World's Largest Buffalo

July 1997 -- We saw it from Interstate 94. It was hard to miss. A huge sculpture of a buffalo (bison) on a hill. World's Largest Buffalo is a sculpture of an American Bison located in a frontier village in Jamestown, North Dakota. Of course, we stopped.

Sam and I

The sculpture is 26 feet tall, 46 feet long, and weighs 60 tons. It is anatomically correct. Yep, it's a bull! In 2007, the sculpture was refurbished with fresh paint and bigger horns. In 2010, long after I visited, it was named "Dakota Thunder," after a contest in which 3500 names were submitted. 

Dakota Thunder in the background

World's Largest Buffalo, c. 1959

A white buffalo is considered sacred or spiritually significant in some Native American cultures. When I visited the frontier village in 1997, there was a rare white buffalo named White Cloud. She produced a white calf in 2007. She passed away from old age in 2016. 

White Cloud