Allen High School - People Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

Page 15 text:

COVERLD BRIDGF Acuoss JORD-TN CRLHC Each winter the herd is put unto winter quarters Before it is let loose on the range in late spring each buffalo deer and elk must undergo an antiseptic dipping This makes him gust a little better off than a wild animal By General Trexlers will this remarkable private preserve becam the property of the City of Allentown in l935 Between I936 and 1939 a government progect set to work to beautify the spot Twelve miles of paved roads were built picmcking places were cleared fences were improved and sections needing reforesting were reforested The entire area of the park lies in the watersh d of the picturesque Jordan Creek The river the meadows the grassy slopes and shaded forests make the Game Preserve a place of unusual natural beauty ln the year l94O more than twenty thousand persons from all The Preserve has had many interesting and unexpected uses lts prrmary purpose is to bea public park Visitors are welcomed and provision as made for pucnucknng parties The quiet and naturalness of the area has attracted scores of rare and beautiful birds egrets herons kingtishers and eagles The place is rich in wild life Then again buftalo from the Trexler Lehigh Preserve have been sent to zoos and other preserves in this section of the country Buffalo meat is by no means the most tender or delicious for most people but there is still some demand for it and the Preserve fills that demand each year Restaurant chains in New York and New Jersey have used Lehigh County buftalo as a special delicacy for the menus The meat is really quite cheap ten cents a pound but you must take the whole buffalo when you buy it ln this way the managementof the Preserve has devised a profitable way of keeping down the numbers of the herd Along with the bequest of the game preserve came an annual endowment that has proved more than adequate to care for the prolect The Comus is happy to present in this, its third series of Allentown puctures, photo graphs taken from various places in the Game Preserve . . I I I . . . . l . , . . . Q , e I . I . . . u U . . . 3 . ' . I I I sections of the nation visited the preserve. lts reputation has spread far and wide. I I . I - . . . . . U I - . I I

Page 14 text:

-2-.J-'f s ,BNA miie Allentown Game Preserve Ten miles north of Allentown lies the latest addition to the city park system the Trexler Lehigh Game Preserve Here for the past thirty years have roam d deer elk and bison in eleven hundred acres of natural surroundings lt was in the year l9ll that the late General Harry C Trexler carried through his authories as Buffalo Bill Pawnee Bill and the naturalist William C Hornaday and had become convmced that buffalo could thrive on eastern grazing land Had not the General recalled buffalo been found in the East in the days of Daniel Boone? So he fenced off a large portion of his farmland in the north part of the county and ordered three buffalo and about fifty deer and elk They arrived in Schnecksville in huge crates looking like a circus procession Schnecks ville meanwhile had declared an unofficial holiday and the entire population turned out to watch the unloadmg and the release of the strange cargo As each crate was opened an animal would emerge and to the astonishment of th people crowded around would fleet out across the hill into the enclosure One not very obliging bull buffalo however set about goring a bystander lt was only the quick thanking of another man who threw a coat over the animals head that saved him One of the other buffalo was almost ready to die when he arrived One day a playful young bull gave him a push and he fell over dead ln the newspaper appeared a glowmg account of how the young bull and the old bull battled for several days and nights for the leadership of the herd how the two butifaloes churned up acres of ground threw clods of dirt as they locked horns kicked and gored one another and how finally the old bull was subdued in death From that time to the present there have been many real battles for leadership on the order of this imaginary one These huge and noble beasts eat reproduce battle for supremacy in the preserve lust as they would in a completely wild state Now in l94l, the herd numbers around twenty animals altogether This is too many for eleven hundred acres so that it as necessary biennially to keep all the animals in a fenced half of the park while the ground in the other half develops a sturdy growth of grazing grass sf, T , A ,. J, V . A A . K ,h y . ,, ,f . . . . . I plan of establishing a herd of bison on his Lehigh County estate. He had consulted such . . , . I . I . . ' I . . . . I . . . . i - . I . I .. . I . . 4 . I . e I I . . . . . .

Page 16 text:

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