Buffalo Aftermath

1874-1875
After buffalo devastation, a profitable business was the recovery of animal skeletons for fertilizer. It is estimated that 10-20 tons of bones a day were harvested in the heyday.

Bones were sorted for market, sometimes finding Indian skulls, legs, arms, and even skeletons of women and children who had been lost along the wagon trails. The woman and children were known to thrown aside as a reverence for helplessness and innocence and not used for fertilizer.