Frontier Farewell: The 1870s and the End of the Old West

"'Buffalo!' The old horseman struggled to his feet and boldly began his toast with glass held high, his weather—worn visage conspicuous in the room full of young men. Then 'BUFFALO,' this time more quietly. Then, after a long pause, 'buffalo,' almost in a whisper..."



Thus Garrett Wilson introduces his epic account of the 1870s, a decade that saw unprecedented changes come to the Great Plains of North America: famine, fire, and pestilence—the disappearance of the buffalo—the last stand of the...