When the Great Plains were young there were no humans to manage them. No humans to plow the soil, string barbed wire along the river banks, choose the crops to plant on the flats, or decide on the number of animals to graze the grass. It was like one enormous ranch, managed on the single principal of natural selection. In those days the Great Plains changed so slowly that, for all practical purposes, they were in stasis—perpetually beautiful and wild.
About 20,000 years ago, when humans crossed the Bering land bridge that briefly joined North America with Asia, they found a wonderland of plenty and immediately began to alter it. Early hunters killed off many of the animals that had evolved to thrive on the central grasslands of North America. Those animals had learned to move across the Great Plains in huge numbers and thrive on the specialized vegetation that evolved alongside them. But many species had not evolved a fear of humans and, if they couldn’t evolve fast enough, they perished.
Then the humans began to divide the Great Plains up into hunting grounds and fought to the death over the boundaries they created according to mountain ranges, rivers, or imaginary limits. Within those divisions, animals began to be culled, prairies were burned to herd the animals into more convenient hunting areas, and berries and roots were harvested for the first time. In a way, those old hunting grounds were the first Great Plains ranches. They were huge but suddenly the hand of man had begun to fiddle with the management of the Great Plains. The constriction of the land would continue until the present day.
By the middle 1800s the Native claims to the land were being extinguished one by one and the era of the cattleman was at hand. Based on the European notion of a "commons" for grazing animals, the old hunting/gathering “ranches” of the Natives were replaced by free-range sheep and cattle ranches, often owned by European syndicates. Many of these new, open-range ranches were carved from individual Native hunting grounds. Still, many of the new ranches were hundreds of thousands of acres. The advent of over-grazing put new management stresses on these nascent eco-islands.
Homesteading and barbed wire furthered divided the Great Plains’ pie, destroying the migration paths of animals, limiting the health of grasses that need space, and threatening everything that had depended on the vastness of the Great Plains for protection. By the twentieth century the Great Plains were being managed by tens of thousands of human land managers, each with different ideas about their land and few with any idea of the potential damage of dividing a huge ecosystem into tiny fragments.
In 2000, when we bought our Cheyenne River Ranch it was one of those fragments—a little over nine-hundred acres in an ocean of heterogeneous, dysfunctional fragments. A hundred years before it had been part of huge Texas based ranch of hundreds of thousands of acres. In more recent years it belonged to the Midwestern Cattle Company out of Chicago. From the Midwest Cattle Company our little section of the ranch was transformed into what was known locally as the JB ranch. By the time we bought our little section, the JB had been breaking up for years. With each sale it got smaller until we bought that little nine hundred acres and, in a grandiose gesture, named it the Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch. We knew that we were moving onto a degraded version of what the Great Plains had been—that the subdividing of the prairie was a death sentence and that subdividing was so profitable in our economic system that there was little chance that it would cease. It seemed that ranches would continue to shrink, and, like Humpty Dumpty, no one would ever be able to put them back together again.
By now the kids were passionate about the conservation work we were doing and about Wild Idea Buffalo Co. There would be grandchildren in the future too. What would be our legacy to them?
(O'Brien Family: Dan, Jilian, Barrett, Colton, Lincoln, Lucas and Jill)
When a US Forest Service lease became available to us, our family decided to try to reverse what had been the norm for many generations. We acquired the lease and switched the whole ranch to the exclusive job of raising buffalo—as it had been before the great human fiddling had begun. It might have been a silly thing to aspire to and the job would never end, but it was something that we had to try. We took no profit out of the ranch, no new cars, or fancy vacations, and all family members worked outside jobs too. Then, two years after we moved onto the original Cheyenne River Ranch, our bachelor neighbor died and we were able to borrow the money to buy his little ranch. We put the whole place into a conservation easement which we sold for the down payment on the next adjoining land that came up for sale. By 2015 we had 3,200 acres of the old JB ranch back under one owner and a grazing permit on 24,000 acres of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Then a strange thing happened.
A hunting buddy and his wife let me know that his family had noticed what my family was doing. We were on a fishing trip and, in passing; he told me that he’d be interested in buying a ranch and leasing it back for us to manage as part of the Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch. I thanked him for his offer but knew that people often talked about such things but seldom followed through. I was pretty sure the proposal would never come to fruition. It was also unlikely that another ranch right beside the CRBR would come up for sale and if it did, I’d probably never have the nerve to call and ask the guy to follow through. The week before this past Christmas, I got a call from the man who owned the ranch right beside us—the remainder of the old JB ranch. He was a corn farmer from Nebraska and he had over extended himself at the bank.
After the call, I sat in my chair contemplating the call. The acquisition would add another 6,400 acres to the CRR, but it was far beyond our resources. I was still staring at the telephone and I thought about simply calling my friend. But I couldn’t do it without stewing for five days. When I finally found the courage, I told him that a large ranch had come up for sale. It would fit perfectly into the Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch and it would put the JB back together. He had no idea what the JB was, but he simply said, “Let’s buy it.”
The details took about four months. There were all kinds of lawyers with long lease agreements. There were some fences that had to be altered to accommodate buffalo. When we moved four hundred and fifty head of buffalo into their brand new pasture they leaped about with delight, which Jill captured on video.
The herd was in full frolic mode, apparently as happy as we are to begin reversing the tragedy of downsizing the scope of America’s Great Plains. The dream continues... we can only hope that it’s not too heavy to carry forward.
Goofing off during family photo session. Most typical - but not so fun for the photographer! ;)
Photo credit: Jill O'Brien
62 comments
Wow, just wow.
And, Thank you.
There is of course, so very much, still, that makes one proud to be American, and so much, still, every day, that grinds us down to where we can’t seem to feel that . . .
Stories like yours help bring it all back.
Like I said: Thanks!
In 2002 the original 900 acres of the Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch came up for sale, that would eventually link to a 34,000 acre lease on the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. At that time the Broken Heart Ranch was 1,200 acres. The potential for growing our bison herd with large landscape grazing/conservation in mind was limited, as the surrounding country was being broken up into ranchettes. It was at that time that we decided to make the move from the Broken Heart to the now Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch. The dream of regenerating the prairies, while improving our environment and our food supply by bringing back the buffalo continues…
“Buffalo for Broken Heart” made me laugh and cry (really). It’s focus is different, but I consider it on par with Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac.”
Seeing the above video of buffalo romping on the range gave me goosebumps. Can’t wait to try your buffalo meat and perhaps one day tour your ranch.
I, too, am curious about the transition from The Broken Heart Ranch to the CRR. In addition, I wonder if, with the return of bison to these South Dakota rangelands, you have acquired a pack or two of wolves — an important keystone predator. Finally, the video of happy buffalo is priceless!
Your Spirits and love for and dedication to the Community of the prairie moves me.
Great news and Sooper acquisition!
P.S. want a new book signed, please!
A million dollars of spine surgeries ago, I would have gladly bought adjoining ranch properties to lease to you for your dream. But, I’ll settle for buying your products. Great dream. Great job. Enjoy.
Dlighted to read of your continued success. Curly Bill is smiling (or whatever buffalo do when they are happy…)
Beautiful outcome!I am so happy for you and the bison for having such a good life
Angela
Outstanding ! Very commendable . Makes me happy too see a once great Ranch ,becoming great again. Love seeing the Buffalo in their natural habitat . Thanks for sharing …Sanford Graham
I love the important work you all are doing! Congratulations on the huge addition to the ranch. The plains are smiling , your fiddling plays the old music. Thanks for your vision and for being such a great role model.
Merci Monsieur O’ Brien pour votre action, et merci à cet ami qui vous a permis d’acquérir cette importante surface supplémentaire. Je suis pressé de pouvoir lire en français votre dernier livre “Great plains bison”
Bon courage et longue vie à votre superbe famille et je vous souhaite encore plus de bisons !
Philippe
Great work, we need to support the O’Brien’s efforts 100%. What a beautiful sight seeing the Bison home again.
Some choose to deny America’s responsibility for the intended genocide of the Bison, I’m glad you mentioned it. I almost come to tears when I think of what our forefathers did in this country. An easy internet search will find encyclopedias full of information on the slaughter that took place.
Here is a good summary of why: https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/environment/genocide-by-other-means-us-army-slaughtered-buffalo-in-plains-indian-wars/
I am 100% behind the mission of your ranch and delighted to hear that you’ve added another large chunk! Thank you for the update and for your hard work. I do have to say that I flinched a little at the comment that the first North American humans killed off many of the animals on the Great Plains. While there are lots of theories about man’s role in that, it is unproven to my knowledge, and many of the Pleistocene animals that inhabited North America when humans arrived went extinct during the same time period when the climate changed at the end of the last great ice age. While hunting certainly could have contributed to the extinction of some of these animals, I don’t believe it is accurate to say conclusively that humans were responsible. Other than that, only good thoughts and appreciation for your work and the bison I buy from you!