Buffalo National Park

Buffalo National Park, created near Wainwright in east-central Alberta on June 5, 1909, was one of several prairie regeneration parks established to rebuild sharply reduced populations of plains bison and pronghorn. Its main effort centered on restoring plains bison, with about 700 animals brought from Montana, while elk and moose were also introduced. Under first warden Bud Cotton, the park produced large numbers of bison, elk, and moose, but overcrowding brought disease, starvation, and continued culling. Closed in 1940 and formally delisted in 1947, its legacy survives in a small bison herd at Wainwright’s Bud Cotton Paddock.

Alberta · Canada