The Buffalo Hunters’ War

Tens of millions of buffalo once roamed freely upon the Great Plains in the mid-19th century, before the railroad came to the frontier West. This scene illustrates a cowboy aiming his rifle at a herd of hundreds. By the end of the 19th century, roughly 300 buffalo were left in the wild. Conservation efforts over the years have allowed the species to rebound to about 400,000 in North America today. – Courtesy National Archives and R