Lake Point, Utah

Utah

The famous bison herd on Antelope Island started as seventeen animals left over from a failed real estate scheme at Lake Point.

historicalnaturalpeople

A land company here once tried to sell cottage lots by putting buffalo on the property. The pitch came with planted trees, gardens, and wells, and the animals were the attraction that was supposed to close the deal. Nobody bought in. The venture failed, and in February of eighteen ninety-three the Buffalo Park Land Company sold its seventeen American bison to a man named John E. Dooley. Getting them out was its own problem. The herd was driven around the Great Salt Lake, up to Farmington, then loaded onto a flat boat. They were floated across to Antelope Island. Those seventeen animals became the nucleus of the buffalo herd that lives on the island still. A failed subdivision on the south shore is the reason there are bison out on that island at all.

This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
The bison were herded around the lake up to Farmington and loaded on a flat boat to become the nucleus of the buffalo herd on nearby Antelope Island.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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