BUFFALO LEG BONE CANDLE HOLDER – FRONTIER RELIC
FOUND IN THE AREA OF FT. LARNED, KANSAS: The
plains of Kansas were the scene of the earliest
commercial buffalo hunts that began in earnest during
the post Civil War years. Obtained over thirty years
ago from a farm sale in the area of Ft. Larned, Kansas,
this Candle Holder, fashioned from the joint end of a
buffalo leg bone, is a wonderful relic from that period
of frontier history.
When the Kansas herds were wiped out and the surviving
buffalo were pushed west by the continuing hunting
pressure, all that remained of the vast herds were the
skeletons. The accounts of those who followed the
hunters document the enormous quantity of buffalo bones
that littered the prairie – in sufficient numbers that
it became profitable to gather the bones and freight
them to the rail heads to be sold as the base material
in the manufacture of fertilizer. Arriving on the heels
of the hide hunters, the settlers that established the
farms and ranches continued to find the grim evidence of
the once great herds on their property for many years.
The obvious age of this piece, evidenced by the worn
edges, wonderful patina and apparent aging of the bone,
indicates it is certainly from this early frontier
period. The shear mass of the bone is much larger than
the skeletal structure of domestic cattle, and there is
no doubt in my mind that it is a buffalo bone.
Measuring 4 ¾” high, 2” wide at the top and 3 ¼” x 3 ¾”
wide at the bottom, this candle holder still stands
stable on a table surface. The marrow cavity in the
center of the bone was cleaned out to a diameter of 1 –
1 ¼” and still retains the old wax and wick of the
original candle. NOTE: A .45-70
cartridge is shown next to the bone in the photograph
below to provide a size comparison and is not included
in this offering.
That such rare primitive pieces such as this exist at
all today is truly amazing, and it is very likely it
survived in the family’s farm house as a keepsake from
those years when their forebears first claimed their
homestead, and this candle provided a comforting light
in a humble sod cabin.
SOLD
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