The park was originally focused on providing outdoor recreation amenities like a man-made swimming pond since there were few other opportunities in the area.

[6] The 6,078-acre (2,460 ha) Scientific and Natural Area (SNA) section is used for environmental education by local schools and regional colleges and universities.

[7] The topography of Buffalo River/Bluestem Prairie largely formed beneath a proglacial lake at the end of the last glacial period.

As the ice of the Wisconsin glaciation melted, the Red River Valley was covered by Glacial Lake Agassiz 10,000–8,000 years ago.

[4] Rare plants include sticky false-asphodel, small white lady's slipper, northern gentian, plains reedgrass, blanket flower, and the endangered western prairie fringed orchid.

[7] American bison reliably wintered on the site of the future park, prompting Ojibwe people to call a stream Pijijiwizbi, meaning "Buffalo River."

Bowing to mounting pressures against their traditional lifestyle, the local Ojibwe ceded the region to the United States in their 1855 Treaty of Washington.

In 1875 J.H Smyser, who'd served as a captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War, purchased much of the future park property for a horse and cattle ranch.

[4] Buffalo River State Park was created in the late 1930s, taking advantage of federal job creation programs during the Great Depression.

The Moorhead Rod and Gun Club championed the site and the Minnesota Legislature officially added it to the state park system in 1937.

[5] The Works Progress Administration (WPA) established a camp and began developing the park's original 122 acres (49 ha).

[6] They also built a bathhouse, a latrine, and a diversion dam in the National Park Service rustic style using split stone and logs.

The structures consist of a 1938 diversion dam on the Buffalo River, the 1940 swimming beach (closed since 2018), and some 1940 stone curbs in the parking lot.

The contributing properties are considered historically significant for their association with the Great Depression and the resulting federal work relief programs of the New Deal, and with the early development of Minnesota's state parks.

[8] Buffalo River State Park sees high local use, particularly for its connection to the Pine to Prairie Birding route.

[2] In March and April The Nature Conservancy operates two viewing blinds from which visitors can observe the dramatic lek mating ritual of the greater prairie chicken.