It is estimated over 60 million buffalo roamed the North American continent at one time.

They ranged over most of the continent east of the Rockies and from Mexico as far north as the Canadian Great Slave Lake. The herds could be endless in sight. A train on the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1868 travelled 120 miles through one continuous herd. Another train in Kansas was stopped in its tracks, helpless for eight hours while one unending herd of buffalo passed by.

As the white man came to the Great Plains, particularly between 1830 - 1860, the buffalo were slaughtered senselessly for their hides and their tongues. By the turn of the century fewer than 1000 animals existed in the United States.

In recent years, conservationists, ranchers, Native Americans, government and private agencies in the United States and Canada have come to their rescue and the herds have been restored to approximately 400,000 animals. ~ http://islandbison.com

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