Originally appeared in the March/April 1979 article of "Riffles & Eddies"

Boone County's Buffalo Creek is one of those picturesque, rocky streams which once wound its way through forest and prairie countryside. Today the stream still holds a definite charm and enchantment, for it runs relatively clear and rapid over rocky bottom. With some poetic license, "Buffalo" Creek may very well be said to be the translation for what we know as Piscasaw Creek, for the word "piscasaw" appears to originate from the Potawatomi word for buffalo.

But why buffalo? The earliest reports from white history, specifically from the 1832 entry into this area by Scott's Army in pursuit of Black Hawk and his warriors, reported no sightings of live buffalo.

The American Bison, as it is now called was once a major influence in the prairie scene and was so abundant that reports of the prairie "being black with millions of the huge beasts", was a common told tale.

The buffalo, which may have once roamed Boone County, would have been the Plains buffalo (Bison bison bison) for the other, the Wood Buffalo (Bison bison athabascae) stayed more in the Rocky Mountain region. Both of these great animals had a common ancestor which arrived in early pre-historic, inter-glacial times from the Euro/Asian regions and is now knows as the Steppe Wisent (Bison priscus). From this early arrival a variety of species apparently evolved during the many glacial periods, one of which was the now extinct giant of giants (Bison latifrons), which had a nine foot horn span.

The buffalo seems to have always been a rich, desired and necessary food source for human inhabitants of this continent. Fairly recent archaeological "finds" have shown that not only did primitive man hunt these great animals, but killed them in large numbers.

As a grazer, the buffalo found a rich and vast home in the prairie areas of the thousands of miles of gently rolling and flat mid-continent plains. With this readily available food supply, their numbers increased until huge herds of many, many thousands roamed at will.

The many tribes of Amrican Plains Indians hunted, used and worshipped the buffalo - and well they might, for it was through the buffalo that they were able to survive and build their great culture.

Indians not only used the buffalo for food but fashioned the hides into clothing, shelters and boat coverings. Rope was made from the hair and hide; and eating, cooking and holding utensils were made from the horns and bones. Bones were also used as "brushes", sled runners, scrapers and clubs. Intestines, bladder and udder furnished vessels and food puches (storage). Rawhide produced lashings, carrying cases (parfleche) saddles and shields.

Prior to the introduction of the horse to the North American continent by the Spanish during their invasion of Mexico, the indians had to hunt the buffalo on foot and would isolatea single individual and kill it or spampede small groups over a steep incline to entrapment where they could be readily harvested. When horses were finally captured and trained, the Indian could easily run down the buffalo and the patterns of living for the Plains Indians became more sophisticated.

Today, little more than a memory remains of the once vast herds which roamed the Plains and even came into what is now Boone County. Evidence remains - "Piscasaw" Creek and a couple of alleged "wallows" near Capron. Buffalo were undoubtedly once here. If so, when?