In the 1500s, the American bison ranged across one-third of North America. The animals were found from New York to Colorado. There were as many as sixty million bison roaming the country. But what became of all of them?
They were systematically slaughtered. With the building of railroads that opened the American West, settlers moved into what had been bison territory. Bison were killed for sport and to feed the men in railroad construction camps. The sale of bison hides became a booming business. Skilled hunters, like Buffalo Bill Cody, could kill and skin up to 100 of the animals a day.
By 1897, aside from a small herd in Yellowstone National Park, the bison had practically been eradicated.
Learn more about the history of the American bison in the Jesse Wendell Vaughn papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.