American Bison

Photos don't prepare you for standing a wagon-width away from an adult bison. They're cathedral-sized. A full-grown bull can weigh more than a pickup truck and still outrun one from a standstill.

Bison were once the defining animal of the North American plains — tens of millions of them, the anchor of an entire ecosystem. Commercial hunting in the 1800s drove them to the brink. Conservation work and private ranching pulled the species back from the edge, and most bison alive today live on ranches like ours.

For most visitors, the hay wagon tour is the closest they'll ever come to a live bison. The animals are calm but unmistakably wild — you leave with a better sense of the sheer scale of the continent's native megafauna than any documentary can give you.