A Vanishing Race

Native Americans’ deep connection with bison, which survived for thousands of years, was destroyed at the dawn of the 19th Century. The end came following Lewis and Clark’s reports of abundant furs and hides along the Missouri River in the early 1800s. In as little as 30 years, the trickle of fur traders developed into wholesale slaughter.

The arrival of the railroad in buffalo territory rapidly fed the East Coast’s cravings for buffalo hides. Then the US Army encouraged the animals’ total destruction, as a military tactic to starve Native Americans into surrender.

By 1880 the bison were doomed. There was no natural and political refuge for the animals. Poachers even raided the Yellowstone Park herd with impunity, despite regulations prohibiting hunting on park grounds. When an 1894 inventory in Yellowstone reported only 20 remaining buffalo, Congress rushed to pass the National Park Protective Act, which imposed stiff fines or imprisonment for buffalo poaching.

As the Yellowstone herd struggled for survival, unprotected buffalo outside the park were wiped out. In Lost Park, Colorado, poachers exterminated four buffalo in 1897, likely the last unprotected free-ranging bison in the country. As wild bison diminished to the edge of oblivion, private herds began to crop up and were moved around the country, eventually arriving in California, where they were not native.

The presence of bison in Monterey County is not without precedent. In the 1890s, the Winston brothers, local businessmen who owned several Pacific Grove hotels, brought a herd of bison to the Peninsula and later sold them to the Pacific Improvement Company. The bison were penned at the Pebble Beach Hotel, and several frequently roamed 17-Mile Drive.

According to Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History archivist Esther Trosow, the bison were not always tranquil. Legend has it that one of the bison decided to mosey through downtown Pacific Grove one afternoon, causing a panic among the community.

“They chased the buffalo down to Lovers Point, where it leapt into the ocean and swam around,” Trosow says. “It apparently caused quite a commotion.”

The most famous herd of bison in California resides on Catalina Island. Imported in 1924 for the silent film version of Zane Grey’s Western tale The Vanishing American, the herd flourished, growing to 600. For decades the herd was routinely culled and auctioned. Recently, an organization called the Catalina Island Conservancy conducted a study that showed the optimum number for the island was between 150 and 200, so 100 bison were relocated home to the Great Plains.