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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1870s the southern plains were the last great refuge of the free-roaming buffalo, and the last homeland of the Comanche, Kiowa, and allied peoples who had lived with the herds for generations. The buffalo was food, shelter, clothing, and spiritual life for the Plains nations. As long as the herds survived, so did a way of life.
Then demand for hides took off. New tanning methods made buffalo leather valuable to industry in the East and abroad, and railroads could carry hides to market. Professional hunters poured onto the plains. The northern herds were hit first, and in the early 1870s the hunters turned south into Texas.
This commercial slaughter was tangled up with war. In 1874 and 1875 the U.S. Army fought the Red River War against the Southern Plains tribes. Soon afterward the Comanche, including Quanah Parker's band, moved onto the reservation in Indian Territory. With the herds wiped out and the tribes confined, the Texas plains were opened to ranching and railroads.
By the end of the 1880s the tens of millions of buffalo that had once crossed North America had been reduced to a few hundred to perhaps a thousand or so animals. It was one of the fastest collapses of a large animal population ever recorded.
People & events
J. Wright Mooar was a Vermont boy who came west at nineteen. By 1870 he was hunting buffalo to supply hides to market. With his brother, John W. Mooar, he set up the first buffalo-hunting camp in the Texas Panhandle in 1873, which put the Mooars at the leading edge of the hunters moving into Texas.
The moment Scurry County remembers came on October 7, 1876. At his first camp in the county, a few miles south of this marker, Mooar shot an albino buffalo, one of only two known to have been killed in Texas. White buffalo were extremely rare, and many Plains peoples held them sacred. Mooar kept the hide for the rest of his life. It was shown at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and on many other occasions.
The numbers are staggering. Mooar hunted regularly until 1879 and killed about 22,000 buffalo over his career, a record probably never beaten. He was known for dropping animals with a single shot from a thousand feet or more. That skill won the respect of Comanche chief Quanah Parker, and the two became friends in later life, a remarkable friendship given which side of the buffalo's fate each man had stood on.
After the herds were gone, the Mooars adapted like the frontier did. They began ranching in 1877. In 1881 Wright helped supply game and hay to the crews building the Texas & Pacific Railroad across West Texas, and from 1881 to 1905 the brothers ran a livery stable in Colorado City, respected neighbors in a settled land.
Its place in the American story
Mooar's life follows one of the biggest turning points in American history: the end of the free-roaming buffalo and the end of the independent Plains nations that depended on them. What happened in camps like his in Scurry County helped decide who would control the heart of the continent.
The buffalo slaughter is a hard story to tell, and it should be told honestly. To men like Mooar it was a job, a skill, even a sport. To the Comanche and their neighbors it was a disaster that took away their food, their economy, and their freedom. Historians still argue over how far the destruction was deliberate policy and how far it was a commercial frenzy, but its result for Native peoples is not in doubt.
The story also has a later chapter that matters. The near-extinction of the buffalo helped spark America's early conservation movement, as people realized how close the species had come to vanishing. Today's protected herds exist partly because of the lessons of the 1870s.
The friendship between Mooar and Quanah Parker hints at the complicated aftermath. Former enemies built new lives in a changed West, and Quanah became one of the best-known Native leaders of the reservation era.
If you visit
The marker stands near Snyder. The albino buffalo camp it describes was a few miles south, near the old Mooar Ranch headquarters. Stand here and look out over the open West Texas land. Try to imagine it dark with grazing herds, then quiet a few years later. It's a vast landscape and it can feel lonely, which fits the story.
Snyder itself grew out of the buffalo-hunting days, and the town still takes pride in its white buffalo connection. Keep an eye out around town for that image. It's a local symbol worth looking for.
With kids, this marker opens a big conversation. Talk about why one man could kill so many animals, what that meant for the people who depended on them, and why white buffalo were so special. It's a chance to teach history that doesn't have easy heroes.
Snyder makes a good stop on a road trip across West Texas, between the Rolling Plains and the Llano Estacado. Pair it with nearby museums and markers about the frontier, and try to find sites that tell the Comanche side of this story as well.
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
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.