The Museum of the American West

BUFFALO HERD
History of Herd

Buffalo Herd

The Museum of the American West received an extraordinary and generous offer of financial support in the form of a buffalo herd. Dave and May Raynolds, the owners of the Table Mountain Ranch, a historic property on the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River near the mouth of Sinks Canyon, volunteered to direct the proceeds of sales from their large and unique buffalo (Bison bison) herd to the museum’s operating fund and the endowment.

Feeding and maintaining the herd and related expenses were borne by the ranch so that all proceeds go to the museum.

Most of the herd has been sold with approximately 18 bison remaining.

History of Herd

The history of the herd, which originated in Yellowstone National Park, is quite interesting and unique. The animals are what Jim Bridger, “King of the Mountainmen,” referred to as mountain buffalo. Testing documents that it is probably the most genetically diverse herd in the nation.

The animals are apparently unrelated to the Plains Buffalo herd introduced by “Buffalo” Jones in the Lamar Corral area at the north end of the Park during the early 1900s. The ancestors of the current animals wandered outside the Park prior to World War I and were gathered by Nobe Harrison, a rancher on the Wind River near Dubois, Wyoming. He and some other cowboys drove them through the streets of Dubois as a stunt and down the river to Harrison’s ranch. The Raynolds acquired most of the herd in 1976, and the remainder in 1979.

Most of the buffalo were sold during the winter of 2003-2004. A small breeding herd remains on the ranch to provide animals for occasional sale and to be donated for use in religious ceremonies or other events by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation.