Buffalo, city, seat (1881) of Johnson county, north-central Wyoming, U.S., on Clear Creek, immediately east of the Bighorn Mountains and Bighorn National Forest. The region was prime hunting ground for Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Indians, and many armed conflicts ensued as settlers moved into the area. Forts were established to protect miners and other white travelers on the Bozeman Trail; these were abandoned in 1868, but white settlement was not far in the future. Founded in 1879 on a buffalo trail that forded the creek, the community that became Buffalo soon saw considerable conflict between farmers and cattlemen, and the site of the final battle in the Johnson County Cattle War (1892) is 13 miles (21 km) south at the TA Ranch.
Buffalo is a shipping point for livestock and lumber, with grain and sugar beet cultivation and oil wells in the vicinity. It also serves as a tourist centre for the Bighorn Mountains region. The sites of Fort Phil Kearny and the Fetterman Massacre (1886), in which 80 U.S. soldiers were trapped and killed by Sioux Indians, are a few miles northwest. Lake De Smet is 7 miles (11 km) north. Inc. 1884. Pop. (2000) 3,900; (2010) 4,585.