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Dr. Buckley T. Foster, PhD is a Nineteenth-Century Southern and Arkansas History Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Arkansas. His first book, Sherman’s Mississippi Campaign, started as his dissertation at Mississippi State University. His latest monograph, So Great Was the Slaughter: Market Hunters, Sportsmen, and Wildlife Conservation in Arkansas, covers the end of market hunting, the birth of the modern sportsman, and the origins of wildlife conservation in Arkansas, 1800-1925. The University of Alabama Press has published both. His next research project involves the Federal side of early wildlife conservation, the Migratory Bird Law/Act, and the fight between non-resident sportsmen and market hunters at Big Lake in Arkansas. Presently, he and co-editor Chris Mortenson have edited the diary of one of Stonewall Jackson’s colonels (one believed lost for over forty years), which the University of Tennessee Press is reviewing. His website and blog, arkansaswildlifehistory.com, contain images and research about Arkansas’s rich hunting, fishing, and conservation history. He has written for Arkansas Wildlife, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, and Greenhead Magazine.

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To order: So Great Was The Slaughter

Website:arkansaswildlifehistory.com

About the book

An account of the rise of sportsmen and conservation groups in Arkansas who made common cause to save the state’s wildlife resources

So Great Was the Slaughter reveals the untold story of Arkansas conservation pioneers who saved the state’s game and fish populations. As Arkansas entered the twentieth century, the national demand for meat combined with the ability to ship millions of animals to hungry cities like New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago had driven many species, including bison and passenger pigeons, to extinction in Arkansas. Many others, including deer, bear, turkey, quail, and fish, were in danger of disappearing.

In response, an unlikely coalition of Arkansas sportsmen, hunters, and conservationists created a vision for conservation legislation, game laws, and the establishment of fish hatcheries and wildlife refuges. With support from influential outsiders like E. A. McIlhenny and the United States Biological Survey, they waged a long battle against entrenched political and commercial interests.

Buckley Foster’s meticulous research reveals how these pioneers fought to save the state’s wildlife resources from destruction and laid the foundations for sustainable, modern wildlife management in Arkansas. So Great Was the Slaughter will fascinate hunters, conservationists, historians, and those interested in the history of wildlife conservation and conflicts between market hunters and sportsmen in the United States and the American South.