The Missing Bison  🔗 **Source:** [The Missing Bison](https://share.snipd.com/episode/fb1229bd-e370-4fac-b907-ebcc3ee8cd49) ## Highlights - **Industrial Hunting Collapsed Bison Populations** - Rapid westward expansion, commercial hide markets, and long-range rifles caused an astonishing collapse from tens of millions of bison to a few hundred in decades. - Hunters used railroads and 'buffalo guns' to kill hundreds per day and ship hides east for industrial use. Transcript: Lizzie Peabody Have been covered with bison. But this was about to change. Because just a few decades later, in the mid-1800s... Siobhan Starrs The East Coast is already getting crowded. And people need room. And they're looking for jobs, for new family opportunities. And they are looking west. Lizzie Peabody The growing United States sprawls westward across North America, driven by a sense of manifest destiny. The number of states doubles, with more being added all the time. Dr. Kirk Johnson And also, this is a time of the Plains Indian Wars, where the U.S. Army freed from its duties in the Civil War, now fighting the Indians on the Plains. Lizzie Peabody With the Confederacy defeated, the U.S. Military now turned its weapons on Native Americans. Dr. Kirk Johnson And it was a pretty clear connection between the bison, which were the food source for the Indians, and the Indians. And so it became clear that one way to dismantle the Indian communities and cultures was to shoot the bison. Lizzie Peabody There was also a financial incentive. Tough buffalo hide could be tanned into leather for industrial belts for machinery. So hunters hopped on the new transcontinental railroad and spread out across the plains to track and kill as many bison as they could. And they had the perfect weapon, a brand new, large caliber, long range rifle. It got a nickname, the Buffalo Gun. Dr. Kirk Johnson And people would go out with these amazing rifles and sit on a hilltop and shoot literally from one position, one person shooting, several hundred bison in a day. And then teams of skinners would go out and skin the bison and take the hides and stack them up and ship them back. And that period from 1869 for the next 10 or 12 years was just massive bison slaughter. ([Time 0:10:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6b36b031-3056-49f7-af1a-07e80fc79223)) - **Hornaday Brought Sandy And Built A Diorama** - William Temple Hornaday drove to Montana in 1886, found a few surviving bison, and brought a live calf named Sandy back to Washington D.C.. - Hornaday later killed and taxidermied 22 bison, arranging six into a lifelike diorama to shock the public into conserving the species. Transcript: Lizzie Peabody Secretary said, sure, go for it. Head out there. So Hornaday headed for Montana in the spring of 1886. Dr. Kirk Johnson Most of the locals thought he was crazy for being there, said there's no bison left here. Siobhan Starrs And he describes first searching one place and then another and then another and then another. And no one had seen a bison for days, for weeks, for months. Lizzie Peabody Hornaday was surprised to find the landscape so empty. Actually, surprised is an understatement. He was shocked. He later wrote, quote, I received a severe shock, as if by a blow on the head by a well-directed mallet. But at long last... Dr. Kirk Johnson He found two straggly bison. Then he found this live calf bison, which he brought back to Washington Live. Lizzie Peabody A live calf who he named Sandy. Hornaday brought Sandy and those two straggly bison back to D.C. Siobhan Starrs He wanted to study them and observe them and understand their biology and their behavior. And so he put them right on the mall. That is the National Mall. Lizzie Peabody He plunked Sandy down to munch on grass somewhere between the Washington Monument and Capitol Hill. Siobhan Starrs People started flocking. And there are some iconic photos of young children in Victorian garb peering through what looks like fencing at these bison. There are live bison on the mall. So what happened to Sandy? Lizzie Peabody I mean, we know Hornaday put this baby bison in his taxidermy diorama, so I'm assuming it didn't really go great for him on the mall? Siobhan Starrs Unfortunately, they didn't understand the importance of native vegetation to the biology and digestion. And so Sandy was consuming East Coast kind of clover, you know, typical grass. And I compare it to basically like a horse or a cow getting colic. So Sandy got very ill and eventually passed because of that. Lizzie Peabody Sandy was taxidermied for the museum's collections. But around that time, something seemed to change in Hornaday. Maybe he'd grown a little attached to the baby bison he'd brought back from the plains. But whatever the reason, just collecting the bison specimens was not cutting it for him anymore. Hornaday wanted to save the species. He became an activist taxidermist. An acta-taxidermist. An acta-taxidermavist. I don't know. You guys workshopped that. Anyway, a couple months later, he went back to Montana. He saddled up once more. Dr. Kirk Johnson And he did find, after much hunting, he did find 22 bison that he killed. Lizzie Peabody Yeah, you heard that right. His approach to saving the bison meant killing 22 of them. But to Hornaday, it was a means to an end. He figured if he didn't kill them, some cowboy would come along and shoot them anyway. At least if he taxidermied some, people could see them up close and personal. So he took aim. Dr. Kirk Johnson On the last day on December 6th of 1886, he shot a giant bull bison. And when he brought that bull back, it was sort of the animal that represented the very last bull bison on the plains. Lizzie Peabody Hornaday brought the bison back to D.C. And created the diorama that Kirk saw in the documentary. It featured the giant bull, four other bison, and the calf, Sandy. ([Time 0:14:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/885941b4-7178-479a-9415-298e760fe00e)) - **Diorama Turned Remote Animals Into Conservation Catalysts** - Hornaday's diorama transformed distant knowledge of bison into an emotional, tangible encounter that spurred public conservation support. - The exhibit used real Montana dirt and grasses and dynamic poses so visitors felt the animals' presence and responsibility. Transcript: Lizzie Peabody Diorama went on display at the Smithsonian in 1888, and people stampeded to see it, in awe of these burly bovines. The bison were no longer this fantastical animal no one had ever actually seen like a unicorn. They were real. The diorama was such a hit, it remained on display for decades. Dr. Kirk Johnson The bull in particular became a very famous icon. It became the image that was on the 1901 $10 bill. It was in the 1923 stamp. It became the 1937 seal of the Department of the Interior. So it was a particularly famous animal. Lizzie Peabody Hornady made it his life's mission to save the bison. He wrote a book, reached out to newspapers, even Teddy Roosevelt got involved. Now, we should note here that not all Hornaday's ideas were good. His views on early conservation were deeply infused with racism and white supremacy. In fact, many early conservationists held these views. Hornaday even blamed Native Americans for the near extinction of the bison. That said, Hornaday did play a key role in helping bring back the bison. Slowly, over the course of the 1900s, the bison campaign paid off. ([Time 0:17:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f7d76b61-8ecd-4584-a829-3c7d2e7537a3)) - **The Hornaday Bison Were Given To Montana Museums** - In 1957 the Smithsonian gifted the Hornaday bison to the University of Montana, and the specimens were split among several Montana museums. - Douglas Kaufman later tracked them down, reassembled them, and Fort Benton rebuilt the Hornaday display in 1996. Transcript: Dr. Kirk Johnson So here we were, the ostensible owners of the national mammal, and it was gone. Lizzie Peabody Hornady's iconic diorama, featuring the very bison bull that adorned coins and stamps and had come to represent America's rugged frontier spirit, that diorama had disappeared. And Kirk was determined to find it. He got lucky when he stumbled across a book written by a man named Douglas Kaufman. Kaufman had traced the entire journey of the stuffed bison. Dr. Kirk Johnson What had happened was, in 1957, the National Museum was quite crowded, and the place was just jammed to the rafteries with specimens. And that old bison exhibit was sort of seeming long in the tooth, and they said, hey, why don't we send that back to Montana and let them take care of it? Lizzie Peabody Kirk went to his collections manager. Was there any record of this? Dr. Kirk Johnson And he said, no, look. And he brought me in the catalog. And there in the catalog reference was a little note that said, May 27, 1957, gift to the University of Montana, Missoula. Lizzie Peabody Kirk had zeroed in on the location of the bison. They had migrated back home to Montana. He'd also stumbled upon another interesting piece of information. When workers were dismantling the diorama in 1957 to ship out the bison, they found a mysterious metal box under the bull. Inside the box was a note written by William Hornaday himself. It read, My illustrious successor, when I am dust and ashes, I beg you to protect these specimens from deterioration and destruction. There was no destruction, but Kirk learned there had been some dissolution. A few years after they arrived in Montana, the bison family was broken up. Dr. Kirk Johnson A couple of bison stay in Missoula, a couple go to Bozeman, the bull goes to Helena, and nobody has any recollection. Lizzie Peabody So they're spread out all over Montana. Nobody's really keeping track of them. But Kaufman, the author of the book Kirk had discovered, he made it his mission to track down each and every bison. He wanted to get the fam back together. Dr. Kirk Johnson And he started driving around and he went into the museum in Fort Benton and there was the bull. Lizzie Peabody One by one, Kaufman tracked the bison down. And with all of them herded back together, he convinced Fort Benton's Museum of the Northern Great Plains to raise the money to rebuild the Hornaday display. And that's exactly what they did. In 1996, 40 years after they were split up, the Hornaday bison were back. Dr. Kirk Johnson They made enough money to build a building and to actually take them and get the taxonomy done to bring them up to snuff. Lizzie Peabody They were reunited in all their former glory. Kirk could hardly believe it. Dr. Kirk Johnson The sixth Hornaday bison. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Lizzie Peabody He was on the next plane to Montana. Dr. Kirk Johnson And I had originally thought that maybe I could talk the museum into letting me borrow the bull and bring him back to Washington, D.C. For the 250th year. In ([Time 0:20:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ecd9c37e-b3c3-408e-9352-3ea17a4becb7)) - **Kirk Chose Bronze Replicas Over Borrowing The Bull** - After seeing the reunited Hornaday bison in Montana in August 2024, Kirk Johnson decided not to remove the bull from its diorama context. - Instead he commissioned bronze sculptures of bull, cow, and calf to place on the museum steps for the 250th. Transcript: Lizzie Peabody Were reunited in all their former glory. Kirk could hardly believe it. Dr. Kirk Johnson The sixth Hornaday bison. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Lizzie Peabody He was on the next plane to Montana. Dr. Kirk Johnson And I had originally thought that maybe I could talk the museum into letting me borrow the bull and bring him back to Washington, D.C. For the 250th year. Lizzie Peabody In August of 2024, Kirk walked into the Museum of the Northern Great Plains and finally beheld, up close and personal, the Hornaday Bison. He saw their power, their dignity, their timelessness, and their togetherness. Suddenly, the idea of borrowing the big bull for the country's 250th birthday party flew right out the window. Dr. Kirk Johnson It was like, hmm, this is not right. I mean, like, the bull is embedded in the whole diorama of six of them. So it's like pretty clear to me that it's like, I'm not going to borrow this thing. I can't bring it back. But I was kind of sad. And as we were driving out of town, my wife looked over and she said, you know, what you had to do is just make bronze facsimiles of these things and put them on the front steps of the museum. And I was like, that is a good idea. Lizzie Peabody Kirk was all in. What better sculptures to greet visitors at the National Museum of Natural History than the National Mammal. And these particular sculptures would be derived from the same bison that were in the Smithsonian for decades. So Kirk got to work. ([Time 0:23:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/377524d5-7bf5-4915-9966-26a72c900bae)) - **Bronze Bison Traveled Home On A Cross Country Road Trip** - The bronze bison were cast by Gary Staub and transported from Loveland, Colorado on a 72-foot trailer, drawing public prayers and emotional reactions along the route. - On March 18, 2026 they were bolted at the museum entrance as a permanent installation. Transcript: Lizzie Peabody The bison began their trip back to D.C., this time cast in bronze. A team from the museum went to Loveland, Colorado to collect them, including Jim Wood. Dr. Kirk Johnson They're about to load the magnificent sculptures onto the back of a 72-foot trailer. Lizzie Peabody Jim is describing the scene as these larger-than sculptures are hoisted by a crane and loaded onto a long, flatbed trailer. Dr. Kirk Johnson Moving the truck forward, gives a little bit better placement for the bull behind the cow and the calf. Lizzie Peabody One of the bronzes was inspired by the diorama's iconic bull. The other was a female bison and nestled up against her leg, the little baby calf that once grazed on the National Mall, Sandy. Dr. Kirk Johnson And we're about to give the wave off to the bison as they make their trek across America. Very good crowd here. Lizzie Peabody Once they were loaded, the bison began their triumphant return to D.C. Kirk and Siobhan and everyone else jumped in their cars and made a road trip of it. From Colorado, the bison traveled through Nebraska and Illinois through a snowstorm in Iowa. They stopped for gas. Kirk says people got emotional when they saw the bison statues. Dr. Kirk Johnson I mean, I watched a lot of people cry when they saw the bison. So many stories of little kids that were coming up. And, you know, we had an Ogallala Lakota chief wave us off in Denver. One day, you decided you want to pray with Mother Earth, take your shoes off, you can show the vibration, stand on the grass, or wherever you are, and tell the vibration of them. He gave us a great prayer for the bison. It was just a phenomenal thing. He had the entire group of maybe 100 people. He had his face north and east and south. Lizzie Peabody On March 18, 2026, the bison finally arrived in D.C. ([Time 0:25:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/83c376ff-7e8d-4a75-ab20-4f13ca8ec198)) - **Bison Recovery Is Ecological And Cultural Healing** - Bison recovery shows ecological and cultural resilience: numbers rose from a few hundred to roughly half a million, mostly on ranches, and tribal herds like Fort Peck's returned hundreds to reservation lands. - Restoring bison supports cultural practices and ecological healing for Native communities. Transcript: Lizzie Peabody Have returned to the mall. Yes, they're bronze, not living. But the American bison has made an impressive recovery over the past century. Even if they aren't roaming the wild in the millions, like Lewis and Clark described, they now live in all 50 states, even Hawaii. For Native people like Johnny Bearcub's stiff arm, even a modest herd of bison can have a big impact. Her reservation in Fort Peck has welcomed some 400 bison over the past decade. Or as she says, they came home. Siobhan Starrs When I moved back here to the res and was able to take the children out to actually see the buffalo that had come back and to know that soon they would open the gates, the knees buffalo could Roam all over on the prairie. This is such a great gift from the creator to be able to rejoin us with our brothers and sisters, the buffalo. Lizzie Peabody She remembers those rituals from decades past that were performed with part of an old cracked hide or skull that was more than 100 years old. Today, her community has fresh hides. And when ceremonies are held... Siobhan Starrs There's fresh buffalo skulls stuffed with sage sitting on the altars of where our prayers are not going to be said. Lizzie Peabody Johnny says this is just a start. There's a lot of work to do. But she says returning the bison to the land is an opportunity to heal. Siobhan Starrs The buffalo took really good care of us. Now it's our turn to take really good care of them. ([Time 0:28:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e3738a8c-e8d4-4a69-a952-959bae824a5a))