Marshall McClung
Most people no doubt are familiar with the song “Home On The Range,” written in the early 1870s by Dr. Brewster M. Higley.
The first verse of the song contains the words “Where the buffalo roam."
However, many people may not know that buffalo were once found here also. There is historical evidence from the early Cherokees and white explorers that buffalo were here in western North Carolina.
In 1500, buffalo were widespread across the eastern United States. Desoto’s men mentioned in 1540 that they saw plenty of buffalo here and that the Cherokees presented them with buffalo skins. One wonders if this happened on Hooper Bald, since there is what is thought to be Spanish writing, “Predarms Casada," and the date "Sep. 1615" located on a large rock there.
The ancient Cherokee Cheesequire – who is buried in the Ground Squirrel community of Graham County – spoke of seeing buffalo in a large field, near the beginning of the Cheoah River at what is now the town of Robbinsville. The way he describes it leads one to believe that the field was located at the site of present-day Rodney Orr Bypass. I can remember when the bypass was indeed a large field, containing cow pastures, cornfields, and tobacco fields. There were no developments of any kind there then.
Buffalo were most likely on our high mountain meadows such as Hooper Bald, Big and Little Huckleberry, Oak Knob and Whig Meadows. The buffalo were present until at least the mid 1700s, but were in heavy decline due to over-hunting. The last reported buffalo killed at that time in western North Carolina was in 1799, near Bull Creek in present-day Buncombe County.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence that we had buffalo in Graham County is the fact that we have areas such Buffalo Creek (named "East" and "West Buffalo," when Santeetlah Lake covered the road that connected the two) and there is also Little Buffalo Creek. The names appear on some very old maps.
The buffalo made another appearance in Graham County when businessman George Gordon Moore had a hunting preserve constructed in the Hooper Bald area in 1910. He started bringing in wild animals in 1912 to the preserve which included buffalo.
The last buffalo was shot by Bill Moore in 1926.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He is retired from the U.S. Forest Service and can be reached via email, mcclungs828@gmail.com.