A big reason why the great herds of buffalo disappeared wasn't entirely due to sod busters or railroads or all the usual knee jerk reasons.
It was because of their hides.
The old mills of New England and Ontario were run with a central engine and power was transferred to the machines with an elaborate system of drive shafts and pulleys in the roof.
To get the power from the roof to the floor required belts. Buffalo hide made the best belts going as the lucky guys who filled their Zama tags are telling us. Green buffalo leather was also the duct tape of the Old West and you could fix almost anything with enough shaganappi.
The machine shop at the old Mercoal coal mine was set up that way. It was pretty neat to watch it run. (Geeze I'm dating myself.)
I could go on about the mine ponies at Foothills but I don't want to get too boring.
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