Podcast Summary: The American West — Ep. 18 “From Safari American-Style to the Boone & Crockett Club”

Host: MeatEater Podcast Team
Guest/Presenter: Dan Flores
Date: December 30, 2025

Overview

This episode explores the evolution of hunting culture in the American West, from elite “safari American-style” expeditions of European nobles to the birth of the Boone & Crockett Club—a pivotal organization in North American conservation. Dan Flores, historian and writer, details the moral, social, and ecological context of 19th-century animal slaughter, contrasting aristocratic trophy hunts with American market hunting, and ultimately examining the origins and impact of conservation-minded sport hunting.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Elite Field Sports and the “American Safari”

[01:19–17:09]

• European elite field sports were about adventure, trophies, social status, and indulging in power over nature.
• The American West offered “prairie fever”—an almost feverish allure to Europeans, especially because of its abundance of charismatic megafauna like bison and grizzlies.
• Notable figures like Sir St. George Gore and Sir William Drummond Stewart imported the African safari ethos to the West—lavish hunting parties, luxury gear, and no moral restraint.

Notable Quote:

• “Field sports were all about adventure and trophies in far flung places…another way for men with means to express their status and the social power they had.” — Dan Flores, [04:10]

• Expeditions entailed massive logistical operations (50+ servants, multiple wagons, tons of ammunition).

• Gore’s infamous 1850s campaign slaughtered staggering numbers—over 4,000 buffalo, 105 bears, and thousands of other animals, shocking both Native and non-Native observers.

Notable Quote:

• “Success was measured in body counts, and almost no one in recorded history matched Gore’s bloodlust.” — Dan Flores, [11:40]

• Even at the time, some guides and party members recoiled at the scale of destruction, experiencing “horror as a tumbling ocean of buffalo blood.”

2. The Market Hunt and Accelerating Slaughter

[20:23–44:32]

• As railroads expanded, so did access—turning wildlife into commodities for distant markets.
• Western towns like Bozeman became hubs for shipping tonnes of skins, horns, and meat eastward; the 1870s saw tens of thousands of elk, deer, pronghorn, and bighorns collectively killed in single seasons.
• The first U.S. national park, Yellowstone (1872), initially focused on preserving land, not wildlife—but slaughter continued largely unchecked.
• Market hunting was so ingrained it was compared to other American freedoms, almost a “franchise” right.
• Despite laws and efforts, even game wardens faced lethal opposition as they tried to enforce new restrictions.

Notable Quote:

• “Nothing like it has ever been known in the history of the fur trade, the paper marveled.” — Dan Flores, relaying a contemporary account of the market hunt’s scale, [31:20]

3. The Shift Toward Conservation — The Boone & Crockett Club

[45:30–59:00]

• Amid this devastation, figures like Theodore Roosevelt & George Bird Grinnell recognized the pending extinction of American wildlife.
• In 1887, Roosevelt convened elite friends to form the Boone & Crockett Club, aiming to preserve game for sport hunting and to foster ethical hunting values.
• The club’s early efforts:
  • Supported Army intervention to stop poaching in Yellowstone and national parks.
  • Advocated the revolutionary idea that some federal lands should remain public rather than privatized.
  • Influenced landmark legislation (like the Lacey Act of 1900) to curb commercial exploitation.

Notable Quote:

• “The only way to preserve the manly sport was to save America’s animals.” — Dan Flores, [54:13]

• Early sport hunting ethics (fair chase, restraint, empathy for animals) emerged, influenced by both European models and new Darwinian ideas of humans’ kinship with animals.

Notable Quote:

• “It’s in a good measure based on a respect for the animals themselves … we and the beasts are kin.” — Dan Flores, [56:31], quoting Ernest Thompson Seton

4. Reflections: Anarchy, Heritage, and the Narrow Escape

[45:30–59:00 Discussion]

• Modern hunters tend to view the late 19th-century conservation era as their “origin story,” but Flores stresses that previous decades were defined more by anarchy than heritage.
• The prevailing attitude before conservation: freedom to kill for profit or pleasure, with little concern for posterity.
• The paradigm shift to conservation was contentious, dividing rural and urban constituencies and overturning deeply held notions of American freedom.
• Conservation’s roots are entangled with class and privilege, as well as utilitarian desire to ensure huntable populations remain.

Notable Quote:

• “It was class warfare around this idea, particularly to try to stop the market hunt, which had been going on since the 1620s. … Americans thought of this freedom to kill wild animals for money as part of the American franchise.” — Dan Flores, [50:21]

• Only the rise of organizations like the Boone & Crockett Club, and the activism of figures like Roosevelt and Grinnell, prevented total ecological collapse "just in time."

Notable Quote:

• “We righted the ship at almost the last moment… but these stories from earlier are pretty disturbing.” — Dan Flores, [48:57]

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “What did posterity ever do for me?” — Cornelius Vanderbilt, quoted by Dan Flores when discussing 19th-century attitudes toward future generations’ rights, [07:00]
• “If you had no moral conscience about what you were doing, it was exhilarating. ... But as the adrenaline ebbed ... there was not a living creature to be seen. Everything seemed dull, dead quiet, unutterably sad and melancholy.” — Windham Thomas Windham Quinn, 4th Earl of Dunraven, as quoted by Dan Flores, [41:30]
• “This episode about the elites operating without a conscience of any kind because they can, combined with the market hunt... doesn’t look as if 50 years out there’s going to be a resolution... it looks like we’re going to end up with nothing left.” — Dan Flores, [51:05]
• "It was almost... out of nowhere, but somehow they managed to put this together and bring a halt to what was happening." — Dan Flores, on the formation and impact of the Boone & Crockett Club, [52:33]

Important Segment Timestamps

• 01:19 – Dan Flores introduces the historical context, European hunting traditions, and the arrival of “American safari.”
• 06:00–13:00 – Stories of Sir William Drummond Stewart and Sir St. George Gore: excess, logistics, and unprecedented slaughter.
• 20:23–31:00 – The rise of market hunting and the unchecked destruction around Yellowstone and the plains.
• 45:30–50:21 – Discussion of heritage vs. history, anarchy of the frontier, and the shock of 19th-century slaughter.
• 50:21–56:31 – Struggles around early conservation: Boone & Crockett formation, resistance, and the rural–urban divide.
• 56:31–59:00 – The birth of sport hunting ethics, Darwin’s influence, and emerging empathy for wild animals.

Memorable Moments

• Gore’s downfall: Gore so angered local tribes by his senseless slaughter that the Lakotas confiscated his arms and possessions, sending him away naked and symbolically stripped of power. [~16:00]
• Dunraven’s realization: The thrill of an elk chase—and the subsequent “oppressive silence”—presages the ecological loss coming for “all wild America.” [41:30]

Tone and Style

Flores brings a historian’s depth, combining literary flair with clear-eyed moral perspective. He relays both awe and lament, threading stories of outsized characters with critical commentary on the sobering cost of heedless exploitation. The dialogue with the host adds contemporary hunter context and reflection, anchoring the episode’s deep history in today’s conservation debates.

Conclusion

Episode 18 of The American West with Dan Flores gives listeners a sweeping narrative about how American attitudes toward wildlife transformed from destructive license to the roots of conservation ethics, showcasing both the darkness of unrestrained human appetite and the “coup” that saved countless species. For those unfamiliar with this chapter in history, Flores’s storytelling and analysis spotlight both the loss and the hard-won victories behind the landscapes and hunting traditions of today.