Echoes of herds: Buffalo once roamed Unicoi County

It's nearly unfathomable today to imagine that once upon a time herds of buffalo, or American bison, really did roam for hundreds of years throughout what is now Unicoi County. For Unicoi resident Johnny Lynch, buffalo and Native American culture have always been fascinating subjects for study. Indeed, he became so fascinated by buffalo, also known as American bison, that the former Unicoi mayor began keeping buffalo at his farm in Unicoi. "Just the history, knowing that they used to be right there, it gets you thinking about the past," Lynch said while reflecting on why he chose to begin farming buffalo. Lynch said buffalo walked local lands for hundreds of years as recently as the late 1700s, but overhunting by both Native Americans as well as European settlers caused their numbers to rapidly during the 1600s and 1700s. It is no coincidence that so many things in the area are share the namesake "buffalo". With stories of bison being shared across Tennessee and the Appalachian Mountains, that name is the last remnant of their existence in the area. "It's the name of everything," Lynch said. "We bought a little, old brick building when I got out of the service across the road from here, and I opened up a taxidermy shop. I didn't know what to call it, so I just named it Buffalo Taxidermist." From Buffalo River and Buffalo Valley to Buffalo Creek and Buffalo Mountain, these animals left a strong and strange imprint on a region that they have not inhabited for at least a couple of hundred years. But the buffalo did roam the region, according to an article posted on the Tennessee State Museum's website. Joseph Driesenga, author of a 2025 article posted to the website titled "Bison in Tennessee: A Forgotten Part of Tennessee's Natural History," dates the disappearance of bison from East Tennessee as some time before 1800. "In middle and west Tennessee, it took longer," he wrote. "By 1823 it was believed there were no more bison in the state." Aside from the abundance of buffalo namesakes, perhaps the buffalo's biggest contribution to the region came from buffalo trails or traces. These refer to pathways that the passage of herds of these large animals made in the ground during their migration trips. The herds would move from area to another along the same general path multiple times over the course of many years and create deep rutted, wide paths that Native Americans used to navigate long before traditional roads ever existed. Early longhunters in the state discovered both the herds and the trails. The trails, in particular, became invaluable as the settlers used them to help create the first road systems. "You had the old buffalo trace that ran out from Greene County of course, and I don't know the exact route, but the Old Stagecoach Road around here was made using the buffalo trail," Lynch said. "The buffalo had already padded out the path. When they would come through, there was so many of them that they'd make their own roads." As far as the temperament and anatomy of the buffalo, Lynch said that anatomically, they're not too different from a cow. The two share many common characteristics, but Lynch said it's the temperament and threat level that really sets the two creatures apart from one another. This also becomes the challenge when trying to raise them. "The hardest thing about raising buffalo is trying to work them – they're so hard to work," Lynch said. "You can't just get in there with them unless you're suicidal. They go wild quickly, and they're dangerous." Lynch said the real danger come from the fact that an individual buffalo is a fast and athletic animal. He noted that buffalo can run faster than horses on average, and they can stop their momentum on a dime. That combination of speed, agility and power is why the Native Americans respected them so much, according to Lynch. These days, Lynch's herd usually numbers between 14 and 16 depending on how many calves he decides to keep each year. He said that number is about the "sweet spot" because if he keeps many more, he would have to open up more room for their pasture. With each buffalo living to roughly 20 years old, he added that his herd stays very tight. The mystery persists about the former status of buffalo in the region, even amongst biologists. Records in East Tennessee about wild bison are scarce, but several early explorers found large herds elsewhere in the state. French Lick, an historic salt lick and eventual trading post located along the Cumberland River in what is now downtown Nashville, provided some of the first historic reports of bison in the state. With the name buffalo attached to multiple locations and geographic features in this county, one thing's certain – the mystique of these large, lumbering creatures looks likely to endure as long as individuals like Lynch remain fascinated by a time when the buffalo really did roam the region.