"The Last Buffalo Hunt This State Will See"

Location: Mellody Road and Waukegan Road, Lake Forest

Nature By Design
"The Last Buffalo Hunt This State Will See"

Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1905.

In 1905, an incident occurred at Arcady Farm, Arthur Meeker’s country estate. His son Arthur Meeker Jr. recalled the scene in Chicago, With Love: “Not content with conventional animals alone, Father made various exotic experiments with peacocks and guinea-hens, a cage full of pheasants, some foxes, even a pair of buffaloes that eventually escaped and terrorized the countryside for a week before they could be shot.”
Though his memory added some drama – it was one buffalo that escaped, not two – it captures the essence of the tale. Arthur Meeker Sr. eventually had to hire four cowboys from the Chicago stock show to capture the defiant animal, which was finally killed after an eight-hour-chase the Tribune termed “the last ‘buffalo’ hunt this state will see.”