On Antelope Island, the buffalo roam. And it’s a beautiful miracle where once they were nearly extinct.  

Not so many years ago, the American Bison, or buffalo as they’re commonly called, were decimated. They say that once in the late 18th century, these glorious beasts numbered over 60 million. There were so many buffalo in this country that a buffalo crossing could last up to six days. If your path crossed theirs, you’d have to wait as they lumbered and rumbled past, like waiting at a passing train.

But we hunted them. And hunted and hunted and hunted.  

One day you didn’t see any more buffalo. None at all. By 1889 there were just 541 buffalo left in the United States. Imagine what it took to go from 60 million to 541 – just imagine it.

Now, the buffalo have made a comeback through repopulation programs in various western states and places. Still, I never expected to see them roam in herds. I’d watched the National Geographic series on national parks. They created one about Yellowstone and featured the buffalos. So many of them are rutting and repopulating themselves now. Seemingly unstoppable, if not for humans. 

I was surprised to learn that, technically, there aren’t any free-roaming buffalo left in the country. They’re all regulated to the public or Native American lands and ranches, where they are bred and sold for meat, which is popular in the western states.

The Buffalo of Antelope Island 

I’d heard that I might see buffalo on Antelope Island, but what I saw surpassed my expectations and though I had nothing to do with their survival – great pride that they had. It’s humbling to see something that was almost lost to human history.   

The bison is the island’s most famous resident. Park officials placed 12 animals there in 1893 to help the repopulation efforts. Today, the herd numbers several hundred. Now, they hold a yearly bison round-up to check the herd health and sell extra animals to ranchers. Thus, the buffalo lives on, albeit in a regulated way. See the Bison Treaty here.

The Cost of Visiting the Island 

Antelope Island is a state park and requires a $15 fee or park pass. Getting onto the island requires crossing a roadway built over the Great Salt Lake. Or at least what used to be a once-great Lake. It is the biggest lake west of the Mississippi River and one of the saltiest in the world. That alone makes it worth the price of admission. But it isn’t what it used to be.

The Great Salt Lake 

The Great Salt Lake, like the buffalo, used to be much more than it is now. It covered the entire region. But now, it is a mere puddle of its former self. And that puddle diminishes each year. This is the lowest the lake has ever been. The marina is dry, and the white, salty shorelines extend further than they ever used to.  

I had come to Antelope Island not to see the buffalo, which I had no expectations of finding, but to see the Great Salt Lake. This lake is at least four times as salty as an ocean. Maybe more. It is so salty almost nothing lives in it. That’s spectacular and worth seeing.

The locals had said to avoid the lake. It “stinks,” the bugs were “out of control,” nobody goes there, and the “beach is muddy.” The reviews online said much the same. “Skip it.” But I cannot skip anything rare, unique, and historically valuable. So I set my eyes and maybe my feet in the Great Salt Lake.  

Diminishing Water at the Great Salt Lake

You can’t prepare for the absence of water as you cross the causeway. Where there should be water, there is only white sandy residue. I wanted to lick my fingers, dip them in the white, and taste them to see if they were salty.

I got out of the van to take a picture. First, you are hit by the heat, always in the upper 90s in Salt Lake City in summer. Then the smell from the Brine Shrimp, Brine Flies and algae hits you. A putrid stench of long-dead fish baking in the sun. It was so foul it burned my eyes. I had thought I might hike, but if I could expect that stench across the island, I was rethinking it.  

The Antelope Island Beach 

I stopped at scenic overlooks and measured where the water should be and where it was. I looked for people and saw too few of them. On the beach, there was a lone umbrella with a family surrounding it. They seemed unsure of what to do. A few other stragglers walked along the shoreline. The beach looked much bigger than it needed to be. Receded, eroded, expanded. The lone family made it appear even bigger. A place nobody would go.  

Antelope Island 

I drove deeper into the island, and the stench abated. On the island, they’ve placed life-sized fiberglass statues of buffalo. In the park literature, they tell you the warning signs of a buffalo attack and warn you to stay away from them. There are tips if you inadvertently get too close. 

1. Stay at least 25 feet away
2. If it raised its tail, it is agitated
3. Run away

Finding the Buffalo 

Then, as surprising as seeing a ghost. I saw one. Just one. A big brown buffalo bull alone in a field, head down, munching on grass.  

“Whoop!” I shouted to myself in the van and pulled over immediately. I stood outside my van and watched him, oblivious to others’ presence and not caring. It was the first wild buffalo I’d seen. He was majestic and only a hint of what was to come.  

Driving further down the road, I found hundreds of them. They crossed the dry lakebed in a long row—the biggest males in the lead, followed by the females and the babies. There were so many babies. My heart swelled with pride.  

Where the Buffalo Roam 

As I continued to drive through the island, there were frequent stops to let the buffalo cross the road, see them in a new environment, and wonder over how they’ve taken over the island.  

A guide told me politics are turning against the buffalo. In Yellowstone, for example, there is a herd of about 5,000 that is growing every year. Soon there will be too many to maintain, and they’ll have to decide what to do with them. Likely, they’ll go to slaughter.

Most bison in North America (about 360,000) are raised as livestock for meat, leather and other commercial uses. Only about 11% of them are managed for ecological and conservation goals. 

And they could eventually die out naturally. A National Park Service study has found “that management of bison herds in isolation promotes the loss of genetic diversity within all herds.”  

For Now there are Buffalo

While the Great Salt Lake may be diminished, the buffalo is reborn, at least for now. It’s a rare and wonderful opportunity to see the circle of life, ecological change, and a remarkable success story. 

From the NPS: “While bison are no longer threatened by extinction, substantial work remains to restore the species to its ecological and cultural role on appropriate landscapes within its historical range. Perhaps the greatest conservation challenge that bison face is the lack of large blocks of habitat where they can freely roam and be managed as wildlife, similar to deer, elk, antelope, and other wildlife species.”

Visit Antelope Island at 4528 West 1700 South Syracuse, Utah 84075. 

Read more stories about Utah here

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