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TRAVERSE CITY -- WHERE THE BUFFALO (ER, BISON) ROAM
05-29-2012
(ER, BISON) ROAM
A Press-Ready Travel Feature
From the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau
TRAVERSE CITY, MI– Shaggy, majestic and imposing, the American Bison is an iconic figure that evokes images of the endless Western prairie. So visitors are often surprised to see a huge herd of these massive beasts grazing just outside this northern Michigan beach town.
Equally indifferent to passing traffic and the bison-watchers who gather at the roadside armed with cameras and binoculars, they roam the low green hills – eating, frisking, wallowing in the dust and tossing their woolly horned heads – and causing a lot of motorists to do double-takes.
“People are curious about them and want to know if it’s all right for them to be there,” says D.J. Oleson of Oleson Food Stores, which raises the bison for their meat and hides. “We tell them it’s just fine as long as they don’t try to climb over the fence and get in with them.”
The bison is the largest mammal in North America. At one time, the bison population was estimated to be well over 60 million, but they were hunted almost to extinction during the 19th century and by 1900 only around 800 remained. Thanks to a careful breeding program by conservationists and ranchers, there are now more than 200,000 bison in the United States – mostly in the Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska and Colorado.
Although they’re well adapted to cold winters, bison aren’t native to northern Michigan. The Traverse City herd, which numbers almost 300 animals, got its start in 1958, when Oleso
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