bison or buffalo?

On day four of our cross-country trip, we were headed toward one of our main destinations, Mt. Rushmore.  But something that I love about traveling with my daughter is her aptitude for discovering interesting restaurants and unexpected attractions.  At this point of our journey, she found a Jeep tour in South Dakota’s Custer State Park and booked us for that afternoon.  We had spent the night in Casper, Wyoming.  Upon rising and repacking the car, we drove about three hours across vast, empty ranchlands to arrive at the state park in time for lunch on a pristine, little lake. 

The Jeep tour promised to take us into the areas where bison congregate, and did they deliver!  There were bison grazing with their calves tagging along, unperturbed as we drove among them.  We also saw prairie dogs, pronghorn deer, burros and rolling green hills. 

At last, we learned the answer to the difference between a bison and a buffalo.  According to our guide, there isn’t one. They are one and the same.  As most people know, the indigenous people of North America had a cultural and spiritual connection with the buffalo.  They killed them sparingly, and used every part of the animal for food, clothing and other useful items.

With the advent of the transcontinental railroad, hunting buffalo became a sport, although it seems rather unsporting to shoot buffalo from moving trains and leave them to rot on the prairie.  The American buffalo population was decimated until only about three hundred remained.  However, in the late 1800s one rancher began to nurture a small herd and through his efforts and those of others, the buffalo population has returned to over 500,000.  They are carefully managed in places like Custer State Park.  The buffalo is now the national mammal of the United States. 

Thank you, Meredith.  The tour was awesome!

Love, Liz