J. Wright Mooar was something of a pioneer in the 1870s. He started the decade working as a woodcutter in Kansas, but soon switched to buffalo hunting. By 1873, Mooar was leading hunting parties into the Texas Panhandle—opening up the region to settlement and cofounding the town of Snyder.
It was near that spot that he had one of his signature moments in 1876. Mooar bagged a rare white buffalo. Over the years, Mooar received numerous offers to buy the skin—including from Theodore Roosevelt. He refused; it is still in his family.