The Last Buffalo Hunt
The
Wright brother's, Orvile and Wilbur, were testing their ideas for manned flight,
when Quevedo Valora and his father Jefferson Enos, drove their cattle from
Kelton to Wheeler County, in 1902. They traveled by wagon and horseback in those
days, and even on foot. The Morgan's and the Hampton's met up in a wagon camp in
Shamrock sometime through those years. By 1915 there was only one road across
the Panhandle of Texas, and that was the year Claude Enos was born. This
happened to be the year of one of the "Last Buffalo Hunts". By that
time the Indians wore blue jeans and shirts. Only one was to hunt and kill the
Buffalo, from horseback with a blanket covered saddle. They prepared the bison
meat and held a Bar-B-Q the next day. The Army had killed the Indians horses in
Paladuro Canyon years before, forcing them to walk to the Fort Sill Oklahoma
Reservation. Quana Parker and some other old Chiefs, did get to go to Col.
Goodnight's ranch to see the buffalo for the last time. John Henry Faulk told
about when the residents around Mobeetie wanted to incorporate the town and give
it the name Sweetwater. Since there was already a community called Sweetwater,
an old Indian suggested they call their town Mobeetie; the Indian name for
Sweetwater. Everyone agreed, only to find out years later, Mobeetie, in Indian
tongue means "Buffalo Chips". Claude was the first to attend school in
Mobeetie, and seemed to excel in Track and Field events as well as academically.
He always told us kids how he graduated Valedictorian, head of his class. One
day a few years ago My wife Dot asked him "Granddad how many students were
in your' graduating class"? Daddy replied "OH I think there were
eleven or twelve". Oil and gas wells came to Mobeetie in the seventies.
Could be somebody got rich. Yeah the Oil Company's. PS Several thousands of people
showed up for that buffalo hunt, even more than lived in the Panhandle at the
time.
by Claude Morgan