Sun Prairie - Back in Bison Country

Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on American Prairie: Rewilding the Plains, a free self-guided tour.

Somewhere along this road you cross onto American Prairie's Sun Prairie unit, and the animals you are scanning for were gone from here for more than a century. Tens of millions of bison once grazed the Great Plains. By the late 1880s, after commercial hide hunting, only about a thousand were left in all of North America.

In October 2005, American Prairie released 16 bison from Wind Cave National Park on this land. More came from South Dakota, Iowa and Elk Island National Park in Canada. By the end of 2025 the organization counted more than 900 bison in two herds, here and on its White Rock property to the west, moving across close to 50,000 acres.

The best way to look is the way American Prairie suggests: drive the property roads slowly in early morning or evening. Sightings are never guaranteed. If you find them, stay in or beside your vehicle, give them plenty of room, and turn off the engine. Bison are fast and unpredictable.

Getting here: From Bowdoin, return to Malta and take the route local tourism sources describe: south on Regina Road and the connecting county roads, about 45 miles and mostly gravel, following the signs for Buffalo Camp. High-clearance AWD or 4WD is recommended, and do not attempt it when wet.

Did you know?: The Elk Island bison carry Montana roots: their ancestors were the Pablo herd from western Montana, the largest bison herd left on the continent in the early 1900s, which was sold to Canada.

Photo op: If bison are near the road, shoot from your vehicle with a long lens and let the herd fill the frame against the open grass and sky.

More on Wikipedia: American Prairie · American bison · Wind Cave National Park · Elk Island National Park

Sun Prairie - Back in Bison Country

Stops on this tour