Man vs. The Prairie (Plains, Cherokee: buy, restaurant, fence)

[minidelle]

Originally Posted by thriftylefty

A blizzard on the prairie could be so disorienting that people could be found dead literally foot steps from their house. One particular settler had to experience the disorienting effect of one for himself. In his autobiography he wrote that he tied one end of a rope to his bed post and the other end to his waist and wandered out into the storm.

Nice find. May I please be told more on who, why, where and when?!



Reading the thread's title had me think of those who suggest
low population density areas in Kansas (and other states) be used to raise bison on a large scale.

I'm curious to know what people here think about it, though not enough to start a thread especially.

[cp1969]

Originally Posted by minidelle

Nice find. May I please be told more on who, why, where and when?!



Reading the thread's title had me think of those who suggest
low population density areas in Kansas (and other states) be used to raise bison on a large scale.

I'm curious to know what people here think about it, though not enough to start a thread especially.

There isn't anything stopping anybody who wants to do that now.

Most of Kansas is privately owned, so if someone wanted to do it on a 'big scale,' they'd have to own or rent a lot of land first.

[grassnsky]

There are Bison farms around Riley Co. Some of the meat gets brought to the local farmers market. I wonder if cattle are just easier to manage. I know Ted Turner from TNT, CNN, TBS, or whatever he owns, bought a bunch of land down in Cherokee County and stocked it with Buffalo. I think it's just a novelty to him. I dont know if he fattens them up and sells the meat or not.

I do know that Bison graze alot harder than cattle do. Their temperments are very testy too. Very powerful animals.

[grassnsky]

Originally Posted by thriftylefty

A blizzard on the prairie could be so disorienting that people could be found dead literally foot steps from their house. One particular settler had to experience the disorienting effect of one for himself. In his autobiography he wrote that he tied one end of a rope to his bed post and the other end to his waist and wandered out into the storm.

That wind is soooo brutal. I have surveyed out in prairie in the middle of winter. Constant north wind blowing at 30-35 mph with a windchill of -7 to -10. It's that freakin' wind man. All of a sudden it will gust to around 50 mph. INSANE. It will not let up. We would have all the lastest gadgetry on. Insulated gloves, heat packs, face guards. We could only stand about 15 minutes at a time until we got back into the heated truck to thaw out for about 20 minutes, then back out into it. My fingers were froze to the bone. My eyes were froze. My face was burning with cold. I CANNOT imagine what it must have been like for the folks back then. If you got lost in a blizzard like that, your in deep, dead trouble.

[grassnsky]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

In modern times you might run into mt. lions with their expanding habitat or the odd rattlesnake but pretty much water would be the only real risk or perhaps lightning.

My Dad caught a Mt. Lion picture on a motion censor camera about a year ago. He was using the camera to track deer. It was a night time shot. Funny thing, it's tail was only about as half as long as you think it should have been. North central Kansas (Jewell County).

I saw some tracks on a dirt road in Brown County, north east Kansas, about the size of my fist, and it didnt have any claws. Feline, retractable. We measured the stride between the left and the right prints....4 FEET IN STRIDE. Thats a big Mt. Lion. I would have absolutley no idea what in the world I would do, or even supposed to do, if I happened upon that cat. I might start to cry to see if that did anything.....

I feel like I'm posting alot. I feel dirty and cheap, not really. Kansas is pretty cool.

[northstar22]

Originally Posted by grassnsky

That wind is soooo brutal. I have surveyed out in prairie in the middle of winter. Constant north wind blowing at 30-35 mph with a windchill of -7 to -10. It's that freakin' wind man. All of a sudden it will gust to around 50 mph. INSANE. It will not let up. We would have all the lastest gadgetry on. Insulated gloves, heat packs, face guards. We could only stand about 15 minutes at a time until we got back into the heated truck to thaw out for about 20 minutes, then back out into it. My fingers were froze to the bone. My eyes were froze. My face was burning with cold. I CANNOT imagine what it must have been like for the folks back then. If you got lost in a blizzard like that, your in deep, dead trouble.

It's even worse further north, in places like Minnesota and the Dakotas. I live in the forested region of Minnesota (but only 2 miles from the prairie/Great Plains zone) and winds here can easily top 50 miles per hour. Out on the prairies of western and southern Minnesota, windchills can drop to -70 degrees (not a typo).

[itsMeFred]

I remember wandering in a blizzard when I was a kid (in sparse, northern Nebraska).
We were walking the three miles from the road to the house and the wind came up when we were half way.
My parents, myself at 11 and my brother at 8.

I vividly remember arguing with my parents over a landmark. In the sea of white, all we could see was the shadow of a cottonwood in the distance.
They thought it was the big tree down by our stock dam, south of the house. My brother and I (who made a habit of hiking in better weather) were convinced it was the cottonwood clear up north of the house.

We convinced them to veer south, instead of north and we found the yard. A total white-out and we probably wouldn't have been able to orient by that lone tree...

Reading the thread's title had me think of those who suggest
low population density areas in Kansas (and other states) be used to raise bison on a large scale.

I'm curious to know what people here think about it, though not enough to start a thread especially.

Being one of those people who lives in a low population density area of Kansas, I have to say most people aren't particularly keen on the idea.
The land is already in use!

[minidelle]

Indeed it is used, plus one downside of the buffalo industry is the lack of connection to other industries.
Feeds, machineries, biochemicals, construction; less is needed = job loss and that cannot be allowed in rural areas.

I wasn't aware of the Ted Turner bison venture as mentioned by Grassnsky and I found that yes, he uses
his herds to supply his Montana Grills restaurants.

He owns 50 000 of them, twenty times the total amount contained in my province.

Originally Posted by grassnsky

There are Bison farms around Riley Co. Some of the meat gets brought to the local farmers market. I wonder if cattle are just easier to manage. I know Ted Turner from TNT, CNN, TBS, or whatever he owns, bought a bunch of land down in Cherokee County and stocked it with Buffalo. I think it's just a novelty to him. I dont know if he fattens them up and sells the meat or not.

Originally Posted by grassnsky

I do know that Bison graze alot harder than cattle do. Their temperments are very testy too. Very powerful animals.

And they take 7 years to mature, making bison meat expensive on top of it all.
But it's definitely healthier than beef, and delicious.

[thriftylefty]

Originally Posted by minidelle

Nice find. May I please be told more on who, why, where and when?!



.

I believe this incidence was attributed to George Washington Carver, He homesteaded in Kansas in Ness County 1886

[minidelle]

Thanks, Thriftylefty. I was able to find a recount of the story in Janet and Geoff Benge's Carver biography.


Now for this page ending I chose a spectacular depiction of Man vs. The Prairie


Black Sunday