07/16/2026
I'm gunna steal something from Wes's artistry for this old article. I still enjoy reading all these old clippings. The images they create in my mind transport me so completely that the article stops feeling like reading and starts feeling like memories. At this time in history there were only 2108 head of buffalo in the U.S. and Canada, still much discussions/controversy about the Wood Buffalo.
Radford's Buffalo Largest of the Species 1910
Young New York; Explorer's Specimen of Wood Bison Secured at Fort Smith Intensely Interesting from Scientific Standpoint.
The Northern packet which has comes down the long MacKenzie-Athabasca trail by dog train brings the news that Harry V. Radford, the young New York explorer and scientist, has succeeded in killing a bull of the famous herd of wild wood bison that that range in the fertile northern fringe of Alberta- north of Fifty-nine between the Peace and the MacKenzie Rivers.
Letters received at the Hudson Bay Company's offices and by Miss Hughes, provincial archivist, who made a tour of to the the subject northern which posts is last now summer, one of refer to the subject which is now one of the topics of interest at the quiet post of Fort Smith. In this kill Mr. Radford has been more fortunate in perhaps more doggedly persistent -than his predecessors in search of wood bison and their lore Warburton Pike, Captain Whitney and Captain Hanbury, none of whom secured a specimen of this highly interesting animal.
The skeleton and skin of Radford's bison, which are at present at Fort Smith at the mouth of the Mackenzie, are being carefully preserved, and when set up the whole will be the most complete and scientifically accurate specimen of a wood-bison in existence, as detailed measurements of the dead animal were taken by Radford, who is also preserving the bones.
Before going north last June Mr. Radford secured the government's permission to kill one or two bison for zoological purposes, and in fulfilling his desire he has secured the fourth specimen of the northern wood-bison now in existence, the only one of which the bones and measurements were preserved. The three bison, killed in 1890 and 1904 by order of the Canadian government, were shot by old Indian hunters, and are now preserved in the Canadian Exhibit at London and the Geological Survey, Ottawa. Indians at Fort Smith, who have seen all four of the bison killed, state that Mr. Radford's is the largest yet.
Largest Specimen Known
In fact this bison in actual measurements and weights surpasses the famous Hornaday bison in the United States national museum. It is 300 pounds heavier, 2 inches higher and 1 foot 5 inches larger in girth than the plains bison killed by Wm. T. Hornaday, president of the American bison society, in the Bad Lands of Montana, in 1866, of which it will be recalled figures on all ten dollar notes of United States currency.
A comparison of the measurements of the two animals may be of interest:
Hornaday bison killed December 6, 1886
Total Weight 2,100 lbs (estimated)
Height of shoulder.... 5 ft., 8 ins.
Girth behind forelegs ...8 4 ins.
Circumference of muzzle.. 2 ft., 2 ins. (behind nostrils)
Radford's bison, killed December 1, 1909:
Total weight 2,402 lbs
Height of shoulder •• ..5 ft., 10 ins.
Girth behind forelegs. 9 ft., 9 ins.
Circumference of muzzle ....2 ft., 5 ins. (behind nostrils)
The difference is all the more marked that the plains bison are usually larger than wood-bison. Radford's bison is consequently much larger than the Hornaday specimen, and which, conspicuously placed in the museum at Washington, has been the admiration for 24 years of visitors from all parts of the States. There now, however, awaits mounting this skeleton of a bison much bigger than America's biggest.
An advantage from a zoological standpoint in this latest bison kill is that the skin and head have been removed in one piece - not in sections, as was the case with those shot by the Indians and this bison, with the entire skeleton preserved, can be more accurately mounted- not as in the previous cases when, for lack of data or skeleton, the specimens were mounted along the plans lines of the plains buffalo. This is of interest in connection with the study of bison species, as the plains and wood buffalo are now generally conceded to belong to different species.
Plains and Wood Bison Different
On his way north Mr. Radford secured through Rev. J.R. Matheson, of Onion | Lake, from old Indian hunters along the Saskatchewan considerable information regarding the two kinds of bison, as noted by them three decades ago. His own studies of the northern buffalo range, together with previous studies of the plains animal, have confirmed these observations. Since last August Mr. Radford has made four trips into the interior from Fort Smith, traveling over 300 miles in each trip. He has seen a score of bison, following their trails for miles, studying their habits and the country in which they range. His journeys inland were made first by pack horses and later by dog-trains. On two occasions he went with a mounted policeman on patrol, and afterwards with couple of Indian guides, returning for a brief stay after each trip to the little log house at Fort Smith, where he makes his headquarters.
On December 1st when the buffalo was shot the temperature was from 27 degrees to 37 below zero. Mr. Radford was accompanied by one Chipewyan Indian at the time, although he had had two others in the party at the camp some miles away. To skin the huge carcass properly a block and tackle brought with the party was used to turn the animal on his back. Mr. Radford's eagerness for scientific accuracy and thirst for information, which has been apparent to Westerners throughout his trip, caused to him to weigh and measure each portion of the body - doubtless greatly to the amusement of the Indian guides.
From the woods where the shooting occurred to Smith's Landing, 50 miles away, the hide, head and, skeleton were drawn on dog sleighs, and stored in the Hudson's Bay Company warehouse.
Considering the apparently recent discovery in Alaska of an animal called the giant moose - the Alces Gigas- and the discovery of a giant buffalo fossil in the north, is it possible that this Northern Albert bison of which so little is vet scientifically known, may prove to be the living remnant of an intermediate species between the northern giants land the plains buffalo.
Drawing - copyright Wes Olson - Wood vs Plains Buffalo
