Buffalo wallow

Though thriving bison herds roamed and grazed the great prairies of North America for thousands of years, they left few permanent markings on the landscape.

Exceptions are the somewhat rare yet still visible ancient buffalo wallows found occasionally on the North American prairie flatlands.

Originally these naturally-occurring depressions would have served as temporary watering holes for wildlife, including the American bison (buffalo).

Wallowing bison that drank from and bathed in these shallow water holes gradually altered their pristine nature.

In 1953, the writer Charles Tenney Jackson (1874–1955) published The Buffalo Wallow: A Prairie Boyhood,[4] an autobiographical novel about two boys (cousins) growing up during pioneer days in an almost empty stretch of Nebraska, where their favorite hideaway is a buffalo wallow.