When the west was being settled millions of buffalo were slaughtered for their fur. The carcasses were left to rot on the prairie and they talk of virtual mountains of buffalo bones. All of the millions upon millions of huge furs were made into coats, blankets, hats, saddles and so on. My question is: Why then isn’t every antique store in America overflowing with buffalo fur items? I see old cloths and hats and woven blankets dating back three hundred years and more, but I’ve yet to run across a buffalo skin coat. Where did all the Buffalo go?
2006-08-08 15:12:30 · 8 answers · asked by perfecttiming1 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
120 years ago the robes were used as coats and lap robes when riding in sleighs and carriages. Tannerys used for buffalo hides as the drive belts for industrial machines. Based on these heavy uses, the hides would not have lasted for very long.
2006-08-08 15:42:54 · answer #1 · answered by Woody 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
types of buffalo (or bison) still exist, but most are extinct, which might explain why buffalo furs aren't flying off the shelves at your local Kmart. Also, any old furs from the times when Native Americans and others used them as blankets, etc. have probably been destroyed or disinegrated.
2006-08-08 15:31:10 · answer #2 · answered by sillychelsey 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The buffalo were wiped out to deprive the Indians of food and clothing. Most buffalo furs would have rotted away by now if it they weren't preserved.
2006-08-08 17:06:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I call BS on the white man excuse. Remember back then there were no roads! and to shoot from a moving carriage/sleigh would require extreme accuracy with no room for error. Basically you needed to be a sharpshooter and carriages didn't show up every day of the year for that many to be killed.
That many buffalo dying would also create a huge mess of corpses from one end of Wyoming to the other for archeologists to find.
2014-09-11 10:00:57 · answer #4 · answered by ? 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Due to how much time has passed, it's not unthinkable that most of it has rotted away. And besides, very much of the buffaloes that were slaughtered were not skinned and merely left whole to decay, unused.
2006-08-08 15:25:02 · answer #5 · answered by Iris 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They literally left everything to rot, including the fur.
2006-08-09 04:07:26 · answer #6 · answered by cross-stitch kelly 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I know for sure there are ranchers in Georgia that still have buffalo in their pastures. I believe they have them in Texas too, maybe some other states as well.
2006-08-09 02:09:52 · answer #7 · answered by cj 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because we are not into killing animals for their fur. So, there is no money to be made. It's supply side economics.
2006-08-12 14:55:07 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋