Rossi Rifleman

That is a crazy stack of skulls.

Kinda sickening. What was the point?

GasGuzzler wrote:Kinda sickening. What was the point?

You're right.

Part of the slaughter of the buffalo was for sport, and part of the slaughter was to sell the meat. But the waste was incredible. For example, many buffalo were killed just to harvest their tongues which were considered a delicacy. Can you imagine killing a cow just for the tongue?

As the herds were decimated, there was some political outcry to limit the killing. It was met with the argument by some that eliminating the buffalo would also eliminate the food source for the native Americans and would thus help 'solve the Indian problem.'

After the herds were gone, settlers struggling for survival would collect and sell the buffalo bones for their mineral content. The bones would be shipped by rail to collection points. The photo of the stacked buffalo skulls may have been taken at one of those collection points.

The name of the book is The Great Buffalo Hunt by Wayne Gard.
https://www.ebth.com/items/4914026-firs ... wayne-gard

Buffs
Do not forget the leather market.
Industrial revolution was leather belt fed. Then there were the leather goods in military uniforms. Leather belts. packs, boots..... took a huge amount to equip the troops of Great Britain, France and Germany to supply colonial troops through out the world. Plus our own military.

Figure by the end of 25 years (1865-80) all the worlds needs of leather goods was shot off our plains to the joy of big investors, gubernment and the hundreds of homesteaders that were easy pickins to roving bands of mounted raiding parties. Without the Bison the plains peoples were forced to either starve or become dependents of the guberment...
Mike in Peru

those buffalo bones bout paid for more than 1 north Dakota homestead too.
you would get 2 dollars a wagon load for them at the rail head and all you had to do was pick them up.
if you planted a bunch of trees per homestead you got a discount on the land price too.

Snowed all day yesterday.

9 here this morning. 73 is forecast for Tuesday.

GasGuzzler wrote:Snowed all day yesterday.

9 here this morning. 73 is forecast for Tuesday.

That sucks. It was 19° here this morning with a wind chill of 7°. It sleeted yesterday morning. I was watching some young bucks feeding in my yard, they didn't know what to think of the ice gathered on their backs. They would buck to get it off.