Taken at the Michigan Carbon Works factory in Rougeville, the pile of bison skulls in this photo was slated to be processed and used in making products like bone glue, fertilizer, bone ash, bone char, and bone charcoal.
The number of bison skulls is a testament to the prevalence of the animal in the US, as well as why that number fell so significantly.
As many as 30-50 million bison existed at the start of the 1800s.
By the 1880s, that number was in the thousands and, in 1902, fewer than 100 bison were left.
Conservation efforts revitalized the bison population during the 20th century.
According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service, bison were no longer under threat of extinction (as of 2016) due to conservation efforts and commercial herds of roughly 500,000 bison.
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