CATALYST

The story of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science began in 1868, when naturalist Edwin Carter began collecting Colorado wildlife from his cabin in Breckenridge. Among the most significant specimens he gathered were five wild bison collected as early as 1872 near South Park. These bison became the very first entries in the Museum’s mammal collection and were once featured prominently in early dioramas before being retired from public view in 1993. 

But sometime in the mid-20th century, one of those original bison disappeared — becoming the subject of rumors and curiosity for generations of staff and volunteers. 

Zoology Collections Manager Andrew Doll heard the tale of the missing bison soon after he started work at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in 2010.

“I had heard all sorts of rumors about where the bison may be. Some people were saying Wyoming, others said closer to the Museum, but the truth was that nobody really knew where the bison had ended up,” said Doll. 

Twelve years later, when Natalie Patton joined the Museum in 2022 as a collections assistant in Anthropology, the whereabouts of the bison remained a mystery. Patton remembers hearing the lore of the missing bison during her initial tour of the Zoology Department.

“[Zoology staff] were showing me around and sharing fun facts, including the story about the missing bison, which just stuck with me as interesting,” Patton said. 

In spring 2023, the local news outlet Denverite published an article about the lost bison, which piqued curiosity and conversation around the Museum. The story was on people’s minds — and it stayed with Patton even after she left the Museum in the autumn to take a position at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave in Golden, Colo. 

By September 2023, while settling into her new role, Patton noticed a bison mount on display inside the historic Pahaska building’s concessionaire gift shop, and it seemed familiar. The mount bore a striking resemblance to the ones she’d seen at Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the tale of the missing bison started to click. 

Recognizing the potential connection, Patton brought her observation to Buffalo Bill Museum Collections Manager and Curator Rebecca Jacobs, who had also been researching the provenance of the bison mount. Jacobs had found little historical documentation on the bison at their site — only anecdotal stories and no record of it being part of their permanent collection. 

Patton connected Jacobs with Andrew Doll, and a deeper investigation began. Doll drove up Lookout Mountain to the Buffalo Bill Museum to look into the matter in greater detail and take photographs of the bison in the gift shop. Once, Doll returned to the Museum, he compared the photos of the bison in the gift shop with archival images of the bison in a historic diorama from the 1920s. The resemblance was fairly compelling, but it was a unique gouge in one of the bison’s horns — visible both in the century-old photographs and on the bison in the gift shop — that confirmed its identity. 

“That was the moment I knew for sure,” Doll said. “It lined up perfectly. This was our missing bison!”  

Archival records suggest the bison mount was moved to the Pahaska building during a time when collections at DMNS, the Denver Zoo and the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave were all managed under the City and County of Denver, with little distinction between them, according to Jacobs. While there is no record to confirm how the bison ended up at the gift shop, it is likely that the bison was loaned or transferred under a handshake agreement and never properly documented.  

“In 1979, the [Buffalo Bill Museum] moved to its current building, and the concessionaire-run gift store expanded in Pahaska. It’s plausible that the bison mount was simply left behind. We’ve also heard that the bison was exhibited in the new building, and after being replaced by a newer mount, moved back to Pahaska,” said Jacobs. “We are not sure why the older bison mount was never returned to DMNS, but it is likely due to the lack of formal documentation created for the arrangement and a loss of communication over time.” 

Once the bison was identified as belonging to DMNS, the institutions made a plan for a physical move down the mountain back to Denver. Coordinating between the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the Buffalo Bill Museum and Denver Mountain Parks, the institutions' teams worked together to carefully remove the 650-pound bison mount from the 100-year-old Pahaska building — dismantling doors, constructing a ramp and securing the bison in a box truck for transport. 

“It was truly a team effort and stands out as one of the more memorable projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on,” Jacobs said. 

Despite some wear and UV damage from years on public display, the bison remains in good shape. This impressive mount is now safely stored in the Museum's state-of-the-art Avenir Collections Center, finally reunited with the four other Carter bison. Now that it’s back safely at the Museum, Doll and the conservation team have cleaned and stabilized the mount.  

When asked whether the bison might go back on display, Doll said, “There are no definite plans right now, but who knows what the future holds? These bison were taken off exhibit years ago, but we've kept them safe in the meantime. Someday perhaps we’ll find a good reason to bring them back out — maybe even as part of telling their own remarkable history.” 

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From the ancient past to the present, from land to sea to ocean to sky, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science offers an unparalleled opportunity to discover and explore the wonders of the natural world that surrounds us.    

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