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Recently I saw on the news where a man had been attacked by a buffalo in Yellowstone National Park. He was thrown eight feet into the air, but luckily survived and is now recuperating in the hospital. Watching the buffalo charge after the man, with the dust flying, reminded me of the time Mary Alice and I were in the middle of a Buffalo herd stampede.
We were on a trip out west and stopped at Kearney, Nebraska, where we saw a museum built in an arch over I-80. The museum was made up of many rooms with each depicting a different phase of pioneer life in the west. In the first room, we were instructed to push a button on a panel, and immediately, we were looking out over the open plains. Far in the distance we saw a cloud of dust, which was being created by a stampeding buffalo herds coming toward us.
As the herd appeared closer we heard the sounds of the hoofs beating the ground, causing the dry grass and dust to rise in the air. Closer and closer the stampeding herd came until we could almost feel the hot breath coming from their nostrils. The whole scenario appeared so real, it felt just as if we were in a buffalo stampede.
Mary Alice began gripping my arm. Then, at the last minute the herd separated, making it appear as if they went around us.
I once read that bison are among the most dangerous animals encountered by visitors to Yellowstone National Park. Although they are not carnivorous, they will attack humans if provoked. They appear slow because of their lethargic movement, however they can run 40 miles per hour and are agile enough to jump more than six feet high. In Yellowstone Park, more people are killed or injured by bison than by bear.
The correct name for the American buffalo is the American bison. True buffalo live in Africa and Asia, but the use of the name buffalo for the American bison is so firmly established and so much a part of the history of the American West that the two names have become interchangeable.
At one time, the buffalo ranged over most of North America. Early arrivals to Pennsylvania found buffalo roaming Penn's Woods. Names such as New Buffalo, Buffalo Crossing, Buffalo Run, Buffalo Hill and many others attest to the fact that at one time Pennsylvania had buffalo.
These buffalo were smaller and similar to the woodland buffalo that still survive in Canada.
In the mid-1700s, Pennsylvania was still part of the frontier and, in 1755, an officer in Braddock's Army recorded having buffalo and bear coming in to lick the salt out of Lick Creek, which is southwest of Uniontown.
However by the 1800s, buffalo had for the most part retreated beyond the Missouri River. There on the Great Plains they lived by the millions, drifting in huge herds in search of their favorite food, the short sweet buffalo grass that grew as thick as the hair on a dog's back.
There are two subspecies: the plains bison, which are distinguished by their smaller size and round hump, and the Canadian wood bison, which are distinguished by their larger size and taller square hump.
During the mating season (August and September), a dominant bull maintains a small harem of females. A single reddish-brown calf is born the following spring. The calf will nurse for one year and not become mature until the age of three.
The bison have very few enemies in the wild. Grizzly bears and wolves will try to take young calves and in the dead of winter, a straggler that has wandered from the herd could be killed.
Bison were almost hunted to extinction in the 19th century. The two main causes were market hunting and a government initiative to curtail the population of the Plains Indians by killing off their main food source. Without the buffalo, the Native Americans would be forced either to leave or starve.
Also large herds of buffalo caused problems for the trains. In the harsh winters, the buffalo herds would seek shelter in the cuts made through hills and mountains for the railroad. If the train's engineer failed to stop in time for buffalo on the tracks, the locomotive would be damaged. As a result, the herd could delay a train for days.
There were many famous buffalo runners (hunters) and their favorite rifle was the .45 caliber sharp rifle, which was the most successful breech loading rifle of the time. A typical day for a buffalo runner would start at first light, which found him out on the range, creeping up on a herd of buffalo. After tying his horse over a half mile away, he cautiously approached the herd on foot, next on elbows and knees and finally crawling on his stomach until he was within 300 yards.
Now, he was close enough to make killing shots and, at that distance, the noise of his gun would not spook the herd. Once in position, he waited until the buffalo had their fill of the lush grass and lay down.
The hunter would determine the direction of the wind by dropping either a blade of grass or a feather. After positioning a pair of hickory sticks to form a shallow V that would support his rifle, he elevated the gun sites to compensate for the distance and then picked out the cow that was the leader. If the hunter dropped her first, the others would likely mill around and the next shot was the member of the herd that moved toward the edge of the group. TThe sound of his sharp's rifle continued until he had killed up to 50 head.
This was as many as his team of skinners could handle in a day. However, there are reports of buffalo runners killing 250 animals from one stand. The buffalo runners didn't miss, and it has been written that one herd of 54 animals were killed with 54 shots.
By 1884, the American bison were close to extinction, However, at the last moment enough survivors were brought together to stock the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Area in Oklahoma and some were sent to Yellowstone National Park.
Perhaps you remember that the American bison was depicted on the reverse side of the nickel from 1913-38. It's quite fitting that the new quarters being minted for Kansas, Montana and North Dakota also depict a bison on its reverse side.
This shows how much the buffalo meant to our westward movement.