The latest Ken Burns documentary, The American Buffalo, was released on PBS last week. It’s two episodes, about 3.75 hours total.
If you’re into Ken Burns stuff, the style is exactly what you’d expect.
I won’t attempt a Slowguy level review. Overall I liked it. The series kicked off stating the official name of the animal is Bison, but then continued to call them buffalo the remainder of the series. Obviously, the premise of the documentary is the near extinction driven by the commodification and anti-native peoples policies and attempts to subjugate them by removing a major source of their way of life.
My families’ tribe released 23 on the Colville reservation a couple of weeks ago. My next trip back north, I intend on making the trip long enough I can seek them out to see.
And if you’ve never eaten bison, you’re missing out.
Years ago Ted Turner wanted to give a small herd of buffalo to Boulder. Sko Buffs! Anyhow, I had a role in the city’s decision to decline the donation. Although the fencing would have been unsightly and drunk CU students might have been a safety issue, I wonder if we made the right call. I enjoy seeing the two other herds in this area. So cool.
Combining the prior two posts… the last time I had buffalo was at The Restaurant at Sierra Grande, owned by Ted Turner, in Truth or Consequences, NM.
He also has a ranch in central New Mexico called Armedaris not far from that restaurant. I recall that he has 14-15 ranches with 2 million acres in total.
Buffalo farmers are rare here on the east coast, but I’ve wondered if it would be feasible on our farm in the valley. We sustain 80-90 black angus, and from what I’ve read buffalo require roughly the same amount of acreage per head, but fencing is the issue. Given the relative cost per pound of meat you’d think you’d see them around more, so containment must be a serious problem.
I found out this weekend that there is an Elk and Bison prairie about 1.5 hours from Nashville in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation area in Kentucky (near Paducah).
We saw bison and elk. The elk were in the rut, so we got to hear them bugling which was cool.
Buffalo farmers are rare here on the east coast, but I’ve wondered if it would be feasible on our farm in the valley. We sustain 80-90 black angus, and from what I’ve read buffalo require roughly the same amount of acreage per head, but fencing is the issue. Given the relative cost per pound of meat you’d think you’d see them around more, so containment must be a serious problem.
Watch the first 20 minutes of the documentary to see why you’re correct
Buffalo farmers are rare here on the east coast, but I’ve wondered if it would be feasible on our farm in the valley. We sustain 80-90 black angus, and from what I’ve read buffalo require roughly the same amount of acreage per head, but fencing is the issue. Given the relative cost per pound of meat you’d think you’d see them around more, so containment must be a serious problem.
My vague recollection is that we were looking at about $500k for fencing to hold 20 bison. But, the city’s fencing plan definitely erred on the side of caution – which made some sense given that the herd would be on the edge of town along a major highway. Their fence would have been taller and stouter than what I see at the other two herds. The extra height issue was driven by the need to keep people out, rather than keeping the buffalo in. Can’t say whether that concern applies to your area. The stoutness issue related partly to the city’s belief that a buffalo can hooks its horns under a fence and pull it out of the ground, as well as the considerable ramming force of a charging buffalo. There is (or was) a herd on the north side of Boulder and that fence does not look super stout and I have not heard of any buffalo getting loose. If you’re interested I will try to take a picture of their fence next time I ride out there.
Thanks to the OP about the series–I didn’t know it was coming.
I love Ken Burns’ work, so will definitely watch. I was concerned that I missed the first episode when it aired, but both episodes are available to stream for free on the PBS site.
I will have to give this a watch. Steve Rinella, founder of Meat Eater, has an excellent book about Bison. It uses a hunt he did in Alaska for a bison as the basis and discusses the ecology and history of Bison in North America. They are incredible animals.
I believe I read somewhere that Ted Turner’s goal was to own enough ranch land to ride a horse from Canada to Mexico on his own land. His main idea behind it was putting a massive amount of land into basically a conservation trust to maintain relative natural state. Like the worlds largest wildlife preserve.
The latest Ken Burns documentary, The American Buffalo, was released on PBS last week. It’s two episodes, about 3.75 hours total.
If you’re into Ken Burns stuff, the style is exactly what you’d expect.
I won’t attempt a Slowguy level review. Overall I liked it. The series kicked off stating the official name of the animal is Bison, but then continued to call them buffalo the remainder of the series. Obviously, the premise of the documentary is the near extinction driven by the commodification and anti-native peoples policies and attempts to subjugate them by removing a major source of their way of life.
My families’ tribe released 23 on the Colville reservation a couple of weeks ago. My next trip back north, I intend on making the trip long enough I can seek them out to see.
And if you’ve never eaten bison, you’re missing out.
I see buffalo occasionally when hiking on Catalina Island (island off the coast of SoCal). Always strange to see them on an offshore island. I’ve come face to face with them on the trails, they’re huge and very intimidating. Seems every other year or so some drunken frat boy decides to mess with one and gets gored.
I had the opportunity to hear a very interesting buffalo “rancher” speak a number of years ago in Wyoming. Very interesting guy, former US diplomat if I recall correctly.
He had lots of funny stories about working with bison. The gist was that you can control cattle and tell them where to go and what to do. That simply doesn’t work with bison. They have too much power. Working with bison involves a process where you sort of make requests of the bison and sometimes they’ll like your idea while other times they’ll tear shit up and go back to what they wanted to do in the first place.
Cattle fences are inadequate to stop bison should they have another idea about where they want to be.
Should your bison decide to leave, he said the only way to get them back was a helicopter which he found to be quite embarrassing.
I buy bison meat from a local ranch. They have offered to take me out to meet the herd. You have to stay in the vehicle, but they say they will come up to the truck for petting. I haven’t taken them up on it. Not sure I want to be on a first name basis with my dinner.
Years ago Ted Turner wanted to give a small herd of buffalo to Boulder. Sko Buffs! Anyhow, I had a role in the city’s decision to decline the donation. Although the fencing would have been unsightly and drunk CU students might have been a safety issue, I wonder if we made the right call. I enjoy seeing the two other herds in this area. So cool.
There have been buffalo in Golden Gate Park in SF since 1891.
I buy bison meat from a local ranch. They have offered to take me out to meet the herd. You have to stay in the vehicle, but they say they will come up to the truck for petting. I haven’t taken them up on it. Not sure I want to be on a first name basis with my dinner.
I’ve got a friend who has some cattle.
His children wanted to name them, he suggested Sirloin, Quarter Pounder, Ribeye and the like. They didn’t get names.
I haven’t watched the documentary yet, but I want to.
Reading “Empire of the Summer Moon”, it was interesting to learn how big the Buffalo herds were in Texas. It was also sad to read the hunters decimated something like 5 million in a relatively short time.