I hope you enjoyed your buffalo burger today at lunch. I thank you, and Ted Turner thanks you! It is good to know this critter has found it's way from the nickel to the bun.
To really see buffalo up close and personal take a trip to Yellowstone National Park. There are several herds of them. They are not contained by fences or barricades. They go where they wish and you best get out of the way. I remember sitting in a vehicle while they walked behind and in front of us. We hoped they would not panic or decide to take a short-cut across the hood. They weigh about a ton! They are fast, if need be, and are not too bright. Buffalo injure more people than any other animal in the Park, including grizzlies! Some of the tourists are not too bright either. You can see them get out with their kids and cameras to get that once-in-a-lifetime photo op. Sometimes it is their last.
We saw one day in Canada, as we traveled, a Park called "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump". The name led us there. It was a great plain, with cliffs suddenly dropping over a hundred feet or so down to a lower level. The indians, needing buffalo for everything from food to clothing, had learned to drive the buffalo over these cliffs to be killed by the fall, or by the indians waiting below. They would have to finally scare the buffalo so they wouldn't ALL go over the jump! One not so bright young brave decided he would watch the event from directly beneath the cliff in a cave-like area. That is where the name comes from. Need I say more.
"O give me a home where the buffalo roam...." (Just remembered I have already sung that for you)
