.........We all heard there were millions of buffalos on the cotenant of North America when the
Settlers arrived. They ranged from the Appellation Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains
in the west. Many estimate there were between thirty million (30,000,000) to one hundred
million (100,000,000) buffalo when Columbus arrived. Some railroad travelers reported when
out on the plains seeing one herd 125 miles long and as far as the eye could see. If we give each
buffalo ten (10) feet on each side and ten feet in front and behind, it possesses about 300 square
feet. There is a simple formula on how far one can see on flat ground due to the curvature of the
earth. One measures from the height of one’s eyes in feet and uses the square root of that
number in miles to determine the approximate distance one is seeing. For simplicity let’s put
their eyes at nine feet above the plane. Using this formula and the 300 square feet per animal, we
divide the square feet in 375 miles by the 300 square feet per buffalo and arrive at about thirty
million (30,000,000) in that particular herd.
.........As early as two years old buffalo cow can produce a calf. Normally she will bare a single calf.
The hunters would kill any wolves they encountered because they were competing predators.
Therefore, more calves reached maturity than when the wolves were preying on the buffalo.
Modern herd managers report there is about one (1) bull for every fifteen (15) cows. Even if only
half the cows produced a calf and only half of them lived, we are talking six to twelve million (6 –
12,000,000) new bison added to the herd each year.
..........We’ve also heard how the buffalo herd was wantonly decimated by money hungry white men
and their guns. Originally only subsistence hunting threaten the buffalo. Subsistence hunting
included the Indians. Once Indian got horses they acted like most anyone else. They killed more
than they could use. Even prior to this a tribe would drive several hundred over a cliff to kill them.
These hunters may have balanced the lack of wolves so that the herd size remained stable until
about 1820. About this time buffalo hunting started for skins and meat for the railroad.
..........Making inroads into the population using only the lowest estimate of 30,000,000 to get to the
end of the hunting about sixty years later, how many would have to be killed every year? The
hunters would have to kill equivalent to all calves born and then more. Let’s take a middle of the
road number of nine million (9,000,000) new calves the first year plus some adults to get to the
few hundred that were left going into 1880. Long about half way there would about 15,000,000.
With the ratio of one bull to every fifteen cows we are still looking at 4,500,000 calves plus a lots
of adults to keep the number of buffalo going down.
...........How much lead and powder is necessary to kill the at least seventy million (70,000,000) bison?
Let’s say the hunters used about 400 grain bullets and used only one bullet per buffalo. Let’s also
conjecture they used no more than 70 grains of powder per shot. We multiply 70,000,000 times
400 and come up with approximately 280,000,000 grains. This is about 4,000,000 pounds of
lead. Seventy grains of powder times 70,000,000 equals 700,000 pounds of powder. Of course
in the early days the vast majority of the material would be necessary and tapering off during the
sixty years of hunting. My contention is the majority died from disease rather than being killed by
gun shot.
Last edited by Ringman; 12/16/23. Reason: Paragraphs disappeared
