Historical Marker
Buffalo Springs
Historical marker location:
Bison, Oklahoma
( Marker is on U.S. 81, ΒΌ mile south of County Road E0550, on the right when traveling south.)
The springs were a favorite rest stop on the Chisholm Trail on long cattle drives from Texas to Kansas. A pioneer merchant, trader, and explorer, Jesse Chisholm, a mixed-blood Cherokee, established the trail through western Indian Territory before the Civil War. Texas cattlemen used the trail until the late 1880s to move millions of cattle to northern markets. The trail ran from Montague County, Texas, to Abilene, Kansas. Buffalo Springs was an important gathering place for settlers making the land run on April 22, 1889.
The first land run in Oklahoma took place on April 22, 1889, when more than 50,000 people rushed to claim free land in the Unassigned Lands, which had been opened up for settlement by the federal government.