An acute observer at the time might have called him "Buffalo Scotty," but that would have presumed a knowledge of the future. Besides, Buffalo Bill Cody had taken that sobriquet. Then too, they were almost polar opposites.
Cody was instrumental in almost exterminating the buffalo (bison) from the Great Plains — he killed more than 4,000 in a single year — and James "Scotty" Philip is credited as the "Man Who Saved the Buffalo."
Let's follow the hoofprints into the past to determine how he earned that title.
James Philip was born in Scotland in 1858. It was a time when tales of the American West were even getting visibility in rural Scotland. Men were finding riches, facing death and becoming famous on the new frontier. Thus, at age 15, James left his ancestral home to travel to Victoria, Kansas where his brother George lived in the little settlement.
Victoria, Kansas had little to offer but menial labor and he could do that anywhere. So, when stories of gold discovery in the Black Hills of South Dakota hit the Kansas newspapers James (now Scotty) Philip headed for the Hills.
However, the Black Hills had been ceded to the Sioux as a "holy land" in perpetuity so gold miners were discouraged; for a while by the Army until money trumped honor.
After getting kicked out of the Black Hills a couple of times Scotty bounced around as a government teamster and then a cowboy a ranch near Fort Robinson, Nebraska (where the Army killed Crazy Horse a few years later).
At age 21, he met and married Sarah Laribee and they moved to Clay Creek where he established a ranch and a freight operation hauling goods from Nebraska to the Black Hills.
He was a good businessman and the freight business thrived as did his herd of cattle. That allowed him to move his ranching to the mouth of Grindstone Creek along the Bad River (others may have been worse) in western South Dakota in 1881; he was then 23 years old. This ranch site was near the present day little town of Philip, South Dakota.
Scotty and his neighbor established a U.S. Post Office, which was named after him and later moved into the new town bearing his name.
At the time, the area where he was ranching was on an Indian reservation and he was only able to continue his operation because his wife, Sarah, was part native American.
As he was building his herd, Scotty met another rancher named Pete Dupree. Pete's son Fred had rescued five buffalo calves from the last great buffalo hunt in 1881.
After Pete's death Scotty decided that he would prevent the buffalo (American bison) from falling into extinction and bought the little herd (which had grown to more than 50) from Dupree's estate.
In 1901, Scotty and some of his hands drove the herd to a special pasture he had constructed specifically for the bison.
For a decade, the herd grew and prospered then Scotty died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried in a cemetery near his buffalo pasture and as hundreds of mourners came to pay their respects many of the buffalo — now numbering more than a thousand — came down to observe the procession. Newspapers at the time suggested that the bison were "showing their respect."
The family continued to foster the bison herd and through the years it has helped stock and restock other herds throughout the U.S. including the large herd at Custer State Park.
In 1958, James "Scotty" Philip was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
He was a unique man, hard working with his own sense of destiny. Our view of the West would be far different without the experience of observing close-hand the magnificent creatures that were the staple of Plains Indian life (the herd at Custer State Park in South Dakota roam across the acres and frequently close to the cars of motorists, mine included).
• In a related item, this is the 25th anniversary of the filming of "Dances With Wolves," Kevin Costner's moving portrayal of life with the Lakota in the late 1800s. The buffalo scenes were filmed on Roy Houck's ranch north of Fort Pierre, South Dakota. The entire production was filmed on South Dakota locations, the last scenes in Spearfish Canyon.
Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.