The Frontier Bison

The numbers tell the story. Before 1800, estimates put North America's bison at about 60 million. By 1830 that had dropped to roughly 40 million, by 1870 to about 5.5 million, and by 1889 the count in the United States was 541, a figure tied to the naturalist William Temple Hornaday's survey.

What followed was a rescue. In Yellowstone, a herd that had shrunk to about two dozen animals was topped up with outside bison in 1902 and now numbers close to 6,000. Across North America the total has climbed back to roughly 500,000, though most live on private ranches and about 20,000 are in conservation herds. In 2016 the American bison was named the national mammal of the United States.

The bison here is shown in profile, from the shoulder forward in dense dark brown, with one curved horn and a dark eye. His body is cut away like a window. Inside it, a snow peak and golden light rise over a main street of wooden storefronts, with a stagecoach and riders in the road, and his legs end in torn watercolor edges and dry grass.