Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar
Snyder, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Aug. 10, 1851-May 1, 1940) Champion hunter of buffalo--largest game animal in North America. Born in Vermont; came west at 19. Began hunting in 1870 to supply hides for market. In partnership with his brother, John W. Mooar, in 1873 established first buffalo hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle. On Oct. 7, 1876, at his first hunting camp in Scurry County, killed a rare albino buffalo--one of two known to have been killed in Texas. The hide of that albino, afterward shown in 1904 St. Louis Fair and many other occasions, is now preserved here in Scurry County by Mooar's descendants. Hunted regularly until 1879; in 1881 helped furnish game and hay to feed construction men and animals building Texas & Pacific Railroad in West Texas. During his career, he shot about 22,000 buffalo--a record probably unsurpassed. His ability to hit a vital spot at a distance of 1,000 feet or farther won the respect of such Indians as Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, who became his friend in later life. Began ranching with his brother in 1877. Also had a business in Colorado City, 1881-1905. Highly esteemed. Site of killing of white buffalo (10 mi. NW of here) is near the Old Mooar Ranch headquarters, where his hand-hug water well is now surrounded by oil wells. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Vermont-born J. Wright Mooar came west at nineteen and, with his brother, established the first buffalo-hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle in 1873. Over his career he shot an estimated 22,000 bison — including a rare albino whose hide his descendants still preserve — and later supplied game to railroad crews and turned to ranching. His marksmanship earned the respect of Comanche chief Quanah Parker, who became his friend.
Why it matters
Mooar personifies the commercial buffalo hunt that transformed the Southern Plains, hastening the end of the great herds and the way of life of the Native nations who depended on them.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1870s the Southern Plains still held some of the last great bison herds in North America. For generations the Comanche, Kiowa and other Plains nations had built their lives around the buffalo, which gave them food, shelter, clothing and tools. Their homelands stretched across what is now West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.
All of that changed within a few years. Tanneries in the East had found ways to turn buffalo hides into commercial leather, and railroads could haul the hides to market. A flood of professional hunters poured onto the plains. Working with heavy long-range rifles and crews of skinners, they killed bison by the hundreds of thousands. By the end of the decade the southern herd had been all but wiped out.
The collapse of the herds came together with the U.S. Army's campaigns of the mid-1870s against the Plains nations. Those events forced the Comanche and their allies onto reservations. Ranchers, railroads and new towns like the ones in Scurry County soon filled the land where the buffalo had roamed.
People & events
J. Wright Mooar was born in Vermont and came west as a young man of nineteen. By 1870 he was hunting buffalo for their hides. He and his brother, John W. Mooar, made hide hunting into a business. In 1873 they set up what the marker calls the first buffalo-hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle. Over his career he shot an estimated 22,000 bison, a number that captures the sheer scale of the commercial hunt.
One kill stood out from all the others. In October 1876, at his first Scurry County camp, about ten miles northwest of here, Mooar shot a rare albino buffalo. The marker says it was one of only two known to have been killed in Texas. White buffalo were extraordinarily rare, and many Plains peoples held them sacred. The hide later went on display at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, and Mooar's descendants still preserve it in Scurry County.
When the herds were gone, Mooar adapted. In 1881 he helped supply game and hay to the crews and animals building the Texas & Pacific Railroad across West Texas. He also ranched with his brother and ran a business in Colorado City for years. Perhaps the most striking part of his story is his later friendship with the Comanche leader Quanah Parker. The two men came from opposite sides of the upheaval that remade the plains, and according to the marker, Parker came to respect Mooar's remarkable marksmanship.
Its place in the American story
Mooar's life follows one of the most dramatic ecological and cultural changes in American history. Tens of millions of bison once ranged across North America. By the late 1800s only a few hundred were left. The commercial hide hunt that Mooar took part in, and in some ways led, was a major reason for that collapse.
That loss hit Native nations especially hard. The end of the southern herds took away the Comanche and their neighbors' food supply and much of their economy, and it helped force them onto reservations. Historians still debate how much the slaughter was deliberate government policy and how much it was simply market greed. Either way, the result reshaped the West.
The story also has a hopeful epilogue. Alarm at how close the bison came to vanishing helped spark early American conservation efforts, and the bison was eventually named the national mammal of the United States. Mooar's marker invites visitors to hold several truths at once: his skill and endurance, the devastation the hunt caused, and the surprising friendships that grew up in its aftermath.
If you visit
This marker in Snyder introduces one of the most colorful and complicated figures of the West Texas frontier. Stop, read, and then look around at today's landscape of ranch land and oil country. It's hard to imagine these plains once dark with buffalo, but that is exactly what Mooar saw when he first arrived.
The marker points to the site of the white buffalo kill, about ten miles northwest, near the old Mooar ranch headquarters. His hand-dug water well is still there, now surrounded by oil wells. That detail neatly captures how the region moved from buffalo to cattle to oil within a single lifetime. Keep an eye out for local reminders of the white buffalo, which has become a symbol of Snyder and Scurry County.
For a road trip, this stop pairs well with other sites on the Southern Plains that tell the story of the buffalo, the Comanche and the ranching era. With kids, it opens a thoughtful conversation about how people used the land, what was lost and what we've learned since.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · J. Wright Mooar
- · John W. Mooar
- · Quanah Parker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of The MacKenzie Trail
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After the Civil War, the U.S. Army pushed to secure the West Texas frontier, and Colonel Ranald S. MacKenzie became the central figure in the campaigns against the Comanche and their allies. From forts like Griffin and Concho he blazed supply routes across the Plains toward Palo Duro Canyon, where in 1874 his troops broke the power of the Southern Plains tribes. The trail crossing near Snyder was so well known that the town's 1881 townsite abstracts referenced 'The MacKenzie Trail' as a landmark.
Witness Tree
Snyder, TX
The hackberry stump across the street once served as a "witness tree" in the land surveys that carved up the West Texas frontier. Under Texas custom rooted in Spanish law, boundaries were fixed by natural and man-made witnesses and measured in varas and leagues, with grantees formally taking possession by shouting, throwing stones, and firing guns. When this land was first surveyed in 1873 for a railroad, it was still hostile country; surveyors worked with rifles on their shoulders, and only after buffalo hunters and Gen. Ranald Mackenzie's cavalry had cleared the plains did settlement follow.
Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar
Snyder, TX
In 1873 J. Wright Mooar and his brother John established the first buffalo-hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle, part of the hide trade that swept the southern plains. Wright's marksmanship became legendary—he downed a rare albino buffalo in Scurry County in 1876 and claimed some 22,000 kills, a skill that even earned the respect of Comanche chief Quanah Parker, later a friend. The brothers turned to ranching here in 1877, and Wright became a pillar of Scurry County life.
Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar
Snyder, TX
A Vermont native who came west at nineteen, J. Wright Mooar became one of the most prolific buffalo hunters of the American plains, establishing with his brother the first hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle in 1873. In 1876 he killed a rare albino buffalo in Scurry County, a hide later displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Over his career he shot some 22,000 buffalo and earned the respect of Comanche chief Quanah Parker, who became his friend in later years.