Bison: A quadruped (Bison or Bos Americanus) inhabiting the interior of North America, especially about the Rocky Mountains. It is popularly called the buffalo; but the true buffalo belongs to the eastern continent, and to a different subdivision of the genus Bos. The bison is a large, wild animal, with thick body and stout legs, short black horns rapidly tapering, and with hair much more thick and shaggy in winter than in summer. It is most nearly related to the aurochs of Central Europe, and the two species have been referred to a common genus.
Buffalo: A species of the genus Bos, originally from India, but now found in most of the warmer countries of the eastern continent. It is larger and less docile than the common ox, and is fond of marshy places and rivers. The name is also applied to wild oxen in general, and particularly, but erroneously, to the bison of North America.
So. The buffalo wallow of the “Little House” books should be the bison wallow. Back in 1882, it was widely reported that homestead sites were often rejected because of the presence of buffalo wallows on the land. Although Wilder never told us where the buffalo wallow / fairy ring was on the Ingalls homestead, in By the Shores of Silver Lake, she has Pa say that the place had been created by buffalo wallowing in the dust, which blew away, creating a depression.
During my most recent trip to De Smet, I heard a new story. Whether it is true or not, I haven’t a clue. When the current owners purchased the Ingalls homestead, it came with a buffalo, named Barney. Barney had been part of the former “attraction” at the Homestead, but the Sullivans didn’t want to keep him penned up all alone and on display, so he had been “put out to pasture,” so to speak. But at some point when Barney had the run of the Homestead (during one of his escapes, which is another story), he had been found wallowing in the dust behind the historical garage building which had been moved to the property. Therefore, it was “supposed” that THAT was the site of the original buffalo wallow on the property.
Is that the location of the original buffalo wallow on the property? I don’t know. I always had heard that the wallow was to the west of the little slough on the property, and over the years, the wallow had been taken over by the slough. In old topo maps (which show changes in elevation of two feet), you can see a circular depression beside this slough. It should also be noted that in Pioneer Girl, Wilder wrote that the two acre (not the size) buffalo wallow was “south of the house, about halfway across the farm,” which happens to be just where the topo-depression and little slough are located.
I think, though, that the fact that the land has was farmed with modern machinery and irrigated for decades probably changed some of the physical characteristics of the land itself. Places that are mellowed today are done so by tourists, not bison. But wouldn’t it be fun if the Sullivans could locate the original wallow and plant it again in violets?
