Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
18.0/10.6
Sign at south opposite the service road gives Buffalo Ranch history. Lamar Ranger
Station and summer headquarters of the Yellowstone Institute. A ranger residence and facilit-
ies for the Yellowstone Institute (educational arm of the Yellowstone Association) are located
here, but no visitor facilities. (For details about the Yellowstone Association and Institute, see
the Travel Tips.)
Shadows lengthen in the early evening at Lamar Buffalo Ranch.
Bicycles are allowed on the service road at the north end of the cabin area for 1 mile
(1.6 km) up Rose Creek, but, since wolves have been reintroduced in the area, anyone wishing
to go there should first check with a ranger.
Buffaloes, Wolves, and Coyotes
As you pass the ranger station and Yellowstone Institute buildings, you might ponder how
three of Yellowstone's larger mammals can coexist here. This was the site of the Lamar Buf-
falo Ranch from 1907 into the 1950s, a part of the park's efforts to revive the population of
the nearly extinct buffalo (often so called, although zoologists prefer to call them bison).
Here the animals were kept in corrals and were fed hay cut in the valley. The imported
plains herd interbred with native mountain bison, and some of their descendants live in
the park today.
