Was a Travel Rest Day but found some interesting things in Jamestown. Went to the National Buffalo Museum and saw a film about the history of the Buffalo and a lot of exhibits. At one time they estimate there were over 30 million Buffaloes on the plains / prairies but with hunting, harvesting and disease this number was reduced to under 1000 by the turn of the century (1900). Thanks to conservation efforts by Teddy Roosevelt and many ranchers in the West the current population is just over 400,000.
A full grown male Buffalo can stand 6 foot tall at the shoulder, weigh 2000 pounds, jump 6 feet in the air and run up to 35 miles per hour. The Museum had an exhibit as to how a teepee was built using poles and the hides of 14 full sized Buffaloes. Also had a wide variety of the rifles used to hunt Buffalo and a preserved white Buffalo which was sacred to the Indians.
Visited Dakota Thunder the world’s largest Buffalo and toured a Frontier Village. I broke a piece of our towing gear and needed a file to fix it. Our next stop was going to be Walmart but found an old file for $1.00 at the Trading Post in the Frontier Village that worked perfect.
