How do you lose an 80,000 pound buffalo?

[91W350]

We made another venture today, we started with a new driver. Buddy was in the driver's seat yesterday, Sir took over today.

I wanted to get some photos of it in the tall prairie grass, called my buddy and found he was at the lake. I will have to return. He bought the old Arrowhead Boy Scout Camp and renamed it the Arrowhead Cattle Co. I was glad he saved the name as many of us older guys have fond memories there!

There is an old missile silo on the other side of the large hill in the background....

 

[91W350]

We left the Arrowhead and I planned to stop at the Ottawa County fishing lake, it is normally beautiful, but the recent rains had the water murky brown. The fish must have been biting as there were few places along the bank unoccupied. Since Sir has a personality disorder, we did not stop. He seems to be overly protective of what is his, the truck and myself included.


We took off and ran into an unmarked dead end road. It was beautiful up there, when we reached the end, there was a Corvair Pickup, a 56 Chevy 2 door sedan, a 62 Impala, some early 50's Chevy Trucks, an old 65ish cab over Chevy.... I wanted to stop and visit, but above disorder made me drive on.

I did not see any military trucks, but he obviously has some sort of connection!

We left that area and ran into the classic sign of roads forgotten.... a well maintained stop sign.

 

[Brutusdog]

Ammo Cans

What's with all the ammo cans? Do they sell them?

 

[rnd-motorsports]

Wow that is alot of ammo boxes! and a very old stop sign! looks like a great afternoon drive!!!!

 

[91W350]

I must be getting old, I wandered around the hills looking for the buffalo and could not locate it. When I got to Longford, I knew I was too far north and east, time to head back.

That is fine though, any evening trip through those hills is time not wasted. Sadly when I finally found the buffalo, the light was against us.

Ray O Smith and his son decided to build a buffalo monument. The went to their buffalo herd and found the largest bull in the herd. They drove around him, snapping photos... then set off to build the monument.

By comparing the photos as they were building the steel frame, they roughly shaped out the buffalo, then they welded in mesh and started adding concrete. They wanted to have it low maintenance and used red sandstone from the area to give it the color. The concrete and steel weighed 80,000 pounds. They are not sure how much stone they added.

Ray O as you can imagine was quite the character. He had mountain lions, lions, buffalo, bobcats, coyotes, bears... probably a lot more I do not know of. Ray O had a heart attack and died in a lions cage. Thinking he had been attacked, they shot the lion. Schools from around the area used to visit the home grown zoo and Ray O would entertain them. He had built a patio out of stones from every state. Each stone was shaped into the shape of the state it was from and pretty close to scale.

On to the buffalo! I need to visit more often, obviously!

 

[91W350]

I am not sure what is up with all the ammo cans. My brother bought several thousand and has been selling them for years on Ebay and to Geocachers. I will go find out sometime when I do not have Sir along. Having somebody approach me or the truck in his presence is very hard to deal with. He is a beautiful animal and very loving within the house, but he is also very dominate and overly protective. We just do our best to avoid strangers.

I uploaded a photo out of order, we drove from the east side of the section around to the south side, to get better light and a different view. The buffalo has lightning rods as it is on the tallest hill around and is visible for miles in some directions on a clear day. It was a little hazy today.

All in all, it was a great day. The boys and I got some leg stretching in, we saw deer, coyote, buffalo, pheasants, quail, lots of prairie chickens, blue heron, and several species of doves.

The best part is we rattled along in the old M1009 without a worry what the two lane trails had to toss at us, if somebody else had been there, we could probably go too.... Glen

 

[12vctd]

Since i just moved to Junction City on thursday Im loving your posts 91, cause thy are giving me a little taste of whats out there to see. Thanks for the wonderful pics and post

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Thanks for posting up this story and your pics.

Beautiful country up there....

 

[91W350]

Since i just moved to Junction City on thursday Im loving your posts 91, cause thy are giving me a little taste of whats out there to see. Thanks for the wonderful pics and post

Get with me sometime and I will introduce you to the MayDay Spring.... Now there is a place with great history! Glen

 

[12vctd]

I would be glad to. Sadly im on hard times moved up here hoping to find work on post. Heck I dont even have a vehicle anymore. But I sure would be glad to look you up.

 

[91W350]

Since the spring is north of Junction City, I could pick you up and run you up there. There is a nearby set of springs I want to look for as well. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off this month, I think I go to weekends next month. I almost always have my trusty sidekick, Buddy along. A little white dog hair and maybe some slobber bother you much? Glen

 

[phil2968]

I really enjoy reading these posts of your adventures! The title always intrigues me. I thought, an 80,000# water trailer?

 

[91W350]

I really enjoy reading these posts of your adventures! The title always intrigues me. I thought, an 80,000# water trailer?

Thanks, I quit posting day trips for a few months, we continue to run all over the area. I have one dog that is pretty testy, really defensive of what is his, so the remote places are best for us. I also enjoy digging up the history of some of these off the wall locations.

A friend of mine bought the city of Spencer Missouri. Okay, so the city is not very large, but it does sport an original section of Route 66. It is really popular for Harley guys and street rodders. I am sure we will have a posting of a M1009 there in our future.

I enjoy sharing the trips and hope that somebody in another area will pick up the idea and run with it as well. This nation of ours is just absolutely loaded with forgotten history. Glen

Spencer Missouri Rt. 66 - Route 66 - The Mother Road on Waymarking.com

 

[12vctd]

dog hair and slobber, sounds like my ex wife im used to it. tues and wed are fine, im presently job searching @ the moment. Trying to find a vehicle as well, which isnt going as planned.