Outdoors With Mat Taylor
Windmills, white buffalo worth trip to West Texas

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@agristar.net.

My wife and I recently traveled to Snyder for a mini-reunion with several of Nelda's cousins. We enjoyed the visit and seeing the town again. I was stationed at Snyder for four years with the Soil Conservation Service. Nelda also taught school there.

On our way to Snyder, we traveled from Coleman to Winters and then to Sweetwater. South of Sweetwater on a high plateau is a sight to behold. Hundreds and hundreds of large windmills slowly turn in the wind, generating electricity.

State Highway 70 passes through the windmill farm, and several of the gleaming white towers are close enough to the highway that you can almost reach out and touch one. You don't realize how large the structures are until you are near one. The windmills are almost 200 feet high with three blades that are more than 100 feet long.

As we traveled north to Snyder on U.S. Highway 84, we saw a number of additional windmills under construction. If you take a trip to West Texas, I would recommend taking Highway 70 to view the windmills. It is worth a special trip just to see them.

One concern about the windmills has been how they would affect birds. It may be a valid point, but I witnessed several buzzards flying in, out and around the structures. The large birds paid no attention to them, and the windmills did not affect their flying patterns.

While in Snyder, we went to a restaurant for lunch and passed by the white buffalo statue located on the courthouse square. The statue commemorates the killing of a rare white buffalo near Snyder by J Wright Mooar.

On a hunting expedition from Fort Griffin on the afternoon of Oct. 7, 1876, Mooar spotted and shot the buffalo near the banks of Deep Creek, about 10 miles northwest of the present city of Snyder. The white buffalo was one of only two ever killed in Texas.

A native of Vermont, Mooar and his brother were one of the most efficient buffalo-hunting teams in the country. During the eight years he hunted, it is reported Mooar killed more than 22,000 buffalo -- a record probably unsurpassed.

The hide of the buffalo was exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, among other places. It also is said Teddy Roosevelt offered Mooar $5,000 for the hide but was turned down.

While stationed at Snyder, I had the good fortune to visit in the home of Mooar's granddaughter, and I viewed the hide that was preserved in a glass case in her home. Although some reports indicate the buffalo was an albino, the hide was not pure white and had some black coloring near the feet. The statue of the buffalo also shows black legs, feet and eyes.

I also was able to walk to the approximate site where the buffalo was shot. Mooar used a Sharps rifle to take most of his buffalo. I do not know the caliber used, but since he shot so many buffalo I assume he used "A big fifty." The 50-90 Sharps was the preferred caliber of many buffalo hunters. Last I heard, a resident of Snyder owned the rifle.

Mooar reportedly could hit the vital spot of a buffalo at 1,000 yards. He won the respect of many Indians, including Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, who became his friend in later life.

Unlike most buffalo hunters who spent their money on wine, women and song after each hunt, the Mooar brothers were good businessmen. After the buffalo hunting decreased, they established a freight business and were early pioneers in Snyder. They also acquired a large ranch and went into the cattle business.

J. Wright Mooar was considered a highly respected citizen of Snyder. He died on May 1, 1940, at the age of 89 and is buried in the Snyder Cemetery.

Later in his life, Mooar was asked if he had any regrets about killing so many buffalo and contributing to their near extinction. He replied he did not. Although he did not want to see the buffalo completely disappear, he said if they had not been removed the cities of Amarillo and Lubbock would not exist, and there would be no cattle industry in West Texas.

I also would not want to see the buffalo, the symbol of the West, disappear but if large herds were present, one of the largest wheat-producing areas in the world would not exist on the high plains.

I have never had a desire to hunt buffalo, as they are not much of a challenge to shoot. I have eaten bison meat, however, and it is delicious and very nutritious.