Souvenir Sunday: travels with Jumbo

EPSON MFP image

Found this souvenir postcard of “Jumbo” – an animal produced by cross-breeding an American bison with beef cattle.

These days they call that a beefalo. But back in 1929, when Jumbo was born, he was dubbed a catalo.

According to the promotional blurb on the envelope sold with this postcard, catalo held the promise of being a larger, superior breed of livestock.

Among the advantages:

“Longer life span, resist T.B and Blackleg, dress a greater percent of higher-priced cuts of beef, bear valuable fur, and the cows give good, rich milk and require no shelter in very cold climate.”

To spread the word and raise money to develop the new breed, in 1935 L.C. Wilson of Colville, Washington hooked 1,200-pound Jumbo up to a covered wagon and together they visited 23 states and traveled over 10,000 miles around the country, traveling at the rate of 2 miles per hour and an average of 10 or 15 miles a day.

No word if Wilson’s wife identified went along for the ride.

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