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The last of the buffalo were slaughtered in the winter of 1882-1883. The railroad arrived in Miles City late in 1881, so for the last year, hides could be shipped back east on the rail. Before that, they were piled near the steamboat landing and transported back to the railheads by steamboat. The summer of ?1880? shipments from the Yellowstone Valley amounted to 250,000 hides.

Hunters bought pig lead by the ton and made their own bullets. 

Years later, the buffalo bones were gathered from all over and shipped east by rail to the sugar and fertilizer factories.