Butcher's Crossing

Published in 1960, Butcher’s Crossing is a revisionist Western novel by American author John Williams. The book follows a young Harvard dropout who ventures into the Kansas wilderness in the 1870s on a buffalo-hunting expedition, confronting the brutal realities of the American frontier and the destruction of the natural world. The novel explores themes that include The Deconstruction of the American Frontier Myth, Human Arrogance Versus Nature’s Indifference, and Disillusionment and the Loss of Idealism.

Williams was an American novelist, poet, and professor who spent most of his academic career teaching literature and creative writing at the University of Denver. Despite his considerable talent, Williams remained largely obscure during his lifetime, publishing only four novels: Nothing But the Night (1948), his debut novel, which explores psychological trauma; Butcher’s Crossing (1960); Stoner (1965), a portrait of an academic’s life that eventually became his most celebrated work; and Augustus (1972), an epistolary novel about the Roman emperor, which won the National Book Award. His reputation was posthumously revived when Stoner was rediscovered and became an unexpected international bestseller in 2013. Butcher’s Crossing was adapted into a film in 2022.

This guide refers to the 1960 New York Review of Books edition. 

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of animal cruelty and animal death, substance use, sexual content, and death.

Plot Summary

Will Andrews, a young man from Boston and a former Harvard student, arrives in the frontier town of Butcher’s Crossing, Kansas, seeking experience beyond academic life. He rents a room at the local hotel and looks for J. D. McDonald, a buffalo hide trader whom his father (a minister) once knew. McDonald offers Andrews clerical work but warns him against joining the buffalo hunters, claiming that they’ll ruin him. Despite this, Andrews insists on seeing the West firsthand and asks to meet hunters. McDonald directs him to Miller, a skilled hunter, and urges Andrews to follow Miller’s instructions if he goes.

At the town bar, Andrews meets Miller, Charley Hoge (a one-handed wagon driver), and Francine (a sex worker). Miller describes a hidden valley in the Colorado mountains where a massive herd of buffalo still survives. Though most hunting grounds are exhausted, Miller believes that the herd remains untouched. Andrews agrees to finance the expedition in exchange for a share of the profits. Fred Schneider, an experienced skinner, reluctantly joins the group after being paid in advance. In addition, Andrews forms an uneasy romantic connection with Francine before the expedition begins, but he runs from her room before they’re intimate.

The four men depart across the Kansas plains in late August. As they travel west, they encounter signs of the buffalo trade’s decline and the harsh realities of frontier life. Miller leads them off the Smoky Hill Trail in search of a shortcut, and they nearly die of dehydration before finally finding water. Tensions rise, especially between Miller and Schneider, but the group continues. After weeks of travel, they reach the mountains, and they eventually discover the hidden valley, filled with thousands of buffalo.

The men establish camp and begin hunting. Miller systematically slaughters the buffalo, killing far more than the group can reasonably process. Andrews and Schneider skin the animals while Charley hauls hides. The work is brutal, exhausting, and relentless. The killing initially horrifies Andrews, but he gradually becomes numb. Miller grows increasingly obsessive and detached, continuing the slaughter despite the growing piles of rotting carcasses. When winter arrives suddenly, a blizzard traps the men in the valley. Schneider attempts to leave but ultimately stays, and the group prepares to survive the winter using buffalo hides for shelter and clothing.

During the long winter, the men deteriorate mentally and physically. Charley retreats into religious obsession, Schneider grows erratic and paranoid, and Andrews loses his sense of identity and time. Miller, however, thrives in isolation, hunting constantly and showing no desire to leave. When spring finally comes, the men prepare to return, though they can take only a fraction of the hides. On the descent from the mountains, they attempt to cross a swollen river. The wagon overturns, killing Schneider and washing away the hides and supplies.

Miller, Andrews, and Charley return to Butcher’s Crossing to find the town nearly abandoned. The buffalo hide market has collapsed due to the railroad and changing demand, rendering the remaining hides worthless. McDonald admits that he has lost everything. Miller angrily accuses McDonald of ruining him, while McDonald argues that hunters destroyed themselves through greed. McDonald plans to leave Butcher’s Crossing and return East, and he asks Andrews to come with him. Andrews spends time with Francine and reflects on his changed self. He tries to communicate to her what happened to him, but she can’t help him. Charley experiences a complete mental break, forgetting the expedition entirely.

Miller sets fire to McDonald’s office, destroying the remaining hides. He rides his horse into the flames and laughs as the building burns, while the townspeople watch helplessly. Andrews witnesses the destruction and recognizes the same emptiness in Miller that he had seen in Charley and Schneider. He returns to Francine but doesn’t wake her. Rejecting both a return east with McDonald and a return to his former life, Andrews leaves money behind, mounts his horse, and rides into the open country with no clear destination.