Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

Sports and Wild Blog

Simon Barnes
  • Home
  • Biog
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Pictures
  • Contact
  • Twitter

Bucket-list buffalo

21 October 2015 by Simon Barnes 22 Comments

I’ve always wanted to see a buffalo. By that I mean the American bison. But I didn’t know that. It came to me as a bit of a surprise. I was in Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, where I was researching a piece for Intelligent Life magazine.

Here is one of the world’s fantastical landscapes, but landscapes will only get you so far. They don’t come to life until you encounter living things, for they are the spirit of the place. But then I looked out across these impossible towers and edges and turrets and striations and collapses of this extraordinary place and there, on a patch of green prairie in the midst of all this geological mayhem, I saw that unmistakable silhouette.

All head and shoulders. That huge hump. Head down, getting stuck into the sparse grass. And for about a million different reasons at once I felt a great soaring of the heart. It was a bit like seeing a unicorn.

Because these are mythological beasts. They’re part of American mythology, and that makes them part of the world’s mythology. These animals are the story of the West, and the story of the West is about the subjugation of nature. This process involved the subjugation of an awful lot of people and the extirpation of the buffalo.

The Badlands was the site of the last cowboy and Indian war; Wounded Knee is just down the road. It’s a place heavy with human as well as natural history. And this distant buffalo silhouette was about all those ancient dramas, as well as being a fine thing in its own right.

Buffalos were reintroduced to Badlands national Park in the 1960s, and there are now 800 or more in the park; they can cope with this notoriously waterless place because of the introduction of stock-dams. Later I was to walk among them: they stroll at their ease through Sage Creek camp site.

This transcendent vision of buffalo was about the adventure of the taming of the West, but also about the latter-day adventure of rewilding the West. They’re one step ahead of Joni: don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s almost but not quite gone.

photo (3)

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Posted in Myblog

Comments

  1. judydixey says

    21 October 2015 at 1:16 pm

    thank you, as ever

    Reply
  2. Stephen Procter says

    21 October 2015 at 1:27 pm

    I envy your experience and do you know, if you replaced the buffalo photographed with a red deer stag it could just be Richmond Park, early in the October morning. What a fantastic place the world is if only we learned to see!

    Glad to have you back in “circulation” by the way

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      3 November 2015 at 8:02 pm

      Absolutely, though you tend to avoid the hum of distant traffic in the Badlands. But for urban countryside, Richmond Park really can’t be beaten.

      Reply
  3. Janey says

    21 October 2015 at 1:28 pm

    How bloomin’ marvellous is that?! Can understand your emotion, the sheer joy of it being there before your eyes.
    Watching Rich Hall’s ‘Inventing the Indian’ last Sunday night couldn’t help but mourn (and quietly rage) about what happened to those peoples and this beast. To me, they’re both the iconic symbols of the USA.
    Had to smile wryly about Joni’s song, a week never goes by without saying that line.
    Btw, is it true they still shoot buffalo?
    When will we ever learn?

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      3 November 2015 at 8:01 pm

      It was a very powerful experience travelling across American and through Pine Ridge Reservation. Joni has never spoken anything but the truth.

      Reply
  4. Tracey says

    21 October 2015 at 1:47 pm

    Awesome post and photo Simon, thank you for sharing.

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      3 November 2015 at 8:00 pm

      Thanks Tracey.

      Reply
  5. Pat Leighton says

    21 October 2015 at 2:21 pm

    Love that image and no mincing of words. Man’s inhumanity to man and beast. At least the buffalo are in with a chance. Further across the globe it would seem the Aussies are hellbent on driving koala to extinction. And, I guess, that will apply to many more lesser known species. Ah, it’s so good to have you back….. Thank you. It is a breath of fresh air to read your blogs.

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      3 November 2015 at 7:56 pm

      Thanks for your kind words. There are problems all over, but we must also remember to take the odd moment to enjoy what’s left. We will go melancholy mad otherwise.

      Reply
  6. Anthony Bird says

    21 October 2015 at 2:48 pm

    I agree with you, Simon, the buffalo is an iconic creature, I too have had the privilege of walking with a solitary buffalo while being on exercise with the army in Canada. A truly unforgettable experience. I am looking forward to your new book, keep us all informed!

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      2 November 2015 at 8:43 pm

      Thanks Anthony, I’ve just heard it’s being published in the second week of January. I’ll get some sneak previews in here after Christmas.

      Reply
  7. george louis says

    21 October 2015 at 3:12 pm

    Good thoughts millions of Buffalo once …let’s re wild the world Simon

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      2 November 2015 at 8:42 pm

      You won’t hear an argument from me on that one!

      Reply
  8. Sue Garvey says

    22 October 2015 at 7:31 am

    aaah that’s better. Keep weaving your spell

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      2 November 2015 at 8:42 pm

      Thanks Sue, i’ll do my best.

      Reply
  9. Arthur Mumelo says

    22 October 2015 at 12:43 pm

    Reminds me of the landscape in Laikipia, Kenya.

    Reply
  10. Nicholas Cox says

    25 October 2015 at 11:25 am

    great photo!

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      2 November 2015 at 8:39 pm

      You should see what the actual photographer got!

      Reply
  11. Brian Goldfarb says

    28 October 2015 at 8:53 pm

    Your buffalo story brought to mind a different time and place: there we were, driving towards and into Monument Valley (with the theme from “The Magnificent Seven” blaring from the car’s speakers…what else?), and half an hour later, setting off for a drive around the place. And what do we see that brings us to a shuddering halt? A coyote standing on a rock by the roadside, staring at us staring at her/him! numerous photographs later, we both went on our ways.

    But what an event!! Makes one grateful to be alive.

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      2 November 2015 at 8:37 pm

      Absolutely, these creatures are part of our mythology. The American west is in some ways part of the English psychology these days.

      Reply
  12. Phil Bamford says

    1 November 2015 at 11:11 am

    I’m reminded of more lyrics of Joni’s. Got to get us back, back to the garden. Eloquent words like those can only advance that dream

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      2 November 2015 at 8:28 pm

      Yes indeed, Joni got it right time and time again.

      Reply

Please leave a comment Cancel reply

Receive Blog Updates By Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,416 other subscribers.

Recent Comments

  • Penny Woollams on Swift as a bow from an arrow…
  • Rob Howell on Swift as a bow from an arrow…
  • Jolyon Barton on Swift as a bow from an arrow…
  • Michael Clark on Cousin Caterpillar… one day he’ll wake with wings
  • Alan P on Swift as a bow from an arrow…

Categories

  • Myblog (7)
  • Sportsblog (7)
  • Wildblog (215)

Archives

  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014

© Simon Barnes · info@simonbarnesauthor.co.uk
Home page photograph © David Bebber · Bird drawings © foxillustration.com
Created by Purple Hippo

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.