Humboldt County
Historical Association
PO Box 162
Humboldt, Iowa
50548
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The Last Buffalo Hunt
The American Bison was the shaggy four-legged supermarket of the Plains Indians. Its numbers were so large as to be scarcely believed by the early pioneers whose passage West was sometimes delayed a day or two as the bison’s seasonal migrations passed. By the time this story took place in about 1863, the population of buffalo in Pocahontas County had dropped to one.
The following account is abridged from a 1908 Rolfe Reveille, an early Rolfe, Iowa newspaper.
Mrs. Charles Jarvis, whose husband that year was running Hait’s Sawmill, was first to see the animal. She had gone out to milk the cow early in the morning and finding the animal had wandered off, began scanning the horizon for her. She noted a strange animal at some distance. She alerted Mr. Hait who identified the animal as a buffalo and who organized a hunting party from the little settlement of Rolfe (now called “Old Rolfe”).
Three things were vital to a successful hunt: fleet horses, good weapons and ammunition. However, all three were either in short supply or nonexistent. Gamely the man went out equipped as well as was possible. The only ammunition was cartridges for Mr. Hait’s revolver. The old Springfield army muskets kept in the courthouse were loaded as well as could be and the men mounted their horses, all but Hr. Hait’s more suitable for farm work than as hunting mounts.
They expected to ride up to the beast, fire a broadside from their guns and lay him low. The buffalo spotted the hunters, turned and fled with the men in pursuit. It was soon evident that only Bill Hait’s horse was equal to the chase and he approached the animal and fired his revolver. The buffalo responded by charging Mr. Hait. The pattern was repeated as the other riders came upon the scene—each man firing and retreating before the following charge. The buffalo retreated each time to slough after slough until the whole operation moved west by several miles and had taken three hours.
Finally killing the beast that had been exhausted by the chase and its wounds, the men found themselves a long way from the settlement with no way to convey the meat home. One man was left with the kill and the other two returned the five miles or so to Old Rolfe for a wagon. The guard became thirsty and left to find a stream, lost his bearings and was trying to find the animal’s carcass in the tall prairie grass when his companions returned.
The animal was finally located and his hide and hump meat loaded for the return. It was estimated that he weighed 1400 pounds and his horns, which were not very long, but very thick, had seventeen rings. The meat was divided among the settlers who dined on steak as long as the meat could be kept in hot weather.
This was the last buffalo known to have grazed on the prairies of Pocahontas County.
The “Last Buffalo Hunt” is from a collection of accounts from the early settlement of Rolfe and is printed in the Centennial History of Rolfe. The site of Old Rolfe is on the west side of the west Branch of the Des Moines River just upstream from Bradgate. It was one of the earliest towns in Pocahontas County and was the original County Seat of that county. Remaining at the site are the cemetery and a monument to the courthouse which was wrought in stones by Father Dobberstein who created the original part of the West Bend Grotto.