The Return of the Bison
story and photos by Ty C. Smedes

Clay county farmer Bob Bendlin likes to tell the story of how his great-grandfather witnessed what might have been the last known journey of a solitary bison, making its final trek across the northwest corner of Iowa. It was 1871 when Michael Bernhagen gathered his family into a horse-drawn wagon and drove them to the back of the family homestead to view the final chapter of Iowa's bison story. The 19th century European settlement of Iowa, and elsewhere had pushed the remaining animals to near extinction.

Nearly 140 years later
It's a sunny day in late October 2008 at The Nature Conservancy's Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve, located about 20 miles north of Sioux City. A 53-foot-long trailer carrying 28 bison from western South Dakota's Lame Johnny Creek Ranch has backed up to a recently built steel corral. Scott Moats-the manager at Broken Kettle-opens the back door of the trailer, and moments later the first genetically pure bison become Iowa residents after nearly a 140 years absence in the wilds of Iowa, The Nature Conservancy (a leading conservation organization that works to protect habitat in all 50 states and 30 countries) reintroduced North America's largest herbivore to the Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve in Iowa's northern Loess Hills...

Get the rest of the story
in the 2010 September October Issue: