This is a production of SDPB.

Good morning to you wherever you are.

And greetings from the Bison Center near the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.

This is the 61st annual Buffalo Roundup here in Custer State Park.

My name is Jackie Hendry.

I'm with South Dakota Public Broadcasting, joined once again by the incomparable, knowledgeable Chris Hull of Game, Fish and Parks.

Hi, Chris.

Hi.

You need some more caffeine?

I'm under caffeinated for today.

Yes.

We want to welcome our viewers.

We've got listeners as well.

The folks, we're finally getting people parked.

It's taken a long time because this is a big crowd, a big festivity.

Before we launch into the the plan for the day.

And there you go.

Our viewers can see a shot of the spectators this morning.

We want to say a quick thank you to our sponsors for this broadcast.

The 61st annual Buffalo Roundup is brought to you today by the Tom and Danielle Aman Foundation, and by Cody Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park, where you live.

Untamed and true.

So, Chris, we're going to bring up a map of our anticipated route today for the riders as they drive the bison through their path.

We're seeing some of the crowd getting to know some of the horses.

There's our map.

And, Chris, if you want to kind of talk us through generally what we're expecting today.

Right.

So listening to and if I do blank out a little bit, I've got a earpiece in listening to the riders.

Yeah.

But kind of where that arrow is, is where the herd is kind of staging.

But from a hearing, what I'm hearing this morning, they're really strung out up on top.

All the way up on hay flats, as you can see on the map, way in the back, you know, upper right corner and then down in there really spread out.

And we saw this morning we were here at 430 this morning.

And you know, we had lights go on and you guys get out of the way.

There might be some bison coming through.

So, every year you asked me if that was normal.

Every year is is a new normal.

But the plan is you try to get them pushing down in that draw down into movie, draw over to Cactus Flats.

If there's anything up on Hay Flats, then you get a really cool show from the south viewing area where they kind of pull over that iconic pouring over to get them into Cactus Flats, across into into that Flynn Creek area.

Ultimately getting them into that East trap.

Then you'll see everybody kind of get together, make one last push into the corrals.

Great.

And now for for our for our viewers.

We've got a drone footage of roughly the, the path that we just described for those listening over the radio, over the airwaves, this is basically just one big horseshoe like path.

Yeah.

Typically speaking, to get the buffalo from wherever they are over here to the corrals just outside the Bison Center here.

Along the wildlife loop, if you've driven that in recent years here in Custer State Park.

Yeah.

And it is one of one of our employees is here this morning.

And we were watching him park and he said, that's the real roundup and that's the truth.

I mean, we're talking maybe 30,000 people this year.

So, yeah, that's just as big of an undertaking too.

But yeah, you'll see this east east trap.

This is that iconic big last push where we're trying to get them back into the corrals.

Right.

And where everybody kind of groups up.

So.

Pretty cool and smiling faces, even though they've been in line some of these people since early yesterday or yesterday evening for sure.

But yeah.

So those folks might be listening to us on the radio for the for the rest of you joining us today, we want to take a quick moment to say the bison is strong, steady and resilient.

And SDPB shares that commitment to endure every day.

We bring you trusted journalism, educational resources and stories from our communities.

You can join the SDPB heard and support us with a gift.

SDPB.org/Donate or call (605) 443-6963 and just for the occasion, we have a special new limited edition, limited quantity SDPB bison hat.

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Modeled so pristinely for you by Mr.

Chris Hull as well.

So there.

Let's see.

We.

This is a cooler day than we've had.

It is.

And and I can tell you this morning, you could see it in the horses.

You could see it in the riders.

Everybody was just kind of taking a big sigh of relief.

You know, last year, if you remember, it was hot and it's been dry down here and water has been an issue the last few weeks.

We've gotten some rain.

Some of these ponds, our little ponds and stuff have filled up.

They even put a tank.

They ran a tank because one, you know, you're moving these big critters and they have thick winter coats on.

Now, you know, they need to stop, maybe take a drink.

The creek is dry, so there's there's some water around, but just this weather is was a big, big sigh of relief for a lot of the people that are, that are doing this today.

Right.

And, and we'll be able to talk more about the conditions this year and some of the, the uniqueness of this year compared to more recent years.

But first, if this is your first round up with us or if you need a refresher last year for the 60th annual Buffalo Roundup Travel, South Dakota produced a documentary series titled Into the Roundup.

This series tells the story of the landscape, the purpose, the people, and the legacy of the Buffalo Roundup.

Here's a quick feature to remind us the purpose of this uniquely South Dakota event.

You know, cowboys moving cattle herds way back when.

They're the ones that took care of the landscape.

You know, they they moved the cows when this pasture was getting grazed down, then moving to the next one for the health of their cattle, but also for the health of the resource of the habitat and the grass and the Forbes, and without the cowboys and the ranchers that we have in this state, you know, it would be blacktop.

So I think one thing people don't necessarily realize is, is the reason for the Buffalo roundup.

It's it's a resource management tool for Custer State Park back before all the people came.

You know, the bison would travel hundreds of miles.

They'd just keep grazing and keep moving.

And now, of course, they can't do that.

We fence them in.

So you've only got a certain amount of acreages that they can be in, like Custer State Park, 71,000 acres.

That's what they've got.

The whole purpose of the Buffalo Roundup is to select animals that are going to be sold that year.

You know, to keep the herd size where the park staff thinks it needs to be based off of the resources, the grass and everything else.

We rounded up the bison, just for that matter, just to preserve the park.

Because if we continue to let all the bison Rome, they're going to get themselves out of house and home, the carrying capacity to be overwhelmed.

So we sort off what we're going to sell during the roundup, and we do a major health check on the animals, vaccinate, brand the calves.

And that's the whole purpose of the roundup buffalo, the range, the antelope, the rock formations that was all set aside for them to enjoy.

But when you come in as a rider, you understand that privilege of stewardship that you're taking a part of.

And that's really what the roundup is about.

Well, I think we're all called to be stewards of what what we've been giving and and what creation is.

We're all called to be a steward of that and to take time to appreciate the natural resources that we have that have been set aside, and to see what you can do to volunteer.

I mean, it's it's really a privilege to do that.

And I think if more people would take part in, in realizing that, that there's opportunities to volunteer in places in the state parks and national parks, being able to see the diverse, you know, prairie landscape that we have here, along with the hills and the forest, it only gets made once, so we need to take care of it.

Those lands that are set aside, those animals that are set aside will be better off.

The more that we take up that call a stewardship, because if we don't do it, no one else will.

Thanks again to our friends at Travel South Dakota for that.

Boots on the ground.

Look at the Buffalo Roundup.

You can see that entire documentary series produced for last year's 60th annual Buffalo Roundup on Travel Well, Chris, there's that kind of bird's eye view almost of of the big crowd.

Tens of thousands of people have made this such a tradition.

It is funny because we were talking this morning to some of the park people, Matt Snyder, the regional supervisor for parks.

And he's just like, how much bigger do you think we can get?

And all the employees were like, oh, this is enough.

But, you know, they make it work.

They've got the parking and the people moving down to science.

There's smiles on our folks faces and really is a bucket list thing for so many people.

I camped out here and I camp next to four guys 30 years old from Germany, and they came for the roundup, and they were blown away about how nice people are, how open, what you can do.

And I said, you guys, you haven't seen anything.

Just wait.

And so I'm going to try to find them after the roundup and see how they see the looks on their faces.

Yeah.

Say, what did you think?

Right.

The 61st annual Buffalo Roundup is brought to you by Cody Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park, where you live untamed and true and by Tom and Danielle Aman Foundation.

Thanks again to those sponsors for this 61st annual Buffalo Roundup.

So we are talking a little bit before, Chris, about how how it's cooler this year than than in years past.

It's been quite a dry year as well this year.

What the how how do we expect kind of the herd to respond today versus maybe years past?

I think, you know, there's always a worry when it's hot one, you know, you think, oh, it's hot.

They don't want to move.

They get crabby.

But really it's the health.

It's the health of the critters.

It's this is a stressful thing, you know, and it's the health of the horses.

And so these, these calmer days, cooler days, a little bit of breeze, it just helps them.

It it's just like if do you want to go out for a walk or a jog when it's 90 or 70, right.

And that it's really understating it.

But it's also a weird year.

It looks green here because we've gotten rain in the last couple of weeks, but we were really, really dry.

And it pushed Buffalo into a lot of areas early in the season where they haven't always been or don't frequent a lot, and big numbers of Buffalo.

So I know there was a lot more work going involved in kind of getting a move to where we can finish the roundup, you know, pre pre roundup the last 3 or 4 weeks.

But I think you know we're seeing now and they're just starting to push push the critters now.

They're just starting to round up.

And there's a vast majority of them around 2 or 3 water tanks up there.

So even there you know, they're they're doing what they're supposed to do.

We're going to get a drink and then we're going to put on a show.

Well, the crowd, crowds listening and watching today will be excited to see that show.

And we were talking just earlier this morning about, you know, yesterday we came in for our setup.

Thought, boy, this might be a short roundup because there was a whole awful lot of them already kind of near the corrals, kind of like, all right, we kind of know where we're going to end up about this time of year.

But as of this morning, they were they were pretty scattered.

Yep.

They were scattered from, you know, back right by where we're at all the way back to the gate and, yeah, you know, it's I've, I've been part of those roundups where they are scattered, but they are a herd critter.

And so they'll all get going and we'll get them pushed in the right direction.

There you go.

The SDPB is supported by people across South Dakota who value trusted information, lifelong learning, local stories and connection.

And that was a great time to remind folks that your gift helps carry this public service forward.

So as you enjoy SDPB's live broadcast of the Buffalo Roundup, we hope you'll join the SDPB heard and support us with a gift.

That's sdp.org/donate or call (605) 443-6963.

If you're watching the broadcast, there's a QR code on your screen to assist you along your way, and then you can even nab yourself one of these new limited edition SDPB bison hats.

And also of note, we're currently doing a $10,000 challenge brought to you by Scott and Val Parsley.

Each gift you make to SDPB unlocks an additional $100 up to that full $10,000 challenge.

So lots of reasons to give today for the folks tuning in for this unique Buffalo Roundup event.

This is we've been doing this live stream.

I believe this is just my third year that I've been enjoying this with my friend Chris Hull, but this I believe I just heard from our producer in the truck, Kyle Mork, that that this started in 2020.

Yep.

And I don't think we had announcers then.

I think I started in 2021.

So this is my fifth.

There you go.

So we've been we've been making making our own.

Part of this broadcast.

Yeah.

With limited quantities of caffeine.

So but we have to get here real early in the morning because of these incredible crowds that show up.

And it was coming in at 4:00 this morning from the wildlife loop from the north side.

There was two miles of traffic backed up.

It took us an hour to get from the game lodge here.

And if anybody's been here, that's about a 20 minute drive.

The crowds just keep getting bigger and bigger.

But it was cool yesterday.

Bob Landis, who's been a he you know, I think he did 50 roundups and has been a team leader forever.

And Bob passed away last year at 90.

Bob's, daughter came up and talked to us and and she was like, you guys do such a good job.

And for having somebody who's so ingrained into this roundup and has done so many of them to go, yeah, you guys, you guys have got it.

I was I looked at you and I was just like, oh, you know, it meant a lot, but it really does mean a lot.

You know, you saw from the the purpose story.

You know, you look at these cowboys and cowgirls and they do it and it means so much to them.

But but it's more than that.

Just this process.

It's, you know, we have to move these critters to keep the grass healthy so we can keep them going.

And, you know, the thought process behind that is really cool.

So I know we've got some footage cued up, some drone footage, and then you and I, Chris, are going to talk because there has been a frequently asked question that has become more and more popular as the years have gone on about why don't why don't we just, like, put a drone, do some live drone footage while we're looking for these bisons?

So we did this drone footage.

If anybody's been to the park, some of it might look familiar for our visitor center film.

And we had to do a lot of work, a lot of research, and a lot of hard talks with our staff about, should we do this?

It's one thing to fly it over, and we have lots of people every day want to fly the drone in the park and, and, you know, when you're doing a roundup and there's so much, so many things that could go wrong, you know, adding a drone to it is a scary thing for our our cowboys, cowgirls and our managers.

So we, you know, this this footage came from that.

But it it it is amazing and it I wish we could do it.

But at this point it's just, oh.

It's just I don't know if we want to open up that Pandora's box.

And I was talking to one of the other big public herds is an Antelope Creek State Park in Utah.

And they said they did do a they flew a drone and it was that 500ft.

And then right towards the end of the roundup, the one of the boss cows, she just got mad and they just started tornadoes.

And she just went, okay, we got to get this drone out of here.

We can't do it anymore.

But it is, you know, it's dynamic footage, but that's the big reason.

And, you know, if somebody sees we've got 30,000 people up on the hill, somebody sees our drone up in the air.

You know, they're going to want to fly theirs.

And it's just something that we've always kind of held off and and just said no to.

But this was really fun.

That was a, a really fun two days to kind of do it and work with some of the cowboys and cowgirls that do the roundup.

And, when we got done and started looking at it.

We were just like, oh boy, oh boy, this is this is awesome.

It's a nice special treat, but not something we can we can pull off every time.

And then I think I'm trying to remember a I think it was yesterday talking with Jim Straight, who's the district manager for the park, talking about how another piece of the puzzle, in addition to spooking the bison, is spooking the horses that the riders are on.

Right.

And, you know, the riders are or the horses are carrying the riders and we have to get everybody home safe, the buffalo, the horses and the riders and anything we can do to not add double negative there, if that makes sense.

But, you know, it's just there's so much going on and you see it on the, on their faces the week leading up to it.

They're excited.

But there's it's just when this is done there's a collective sigh of relief going, okay, we got everybody home.

Everybody's fine.

And and you know, and to be honest, our guys up on the hills, they do an amazing job.

We placed you guys have placed these cameras in places that are hard to get to.

Their stranded up there for quite a few hours filming and and man it's they they produce some amazing, amazing footage on this deal.

So yeah.

And we something I neglected to mention when we opened our program today.

We do have those three cameras posted in three separate areas.

You can see those on your screen right now for those watching on TV and online and these these these camera ops are just like Chris said posted a ways away.

But we've got headset contact with them.

We made sure of that this morning and they are keeping an eye out.

So as soon as one of those camera ops gets a good look at the herd in motion, we will bring that up for our viewers today.

So.

But in the meantime, you're listening to me.

I'm Jacki Hendry with Chris Hull with Game Fish and Parks here with me today.

Oh hey, look at that.

Just around the corner coming around.

Movie draw.

We're already seeing our first few bison.

Yep.

And get vehicles there with support.

You know, it's just it you can only be so much, so many places in so much time with with horseback riders.

We've got about 65 horseback riders this year, 18 vehicles.

So they all kind of play their own part.

Right?

They work together and it's you can see those areas easily accessible with vehicles.

We can get some stuff done.

But a lot of the work is done on horseback.

But yeah, they're just the first little part of the herd coming down.

Movie draw.

Yeah.

And so people fewer as well.

So notice we've got some big pickup trucks there too.

These are, you know, game Fish and Parks staff.

These are dignitaries who all are the folks that are involved in a day like this.

Yeah.

You've got you've got a lot of our staff are driving the vehicles.

If you see anybody like, in the back of that rack, we call them rack trucks.

That's media folks, photographers, folks that are here to do publicity and stories for for the event.

And they come from all over the world.

I mean, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, England.

We've had I, I would guess, 20 some countries represented in the last 20 years super popular.

But yeah, if you see anybody in the back of the rack trucks, that's what they're doing.

Those are the photographers and videographers.

Right.

And why don't you tell us a little bit, Chris, while we're watching this kind of wide shot of, of the herd moving through, the, the, the riders that are involved in an event like this, how does someone end up on one of those horses?

So we have about 40, what we call core riders.

And those are folks that that have done this many times before.

It's a lot of our park staff.

It's a lot of our volunteers.

We haven't actually a separate set of volunteers that kind of volunteer with the bison program.

So those are the your real veteran riders.

There's three teams red, white and blue.

They all have their own part, you know, one South kind of along the fence, the wind cave fence.

One's kind of running down the middle, and then one's to the north, up on the ridge.

And, so, like Jim Straight, who we interviewed is the red team leader, and I believe they're in the middle this year.

The blue team leaders, Luke Hewitt is one of our employees.

And then the other one is Dennis Bailey, and he's another one of our employees.

And you'll see Dale have bandanas on.

And they all they're all in communication.

I can hear them talking in my ear right now.

So they're all in communication.

They're talking, but they all have their own part to do now.

So to get so there's about 40 core riders.

And then every year we do what's called a draw rider.

You put in for an application, you get a call if you get drawn.

They do like an interview process to see how handy you are on a horse.

You don't want to be out on a horseback if you don't know what you're doing.

Believe me, because I've done it.

It is terrifying.

I'm good enough to save my own life on a horse.

That's about it.

But, so then those folks come in and they they get in with their get in with their groups, and, and, and that's a one year experience.

But yeah, those 40 core riders are about the same 40 every year.

And when when those horses get in to these corrals and they get out and they look around, they know what's going on, they are excited.

It's game day.

So the 61st annual Buffalo Roundup is again brought to you by the Tom and Danielle Almond Foundation and by Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park where you can live untamed and true.

Now again with those with those writers.

We were talking a little bit earlier and we heard this from Game Fish and Parks Secretary Roebling the other day yesterday as well.

It takes a special kind of horse to, to ride alongside bison.

It does.

And you were at the pre meeting where we sat through it and there's a lot of a lot of folks you know we're we're excited might you know we're excited.

We're ready to go.

And then they do like a little orientation roundup.

And those are not roundup but a ride.

And those horses get a sniff of those buffalo.

And there's something about it where we've had riders go I don't think I can take this horse and and you know, you ask Jim Strader, some of the other guys, and Jim says it well, is what what makes a good bison horse or, you know, a buffalo horse.

And he goes, it got to be about three quarters crazy.

But yeah, it they have to be, you know, obviously in really good shape, yet they have to trust the person who's on your back.

But they the more they're around the buffalo, I think they get a little more comfortable.

That being said, you know, when you're pushing this many two 0 pound critters, you should probably never be too comfortable.

But yeah, it's it's seasoning.

It's just like a good hunting dog or, you know, the more you work them around these critters, the more they get, the more they get a little more comfortable.

But it's it's organized chaos out there really is.

Yeah.

And just like you might, you know, breed a dog to be a great hunting dog, you can breed horses to be a great bison horse 100%.

Tell us a bit about, I mean, this isn't the only event where we have horses around around bison, but it's on a smaller scale.

Game fish and parks and how they work the herd?

Sure.

So really working the herd.

We used to.

We used to do a winter roundup to, is probably 20 going back 30 years ago.

Maybe even more.

I've been here 30 years.

So yeah, before that.

But they kind of decided that they don't want to push.

They don't want to handle the herd as much.

Right.

You know, these are wild critters.

You just leave them be.

We can get our stuff done.

You know, during this roundup.

See, they're they're going across the wildlife loop there.

Oh, well, kind of the loop road there and getting kind of pushed down.

So I think I would guess the South South folks can probably start seeing them now, and.

Oh, yeah, there they can.

And yeah, that's their they've got them bunched up.

But I'm hearing in my ear now there's a few straggler groups that they're sending some of the team back to to get.

So when it's cool, I guess they didn't want to cooperate, so.

Hey, there you go.

Yeah.

Sometimes we can hear, like, kind of the commotion.

As.

As they get a little near you'll.

You'll hear kind of the crack of some whips.

You'll hear hooting and hollering of, of kind of just keeping the herd moving.

There we go.

Now we can hear it.

Yep.

And you really hear that a lot when you're when they're trying to get them pitched, pushed through a pinch point like that, or if the herd really starts getting strung out and maybe starting to circle back behind the riders in the vehicles, that's when you really start leaning on there, cracking whips.

Some of the people have like 20 twos with blanks in them that are shooting.

But yeah, when you hear a lot of that noise that that means, okay, we're a little urgent, we want to get around them and we want to get them moving a little bit.

You don't want them kind of balled up like that and starting to circle around or stall out too much.

So we're kind of slowing down.

Is this getting a little tired?

Kind of not really wanting to move forward?

I think that just like a little bit of a pinch point there and maybe getting some people I know we've got some riders back behind that group and you don't want to leave.

You know, you kind of want to hold them up, get them to a place where you can sort of hold them up and then get the rest of them in there.

And if they struggle with those smaller groups, they'll just keep pushing the big group.

They'll leave those little ones.

But it sounds like they're trying to yeah, they're trying to get them, get them caught up with them.

But if if they struggle too much, they'll just say, let's leave them.

We'll come and get them, you know, or they'll just end up going, where's the rest of the herd?

And they'll wander down here eventually.

Yeah.

That self viewing area, you're you're getting a show every show every now and then, you can hear a horse winning in the background too.

That's just pure excitement.

That's all.

That is great.

And in that north viewing area camera that we just had up, you can see kind of that crowd.

But right now we're looking at the movie Draw View for those watching the live stream.

Starting across.

Yep.

And and you can see those riders, they're a little bit strung out.

You know, they're not too bad, but they're starting to get long.

And that's when you start getting gaps.

So you might have some people on that left side of your screen kind of not really pinching but holding and then see trying to bring them back down across the road so you can kind of get them together.

You don't really want them really strung out, because then your gaps in your line with the riders and the vehicles can get a little loose.

And here and there you can see we still have, you know, it's late September, but we still have some, some younger.

Yeah.

Just what did they say at the roundup meeting?

They had a calf two weeks ago.

Yeah.

And and we were talking, strangely enough, about when we were in the safety meeting, you know, where you can really get in trouble.

And one of the things that the herd manager, Chad Cramer, said is the most dangerous Buffalo is a is a bull that is is tending to a cow who may or may not be in heat.

And this morning, right away, I got the earpiece in and they're talking about, okay, there's a bull up there with a with a heifer.

He's really protecting her there by the water tank.

Just stay away from there.

And they're saying, well, now the this bull is kind of chasing after us but won't leave the cow and everything.

So yeah, there's some little bitty cinnamon babies running around in there yet.

And you can hear the prairie dogs on this call too, if you can hear their chirping in the background too.

So.

Okay.

Yeah.

Here's the second group that I was talking about.

That guy kind of split off.

They're just coming down movie drawing.

And this is certainly a typical you know, you don't see it very often when there's two big bunches like that.

And and that's just the kind of a key.

They were spread out.

And now I'm hearing riders going, hey, you guys that are riding with the herd up ahead, we've got a bunch of buffalo coming up here.

You know, your tailpipe.

You better check your view mirrors and kind of get out of the way.

Chris, while you were you were explaining a little earlier.

We've got the 40 core riders, and then you've got got the draw for riders, and and riders are far and away the only GF and P staff.

And the only folks who make a day like today happen.

Yeah.

And like I said, these parks, all our state parks really run on volunteers.

We we lean heavy on them.

And there's a dedicated group of volunteers who are down here, you know, during the season, during the winter helping.

And a lot of those folks are the core riders, too.

But yeah, it's primarily primarily our staff and volunteers.

My boss, Kevin Roebling is out there, right.

And he's pretty handy on a horse, behind a hill.

So it's it's it's you really got to know what you're doing if you're going to ride this every year, be around these buffalo a lot.

Take another opportunity to thank our sponsors.

The 61st annual Buffalo Roundup, brought to you by Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park where you can live untamed and true and by the Tom and Danielle Amann Foundation's.

Thanks again to our sponsors for making a broadcast like today possible.

Yeah, I have my job and we're kind of hearing some choppers in the background.

Two or helicopters, I should say.

I don't know if it's that or is it vehicles or.

Yeah.

Oh, you're right, it probably is just a vehicle.

They're loud though.

Yeah.

But this is always kind of the funny thing.

You know, you think of this roundup as just these buffalo and they're tearing through and you'll have people go, wow, it happened so fast.

And now, you know, the South viewing folks are getting a view of the herd and kind of the cowboys and cowgirls working the herd.

And, you know, so they're going to get the best of both worlds.

They're going to get to see a, you know, a really cool view of these, this hurt just kind of going.

And then once we get them all in the East trap and we get them push it and get them rolling, they get both.

So.

And we're pretty fortunate like we like we mentioned earlier in the program, it's a it's a more seasonable fall feeling day today.

Yeah.

The last couple of years we've been doing this together.

It's been.

Yes, yes.

And you see they're you know, they're really strung out, but they've kind of got them all going in a, in the same direction.

Right.

That's what you want.

Those, those, these herds are kind of led by these older cows.

And if you can get those herd cows kind of all cooperating that's great.

But that doesn't happen very often.

So you'll see these kind of almost family groups.

Well even though they're all together there's these family groups and you'll see every once in a while.

Oh we've got a herd going, you know, just a small group going the wrong way.

But yeah, now you're seeing.

So there's the herd.

The two herds split up and getting a lot of radio chatter going, you know, here, we're coming here trying to get a pinpoint.

We're coming over the hill.

You know, you guys got to get out of the way so we can get this herd together.

So that's kind of why they got this front herd sort of held up and trying to trying to catch up to the other herd so we can get them all together.

And as you were saying, this is somewhat, somewhat atypical to have a have a split quite like this.

Yeah.

It yeah, it, I've seen it a couple of times.

But inasmuch as a bison is ever typical.

Right.

Yeah.

Normally you start pushing them.

You know if you got him on the bottom, you can get them, keep them going down on the bottom.

And then if they're up on top of hay flats or up on top of the other ridge, you can get them kind of pushed down.

But they must have just, kind of one hurt, decided they were going to go and we were going to catch up to the other ones.

So yeah, that's a nice shot as they're starting to move through.

Yep.

It's funny.

You can hear the our audience can hear what I'm hearing because the cowboy that was just talking was going on.

He was on the radio as Jim Straight.

He's on the radio.

And I could hear it coming through on our audio too.

So nice.

And this is, this has become such a, you know, Custer State Park is a tourist attraction year round, but especially the Buffalo Roundup, each fall has become just grown and grown over the years.

And like you mentioned earlier, people from all over the world.

Yeah, I like I said before for guys from Germany and they knew a ton about it.

They had done the research.

And, you know, it's a credit to our staff.

But it's also a credit to the Custer State Park Resorts company, who's done such a great job with the, you know, and it was them working in partnership to do the arts festival, which started out as not necessarily an afterthought, but now it's it's huge.

I mean, Thursday I went through there and there was no place to park on a Thursday.

So, done a great job with that.

And there's tons of stuff to do.

You know, I, I mean, you come for the roundup, but even in the park, you know, you got the arts festival.

I can tell you firsthand from camping at Center Lake, the fishing is fantastic.

Right now.

The weather is perfect.

So.

Yeah, it's it's a great time to be in the park right now.

Great time to be in the park.

A great time to join the fun.

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Now you're finally seeing them kind of come together and pushing that back herd while kind of staying on the flank of this other one, keeping these this lead herd kind of still, but now leaning on him hard.

Right.

And get him going.

And I just heard one of the guys on the radio going, all right, we're coming across.

And somebody said, I don't know how this is going to work.

So but it is yeah.

This I don't know if I've seen this more than once in 25, 26 years.

And, the folks in the south viewing area got an interesting experience today.

Wow.

I get asked that all the time to which is the best, the South or the North?

And I don't even tell people anymore because if I say one, it's gonna, you know, the best show is going to be the other one.

But in in, everybody gets a pretty good show.

This is a one, you know, it's a unicorn.

There's no place else that does this.

Antelope Island, like you said in Utah does, does a public, kind of an event with it?

That's a long, long roundup.

So this is this is Americana.

This is the Old West at its best.

Yeah.

Let's see if we can hear that thunder as the bison get moving.

And for our radio listeners, you're hearing the the crack, crack of whips, the hooting and hollering of Buffalo roundup riders.

And that low rumble you hear is the sound of roughly 1300 bison being moved in for the season and a few scared prairie dogs.

Yeah.

That's cool.

I know it wasn't ideal, but that that scene right there where you got one herd running hard into the other one is is pretty cool.

Yeah.

Disappear from like.

So Chris, remind us and we heard probably a bit of this in our at the beginning of our broadcast with that kind of introductory feature, but where the buffalo are being round up, not just for the spectacle of it all, like there's a utilitarian purpose to all this, for sure.

I mean, they're while they're a wild critter, we're sort of responsible for them because they're in our park.

So we go in, you know, we're branding the new calves.

You know, they're getting vaccinations.

And then, you know, honestly, another big part of it is this this herd is self-sustaining.

It, it the money that.

So we take the number of her 1300, let's say this year and we're dry down here.

So there's only so much grass.

So they go through and they start in July and start really looking at range conditions and really trying to figure out how many buffalo we can sustain over the winter.

And honestly, this year, from what I'm hearing, we're going to sell off 600 Buffalo because the range is in that poor condition.

So to figure out how many, you know age structure, how many males age structure, how many females from we've got a bull in in the park that's 18 years old that the kids some of the kids named Freddy, he's not in there.

He's up north right now.

But you know, you want your you have to have an age structure.

You know, cows will start breeding at two and you want some older bulls and then younger bulls to replace them.

So they try to figure that out.

And then they'll take 600 of these of these buffalo separate them out.

And then the first week in November I believe they have a Buffalo auction.

And that auction is is one that everybody watches, because this is some of the breeding stock from for the whole country.

And it really drives the Buffalo market.

Our sale drives the Buffalo market.

So it's an online auction.

We take all that money that is made from that auction and it goes back into the herd.

It goes back into fencing, it goes back into, you know, new studies.

We're doing range studies.

It goes back into, you know, we don't feed them any hay or anything.

They're just they're just grasping.

But if we have to move water that's expensive, you know.

So it's a self-sustaining herd.

But yeah.

So ultimately this isn't just a photo op.

You know, that's a great side hustle on the deal, but it's doing responsible management, just like you would with your household or your cattle herd or your business.

I got to figure out my bottom line and what I can.

My capacity is and go from there.

Right.

Well you can really hear that thunder under the hooves.

And it does take a lot of practice to crack a whip when you're riding horse to.

I've asked some of our guys guys and gals how long did you do that.

Well I hit myself plenty of times.

You know when you sit on a sawhorse a few times and try to figure it out and go from there, but and it's gotten a lot more probably common because it is effective.

I think, you know, my first few roundups, there was 5 or 6 people that had them, and Bob Landis always had his 22 pistol in one hand and a whip in the other hand, but I think I think it has really turned turned effective.

So I think that's you see it more often.

And now we're starting to see the flags that POW is flag is carried by David Cherry.

Got a South Dakota flag by Tracy spawns.

And then our U.S.

flag is Phil Randall.

And he did it last year too.

And that's a pretty big honor.

And and and you get to do some work and carry a flag.

So let's see if he can multitask there.

Right.

Yeah.

And Phil came over, shook my hand yesterday said said thanks for being here.

And I said, hey, do you want to come on camera and talk about being a flag bearer?

He says, catch me on a day when I look a little prettier.

Yeah.

And sauntered away.

Which might be my favorite way I've ever been turned down for an interview.

Yeah.

You're gonna do it, do it, do it memorably, I guess.

And at this point, the adrenaline probably puts a lot, a lot more room behind that.

Yeah.

And I think there's kind of a sigh of relief and a Yahoo that the herd is all together and it's it's not more predictable, but it's more things we've dealt with fresher.

Yeah.

Now they're now they're saying on the right flank of the, the herd, we don't have enough riders.

They don't want them to go down that draw.

So you might see some, some people skedaddle in in a hurry to kind of get around them.

So I should probably be talking more for the benefit of our radio listeners.

But this is one of those instances where it's it's hard not to get caught up in what we're watching unfold.

And listen, you know, I don't want to talk over some of that sounds because it's it's pretty epic.

Yeah.

It is.

You know, it's a weird flow to write.

So there they're kind of letting them string out to get to that gate right there into the into that trap.

But they're, you know, back off them a little bit and let them go through.

But on the backside I'm here and they don't let those get around lean on them.

So, you know, you think of it as one big kind of organism.

But there's a lot of things going on in different places.

So the communication with the radios and and stuff is key because now you see, you know, a few people just kind of loping and going, all right, we just kind of got to make sure they know we're here.

So they'll go through that gate, we're on the back side, they're bunched up together and they're kind of maybe not getting them to run, but just going, okay, don't don't get any wise ideas, you know.

So.

Yeah, that's just about as strung out as I think I've seen them, you know.

But they're, they're pretty happy now, you know, because it can get pretty, pretty hairy if you get them really spread out.

Now it's okay because they're going to we'll kind of regather everything in this east trap here and then make the last big push.

But now they're saying, okay, even back up on the back side because everybody's going through nice.

Just make sure we're watching along the edges to make sure somebody doesn't get out.

But just let them do their thing, you know.

And these are some happy people.

See you seeing the bison run today.

And it doesn't look like it.

But that's rough country I mean, it, you know, from from this vantage point, you can see a few little rock outcroppings and stuff.

Those rocks are everywhere.

I've written on a horse there.

I believe me, I've, you know, you've got to be on your game and it's rocky country.

One of the roundups, I think it was the second roundup.

I was in my vehicle, got the oil pan ripped out.

You know, there's there's a lot of things that can go wrong, even with vehicles because it's, it's rocky, rough country.

And that's a whole other element that makes it, you know, only on the the most focused riders and horses can manage something like this, right?

Yeah.

You can see there.

That's what I'm talking about.

They're not pushing them hard.

But our gaps are really narrow.

Right.

You got a lot of vehicles a lot of horses there.

It's just like, we don't want you to hurry.

We just want you to go in the right direction.

And then once you get them across the road, then they kind of pick up and.

Oh, okay, I'll just.

We're a herd animal.

I'll follow you.

In theory, I can't imagine adding snow to a mix like this, but that would you've seen it?

Yeah.

We our first round up I ever did got canceled because of snow.

And then we came back.

I think it was about a week later and there was still some snow on the ground and it was sloppy, wet and muddy and, I think the buffalo were ready to be home by then because it seemed like they just kind of went, oh, okay.

Open the gates will go through.

But of course, it wasn't really much of a public event.

It got out locally and folks came and watched, but it certainly wasn't the folks on the hillside that we got today.

And we've only been live for not even an hour just yet.

There have been years where, yeah, you and I have been chit chatting for quite a while before we get a bison on.

I was on camera.

I was down into my.

So that validates for me the the crisp fall air gets them a little quicker maybe.

Yeah.

And I mean just just think it would have went really quick if those groups would have came together, you know.

But every year is normal.

Every year is abnormal, you know.

So now it's just, you know, there's there's a gate there and you just you don't want to jam them through there, but you want to keep them going.

So now we're kind of hurry up and just taking the spectacle in of, of getting them to where they need to be.

And, and then we'll get the last big push.

And this is historically a pinch point where they will start kind of like boiling out both sides.

You get one one herd cow to go no I'm going.

And she'll curl around.

So that's why you see those horses on the left on the screen to the left, kind of really paying attention there because they'll just come in and go, nope.

And just make a big loop and start going around back.

So then if you go chase them, if you got the the herd that's in the fence, they're looking out going, oh, where are they going?

And you start losing them.

So you really got to kind of manage this this entrance.

This has always been a historical pinch point.

And they talked a lot about it yesterday when we were there in the safety meeting or the pre roundup meeting.

And this was the first year I did get a chance to sit in on the on that kind of day before safety meeting with the writers.

And a lot of material covered a whole lot of keep your wits about you.

Here's the things to look out for.

Right.

And what did you think of it?

I mean, it is it is sort of like, oh, we really do this because obviously we're stress and safety and there's a lot of game planning going on, but it's always they'll be in the middle of talking about, okay, we're going to go take them down.

Movie.

Try and remember there's a spot here where you know this could happen and this could happen and this could happen.

And so it is sort of overwhelming because there's such a stress on that.

But what did you think about it?

I mean, I was astonished to see, you know, there was a moment, Chad Cramer says, how many of you this is your first time riding with us this year?

And I there were a lot more hands than I expected.

Yeah, that's our the those are the draw riders.

And like I said they are experienced cowboys and cowgirls.

But there's a reason why we talk about that safety in that meeting.

And Cramer does a great job.

And but it is those are the things that are weighing on his mind.

You know when all this is going on because you've got 65 people on horseback and he doesn't know all of them, and he's never ridden with all of them.

Now, he's written with a lot of them, but some of the new folks, it's like, okay, you know, get next to your team captain, ask the questions.

Now, let's go out on a ride.

You know, make sure your synch is, you know, you synched up good.

And they say that 5 or 6 times every every year.

You know, make sure you're equipping.

Your tack is good and your synch synch down.

These are the things you might not be thinking about because you're excited.

But yeah, I was glad you were there.

I always try to make it a point to go sit and listen just because, some of those guys and gals have really dry sense of humor and all laugh and inappropriate times, probably.

But I think it's important to do it just just to kind of get that reminder of, yeah, I know, you know, this is dangerous.

These are the things you got to deal with.

But we're going to deal with them and we're going to get the job done.

Yeah, I had a I had a teacher in high school back back in the day that said, if you fail to plan you or you plan to fail.

Yes.

If you fail the plan, you plan to fail.

Right?

So now this you know, this is really the only only thing that could happen now is if you're pushing, they'll get to that final gate, come across the loop and get it in the corrals.

There's a kind of a draw, moon shaped draw off to the left of where the screen is now, and sometimes they'll boil around and go back.

Doesn't happen very often.

One of my first roundups, it was about this point.

They got the buffalo going, and all of a sudden the suburban came screaming through the herd and they scattered and the radios were going nuts.

And who is that idiot?

And it was Governor Janklow because he didn't want it to be over.

So he scattered the herd.

And then they had to go and and everybody was screaming.

And then he was like this, the governor.

Sorry, I just wanted to have some more fun.

And people were cheering and.

Just.

Yeah.

Now they're going to push.

They got that east gate shut.

Now we got the the gates, the north and south gates.

Coming into the corrals.

They're going to get them strung out and we're going to start pushing them this way.

And if you're just tuning in, you're watching the 61st annual Buffalo Roundup.

This broadcast is brought to you by the Tom and Danielle Amann Foundation and by Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park, where you live.

Untamed and true.

The voices you're hearing today, I'm Jacki Hendrie with my partner.

Here is Chris Hull with game Fish and Parks.

Starting to push, getting everybody lined up.

They don't bring all the vehicles in here at this point because it's not really needed.

I say that and something but yeah, they eight, ten vehicles, all the horseback riders and then they really lean on them here.

I mean, yeah, we're putting on a show, but two is we're trying to get the job done and trying to get them finished.

And, and there's two gates that they can go the north gate and the south gate going in here.

And you just if you can get the right herd cows to get going and get through, and then you really lean on them to get them in and get them in here and get them home.

So another good piece of information in that pre ride.

Safety meeting yesterday.

Hearing from a few different people about kind of the warning signs of a cranky buffalo.

Right.

So when the, the biggest thing is the tail at rest or if they're calling, the tail is down, starts getting up and levitating a little bit.

They're curious there, you know, and, and, when the tail goes up and it's sticking straight up, almost like a skunk, it's there.

They're either.

You know, they're getting ready to run or they're getting ready to poop.

Then they have a rhyming rhyming scheme on that.

But we can't say it on TV.

But, you know, and there's other things.

They make noises.

They'll they'll grunt, they'll they'll puff or chuff a little bit.

Their eyes will get white.

But the, the biggest thing is that tail and, and you really got to watch it.

And it's always, not always the one that you think it's going to be.

It's the one, you know, that we're talking about how it's usually that hurt cow that's inside the herd kind of being in the middle of her family that you're not paying attention to.

So.

He said they wanted to get off him a little bit and get them strung out so he can get them going in the right direction.

So, yeah, there's a lot of strategy here and sometimes a bit of improv.

Yeah.

What you want to see is everybody going in the right direction.

Right.

You don't want to see that kind of tornado and stuff starting to peel off one way or another.

And you can see those riders on the flank, on the bottom.

They're kind of trying to not really push them hard, just, hey, we're here.

We want you to go through that opening.

So now just lean off and give them some time.

They'll go home.

That's just what they said on the radio.

So now since we've been broadcasting this event, it's become a favorite of sometimes classroom teachers and folks I'd like to share this with with students.

Some some in South Dakota, some all over the place.

Yeah, we are joking this morning.

You know, Buffalo roundup rider was not involved in my career day.

Mine either.

And we're two of three people that can have it on our resumes to write.

But yeah, you're right.

You know, you were talking that you got some schools that are that are watching.

I have a cousin in Mankato who's kind of moved her curriculum around in the year to watch this.

My daughter and the swim team up, and you marry hello to them.

They're they're like, okay, we can watch this in between classes and and, so yeah.

And that's great.

And I get a lot of calls from people or I talking to people going, you know, we watch it in our classroom, or I take pieces of it and watch it, and then we, you know, we talk about the history of the bison because it is, you know, not only in, in, in our culture or, or, you know, culture.

Now, it's certainly the Native American culture and how important it was to them and, and what it means to them and to do these kind of things.

So it's been really cool to hear that and see it grow.

Right.

And the bison, such a unique animal, our national mammal and so near extinction not so long ago.

But now this is this is a one of one of the healthier herds in the nation.

Yep.

And certainly like I said, a provider, you know, it's it's started and help maintain herds all across the North America and even in the Europe, you know.

So, it's it's a pretty special thing to a lot of people and for good reason.

And as we wrap up this push, I mean, that motion is going to slow down a little bit, but kind of where, where, where did the where where are we heading the bison.

Once we kind of get through these pinch points they're going to come.

They just came right across the buffalo or the wildlife loop right behind us.

And now they'll start filtering their way up into this narrower corral area, and they'll end up almost right in our lap.

Jackie, hopefully on the other side of this.

Yes, there's there's plenty of fence there between us and them.

It was pretty still earlier this morning and the breeze picked up and, we got stuff everywhere.

Yeah, I got my empty can of caffeine rolling across the deck, but it makes it makes for a good shot of the flags.

Yep, it sure does.

There's.

Yeah.

You can see how sway in the background there.

And just trying to get those those are these critters through that gate.

And it's just that just lay off them a little bit and start letting them filter through and into the corrals.

Yep.

So so for those watching in the kind of the upper right ish portion of your screen, you can see the Bison Center.

That's where Chris and I are right now speaking to you.

You can see some of the crowd watching.

So that's roughly where we're we're gonna watch our our bison go.

I'm starting to see some of the vehicles that were in the roundup coming back on the corral, you know, on the on the loop road there towards the corrals and start probably seeing some of the riders coming across to you as soon as they can finish the job that they got up so early to do one last time.

We're going to say thank you to our sponsors of today's broadcast, the 61st Annual Buffalo Roundup, brought to you by Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park, where you can live untamed and true, and the Tom and Danielle Amann Foundation.

Thanks once more to those sponsors of today's broadcast.

So we got a few minutes.

Yet while we kind of kind of wrap up this Buffalo roundup for 2026, for those watching online, the stream will continue.

There will be a press briefing after the ride.

Oftentimes, we'll hear from the governor.

We may hear from the Secretary of tourism, secretary of game, Fish and Parks, our frequent guests.

And that in that press briefing after the fact, we'll hear kind of how the day went.

I'm sure we'll hear a bit about the split and any number of things that happened today, but that will be available online.

For, for folks watching there.

Yeah.

And it's just like you said that there is no normal.

But that certainly was cool to kind of see that and to be able to hear in our ear and be able to relay that, like, okay, we got to get out of the way and how is this going to work?

And all come together and eventually, you know, we get them home.

But I it really is this, I think my 26th roundup and it, it is still a bucket list thing.

It's one of those things.

It's it's worth it.

It's worth getting up at 2:00 in the morning and getting in line and and having an extra cup of coffee.

Because it's just it doesn't happen anywhere else.

And it means so much to so many people that that culture, that prairie culture, the bison culture, and to see it happen and unfold is pretty cool.

Yep.

Now they're just kind of filtering in the corral area, and they'll be up here and, you know, our some of our guys and gals are going to work some, some buffalo, today.

And then that that work will go on over the next week.

And then that first week of November will do the, do the, auction.

But, you know, the ones we're going to keep, it's kind of important to remember we'll work them and then they they get sent out, you know, they'll go out down the pasture and they'll go out, down the way, and then they'll start kind of dispersing it normally that this time of year they do stick around here a little bit.

But yeah.

So we're not keeping them in a small corral by any means for any amount of time once they're worked.

And if we're not, if they're not going to auction, they get sent out and they they're sorry to bother you today and you're back on your merry way.

Well, it looks like we made relatively quick work.

We as if, you know, I was out there hard work from from here at the Bison Center here in Custer State Park.

But this has been the 61st annual Buffalo roundup here in Custer State Park.

Our live stream here through SD, I'm Jacki Hendrie with Chris Hull with Game Fish and Parks.

Chris, this has been our third year together.

I really appreciate it.

It it gets it gets better, smoother and more fun every year.

Every year.

Hopefully I have another 20 or so in me.

I don't know if I do.

But we want to say thank you again.

If you were watching, if you were listening from near or far, thank you for being part of the 61st Annual Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park.