by Michele Kadison

Back in 1914, Denver, Colorado took seven buffalo from a wild herd in Yellowstone Park and placed them on a new game preserve in Genesee Park, just 30 miles from downtown. Since then the herd has grown in numbers and it is easy to see these buffalo grazing on either side of the freeway. These great beasts are reminders of a far earlier time when 30 to 60 million buffalo or bison were roaming the western plains.

What happened to these opulent herds that roamed the land west of the Mississippi? Initially settlers and soldiers killed the buffalo as a way to fight the Native Americans. By getting rid of their food supply, the Native Americans might be less of a threat to new societies in the making. In the latter half of the 1890’s, buffalo were being slaughtered for sport, which wreaked havoc with the herds, bringing the number down to a mere 500. Once the government intervened, buffalo were able to survive once again, with about 1 million buffalo found on public and private lands in Canada and the United States to date.

Call them buffalo or call them bison, these majestic animals are related to the European Bison and the Canadian Woods Bison and belong to the Bovidae family of mammals, which relates to the cow. Watching them graze on the wide open planes is a way to connect to the majesty of the old west when land was vast and the buffalo roamed free.

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