1-1     By:  Turner (Senate Sponsor - Cain)                  H.C.R. No. 250
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 2001;
 1-3     May 11, 2001, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Administration; May 11, 2001, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; May 11, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                         HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-7           WHEREAS, The historic JA Ranch bison herd at Caprock Canyons
 1-8     State Park, a remnant of the great southern herd that was
 1-9     extinguished between 1874 and 1878, represents the heritage of the
1-10     American West as few other emblems can; and
1-11           WHEREAS, By 1884, buffalo hunters in the north had finished
1-12     clearing the plains of the bison, the magnificent animal that had
1-13     sustained the Plains Indians and that, by virtue of its immense
1-14     numbers, had posed a serious impediment to the advance of farming
1-15     and ranching; and
1-16           WHEREAS, With the buffalo in Texas eliminated, cattlemen
1-17     quickly moved onto the grasslands; among them was the legendary
1-18     Charles Goodnight, who established the JA Ranch in the Panhandle's
1-19     Palo Duro and Mulberry canyons; at the urging of his wife, Mary
1-20     Ann, Mr. Goodnight captured a few of the remaining wild bison in
1-21     order to save the animal from total extinction; and
1-22           WHEREAS, Though Mr. Goodnight experimented with breeding
1-23     buffalo to cattle, a pure strain of the animal survived, and for
1-24     some 120 years these bison continued to find sanctuary at the JA
1-25     Ranch; one of five herds in the United States from which most
1-26     present-day buffalo herds have descended, the JA Ranch herd has
1-27     furnished stock for Yellowstone National Park, as well as for large
1-28     zoos and ranches; and
1-29           WHEREAS, In 1996, JA Ranch owners Monte Ritchie and Ninia
1-30     Bivins, descendants of one of Mr. Goodnight's partners, Cornelia
1-31     Wadsworth Ritchie Adair, donated their bison herd to the Texas
1-32     Parks and Wildlife Department, and in the fall of 1997 the
1-33     department began DNA testing to separate the pure bison from the
1-34     hybrids; animals identified as pure buffalo were given to Caprock
1-35     Canyons State Park, whose nearly 15,200 acres in Briscoe, Floyd,
1-36     and Hall counties are situated on land that was formerly part of
1-37     the JA Ranch; altogether, some 30 bison from the ranch were added
1-38     to the park's existing herd of 14 buffalo, which at the time was
1-39     the largest state-owned herd in Texas; and
1-40           WHEREAS, While the park protects the buffalo, the animals
1-41     promise in turn to benefit the park's ecosystem by fostering the
1-42     health of the grasslands; as bison graze, their hooves thatch the
1-43     grass and simultaneously press new grass seed into the earth,
1-44     planting it in a most effective manner; and
1-45           WHEREAS, The bison herd begun by Charles and Mary Ann
1-46     Goodnight has played a major role in preserving the buffalo, and it
1-47     is altogether fitting that a herd so closely associated with the
1-48     heritage of the Lone Star State be recognized by this body; now,
1-49     therefore, be it
1-50           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
1-51     hereby commemorate the exceptional importance of the JA Ranch bison
1-52     herd and express its pleasure that this surviving group of the
1-53     southern herd should find a public home on its ancient range.
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