Why Bison? / Our Promise to you / Events & Shows / Bison Bucks / #BWC Cares / Contact Us
Why Bison? / Our Promise to you / Events & Shows / Bison Bucks / #BWC Cares / Contact Us
We are Theresa & Ron Miskin, our family has been raising bison for almost 30 years, and we are passionate about bringing you the best quality bison products. The last ten years we have been developing a supply chain incorporating small mills, local designers, and large ranches, and along the way, it is our belief that together we can preserve one of America's great symbols, and help bolster the U.S. economy by focusing on American Made products
1. We are committed to helping conserve and promote the American plains bison and the ranchers that raise them.
2. We stand behind every product 100%, if you don't absolutely love your purchase here, we will replace, exchange or buy it back.... your choice.
3. We are available to answer questions most of the time, and we love talking to people about bison, and our bison products. Please, if you have any questions, call or write.. we answer emails fairly quickly, and the phone most hours.
1. Do you really raise bison? yes, my family has been raising American Plains Bison for over 30 years, we have just recently purchased a part of the historic Goodnight Ranch (Charles Goodnight was the inspiration for Woodrow Call of Lonesome Dove, his wife also is one of the people responsible for saving the bison at the turn of the century, and responsible for founding the Caprock Canyon Herd, sending bison to Yellowstone, and I believe to the Bronx Zoo) Dad is responsible for bringing the bison back to Goodnight after almost 100 years. We do also work with almost 200 ranches across the country.
2. How do you get the fiber off a bison? Very Carefully :) Actually we harvest 3 different ways, A. We started originally using just naturally shed fiber, these creatures grow out a downy winter coat, and slough it off in the spring, we would pick it up off the fences and brush, and process it from there. We still harvest shed fiber from ranches across the US, using street sweeper brushes on fence posts. We also shear the hides at the packing plants, these are all ranch raised animals for meat, and we hate to let any of this gorgeous stuff go to waste. We also do a little bit of live shearing on some of the really large ranches that have hydraulic squeeze chutes when they are doing the spring round-ups … that is something to see, and we are taking volunteers to hold the horns :)
3. Why do you do this? We are fans of bison, and if you have 10 minutes or an hour or so, I would love to tell you why bison are awesome and very necessary to this country. These majestic animals roamed coast to coast, and from Alaska down to Mexico city, and it is only through the commercial ranching, and the animals having a value that has helped them make such a comeback. From 100-1000 animals left at the turn of the century, to over 700,000 today, it is due to the ranchers who have dedicated land and resources to them. We are big supporters of bison ranchers all across this country, and started this as an extra income source to add more value to the animals. Once you actually wear the fiber, you will understand just how luxurious, warm, and durable it really is.
4. Bison or Buffalo? And why are you called “The Buffalo Wool Co.” if you only raise bison? The American plains bison (Bison Bison or Bos Bison to be scientific) are native to the U.S. (and Canada, but they have funny accents) is the animal we work with, and the only true buffalo are the water buffalo, Asiatic Buffalo, and Cape Buffalo in Africa, India, and Australia … and they really don’t have usable fiber. It was supposedly the French who gave them the nickname Boufs- after cattle (I like blaming the French as much as possible) and us being American’s changed that to “Bufflers” and eventually buffalo.. The Buffalo Wool Co, is a historic name though, founded in 1871 by the Hudson Bay Co, in Red River Manitoba… only lasted about 5 years before bankruptcy, and as they weren’t using the name, and we thought it sounded good, we adopted it in 2011.
Contact Us:
The office number is 802-379-WOOL (9665)
Ron can be reached at 817-905-4584
Theresa can be reached at 817-320-2966
