National Bison Range rolling prairie
— the prairie the bison kept.
Not only on a wall.
“The Bison Range covers about 18,800 acres of rolling fescue grassland in the Mission Valley of western Montana, with the Mission Mountains rising sharp on the east. A herd of roughly 350 bison works the prairie, descendants of animals gathered by Salish hunters in the 1870s when the species was nearly gone. In 2020 management of the range returned to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes after more than a century of federal stewardship. The land is back in the hands that saved it.
National Bison Range rolling prairie, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Bison Range covers approximately 18,800 acres of native fescue prairie, mountain grassland, ponderosa pine, and riparian forest in the Mission Valley, on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. The land was set aside in 1908 to protect what was then one of the last surviving herds of plains bison. Today the range carries a herd of roughly 350 to 500 animals on land managed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The 19-mile Red Sleep Mountain Drive climbs the range with views east to the Mission Mountains and south across the Jocko Valley.
The Red Sleep Mountain Drive is open seasonally, generally from mid-May through early October, weather depending. The two-hour, 19-mile loop is gravel and one-way, with steep grades closed to trailers and large RVs. Spring brings calving and new green grass; summer holds the dry yellow of cured fescue and rutting season in late July through August. The visitor center at the headquarters is open year-round. Day-use fees support the tribal management of the range; check the CSKT site for current hours and the loop's open dates.
The herd traces back to bison gathered by Salish men in the 1870s, when the species had collapsed from tens of millions to a few hundred animals across North America. Those bison were sold to the Pablo-Allard herd, then bought back by the federal government to seed the range in 1908. After a long campaign, Congress restored management of the range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2020. The grass goes on a long way and the wind moves across it the same way it always has.