Montana’s White Buffalo – Old and New
Montana’s White Buffalo – Old and New
Famous Buffalo Dies
Big Medicine is dead. The venerable patriarch of the herd of buffalo at the National Bison Range passed into the Great Beyond Tuesday morning. He was 26 years and three months old when he died in the exhibition pasture at the headquarters at Moiese.
Big Medicine was famous all over the world. Pictures of the white buffalo grace the albums of thousands of travelers who saw him at the refuge.
Although often called an albino, a rarity in buffalo, Big Medicine did not have the pink eyes of the true albino, according to C. J. Henry, refuge manager. But, he added, Big Medicine sired a real albino.
The offspring, which was blind, was sent to the National Zoological Park. He died there at the age of 12.
Big Medicine’s late years were made easy. Henry figures pampering the old fellow added two or three years to his life.
Through the winter months he was fed a special diet. This included steamed and rolled barley treated with molasses, high protein rabbit food in pellets, two kinds of bran, and the finest alfalfa that could be found.
Big Medicine was the patriarch of a herd of 337 mature buffalo and an estimated 90 to 100 calves, according to Henry. He was never weighed but was a big animal and probably tipped the scales at around 1,900 pounds, said Henry.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on August 26, 1959.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349706579/
Old Medicine’s remains were preserved and finally mounted by the taxidermist/sculptor Robert Scriver of Browning. The white buffalo is on display at the Montana Historical Society Museum.
Another white buffalo was recently born at the Bitterroot Valley Bison Ranch near Lolo, Montana. It can be seen on a YouTube video at the link below: