Winner of the 2026 J.G. Ragsdale Book Award So Great Was the Slaughter reveals the untold story of Arkansas conservation pioneers who saved the state’s game and fish populations. As Arkansas entered the twentieth century, the national demand for meat combined with the ability to ship millions of animals to hungry cities like New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago had driven many species, including bison and passenger pigeons, to extinction in Arkansas. Many others, including deer, bear, turkey, quail, and fish, were in danger of disappearing. In response, an unlikely coalition of Arkansas sportsmen, hunters, and conservationists created a vision for conservation legislation, game laws, and the establishment of fish hatcheries and wildlife refuges. With support from influential outsiders like E. A. McIlhenny and the United States Biological Survey, they waged a long battle against entrenched political and commercial interests. Buckley Foster’s meticulous research reveals how these pioneers fought to save the state’s wildlife resources from destruction and laid the foundations for sustainable, modern wildlife management in Arkansas. So Great Was the Slaughter will fascinate hunters, conservationists, historians, and those interested in the history of wildlife conservation and conflicts between market hunters and sportsmen in the United States and the American South. Winner of 2026 J.G. Ragsdale Book Award: Since 2002, the Arkansas Historical Association has annually presented the J. G. Ragsdale Book Award in Arkansas History for the best book-length nonfiction historical study of any aspect of Arkansas history. “Foster’s passion for Arkansas’s wildlife and conservation shines through in this book. His research in primary materials is simply outstanding―I doubt anyone has read and assembled more material on Arkansas hunting and fishing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” ―Drew E. Swanson, author of A Man of Bad Reputation: The Murder of John Stephens and the Contested Landscape of North Carolina Reconstruction “ So Great Was the Slaughter is a fascinating story of divided interests that reveals how grudgingly attitudes changed regarding the human relationship with the natural world, particularly the customary right to hunt and fish without limits. . . . Foster’s work has the capacity to inspire similar studies in other southern states (and beyond).” ―Julia Brock, coeditor of Leisure, Plantations, and the Making of a New South: The Sporting Plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry and Red Hills Region, 1900–1940 " So Great was the Slaughter is the first serious treatment of the fascinating and nuanced history of hunting and fishing in Arkansas and the origins of the state’s wildlife conservation efforts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. . . . [Foster delivers] a focused look at the perennial tug of war between rights and responsibilities in American conservation and environmental history." ―J. Blake Perkins, author of Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defiance in the Ozarks "Buckley T. Foster's ambitious and original book is impressive. It is a tale worth the telling, and Foster tells it exceedingly well." ―Morris S. Arnold, United States Circuit Judge and historian of colonial Arkansas "Rare is a book that challenges, if not fundamentally overturns, a scholarly consensus in American History. . . . Foster’s So Great Was the Slaughter is a triumphant statement that is radically innovative yet will surely hold a long-enduring and widespread appeal far beyond the narrow confines of just an initiated few. Behold, a true magnum opus." ―John K. Day, author of The Southern Manifesto: Massive Resistance and the Fight to Preserve Segregation “. . . the richness of Foster's narrative, particularly its impressive array of primary sources, makes So Great Was the Slaughter engaging and essential reading for historians of land management, wildlife preservation, and natural conservation.”  ―Missouri Historical Review “Foster’s passion for Arkansas’s wildlife and conservation shines through in this book. His research in primary materials is simply outstanding—I doubt anyone has read and assembled more material on Arkansas hunting and fishing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” —Drew E. Swanson, author of A Man of Bad Reputation: The Murder of John Stephens and the Contested Landscape of North Carolina Reconstruction “ So Great Was the Slaughter is a fascinating story of divided interests that reveals how grudgingly attitudes changed regarding the human relationship with the natural world, particularly the customary right to hunt and fish without limits. . . . Foster’s work has the capacity to inspire similar studies in other southern states (and beyond).” —Julia Brock, coeditor of Leisure, Plantations, and the Making of a New South: The Sporting Plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry and Red Hills Region, 1900–1940 " So Great w