American Bison: The Great Animal of the Oklahoma Prairie
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There are few animals that can make an Oklahoma landscape feel as ancient as the American bison.
A single bison standing in tall prairie grass can change the entire scene.
Suddenly it becomes easier to imagine the Great Plains before highways crossed them, before fences divided the land, and before towns appeared along the horizon.
For thousands of years, enormous herds of bison moved across the grasslands of North America.
Their story is deeply connected to Oklahoma.
When Bison Covered the Plains
Long before Oklahoma became a state, bison were a defining part of the landscape.
The Great Plains provided them with enormous expanses of grassland, and vast herds migrated through the region in search of food and water.
Their numbers were once almost unimaginable.
For Native peoples of the Plains, the bison was far more than wildlife.
It provided food, hides, tools, shelter materials and countless other necessities. The animal also held deep cultural and spiritual significance for many tribes.
The history of the bison is therefore inseparable from the history of the people who lived on these plains long before Oklahoma existed.
Nearly Gone
That enormous population did not last.
During the nineteenth century, commercial hunting and deliberate destruction devastated America's bison herds.
Millions of animals disappeared within only a few decades.
By the late 1800s, an animal that had once seemed almost limitless was approaching extinction.
The disappearance of the bison profoundly changed the Plains.
It also threatened cultures that had depended upon the animal for generations.
What happened next became one of America's earliest major wildlife conservation stories.
A Return to Oklahoma
Today, bison can once again be seen on protected grasslands in Oklahoma.
One of the most remarkable places to experience them is the Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska.
The preserve protects tens of thousands of acres of tallgrass prairie—one of the largest remaining protected areas of this once-vast ecosystem.
A large bison herd lives there today.
Driving through the preserve can produce an experience that is difficult to find elsewhere.
There may be no buildings in sight.
No traffic lights.
Sometimes very little traffic at all.
Then a dark shape appears in the grass.
And another.
And another.
For a moment, the modern world seems very far away.
Bigger Than They Look
Photographs do not always communicate just how large a bison really is.
Adult males can weigh well over a thousand pounds, with powerful shoulders, massive heads and a thick covering of dark hair around the front of the body.
Yet despite their size, bison can move surprisingly quickly.
That is one reason they should always be observed from a generous distance.
A bison grazing peacefully beside a road may appear calm, but it remains a powerful wild animal.
The best wildlife encounters are the ones in which the animal is allowed to continue behaving naturally.
The Prairie Needs the Bison
Bison are not simply inhabitants of the prairie.
They help shape it.
Their grazing affects plant growth.
Their movement disturbs the soil.
Even the shallow depressions they create when rolling in dust—known as wallows—can influence the plants and animals living nearby.
The prairie and the bison developed together over thousands of years.
Seeing bison returned to protected grasslands is therefore about more than saving one species.
It is part of restoring an ecosystem.
An Oklahoma Symbol
Oklahoma has more than one connection to the bison.
The animal appears in art, sculpture, signs and imagery across the state.
It evokes Native history, ranching country, the Great Plains and the enormous landscapes of western and northern Oklahoma.
But perhaps the most meaningful way to understand the bison is not through a symbol at all.
It is to see one standing on the prairie.
Wind moving through the grass.
Nothing but Oklahoma sky behind it.
In that setting, the bison doesn't look like an animal that has been placed into the landscape.
It looks like the landscape was built around it.
Explore Oklahoma
See Bison on the Tallgrass Prairie
Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
Near Pawhuska, Oklahoma
The preserve offers one of Oklahoma's best opportunities to experience bison in a large native-prairie landscape.
Give yourself time.
This is not a place to rush through simply looking for animals.
The prairie itself is part of the experience.
Look for:
- Bison grazing in tallgrass prairie
- Large bulls standing apart from the herd
- Mothers and calves during the appropriate season
- Bison wallows in the prairie
- Hawks and other grassland birds
- Wildflowers and native grasses
- Huge, uninterrupted Oklahoma skies
Handmade Oklahoma Tip: Resist the temptation to photograph only a tight portrait of the animal. Some of the strongest Oklahoma bison images include plenty of prairie and sky. The landscape is part of the story.
And always photograph bison from a safe distance. Never approach them for a better picture.
Oklahoma Wildlife is part of Handmade Oklahoma's Visual History of Oklahoma—a continuing collection celebrating the animals and landscapes that help tell the story of our state.