Centuries before railroads, Sharp's rifles, and Buffalo Bill Cody, buffalo roaming east of the Mississippi River wre hunted by Indians, Spanish, French, and English explorers, as well as colonists, Long Hunters, and American settlers. By the 1820s, the eastern buffalo herds were gone, and much of the wild cow's habitat had been radically altered.
Folklore, archaeological data, and first-person narratives contrast the wanton destruction of the eastern buffalo with the spirit and heroism of the early frontier.
