R. Dick Bussell

The Handbook of Texas describes how hunters like Bussell worked. A typical camp of four men, two hunters and two skinners, set out for three months with 250 pounds of lead, 4,000 primers and three cans of powder. A hunter tried to make a stand, shooting slowly from downwind so the herd stayed put; a good one killed 1,000 to 2,000 a season. Skinners pegged the hides to dry, sorted them, and sold them to buyers for about $2 a bull hide. The southern herd was gone by 1878.

What the plaque says

(1845-1935) Famed hunter, in 1870s killed buffalo on this square; was one of the first men to hunt commercially. Came to Texas in 1874. In 1887, helped to survey the townsite here, where he became lifelong resident, operating a livery stable and wagon yard. Is buried in local cemetery. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Citadelle Art Museum — steps away
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — steps away
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 1.2 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 5.1 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.

More markers nearby

• John Hemphill — steps away
• First Church Bell — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Canadian — steps away
• Moody Hotel — steps away