Here’s why you see bison at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Bison Extinct — Herds Nearly Gone
Most of the wild bison herd were wiped out by ignorant, wasteful wanton bison hunts. Even buffalo hunts by indigenous people were based on the errant idea of a never-ending supply. Finally, just a few scattered herds remained. Many of those were captured by men who had been buffalo hunters, now turned conservationists as they saw the end of the nation’s bison. A few ranchers kept bison herds.
The near loss of this animal — forever — is well-documented. Once allegedly numbering around 60-million in North American, they were down to a thousand or two.
Ironically, one of the incentives to bring Theodore Roosevelt to the Dakota Territory was to shoot a bison. His timing caught the end of the decimation of the great herds and he became a champion for bison preservation. He was alarmed when a friend who had ridden across the Montana prairies returned to tell Roosevelt he didn’t see a live bison and never were bison carcasses out of sight.
In the winter of 1886–87, a massive blizzard hit. It killed hundreds of thousands of cows in the blizzard including thousands of Roosevelt’s cattle. Ranchers rode out to their herds, when conditions allowed, only to find dead carcasses everywhere. There were so many dead cattle, they washed into streams and rivers to float downstream.
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Charles M. Russel, Public Domain. http://69.69.245.68/GALLERY/CHINOOK2.HTM[/caption]
No bison carcasses were found. They had survived the 50-degree below zero temps, accumulated snowfall several feet deep and massive towering snowdrifts. So, as dead cattle lay everywhere, no one could find a dead bison carcass.
Here is the rest of the story:
