Why Red Dog?

Southwest Kansas is a unique region of the Sunflower State. Our climate, landforms, history, and cultural makeup are not found in other areas of Kansas. Children and their families in Southwest Kansas deserve the opportunity to learn about all of the things that make their region unique, and children and families from other regions would be astounded by all they can learn and experience in Southwest Kansas. Our project is to begin Red Dog Children's Museum, a Children's Museum specifically focused on educating children and families visiting from anywhere in the nation of the unique qualities of southwest Kansas. The museum exhibits will be developed specifically centered around Southwest Kansas themes. The name "Red Dog" is a great example of our commitment to regional education; at the museum you won't find a big red dog named Clifford, instead you will learn about the bison calves that used to roam wild in the area, commonly referred to as "red dogs" because of the red-orange hue of their hide.  

+ Charles "Buffalo" Jones

      Charles Jesse Jones, known as "Buffalo Jones" (January 31, 1844 - October 1, 1919), was an American frontiersman, farmer, rancher, hunter and conservationist.  He cofounded Garden City, Kansas.  He has been cited by the National Archives as one of the "preservers of the American bison".  He was the first game warden of Yellowstone National Park.

     Buffalo Jones got his moniker by being a skilled buffalo hide hunter.  But he soon found himself switching his focus from killing the American bison to preserving them.  He settled down on a 160-acre homestead in Finney County, Kansas, helping to cofound Garden City.  He lobbied for Garden City to be the county seat as well as to bring the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad through town.  He donated land for the county courthouse and for a commercial block and served as Garden City's first mayor.  

     After the 1886 blizzard that killed off thousands of cattle, Buffalo Jones tried unsuccessfully to breed cattle with the American bison in order to produce a heartier, yet gentler, cattle breed; "Cattalo" he called them, yet he could never get them to breed.  He proved to be quite successful in taming and training the American Bison, however, eventually growing a private herd to around 150 head, one of the largest in the country.     

     Financial troubles in the recession of the 1890's forced Jones to sell his herd to pay off his debts.  Toward the end of the 1890's, Jones could be found in Washington D.C., petitioning the Secretary of the Interior to relocate one of the last remaining wild buffalo herds to Yellowstone National Park.  Poachers had dwindled bison numbers next to nothing, with this herd comprising of around 30.  

      Instead, Jones was given 20,000 acres to maintain a buffalo herd down in the New Mexico territory.  However, in 1901 he was given $15,000 for an enclosure and stock to replenish Yellowstone's diminished herd and in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt appoints Buffalo Jones as Yellowstone's first game warden.  Buffalo Jones would hold this post for five years and go on to explore other pursuits while still collecting and breeding buffalo.  

     Less than a century later, the Yellowstone herd numbers near 4,000. His finest tribute may be a modern one; in 2000 Robert Pickering, a deputy director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, would write, “Bison may be the first American environmental success story.” 

* From Wikipedia

+ Sandsage Bison Range 

      The Bison Range was established in 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson granted 3,021 acres of the Kansas National Forest holdings to the State of Kansas for use as a game preserve. Another 649 acres has been added to the original land grant bringing the property to its current size of 3,760 acres.  This 3,760 acre area provides visitors a unique opportunity to view the sandsage prairie ecosystem of southwest Kansas. Not only is the area noted for its unique plant community, but it is also home to the oldest publicly owned bison herd in Kansas. 

* From the City of Garden City website 

+ Garden City High School

         GCHS have had the Buffalo as their mascot since 1903.  There was a time in the late 1910s when they switched to "Sodbusters" but that changed back to the Buffalo in 1920 and has remained the Buffalo for over 100 years.  

* From Brett Marshall, Garden City Historian

+ Garfield Early Childhood Center

          Garfield Early Childhood Center recently unveiled their new mascot. They are now the Little Buffaloes.

“The new mascot ties in with the school district better than the old mascot,” said Andrea Baker, Garfield Early Childhood Center Principal. 

The old mascot was the Little Horns, which was a little cow with horns.

“Our students start out their educational journey at Garfield Early Childhood Center and will eventually finish their high school education at Garden City High School.  It really ties in the whole school district because once a Buffalo, always a Buffalo,” Baker said.

Garfield Early Childhood Center houses the early childhood special education programs and the ELF (Early Learning for Four-year-olds) programs for the district. The school was created as a part of the same long-range facilities plan that gave the community the current high school, Horace Good Middle School and Abe Hubert Elementary School.
The history of the school itself is perhaps the most interesting of all the schools in the district, in that it has burned down twice.
It was originally Northside School, built in the 1880s. Little of note besides normal education happened there until 1900, when it burned down and was rebuilt. That school stood for the next 75 years until it burned down and rebuilt a second time.
The center is named for James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. Garfield is remembered for proposing a universal education system funded from the federal level.

* from greatergc.com - Sept 22, 2022