Buffalo ready to migrate

The colorful Custer buffalo herd will make its annual spring migration from winter pasture on south 8th Street to downtown street corners again this year, thanks to the Custer Area Arts Council. 

The move was left in doubt at the end of last season when the Custer Area Chamber of Commerce decided not to sponsor the display for another year because of insurance and liability concerns. So the arts council stepped up under the leadership of treasurer Laurie Arthur to take responsibility for the painted fiberglass bison and facilitate the display. 

Arthur says the arts council worked out an agreement with Colleen Hennessy, who owns the iconic original artworks, and approached the city about displaying the buffalo on downtown street corners. 

As part of the arrangement, the city was given documentation of the arts council’s $2-million liability insurance policy which applies to all the organization’s activities. 

In addition, the arts council is seeking permission from the city to stencil a message on the sidewalk near each buffalo warning people not to climb on them. Arthur said the city also needs to get permission for the display from the S.D. Department of Transportation because Mt. Rushmore Road is a state highway. However, she noted this has not been an obstacle in the past. 

Arthur said nine painted buffalo will make the trip downtown, joining another seven owned by other individuals and are permanently installed on private property at various locations. 

One buffalo on permanent display downtown is the “Rise and Fall of General Custer” which sits outside the chamber of commerce headquarters on Washington Street. It is also on loan from Hennessy. 

“He’s quite popular with the tourists because he’s right there,” said Hennessy, noting that the herd is something visitors look for when they come to Custer.

“I think they need to be on the street,” she said. “The visitors just love to see them and if you think of all the pictures taken and then shared around the country, it really puts Custer on the map.”

She believes the annual bison migration is also important for Custer residents. 

“Especially this year,” she said, “having them on the street sort of brings some normalcy to our lives, seeing the buffalo down there.”

Saying she is “very happy that the arts council stepped forward to sponsor them,” Hennessy notes the organization will self-insure for any damage that might be caused due to hail or other hazards. 

“Usually that’s not very much,” she said. “The last couple of years there’s hardly been any cost to keep them up.”

Hennessy said she has two “painted-buffalo doctors” who maintain the artworks: Karen Cade and Ross Lampshire, who have each painted several buffalo in the past. Cade is the artist who created the Gen. Custer buffalo at the chamber. 

“Karen was up here yesterday repairing two of them that fell over in a big windstorm and were injured ... or “damaged,” I should say,” commented Hennessy, who seems to think of the buffalo more as pets than as statuary.

She said Cade will also clear coat the buffalo throughout the summer months to protect them from the elements. 

The parade of painted buffalo began in 2005, which Hennessy said was the first year the Custer Stampede Art Auction was held. 

“We always had four on the street that would be auctioned off that year,” said Hennessy, “and then we supplemented with another four starting in ’08.”

Since the annual auctions ended in 2016, Hennessy began loaning eight of her buffalo for display downtown each summer. 

Arthur said the chamber is working on a map with names and locations of each of the buffalo downtown that will help visitors find and identify them.  

“People do seek them out,” said Hennessy. “For some people, it’s one of the things they have to do when they come to town.”

The colorful critters spend the off season in a grassy lot across the street from Hennessy’s home and she says if they don’t migrate, visitors will drive up the hill looking for them.