What ever happened to the buffaloes?
 

We’ve been coming down to the villages for about 40 years now we remember there was an area, fairly close to Spanish Springs, that had buffaloes. You could walk up to the fence and watch them I forget exactly where it was but anyway what happened? Are there still buffaloes in the villages if so where.

They seem to want to keep it secret to their exact whereabouts. They are around still just tucked away.

Some goofy kid, probably unsupervised by parents and grandparents, was up too close by the fence and both the kid and buffaco got spooked. The family complained.

My bet is the buffalo all went to Publix.

Forty years? They’re in Buffalo heaven.

Try Ted Turner's Montana Grill in Alexandria, VA.

Last time I saw them they were over on the right of hole 6 at Amberwood.
That was about 3 years ago.

Actually we ate part of Fred. Tasted like chicken

"Ohhhhh, give me a home where the buffalo roam"(ed). . .


Every now and then, it hits me that I have been hanging around TOTV almost since the beginning. I try to break up with it, but it's like trying to break up with Graeter's ice cream. I eventually succumb.

Anyway, there was great consternation among TOTVers -- in 2008 -- when the buffalo went the way of who knows where.

If you are using the old version of TOTV, you can go to 'search' and put buffalo questions into the keyword line. It might take you a while because at first the search will want to give you only 300 posts with a hit on the word 'buffalo.' Eventually though, you can dig into the archives that go way back.

I always thought there probably was a tax advantage to temporarily pasturing the buffalo on vacant land and that their future was intended to be elsewhere. I had no problem with that.

I never thought the buffalo were put there smack dab in plain sight to entertain me.

I sort of remember that there was talk of irresponsible adults who were feeding them and letting kids get too close. (Never saw that, but it is not a big leap to believe it happened.)

Boomer of the Archives

When we first moved here, 2013, there were some on the North side of 466a, long gone now, no idea about the northern area.

That herd was offered to Stu Paquatte (I-H Formal Tractor Museum) in Leesburg. He's the guy that paved all the roads in Spanish Springs. He turned down the herd because he was thinning out his own herd of buffalo and didn't have the room. Seems the two herds were bought together by old man Schwartz and Paquette when they were friends in the 90s. Last he told me, that herd was sold to another cattle raiser in Florida. Could not be used for food because The Villages was not USDA approved farmers.

Skip

If you search Buffalo and the Villages you should get a thread from 2013 on Talk of the Villages that has a photo of a buffalo.

You are right about where the Buffalo herd was on El Camino. It was where they later built Freedom Point. And I can remember taking our visitors there to a parking area, where you could feed them carrots over the fence and take photos. And the story that I kept hearing (can't confirm if it was true) is that Florida taxes have a favorable rate if the land is used for livestock.

So (as the story goes) The Villages would keep Buffalo on land that they didn't need right away for the tax benefits. Plus it was a great for marketing - Give me a HOME where the Buffalo roam (which is how the high school got it's mascot name). As they eventually developed those areas they would keep moving them to more southern areas until those areas were ready for development. Then (as the story goes) when the buffalo were in the southern part of The Villages, someone wanted a close up photo and they climbed over the fence. Didn't hear whether they got injured, but The Villages feared potential law suits and either got rid of, or moved the buffalo out of sight (probably to land they they don't need to develop soon and receive the livestock tax break).

Anyway, that is the story as I heard it when we first starting visiting The Villages back in 2002. I can also remember reading a story where one buffalo got through a fence, and that might have also resulted in there disappearance. But I'm sure it wasn't the buffalo hunters shooting the herd for meat to serve in The Villages restaurants.:icon_wink: Although, at some of the restaurants you never can tell.

Ask Henry Gibson...

The story I heard was the same. Somebody got into the fenced in area where they should’ve never went, and were injured. Buffalo are wild animals, but some people think they are pets. I heard that they sued the villages, so the villages got rid of the rest of them. Only takes a few idiots to wreck it for the many.

I enjoyed seeing the Buffalos when I moved her in 2004, but supposedly someone hopped the fence where they were and after that these animals were gone. It takes only one stupid person to ruin things for everyone.