BUFFALO COATS by Zina Abbott

Have you ever suffered the disappointment of recalling having seen an old 1800s photo hanging on a museum wall, and thinking you took a picture of it, only to discover you do not have such an image in your computer photos files? Such is what happened to me.

Buffalo coat & hat-Custer Courthouse Museum

I recall seeing an image of about four or five soldiers standing on the parade ground of a fort. Snow was on the ground, and the men were bundled up in buffalo coats, gloves, and hats. I believe this reproduction of an older photo was hanging in the Custer Courthouse Museum close by this buffalo coat display of which I did take a photo.

American plains bison

First, the animal in North America that most people call a buffalo, is not in actuality a buffalo. Buffalo are not found naturally in this continent. Technically, the proper name for the animal is bison, although they are all sub-species of Bovidae, the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, antelopes, sheep, goats, muskoxen, and domestic cattle. So, when people refer to “buffalo coats,” they are actually talking about bison coats.

Sleeveless bison robes have been worn by the indigenous people of North America for centuries. Once the Europeans came to North America and moved west across the continent, as part of the fur trade, along with the more popular beaver, they collected bison hides which were also turned into coats, hats, and gloves.

 

Buffalo soldiers of the 25th Infantry, some wearing buffalo coats.

Buffalo coats were issued to police and military officers, particularly the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the United States Army, prior to their replacement by parkas. The coats were intended for use in extreme cold or arctic conditions.

Often, winters on the Great Plains of the North American continent, with their artic blizzards and drifting snow, get cold enough to fit in the “extreme cold” category. 

gloves made from buffalo hide

As the United States opened up the West to settlement and expansion of the railroads, the effort made to move the native tribes off their bison hunting grounds and onto reservations intensified. Buffalo hunting by whites rose to increasing levels, almost causing bison to become extinct. Although many bison were hunted only for their tongue while the rest of the animals were left in the field to rot, quite a few were skinned and the hides used to make winter outerwear. Buffalo coats became popular among the well-to-do. Only when hunting the animals was prohibited to keep them from extinction did using the pelts from the bison commercially for clothing end.

19th century men wearing buffalo coats

In my book, Hannah’s Handkerchief, one aspect of my plot revolves around the frontier forts of western Kansas. In spite of the danger of attack by hostile tribes—most notably, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa—the soldiers obtained much of the meat in their diet by hunting the same bison that were the food source of the American Natives (another source of conflict between the two groups). That resulted in hides being acquired in addition to the meat. 

I’m sure in these primitive forts, many of which for the first few years had for structures dugouts in the riverbanks and/or soddies, those pelts would have been welcome for bedding or keeping the soldiers warm, especially on night patrol. So, what happens when my protagonist, Lt. Jake Burdock assigned to the Quartermaster Department of the Army, gets the brilliant idea to gather up those bison pelts and take them to the Army’s official tannery in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas to be processed and turned into cold-weather coats for the soldiers? I invite you to read and find out.

Hannah’s Handkerchief is now available for sale or at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. You may read the book description and find the purchase link by CLICKING HERE.

The Smoky Hill Trail

In my studies over the years I have heard of the Oregon-California-Mormon Trail and I have heard of the Santa Fe Trail. I have also heard of the Natchez Trace and the Great King’s Highway along the Atlantic Coastal states. It was not until I started researching for my latest novel, Kizzie’s Kisses that I learned of the Smoky Hill Trail.

The Smoky Hill River which gave the trail its name was called by many names over the years It was well known among the Plains Indian tribes like the Pawnee and Cheyenne. Early French and English explorers originally called the river the Padoucas. It was believed the river came by the name it is known by now either because of the hazy, smoky appearance of the nearby dark shale hills. Also, a large stand of cottonwood trees along the river near what is now the Kansas-Colorado border known as Big Timbers had the appearance of a dark cloud of smoke when seen at a distance. It was to this grove of trees Black Kettle of the Cheyenne brought the survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864.

 

Coronado Heights near Salina, Kansas

Lt. Zebulon Pike of Pike’s Peak fame explored it in his 1806 expedition in which he also discovered the mountain peak that now bears his name. In 1842, 2^nd Lt. John C. Fremont with Kit Carson as a guide, traveled along the River on his way back east from his second expedition to map the trail to Oregon by way of South Pass. After losing most of their supplies and records made of the journey due to sudden flooding of the Smoky Hill River, the expedition of twenty-six almost met their end at the hands of hostile Pawnee who resented the intrusion of white men in the region of their buffalo hunting grounds. Only the friendship of the Loup band and their influence on the rest of the Pawnee prevented a massacre.

Pike's Peak, the end of the Smoky Hill Trail

Other plains tribes including the Southern Cheyenne were aggressively protective of the Smoky Hill River and their trail along its banks as it was an important place for hunting buffalo. A herd of buffalo crossing the river could easily drink it dry in a given location. The tribes that depended on the buffalo for so much of their sustenance fought hard to keep out white settlers whose cultivation of the land destroyed the grass needed by the buffalo. Also, their presence lowered the river levels because rain absorbed in the cultivated soil did not drain into the streams and rivers.

Big Timbers Creek Crossing

The Smoky Hill Trail, originally an Indian trail like so many others adopted by those whose ancestors came from Europe, came into prominence in 1859 with the discovery of gold at Pike’s Peak in Colorado, followed shortly by more gold discoveries along Cherry Creek in what is now the Denver area. As gold-seekers sought the fastest route to the gold fields, many risked frequent Indian attacks by taking the Smoky Hill Trail which cut off about 120 miles as compared to traveling the more-established California-Oregon-Mormon Trail along the Platte River. Since most exploration west started at Kansas City or St. Joseph along the Missouri River, traveling the Platte required going north along the Blue River, then cutting back south to Denver on the west end. The Smoky Hill Trail, in spite of its dangers from hostile tribes and its long, waterless stretch west of the headwaters of the Smoky Hill River that came to be known as the Starvation Trail, was a more direct route.

The Smoky Hill Trail began in Atchison, Kansas, about thirteen miles north and west of Kansas City. Because of its excellent wharf, goods traveling not only up the Missouri River, but those traveling down from points north and west were off-loaded and made available for shipping west along the trail.

 

Cattle Drive crossing the Smoky Hill River

It was along the Smoky Hill River close to where it joined the Saline River (named for its salt content) that the area that became the town of Salina was discovered in 1856 and settled in 1858 with the Smoky Hill Trail passing through it. This area along the Smoky Hill River realized an influx of settlers in 1859, including the fictional family in my latest novel, Kizzie’s Kisses, of my heroine, Kizzie Atwell.

Ranch by Smoky Hill River, 1869 - Photography by Gardener

As gold-seekers moved west, they were soon followed by merchants and freighters eager to provide the basic supplies and luxuries desirable by those who struck it rich—or even found enough gold and other precious metals to eke out an existence requiring food and clothing. My story in Kizzie’s Kisses starts in 1862 when my heroine, Kizzie, is fleeing from an Indian massacre that took place in the spring of that year. In an effort to get help to save her family, she rides east along the Smoky Hill Trail towards Fort Riley. Along the way she runs into my hero, Leander Jones, a guard on an oxen-driven freight train traveling west along the Smoky Hill Trail with Pike’s Peak and Denver as the destination.

It is also along the Smoky Hill River and Smoky Hill Trail that in the next two decades several frontier forts and cattle towns emerged to populate Kansas from east to west, first as the Butterfield Overland Despatch traveled the route to bring passengers and goods to Denver, followed by the railroad that closely followed the trail, the river and the towns (many which had originally been frontier forts) that had been establishes along this trail that connected the length of the state of Kansas.

 

Butterfield Overland Despatch at Fort Harker, Kansas

Kizzie’s Kisses is Book 2, the first full-size book in the Grandma’s Wedding Quilts series. You may read the full book decription as well as purchase Kizzie’s Kisses by CLICKING HERE.