First we bought the land then we settled it, and we did so without restraint.

And the gray wolf suffered for it.

Here are some details worth understanding.

Though most Americans think of the place as the Louisiana Purchase, that is a mistaken assumption. The term “Louisiana Purchase” applies only to the business transaction between two nations.

Once America took possession of the land, Congress named it the “District of Louisiana.” When Louisiana became a state the remaining area was renamed the “Territory of Missouri”; when Missouri became a state the area was formally known as the “Unnamed Lands.”

In less than half a century, Americans were crossing over and settling into the Unnamed Lands to acquire wealth from mining silver and gold. Territories were formed and within 30 years of being so recognized, the name “Unnamed Lands” disappeared.

Both industry — logging, mining, railroading — and the human population grew much faster than did either local agriculture or the means for expediently shipping food from the East.

Big companies hired hunters to provide meat for their laborers, meals being a benefit of employment. Meat markets developed in the towns and cities, and everything from robins and meadowlarks to deer and elk were sold as meat for human consumption.

In his 1866 book, “Colorado: A Summer Trip,” Bayard Taylor wrote of how every tree within miles of Central City and Blackhawk had been cut down. Forty years later, Enos Mills wrote and lectured on the burning of surviving forests so that two or three years later sheep and cattle could graze the grass and wildflowers that were growing back.

Year round hunting, extensive logging, mine tailings, development of agriculture, and most egregious of all, slaughtering bison as a way to subdue Indians, collectively devastated Colorado’s wildlife populations.

The last wild bison not managed as livestock in Colorado were killed in 1897. By 1910 Colorado’s elk population had been reduced to 1,000 or fewer animals. By 1918 our pronghorn population had declined to fewer than 1,000. Bighorn sheep also dwindled to precariously low numbers in scattered, disjunct populations.

Neither moose nor mountain goat occupied Colorado during this period.

As a consequence of the large mammal wildlife decline occurring simultaneously with a large mammal livestock increase, gray wolves were forced by human activity to take what prey they could find. A sheep or a cattle became the only food available to them.

And yes, I mean “a cattle.” Technically, “cattle” is the name of the species and “cow” is the term for females of the species. If the species is called “cow,” then a male would be a “bull cow,” which is linguistically absurd.

Like the difference between Louisiana Purchase and District of Louisiana, the difference between using “cow” and “cattle” indicates attention to information detail. In the discussion about restoring the gray wolf to Colorado, historical detail matters.

Yes, historically, wolves preyed on livestock, but they did so because people destroyed their food supply. To argue that wolves don’t eat livestock ignores historical fact. To argue that wolves only prey on livestock and do so excessively likewise ignores historical fact.

Colorado’s big mammal populations have recovered well enough to feed the wolves.