Page 39 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

We learned there would be a Ranger led talk at 2:00 so we went

to the Picnic area to meet him and had our lunch. Lois sprayed the
tick repellant on everything in the Park including our clothes. They

have had Lyme Disease reported here.

Our leader was a fellow named John Heiser. He is a seasonal

ranger who has a cattle ranch within 20 miles of here. He has been
doing this work in the Park for over 25 years and was very

knowledgeable and outgoing.

Our hiking group included 12 boys of Cub and Boy Scout age and

their two leaders plus Lois and I. The boys were fun to have along.
We had told John about the Icelandic horses as he had told us he

was an avid horseman. One of the youngest boys then announced
he was from an area of Northeast North Dakota where there was

a large Icelandic immigrant population of which he was a
descendent. His next-door neighbors raise Icelandic horses!!

John took us up and down bluffs at a breakneck pace to finally

arrive at a spring watering tub that the park maintains for the

Bison. It was in need of some clearing so with the help of the
boys, he got the water flowing again. John was particularly good

with the boys and had them eating out of his hand to be helpful
and to learn from him the secrets of the surrounding territory.

Both the North and South units of the Park are entirely fenced.

This is to keep the local cattle off the park grounds and to keep the
Bison, wild horses in the South and the long-horned cattle in the

North within the park. One of John’s jobs is to round up and

return Bison that have “broken out”. He is an expert rider and
always “gets his man” or beast in this case.

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