In addition to the pair of boots from the 1870's, we were also given a pair of buffalo hide mittens, with the exterior tops of the mittens having the buffalo hair still attached.
The wild buffalo were shot out of the Grant County area, as well as most of eastern South Dakota, in the 1870's. Such hides were collected & used well into the 1880's but, with the original source depleted, the supplies didn't last forever. We can pretty safely assume these mittens would have been made within these time frames.
Both the mittens & the boots will become motif items on different buggies in the Buggy Museum in Stockholm, SD. The boots will become a part of the "Cowboy Buggy" & the mittens will become a part of the "Hunting Buggy".
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