The marking out of the great overland trail by the Argonauts of ’49 in their rush for the gold fields of California was the foreshadowing of the great east-and-west breach in the universal herd, which was made twenty years later by the first transcontinental railway.

The pioneers who “crossed the plains” in those days killed buffaloes for food whenever they could, and the constant harrying of those animals experienced along the line of travel, soon led them to retire from the proximity of such continual danger.  It was undoubtedly due to this cause that the number seen by parties who crossed the plains in 1849 and subsequently, was surprisingly small.  But, fortunately for the buffaloes, the pioneers who would gladly have halted and turned aside now and then for the excitement of the chase, were compelled to hurry on, and accomplish the long journey while good weather lasted.  It was owing to this fact, and the scarcity of good horses, that the buffaloes found it necessary to retire only a few miles from the wagon route to get beyond the reach of those who would have gladly hunted them.

Mr. Allen Varner, of Indianola, Illinois, has kindly furnished me with the following facts in regard to the presence of the buffalo, as observed by him during his journey westward, over what was then known as the Oregon Trail.

“The old Oregon trail ran from Independence, Missouri, to old Fort Laramie, through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, and thence up to Salt Lake City.  We left Independence on May C, 1849, and struck the Platte River at Grand Island.  The trail had been traveled but very little previous to that year.  We saw no buffaloes whatever until we reached the forks of the Platte, on May 20, or thereabouts.  There we saw seventeen head.  From that time on we saw small bunches now and then; never more than forty or fifty together.  We saw no great herds anywhere, and I should say we did not see over five hundred head all told.  The most western point at which we saw buffaloes was about due north of Laramie Peak, and it must have been about the 20th of June.  We killed several head for meat during our trip, and found them all rather thin in flesh.  Plainsmen who claimed to know, said that all the buffaloes we saw had wintered in that locality, and had not had time to get fat.  The annual migration from the south had not yet begun, or rather had not yet brought any of the southern buffaloes that far north.”

In a few years the tide of overland travel became so great, that the buffaloes learned to keep away from the dangers of the trail, and many a pioneer has crossed the plains without ever seeing a live buffalo.