We went to Cheyenne - part 6

Photo by: Tim Bindner

At the advice of our hotel front desk, we took a drive and visit ranch. Not a bad drive, but a glorious experience.

We left Centennial, headed east through Laramie, past Vedauwoo toward Cheyenne, Wyoming. We were first to arrive at the ranch and were greeted with multiple painted buildings resembling an old western town. I parked the car, watch an old cowboy pull up in a UTV and sit and wait for the store to open. We also waited to purchase tickets.

After purchasing tickets, we walked down to the train we would ride in a short time. We heard, then saw many chickens running around us. They called out, chased each other, but paid us no attention.

At the bottom of the hill, we saw the train, and I looked at my watch. We still had 30 minutes to wait, so we walked over to a fenced in area, where we saw various animals. First a peacock, then an ostrich, then some horses, goats, donkeys, and camels. Marcie and I walked up to the horse pin, where a black horse came over to greet us. Marcie pet him. He rubbed his head against the fence, and then he lingered on.

I saw the aforementioned cowboy now driving his UTV around with a Coca-Cola he purchased from the shop, as well as other cowboys performing various duties. One used a backhoe to carry cans of manure past us and dump it in a field. Some were hauling trash and one guy pulled up in a truck carrying crates of something.

The young man in the truck hollered, “You riding the train?” I nodded yes, and he said, “I am your tour guide. Be with you in a minute.” He began loading up crates onto the train and examined our tickets. Told us to sit wherever we wanted, then others showed up and board.

The Terry Bison Ranch was bought in 1881. 300,000 acre were purchased by then Governor FE Warren. Mr. Warren used this location as his southern headquarters for his Warren Livestock Company.

In 1993, the location was opened to the public only two years after Ron and Janice Thiel purchased the land. Large Bison were purchased and brought to the farm.

The original tours in 1993 were in wagons and the Bison would often charge the wagons, so in 2000, Dan brought in buses. They often got stuck in the mud. In 2004, Dan purchased rail from the Pacific Railroad Company, purchased old military vehicles shortly after, and being an engineer designed, the railway and constructed the train cars from the military vehicles.

Marcie and I set off on the train ride. First, passing a camel, then through some tall brush, and then we stopped. Slowly large bison came up the car, surrounded the car and we began feeding them. In the crates were cucumbers. We were instructed to break them in half, feed half to a bison, wait, then give them the other half. Some came up with mouths open, ready for a deposit, others came up and used a large black tongue to wrap around the cucumber before it disappeared. I might add the tongue is slimy, as mentioned, black and rough like a cat’s tongue.

After some time, the crates were empty. We were dusty and sometimes slimed, then the train moved again. Our guide told us within a few minutes, we would leave Wyoming and entering Colorado. This is the only privately owned train that crosses multiple states. We entered Colorado (looking no different from Wyoming), and within 2 minutes, were back in Wyoming.

We finished our tour, washed our hands, and headed back to Laramie for a bite to eat. It was a good day.

What we learned is that bison like cucumbers that bison are in America and England, while Buffalo are in Asia and Africa. And that our US government printed the first Buffalo Nickle with a picture of a bison on it. I learned that land is really cheap in the area (though my wife was not interested in moving), though one plot was 40 acres at $99,000. We also learned (which I already knew) that if you see a bison in the wild, don’t feed it a cucumber.

Until next time,

Tim (Kilmer)