The Lamar Buffalo Ranch is a historic

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...

in the

Lamar River The Lamar River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long, in northwestern Wyoming in the United States. The river is located entirely within Yellowstone National Park. History Prior to the 1884–85 Geological Survey of the ...

valley of

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

, in the U.S. state of

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

. As an early contribution to the conservation of bison, it was created to preserve one of the last free-roaming

American bison The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply Bubalina, buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongs ...

(buffalo) herds in the United States. The ranch was established in 1907 when 28 bison were moved from

Fort Yellowstone Fort Yellowstone was a U.S. Army fort, established in 1891 at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was designated in 1872 but the Interior Department was unable to effectively manage the park. Administration was transfer ...

to the Lamar Valley in the northeast corner of the park. The herd at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch was maintained as a semi-domesticated source of additional bison to enhance the park's natural herd. As the ranched herd increased in size, it was released to the

open range In the Western United States and Canada, open range is rangeland where cattle roam freely regardless of land ownership. Where there are "open range" laws, those wanting to keep animals off their property must erect a fence to keep animals out; th ...

, where it interbred with the wild herd. After the ranched bison were successfully integrated, the ranch continued to be used to produce hay to feed wild bison in the winter until the 1950s. Because the winter feeding program maintained the herd at artificially high levels and distorted the distribution of bison in the park, it fell from favor as the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

adopted wildlife management policies that attempted to interfere as little as possible with each species' natural

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

. Today the Lamar Buffalo Ranch is maintained as an historic district comprising five buildings built in the early 20th century. The complex includes a ranger station built in 1915, a bunkhouse built in 1929, a residence which was moved from Soda Butte in 1938, a barn built in 1927, and a corral. The interior of the bunkhouse has since been remodeled and is currently used by the park's public stewardship institute, Yellowstone Forever (formerly the Yellowstone Association), which conducts classes and seminars there.

Notes

External links

National Park Service video - Lamar Buffalo RanchLamar Buffalo Ranch
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office {{Wyoming Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Rustic architecture in Wyoming Historic American Buildings Survey in Wyoming Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Park County, Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Yellowstone National Park 1907 establishments in Wyoming Buildings and structures in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming