QUITAQUE, Texas – Caprock Canyons State Park is a grand landscape, even without one of its biggest natural features.
"At one time there were 30-to-60 million bison roaming the plains," said Caprock Canyons State Park Superintendent Donald Beard.
But in the late 1800's, the sun set quickly on what was once a proliferation in the panhandle. Skulls and carcasses stacked up, as bison were hunted to near extinction for their prized leather.
Coming to their defense was the wife of legendary rancher Charles Goodnight.
"There's a lot of tall tales about Charles Goodnight," said Montie Goodin, who was born in the Goodnight house. She says this is a true tale of how Goodnight's wife persuaded him to save several stray bison. "She fixed the bottles and bottle-fed the orphans."
More than century later, what Beard says started so small – with five or seven calves – has grown to a healthy herd of a hundred. And 31 of them are pregnant. We know because they were just rounded up for their annual exam.
"We do an overall checkup and make sure everyone is good," Beard said.
Bloodwork from the check-ups have already proven these bison have unique DNA. Beard proudly proclaims that there are no others like them.
He says the animals are the last of the Southern Plains herd, but some people prefer to call them the "Texas Bison."
"We have a right to now, because we're talking care of them," Montie Goodin said.
Corralled in a small part of Caprock Canyons for years, the bison recently went the way of the bald eagle, the deer, and the prairie dogs there. The bison are now free to roam the sprawling park, Beard said.
"This is basically Yellowstone in Texas [...] You have to wait for the bison to cross the road," Beard said. "This is the only place in Texas you can see these animals in this habitat – not behind a fence – we are not exhibiting these animals; we are restoring them to their native habitat."
But opening up the park to the herd also brought a new challenge -- a nearly 12,000-acre challenge.
Now that they are free to roam pretty much anywhere in the park, keeping an eye on them has become harder to do. Now Caprock Canyons is about to become the first state park in Texas with its own unmanned aerial vehicle to track down and check on wildlife.
"To find bison that have gone missing or anything like that, that's the new wrangler right there," said Dr. Raymond Matlack from West Texas A&M, pointing to the quad copter.
The device is being bought with donations collected by Penny Adams' seventh grade Texas history class at York Junior High in Conroe. She hopes that in addition to tracking the bison, the stunning birds-eye images captured from above might inspire Texans to come see the herd for themselves.
"It belongs to you and me and our kids and our kids in the future, so I would say make the trip," Adams said.
Beard acknowledges that it's quite a trip to see the bison.
"We're in the middle of nowhere pretty much," he said. "You don't accidentally drive to Caprock Canyons State Park."
But the bison have already drawn a relative stampede of visitors, as the visitation has doubled in the last three years. In the great expanse of the park, though, there's plenty more space for anyone else interested in seeing a true Lone Star story of survival.
"Texas is kind of like Mr. Goodnight. There are all sorts of tales about Texas, but this is a good tale," Goodin said.
