Great Salt Lake Valley at that time.35 Furthermore, there is very little evidence that bison persisted in regions west of the Green River in Utah at that time Journals from the Bartleson-Bidwell overland expedition to California in 1841 report that bison were not found west of the Green River.36 In August 1841 as they descended the Bear River and made their way to the shores of the Great Salt Lake the only game they mentioned are antelope, fish, and waterfowl.
John C Fremont made no mention of actually encountering buffalo on hisjourneys through Utah between 1843 and 1845 However, he did note that bison herds were abundant in the Bear River Valley and along parts of the Green River from 1824 until approximately 1835 when they began to rapidly disappear.37 Fremont reported that in the spring of 1824: "the buffalo were spread in immense numbers over the Green River and Bear River Valleys, and through all the country lying between the Colorado, or Green River of the Gulf of California, and Lewis's Fork of the Columbia River; the meridian of Fort Hall then forming the western limit of their range."38 Based on firsthand information and the accounts of other trappers, Fremont believed that bison did not occupy areas west of the Rocky Mountains until relatively late and had migrated to the area to escape predation from hunters east of the mountains:
In travelling through the country west of the Rocky Mountains, observations readily led me to the impression that the buffalo had for the first time crossed that range to the waters of the Pacific only a few years prior to the period we are considering; and in this opinion I am sustained by Mr. Fitzpatrick, and the older trappers in that country. In the region west of the Rocky Mountains we never meet with any ancient vestiges which,throughout all the country lying upon their eastern waters, are found in the great highways, continuous for hundreds of miles, always several inches deep and sometimes several feet in depth, which the buffalo have made in crossing from one river to another, or traversing the mountain ranges. The Snake Indians, more particularly those low down upon Lewis's Fork have always been grateful to the American trappers for the great kindness (as they frequently expressed it) which they did to them in driving the buffalo so low down the Columbia River.39
In 1846James Clyman and Lansford W. Hastings made a journey from California eastward through Utah. Clyman'sjournal entries from late May toJune of 1846 while traveling from the Hastings Cutoff east across the Great Salt Lake Desert and eventually through Echo Canyon make no mention of bison If fact, Clyman noted only the general lack of game in the region.40
On their journey to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Mormon pioneers found bison herds so dense on the trail east of the Rocky Mountains heading west that they had to send advance parties to clear off the road before the teams could pass. 41 But by the time the Mormons arrived, buffalo were no longer present in the valleys along the Wasatch Front. According to Frank G. Roe, "There are no buffalo among the 1229 wild species slain by the Mormon hunting companies for the extermination of wild beasts in the winter of 1848-1849 "42 However, a few scattered buffalo were encountered by Mormon pioneers in Utah until 1850.43 These were probably solitary animals and possibly remnants of the larger herds that once ranged in southern Idaho and Wyoming. William Hornaday reported that a few bison were killed in the Salt Lake Valley by Mormon pioneers prior to 1840.44 But this date is too early for Mormon settlers there. On an 1889 visit to a Salt Lake City museum, he was shown a buffalo bull skull that was supposedly killed somewhere near Salt Lake City But Hornaday himself doubted the veracity of this report and thought the skull must have been obtained elsewhere.45
The only other reports pertaining to the historic occurrence of bison in Utah are second-hand accounts based on Indian informants and trappers. Although this information is not doubted, the actual location of these bison sightings is often vague and unclear. The most frequently cited account comes from Osbourne Russell.46 He reported that in 1841 Wanship, the Ute chief who at that time lived at the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley, remembered a time when buffalo passed from the mainland to Antelope Island without swimming. In another account, H. W. Henshawe, the ornithologist on Lieutenant Wheeler's survey, related the following:
The only information I have regarding its (the buffaloes) presence in Utah was derived from Mr Madsen, a Danish fisherman, living on the borders of Utah Lake: and, I may add, I am perfectly convinced of the trustworthiness of his statement In using the seine in the waters of the lake, he has on several occasions brought up from the bottom the skulls of buffaloes in a very good state of preservation Their presence in the lake may perhaps be accounted for on the supposition that, in crossing on the ice, a herd may at some time have broken through, and thus perished. From him I also learned that he had talked with Indians of mid- die age whose fathers had told them that in their time the buffaloes were numerous, and that they had hunted them near the lake.47
Presumably the fathers of the informants mentioned here would have hunted bison in Utah Valley before 1835. Finally, J. Cecil Alter mentions that the Ute Chief Walker had recollected that when he was a boy deer were abundant and "buffalo more plentiful than Mormon cattle."48
If the historical occurrence of bison in Utah is unclear, the ultimate demise of these large beasts is surrounded by even more mystery. In fact, the extinction of bison in Utah is the subject of an interesting but widespread oral tradition According to several sources, the last bison in Utah died in a severe winter storm before the Mormons arrived. One of the earliest accounts of the snowstorm is given by Sir Richard Burton who reported that the last bison in Utah Valley died in the winter of 1845.49 A short time later, Allen wrote a comprehensive history of the American bison for the United States Geological and Geographical Survey and reported:
I was also informed that there was a tradition among the Indians of this region that the buffaloes were almost entirely exterminated by deep snow many years since Mr E D Mecham of north Ogden, a reliable and intelligent hunter and trapper of nearly forty years' experience in the Rocky Mountains, and at one time a partner of the celebrated James Bridger, informed me that few had been seen west of the great Wah satch range of mountains for the last thirty years, but that he had seen their weathered skulls as far west as the Sierra Nevada Mountains In 1836, according to Mr. Mecham, there were many buffaloes in Salt Lake Valley, which were nearly all destroyed by deep snow about 1837, when, according to reports of mountaineers and Indians, the snow fell to the depth of ten feet on a level. The few buffaloes that escaped starvation during this severe winter are said to have soon after disappeared.50
This same story with some elaboration was also recounted by Mecham's partner, the famous James Bridger:
Many strange stories the old trapper, James Bridger, used to tell; for instance in the winter of 1830 it began to snow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and the snow fell for seventy days until the whole country was white-coated to the thickness of seventy feet Vast herds of buffalo were caught by the snow, caught and pinched to death, and the carcasses preserved; and finally when spring came, all Bridger had to do was tumble them into Salt Lake, and have pickled buffalo enough to fed him and the whole nation, down to the time of extermination. And this is why there have been no buffaloes in that region since.51
A very similar account was reported by Shelley in his history of American Fork, Utah. This story was attributed to Washburn Chipman who heard it from frontiersman Jim Baker in the spring of 1849. According to Shelley:
Baker related that 15 or 20 years before the country contained many buffalo. One winter an immense snow storm came, piling the snow many feet deep in the valleys, completely covering the buffalo. The frontiersman claimed he did not see the sun for thirty-five days He said in the Salt Lake Valley while going over the deep snow on snow shoes that he came across breathing holes in the snow, below each of which was a live buffalo. The animals all eventually perished.52
Claude Barnes, a zoologist, attributed this story to the Ute Indians who reported that in 1820 the buffalo in northern Utah were killed by a snowstorm in which four feet of snow fell.53 Cecil Alter reported that the deadly winter storm occurred in April 1831 and was described in thejournal of Warren Angus Ferris.54 According to Ferris's journal, snow fell in the Cache Valley to a depth of about three feet and remained on the ground for some time. He described the icy crusts on the surface of the snow that cut into the limbs of his horses like knife blades Still later, Stephen D Durrant reported that large numbers of bison died in a severe snowstorm in the Salt Lake Valley in 1836.55
Interestingly, this same oral tradition existed among the Snake Shoshoni bands that inhabited territories adjacent to northeastern Utah. In 1859Capt.J. H. Simpson reported that buffalo had been the primary prey of the Shoshoni bands that inhabited southern Idaho.56 According to Indian tradition and accounts of early trappers, the buffalo disappeared after a severe winter storm that occurred around 1824. But there is ample evidence from other historical accounts that bison persisted in portions of southern Idaho until around 1840 and that only after this date did large parties of mounted Snake Shoshoni and Bannock go to Wyoming to hunt them in the fall.57 By 1859 at least some of these Shoshoni bands were hunting buffalo in the summer and fall near the Sweetwater and Wind rivers in Wyoming.58 Frank Roe noted that these snowstorm stories bore a striking and suspicious resemblance to a hunters' tradition concerning the Laramie Plains in Wyoming:
According to hunters' traditions the Laramie Plains were visited in the winter of 1844-1845 by a most extraordinary snowstorm. Contrary to all precedent, there was no wind, and the snow covered the surface evenly to a depth of nearly four feet Immediately after the storm a bright sun softened the surface, which at night froze into a crust so firm that it was weeks before any heavy animal could make headway over it The Laramie Plains, being entirely surrounded by mountains, had always been a favorite wintering-place for the buffaloes. Thousands were caught in the storm and perished miserably from starvation. Since that time not a single buffalo has ever visited the Laramie Plains.59
As with southern Idaho accounts, this story is contradicted by historical reports of bison on the Laramie Plains after this date.60
Given the prevalence of this story among different Indian bands and trappers in parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, it seems likely that the snowstorm story could be part of a widespread and possibly very old oral tradition It is possible that some bison died in a snowstorm at some time in the past, but it is not clear exactly when or where this happened. In southern Idaho and Wyoming the account was contradicted by direct observations of living bison at later dates. In the Cache, Salt Lake, and Utah valleys of Utah it is not clear when the snowstorm occurred, since so many different dates are given. Unlike southern Idaho and Wyoming, in Utah there were few observations of bison before 1830 and even fewer after that date.
An alternate scenario for the demise of bison in Utah and the Intermountain Area and one that fits the historical facts better is offered byJulian Steward.61 Citing Fremont, Steward suggests that the small numbers of bison that inhabited northeastern Utah were extinct by 1832 as a result of the acquisition of horses and firearms by native populations and the arrival of trappers. He argues that bison populations were probably never very dense in northern Utah and were easily hunted to extermination with the arrival of these new technologies. This scenario is probably more accurate because it depicts the disappearance of bison in northern Utah as part of a larger extinction event that is well documented.
NOTES
Dr Lupo is a research associate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
1 Donald K Grayson, Danger Cave, Last Supper Cave and Hanging Rock Shelter: The Faunas, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1988) See also Melvin C Aikens, Fremont-Promontory-Plains Relationships, Including a Report of Excavations at the Injun Creek and Bear River Number 1 Sites, Northern Utah, University of Utah Anthropological Papers, No 82 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1966).
2 Frederick S Dellenbaugh, Breaking the Wilderness (New York: G P Putnam, 1905), p 37, provides an illustration of the petroglyph but not its exact location The same petroglyph may have been reported by C C Presnall, "Evidence of Bison in Southwestern Utah," Journal of Mammalogy 19 (1938): 111-12.
3 James H Simpson, Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah...in 1859 (Washington D.C: GPO, 1876), p 460 Simpson refutes aJanuary 18, 1859, report by Governor Denver, commissioner of Indian Affairs, to Rep. Alexander H. Stephens, that bison were not found west of the Rocky Mountains: "The governor is here evidently wrong, for I have seen a number of skulls of buffalo in Echo Canon, and in the upper part of the Timpanogos Valley (Utah Valley), all showing that at not a very remote period the buffalo roamed west of the Rocky Mountains." For other reports of buffalo skeletal remains see Presnall, "Evidence of Bison in Southwestern Utah," pp 111-12; and Joseph Asaph Allen, History of the American Bison, 9th Annual Report of United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territory under F. V. Hayden for the Year 1875 (Washington, D.C: GPO, 1877), pp 512-15 Allen reported: "Along the railroad leading from Ogden City to Salt Lake City I examined, in September of 1871, numbers of skulls in a nearly perfect state of preservation, which had been exposed in throwing up the roadbed across the marshes a few miles north of Salt Lake City I also saw a few on the terraces north and west of Ogden City, but generally in a disintegrated condition "Julian Steward, Ancient. Caves of the Great Salt Lake, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, (Washington D.C: GPO, 1937), Bulletin 116, described caves used by ancient cultures on Promontory Point containing many bison bones Claude Teancum Barnes, "Utah Mammals," Bulletin of the University of Utah, New Series, 17 (June 1927): 174, reported that a Professor Marcus E.Jones picked up a buffalo skull on the shores of the Great Salt Lake near Saltair in 1898. Ruth Dowell Svihla, "Mammals of Uinta Mountain Region, "Journal ofMammology 12 (1931): 256-65, discovered bison bones in the Uinta Mountains Parley P Pratt, "To President Orson Pratt and the Saints in Great Britain," Millennial StarTl (September 5, 1848): 21-24, observed buffalo bones in the valleys of the Wasatch Front.
4 Elliott Coues and H. C. Yarrow, "Report upon Collections of Mammals Made in Portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona during the Years 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874," in George M Wheeler's Report upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One-Hundredth Meridian... (Washington, D.C: GPO, 1875), 5:68 They reported that bison were formerly quite common in Utah and were remembered by many older Indians. Interestingly, they were unable to acquire any live specimens from Utah See also Ernest Thompson Seton, Lives of Game Animals, 4 vols (Garden City: Doubleday, 1925-28), 2:647 Seton estimated that bison ranged throughout northern Nevada and most of Utah in 1500 By 1832 that range had contracted to northern Utah, including the area surrounding the Great Salt Lake It is not clear how these estimates were derived since few historical accounts pertinent to this time period exist.
5 Baron La Hontan, New Voyages to North America Reprinted from the English Edition of 1703 with Facsimiles of Original Title-Pages, Maps and Illustrations, 2 vols., ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites (Chicago: A. C. McClury, 1905), 2: chap 16.
6 Dale L Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (1947; reprint ed., Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973); chaps 2 and 3 describe fact and fiction associated with the discovery of the Great Salt Lake.
See also John R Dewey, "Evidence of Acculturation among the Indians of Northern Utah and Southeast Idaho: A Historical Approach," Utah Archaeological Newsletter42 (1966): 3-10, 12-19. See alsoJ. Cecil Alter, "Some Useful Early Utah Indian References," Utah Historical Quarterly 1 (1928): 26.
7 William Richard Harris, The Catholic Church in Utah (Salt Lake City: Intermountain Catholic Press, 1909), p 151.
8 LeRoy R Hafen and Ann W Hafen, The Old Spanish Trail: Santa Fe to California (Glendale, Calif: A H.Clark & Co., 1954).
9 Dewey "Evidence of Acculturation," pp. 3-10, 12-19.
10 Harris, The Catholic Church in Utah, pp 161-67.
11 Ibid.
12 Frank Gilbert Roe, The North American Buffalo (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951), pp 263-72.
13 Washington Irving, Astoria (Chicago: Belford, Clark and Co., 1885), pp 385-87.
14 The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, 1822-1829, with the OriginalJournals, ed. Harrison Clifford Dale (Cleveland: A. H. Clark Co., 1918), p. 155.
15 Washington Irving, Adventures of Captain Bonneville (New York: P F Collier & Sons, 1900), pp 206-7, 272, 273, 275.
16 Osbourne Russell, journal of a Trapper, 1834-1843, ed Aubrey Haines (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965), p 123.
17 Morgan, The Great Salt Lake, p 70.
18 Ibid.
19 David E Miller, "Peter Skene Ogden's Journal of His Expedition to Utah, 1825," Utah Historical Quarterly20 (1952): 168-75.
20 Peter Skene Ogden, Peter Skene Ogden's Snake Country Journals 1827-1828 & 1828-1829, ed Glyndwr Williams (London: Hudson's Bay Record Society, 1971).
21 Ibid., p 118.
22 Ibid., p 119.
23 Ibid., pp. 138-39.
24 George R Brooks, The Southwestern Expedition ofJedediah Smith, His Personal Account of the Journey to California, 1826-1827 (Glendale, Calif: A H Clark Co., 1977), p 40.
25 Ibid., p 47.
26 Ibid.
27 Maurice S Sullivan, Jedediah Smith, Trader & Trailbreaker (New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1936), p 109.
28 Charles Kelly, 'Jedediah Smith on the Salt Desert Trail," Utah Historical Quarterly 3 (1930): 25-27.
29 Warren Angus Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains, ed J Cecil Alter (Salt Lake City: Rocky Mountain Book Shop, 1940) Ferris reported killing large numbers of buffalo along the Bear River in Wyoming and possibly in southern Idaho In April 1830, after a particularly severe snowstorm, he described pursuing and catching young buffalo calves somewhere just north of the Cache Valley, probably in southern Idaho.
30 Ibid., pp 214-15.
31 Ibid., p 216.
32 Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, p. 275.
33 Zenas Leonard, Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard (Chicago: R R Donnelley & Sons Co., 1934), p 106.
34 Allen, History of the American Bison, p 515.
35 Frank Gilbert Roe, The North American Buffalo, p 278.
36 The Bidwell-Bartleson Party: 1841 California Emigrant Adventure: Documents and Memoirs of the Overland Pioneers, ed. Doyce B. Nunis,Jr. (Santa Cruz, Calif: Western Tanager Press, 1991).
37 John C Fremont, Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and Northern California in the Years 1843-1844 (Washington, D.C: GPO, 1845).
38 Ibid., p 144.
39 Ibid.
40 James Clyman, James Clyman Frontiersman: The Adventures of a Trapper and Covered-Wagon Emigrant as Told in His Own Reminiscences and Diaries, ed. Charles Camp (Portland: Champoeg Press, 1960).
41 Roe, The North American Buffalo, p 183.
42 Ibid., p 278.
43 p err j S ; Life in the Rocky Mountains, p 69.
44 William Hornaday, "The Extermination of the American Bison" in the Annual Report to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, part II, 1887 (Washington, D.C: GPO, 1889), p 383.
45 Ibid.
46 Russell, Journal of a Trapper, 1834-1843, p 122.
47 Allen, History of the American Bison, p 515; Coues and Yarrow, "Report upon Collections of Mammals," 5:68, also cite Madsen as a source of information regarding buffalo in Utah.
48 Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains, p 69.
49 Sir Richard Burton, City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California (New York: Harper & Bros., 1862), pp. 50-51.
50 Allen, History of the American Bison, p 515.
51 Roe, The North American Buffalo, p. 181..
52 George Shelley, Early History of American Fork (American Fork City, 1945), p 12 Shelley also states that Washburn Chipman saw a buffalo carcass near Niels Nelson's spring southwest of American Fork.
53 Barnes, "Utah Mammals," p 174.
54 Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains, p.69.
55 Stephen David Durrant, Mammals of Utah: Taxonomy and Distribution, University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Publications (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1952), p 466.
56 Simpson, Report of Explorations across the Great Basin, p 466.
57 Roe, The North American Buffalo, pp 261-72 See also Julian Steward, Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 120 (Washington, D.C: GPO, 1938), pp. 202-4.
58 Simpson, Report of Explorations across the Great Basin, p 466.
59 Roe, The North American Buffalo, p 182.
60 Ibid., pp 182-84,262-71.
61 Steward, Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups, pp 200.
