It is surprising how much more I see when I am a passenger in a car than when I am driving. This is the obvious consequence of my current enhanced sensitivity to what I am seeing and experiencing, in contrast to my commitment to concentrate on my principal responsibility when I am in the driver’s seat. One of our favorite sights along I-79 as we travel north toward Chautauqua is an open field full of bison, on the east side of the highway immediately north of the Edinboro exit. We eventually determined that this is the Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm. Last month on a beautiful September Friday afternoon, as we were en route to Chautauqua, Elizabeth suggested that we do some investigating. We took a short detour and soon found ourselves on a country road in the middle of the Farm.
To our right was a small field with half a dozen donkeys, and a larger field beyond it with bison far off in the distance. A short distance up the road, we encountered a large herd of bison in a field to the left; these are the ones that can be seen from the highway. We stopped and were able to get some photographs before they moved farther away from us. We counted about forty bison in this field. We then parked in front of a Gift Shop, with a welcoming “Open” sign.
Entering it was a Time Travel experience, taking us back five decades to the days when our family spent its vacations camping. No camping trip was ever complete without at least one day of persistent rain, a day that emphasized how confining a tent camper crammed full with two adults, three children, and a dog can be. Our solution was to jump into the Suburban and head out exploring, looking for gift shops (and for antique stores during the years my wife, in her upholstering phase, was looking for old chairs to rehabilitate). Each time we left for vacation, my mother would give each of the children a dollar, to be spent at their discretion. Their discretion ran the gamut from impulse to deliberation. John would spend his dollar first, splitting it between something to eat (usually a pickle) and some gimmicky toy. Elizabeth was an astute shopper, typically finding something with a little lasting value; at one point she collected souvenir teaspoons. Sara would waffle. And waffle. And waffle. Everything appealed to her, and we always had to force her to a decision, in order for us to leave.
The Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm Gift Shop was indeed a throwback to those days. It had the usual assortment of inexpensive gimcracks, cheap toys (a fake Indian tomahawk), and tee shirts with semi-naughty, double entendre slogans. The centerpiece of the shop was a massive life-sized stuffed bison, a perfect example of the magnificence of this animal. The Gift Shop also included a display case filled with bison meat for sale. At this point I proved the old adage: “The apple doesn’t fall from the tree”, by emulating Sara perfectly. I wanted to buy something so I would have an excuse to talk to the proprietors, but what? Ground bison meat patties for $18.00 per pound? Sirloin steaks for $22.00 per pound? Tenderloin steaks for $44.00. Fortunately, Elizabeth rescued me by heading for the cash register with a carton of a dozen eggs.
The proprietors, “Buffalo Dan” and Michelle Koman, turned out to be both outgoing and informative. Mr. Koman is a font of knowledge regarding the history of the American bison, from its peak years in the early 1800s when its numbers in North America reached fifty or sixty million, to its near-extinction by 1880 when our society reduced the wild herd to five or six hundred in a conscious effort to force the Native Americans to become domesticated farmers. The combination of an unharmed herd in Yellowstone and the efforts of a few conservationists, like Charles Goodnight (the inspiration for Woodrow F. Call, the hero of Larry McMurty’s epic novel Lonesome Dove),and his wife Mollie, turned the tide and provided the foundation for a comeback that has culminated in a population of four or five hundred thousand bison today. Most of the current bison are in 6,400 commercial herds, like the one we visited, and are descended from animals that have been crossbred with cattle to some extent. There also are about 20,000 “wild” bison in sixty-two conservation herds, including about 5,000 in the famous Yellowstone herd. Mr. Koman reported that the Wooden Nickel herd includes about sixty bison. I suspect they harvest about fifteen animals a year. They are descended from a conservation herd at Custer State Park in South Dakota, well known for its annual roundup, when they cull several hundred animals from their 1,300 bison herd.
My interest in bison is enhanced by the fact that my daughter Sara is heavily involved in technology which influences the decisions that bison herd managers must make when they are culling (or building) herds. She is a world class wildlife conservation geneticist specializing in characterizing the genetic makeup of large animals. Her involvement in the development of a genetically based system will help the conservation herd managers maximize the diversity of their animals and ensure that the American “wild” bison will survive as a species. It is important that the domestic herd be complemented by “wild” herds that preserve their initial genetic makeup.
Our visit to the Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm was quite rewarding. In addition to the attraction of the bison, they also have a popular corn maze (maize?) from mid-August through October and a year-around petting zoo featuring donkeys and goats (no bison, thank you!). In addition, they are happy to host tours (at least eight persons) by appointment, which include a bison-meat meal. We heartily recommend a visit. Their website is “woodennickelbuffalo.com”.