Last week, Caprock Canyons State Park—about 80 miles southeast of Amarillo—opened 10,000 acres to about 100 bison descents from the Southern Plains herd and members of the Official Texas State Bison Herd.
The Texas herd was started in the 1870s with five bison calves captured by Charles Goodnight. His wife urged him to save the bison, also known as buffalos, because hunters were killing them by the hundreds of thousands for their hides and meat and to crush American Indian tribes, who depended on the animals for food and clothing, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In 1997, the herd was donated and moved to 330 acres of the state park, which was once part of Goodnight’s JA Ranch.
Texas’ historic bison program started widening the bison’s access in 2010. In the recent expansion efforts, bison were coaxed onto their new range by feed trucks and ran towards recognizable bison metal cutouts. Now the herd roams the prairie of its ancestors.