Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar
Snyder, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
J. Wright Mooar was a champion hunter of buffalo, largest game animal in North America. A native of Vermont. He came west at age 19 and in 1870 began hunting to supply hides for market. In partnership with his brother, John W. Mooar, he established the first buffalo hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle in 1873. On October 7, 1876, at his first camp in Scurry County (2.8 miles south of this site on county road 253, near the Old Mooar Ranch headquarters) J. Wright Mooar killed a rare albino buffalo, one of two known to have been killed in Texas. The albino hide was shown at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and on many other occasions. Mooar hunted regularly until 1879. In 1881 he helped furnish game and hay to construction crews building the 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 from a distance of 1,000 feet or farther won the respect of Comanche Indian Chief Quanah Parker, who became a friend in later life. The Mooar Brothers began ranching in 1877. Highly esteemed by their fellow citizens, they owned a livery stable in Colorado City from 1881 to 1905. (1967--1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Mooar embodies the commercial buffalo slaughter that transformed the plains and helped end the free-roaming Native way of life, even as his later friendship with Quanah Parker reflects the era's complicated aftermath.
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Related people
- · J. Wright Mooar
- · John W. Mooar
- · Quanah Parker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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
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.
Site of The MacKenzie Trail
Snyder, TX
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.
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.