10/25/2024
A Pennsylvania Bison Hunt
Bison with Persimmon-Apple-Redbud Relish and Red Cabbage
The bison, or misnamed -buffalo, is known as a symbol of the American West, but bison used to roam in PA too, the East Coast had a species of bison known as the Wood Bison
The inspiration for this dish comes from a book published in 1915 by Henry Wharton Shoemaker- A Pennsylvania Bison Hunt
The author gives the range of the bison as:
"...approximately just west of the Susquehanna...west of Harrisburg, of Liverpool, of Sunbury, Lewisburg, Lock Haven, Emporium and Bradford. West of that the Buffalo's range extended unbrokenly to the Rocky Mountains". He also quotes an old-timer, named Mr. Quiggle, from Clinton County, and he remembers the bison and the famous "Buffalo Path". "When the persimmons became ripe on the Bald Eagle Mountains it was time for the bison's southern migration. In single file they crossed the Susquehanna River just below the Great Island, a short distance from Lock Haven... When the red bud was in bloom it was time to look for the Northerly migration.
The mass slaughter of the bison in the Midwest was done to harm Native Americans. The author's anger at the destruction of the bison takes up most of the book. We'll end with one of his rants, and hope we have learned from the past.
"It was only when the white hunters came, men of lowly origin, whose forebears were not allowed to carry fi****ms, or enter in the game preserves, who slaughtered the bison without rime or reason. They killed for the sheer love of gore and brutality, they killed until ammunition and strength became exhausted, they killed lest somebody else later on have something to kill. In Pennyslvania these rapacious beings speedily wiped out the tens of thousands of buffaloes, as well as the moose, elk, brown bears, beaver, otters, fishers, heath c***s, paroquets, pileated woodpeckers, wild pigeons, and other valuable and necessary animals and birds. It is a horrible story to relate, but it is not ended, as the descendants of these gauche marauders have ravished and burned forests, and now their factories pollute our rivers and streams and kill the fish."
