The issues we are still missing
This archive holds 213 issues, and it is not complete. Some gaps we can prove: when a school year holds issues 1, 2, 4 and 7, then 3, 5 and 6 were printed and are simply absent. Others we can only infer from where a year stops. And between the oldest copy, from February 1928, and the 1980s the record is almost entirely blank: a handful of surviving issues, then nothing at all for four decades.
If you have a copy in a basement, an attic, a scrapbook, or a box in a classroom closet, it belongs here. You do not need to part with it, and you do not need special equipment: we can build a complete, readable issue out of photographs of its pages and replace them with a proper scan later. Write to [email protected] to tell us what you have.
Known and possible missing editions
Red numbers are proven gaps in the published sequence. Gold numbers are estimates; hover over them to see why we think another edition existed.
| School year | Missing editions | We hold |
|---|---|---|
| 1927–1928 | #1? #2? #3? #4? #5? #7? #8? #9? | 1 issue #6 |
| 1942–1943 | #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 | 1 issue #6 |
| 1985–1986 | #1 #3 #5? #6? #7? #8? | 2 issues #2 #4 |
| 1986–1987 | #1 #2 | 4 issues #3 #4 #5 #6 |
| 1987–1988 | #1 #2 #5 #7? #8? | 3 issues #3 #4 #6 |
| 1988–1989 | #7? #8? | 6 issues #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 |
| 1989–1990 | #2 #6 | 5 issues #1 #3 #4 #5 #7 |
| 1992–1993 | #5 #7? #8? | 5 issues #1 #2 #3 #4 #6 |
| 1994–1995 | #4 #5 #8? | 5 issues #1 #2 #3 #6 #7 |
| 1995–1996 | #5 | 6 issues #1 #2 #3 #4 #6 #7 |
| 1996–1997 | #1 #2 | 5 issues #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 |
| 1997–1998 | #5 | 8 issues #1 #2 #3 #4 #6 #7 #8 #9 |
| 1998–1999 | #2 #5 #6 | 4 issues #1 #3 #4 #7 |
| 1999–2000 | #5? #6? | 4 issues #1 #2 #3 #4 |
| 2000–2001 | #1 #6 | 5 issues #2 #3 #4 #5 #7 |
| 2001–2002 | #3 #5? #6? | 3 issues #1 #2 #4 |
Unaccounted-for editions
These school years appear to end early, but the paper never stated how many editions it planned to publish. Later editions probably existed, but their numbers are unknown.
- 1942–1943 — we hold #6, last dated April 9, 1943. Anything after that is unaccounted for.
- 1943–1944 — we hold #1, last dated February 14, 1944. Anything after that is unaccounted for.
How to send an issue
You do not need special equipment or need to give up your original copy.
- Send us photographs of the pages. This is the easiest, and it works. Lay the issue flat, photograph every page square-on in good light, and send them over. A photographed issue is transcribed, indexed, and searchable here exactly like a scanned one — the page images are simply replaced later if a better copy turns up. If a story runs across the fold, a photo of the open, flattened spread recovers words a scanner would clip.
- Send us a high-quality scan. If you have a flatbed scanner, 400 DPI or better is ideal. This is the best possible outcome and goes straight into the archive.
- Mail us the paper itself. We will scan it properly and return it in the same condition it arrived in. Nothing is trimmed, unbound, or written on. If you would rather it not travel, we can arrange to scan it locally.
Where to send an issue
The Hoofprintc/o Buffalo High School
877 Bison Blvd
Buffalo, MN 55313
Please email [email protected] before mailing so we know to watch for it — and so we can tell you whether that issue is one we are still missing.
Other things that help
- A single page, not a whole issue. We can slot it into an issue we already hold.
- Names. If you can identify an unsigned photo, or a byline we have spelled wrong, that is as valuable as paper.
- A memory of when the paper did not publish. Knowing a year skipped an issue is as useful as finding one.
Historical gaps and archive clues
What the surviving volume numbers tell us—and where the record goes dark.
A school year between 1928 and 1942 printed nothing
The oldest copy here is The Bison – February 1928, from the 1927–1928 school year. Its front cover is missing, so it states no volume — but The Bison - April 9, 1943 - Issue 6 prints Volume 15 on its front page, and the next school year's copy prints Volume 16. Volumes advance once per school year the paper published.
Count that rule back from 1942–1943 and the 1927–1928 issue lands on Volume 0 — which cannot be. The count has to have stood still somewhere in between: at least 1 school year between 1928 and 1942 produced no paper at all. Which one, we do not know.
On that reading the 1927–1928 issue is the paper's first year, and this archive records it as Volume 1. That is our arithmetic, not the paper's own words — no volume is printed on any surviving page of it. An older copy, or a memory of a year the paper skipped, would settle it.
The modern volume count starts in the 1950s
In November 1991, Volume 35 carried “35 years still going strong” by Heather Oberdeck, which says the paper had been in production since 1956. This places Volume 1 of the modern sequence in 1957–1958. The 1940s papers used an older sequence.
28 volumes we can name but have never seen
These years fall within the modern sequence. We hold no copies, but the expected volume number is known.
1957–58 · v1 1958–59 · v2 1959–60 · v3 1960–61 · v4 1961–62 · v5 1962–63 · v6 1963–64 · v7 1964–65 · v8 1965–66 · v9 1966–67 · v10 1967–68 · v11 1968–69 · v12 1969–70 · v13 1970–71 · v14 1971–72 · v15 1972–73 · v16 1973–74 · v17 1974–75 · v18 1975–76 · v19 1976–77 · v20 1977–78 · v21 1978–79 · v22 1979–80 · v23 1980–81 · v24 1981–82 · v25 1982–83 · v26 1983–84 · v27 1984–85 · v28
The dark years: 1928–1957
No copy or reliable numbering record survives from these 27 school years. We do not know when the paper published or what it was called. The run is not unbroken — the years we do hold a copy for are left out of the list below — but everything named here is blank. Even one page would clarify the record.
1928–291929–301930–311931–321932–331933–341934–351935–361936–371937–381938–391939–401940–411941–421944–451945–461946–471947–481948–491949–501950–511951–521952–531953–541954–551955–561956–57
Years with no print edition
These are documented pauses in print, not missing material.
- 2002–2003 — no print edition.
- 2020–2021, 2021–2022, 2022–2023 — online only; print later resumed.