On day 4, we took a short drive from Canyon down to Quitaque, TX (pronounced “Kitty-cue”) to visit Caprock Canyon State Park. Among other things, this is home to the official Texas state bison herd. The first thing we noticed was that there were no actual signs warning that you are not allowed to rollerskate, so if you are so inclinded I guess there is nothing stopping you. (Ask your parents if you don’t get that reference, or click –> here)

It is hard to ponder what it must have been like with millions of these beasts roaming free across the praries of America. The natives alledgedly used every part of the bison in sustaining their lifestyle. Everything from the hides, to the bones had a use in their culture. I have read stories from eye-witnesses that reported that the prarie looked like waves of an ocean with so many of these beautiful creatures roaming the land. According the the TPWD website,

At one time, 30 to 60 million bison roamed the North American plains. Early Spanish explorers in Texas, including the Coronado expedition, said they were as numerous as “fish in the sea.”… From 1874 to 1878, hunters decimated the great southern bison herd. Estimates from 1888 were that less than 1,000 head of bison remained in North America.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/caprock-canyons/bison/story

I would not say that this herd is at all domesticated, but they do seem to be a little less “wild” than the bison in Yellowstone NP. That said, when they block the road, they still make it very clear that they are in charge. I can only imagine what it must have been like to feel the earth rumble as herds of thousands trotted across the land. It must have been an amazing experiance.

We grew up and went to school in a town in Oklahoma which had schools with both “bison” and “buffalo” mascots. Because the bison was the mascot of the middle school and the buffalo was the mascot of the high school, I grew up thinking that a bison was just a young buffalo. Well, needless to say, that caused a bit of embarassmnt and laughter in my later years when I hearned that real buffalo are native to Asia and Africa while Bison are the critters that we have here. So next time someone tells you they saw buffalo while visiting Yellowstone or other place here in the US, you can kindly inform them that what they saw were actually bison. I blame the public school system for my confusion. For a short video explaining the differences, click –> here.

Bison are not the only critters in Caprock, they also have a couple of prariedog towns, which we will visit in the next installment.

Until then,

Michael & Karen

All words and photographs are copyright 2023 M Hampton Photography