White Buffalo Statue

Snyder, Texas

Died 1876

Only seven white buffalo have ever been shot. One of them bit the sod in the present-day town of Snyder; a statue on its courthouse square commemorates the event. The man who shot it, J. Wright Moore, received so much favorable press that he was able to start his own ranch. From it, the town of Snyder was born.

For years the statue in Snyder was a fiberglass male. Then someone noticed that the white buffalo's hide (which is still in the den of Moore's granddaughter) is from a female. Snyder quickly raised funds, threw out the fiberglass bull, and now a classy bronze buffalo cow, painted white, marks the spot.

The Indians -- who revered the white buffalo and who were present when J. Wright Moore irreverently killed it -- have a legend: Someday the white buffalo will return, and when it does, so will the Indians. For the record, no white buffalo have been seen anywhere near Snyder in the last 100+ years.