The Buffalo Train Ride

On October 11, 1907, three men climbed inside two livestock cars with fifteen woolly buffaloes.

They were about to make the most memorable trip of their lives. Bronx Zoo photographer Elwin Sanborn lay on a bed of hay. Next to him stood a wooden crate housing a huge bull. Suddenly, through the wooden slats snaked a long, narrow tongue. It wrapped itself around a thatch of hay and jerked! Sanborn sat up with a start. He decided his bad-mannered roommate could have all the hay he could eat. No one wanted trouble. Only a wooden box separated Sanborn from a powerful set of horns. But, what an adventure! Sanborn, and the other two men, were traveling from New York City to Oklahoma Territory to save the bison from extinction. . . if all things happened as planned.

The Buffalo Train Ride tells how people from New York, Washington D.C. and Oklahoma banded together to save the regal buffalo from extinction. Human heroes battled train troubles, dangerous wolves, and the Texas fever disease to save the bison from going the way of the dinosaurs.

At one time, more than 40 million buffalo once roamed from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. There were so many bison it looked as if an endless brown blanket covered the land. By 1889, less than 600 buffalo survived in the United States. William Hornaday, Director of the Bronx Zoo, worked with President Theodore Roosevelt and leaders in Oklahoma Territory. Together they created the first federal bison refuge in the United States. Nine females and six males boarded a steam-powered train in October 1907.

The Buffalo Train Ride is for middle grade readers who like interesting and easy to read nonfiction. If they like authors such as Seymour Simon, Don Brown, Caroline Arnold, Aliki Brandenburg, or the series WhoHQ, they will enjoy this exciting adventure tale.

Middle grades, ages 9-13