Custer State Park BISON AUCTION Saturday, November 7, 2020 10:00 a.m. (MT) Custer State Park Visitor Center Animals will be sold via photo/video at the Custer State Park Visitor Center with live internet bidding available. Animals will be sold individually and by gate cut. See individual lots for details.
Custer State Park BISON AUCTION Saturday, November 7, 2020 10:00 a.m. (MT) Custer State Park Visitor Center Welcome to the 55th Annual Fall Classic Custer State Park Bison Auction Custer State Park staff welcomes you to the longest running bison auction in the world. For 55 years, the park has been utilizing this auction as a management tool to ensure the herd is at a size that can be supported by available rangelands and to provide bison to establish and re-populate herds across the continent. There was once millions of bison stretched across North America, by 1900 it was estimated that fewer than 1,000 bison remained on the entire continent. Peter Norbeck often recognized as the “Father of Custer State Park,” acknowledged this situation and decided to take action to preserve what is now our National Mammal. In 1914, the park, then known as Custer State Forest and Game Sanctuary purchased 36 bison to start its herd. Today the park manages a herd of over 1,450 bison in the summer. The park’s current management plan continues Norbeck’s dream of helping bring these magnificent animals back from near extinction. Custer State Park bison can be found in nearly every state in the U.S., as well as Canada and Mexico. This summer moisture levels were below normal, but thanks to the generosity of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust our bison herd continues to expand. Following the Legion Lake Fire in December of 2017, grant money was used to aerial seed native grasses in areas the bison did not traditionally use. Aerial seeding was a success and now the bison are utilizing 4,000 acres previously not utilized. This allows the park to increase the overwinter bison population from 960 to 1,060. In our sale offering this year we are selling fewer bred cows as we grow the herd. At our 55th annual bison roundup Governor Noem announced the building of the Custer State Park Bison Center near the bison corrals thanks to a 4-million-dollar donation by the Helmsley Charitable Trust. The Center will focus on the tenured history of the bison herd in the park. The Bison Center will educate visitors through dynamic interpretive displays and tell the origin story of the park’s bison, herd management and the annual Buffalo Roundup and Auction. All animals sold qualify for grass fed only programs. Along with the native mixed-grass prairie grass bison are given free choice mineral. No supplemental feeding of any kind occurs during the winter. Thank you for attending our auction and purchasing these quality animals so that Custer State Park can continue to do its part in supporting the goal of “Bison One Million”. - Mark Hendrix, Resource Program Manager ANIMAL VIEWING: Showing date is Friday, November 6, 2020 and Sale day (Saturday, Nov. 7) until 9:00 a.m. at the Bison Corrals located on the Wildlife Loop Road. For other viewing times, please contact Bison Herd Manager, Chad Kremer at (605)-255-4515 to set up an appointment. DIRECTIONS TO AUCTION LOCATION: Auction is held at the CSP Visitor Center, 13438 US HWY 16A. It is east of the State Game Lodge and just north of the junction of Wildlife Loop Road and 16A. LOOK FOR AUCTION SIGNS! DIRECTIONS TO CORRALS FOR VIEWING AND LOADOUT: Take Highway 16A east of Custer 15 miles to the Wildlife Loop Road, and then 9 miles south on the Loop Road to the corrals. From Rapid City, take Highway 79 south for 33 miles, then turn west on to South Lame Johnny Road (Custer County Road #16) for 5 miles. From the Visitor Center, turn left out of the lot and go south on Wildlife Loop Road for 9 miles to the corrals. Selling 435+- Quality Head of Bison including 10 Bred Mature Cows; 67 Open Mature Cows; 5 Bred 2 Yr-Old Heifers; 12 Open 2 Yr-Old Heifers; 41 Yearling Heifers; 66 Heifer Calves; 138 Bull Calves; 81 Yearling Bulls; 6 2 Yr-Old Choice Breeding Bulls; 9 2 Yr-Old Grade Bulls. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Call the Custer State Park Administrative Office at (605) 255-4515