The Prairie Dog (Cynomys Ludovicianus)
Snyder, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Small burrowing rodent once symbolic of Old West. Estimates once placed Texas population in billions. Prairie dogs were so named because of their quick sharp barking and wagging tails. A vegetarian mammal related to the squirrel and ground hog, their homes are craftily built L-shaped burrows, 15 to 20 feet or more long; seldom connected with others in their "town". Declared pests to agriculture and range, town was established March 1964, to preserve remnant of a vanishing species. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Once numbering in the billions across the Texas plains, the prairie dog was as much a fixture of the Old West as the longhorn, its yipping colonies riddling the range with elaborate branching burrows. Branded a pest by ranchers and farmers, the little rodent was poisoned nearly out of existence — which is why in 1964 a town was set aside expressly to keep a remnant of the vanishing species alive.
Why it matters
The marker records an early flicker of wildlife-conservation conscience on the plains, honoring a creature the frontier economy had spent a century trying to erase.
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Nearby & related markers
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