American Buffalo

In Search of a Lost Icon

By: Steven Rinella

Narrated by: Steven Rinella

From the host of the Travel Channel’s The Wild Within.

A hunt for the American buffalo - an adventurous, fascinating examination of an animal that has haunted the American imagination.

In 2005, Steven Rinella won a lottery permit to hunt for a wild buffalo, or American bison, in the Alaskan wilderness. Despite the odds - there’s only a two percent chance of drawing the permit, and fewer than 20 percent of those hunters are successful - Rinella managed to kill a buffalo on a snow-covered mountainside and then raft the meat back to civilization while being trailed by grizzly bears and suffering from hypothermia. Throughout these adventures, Rinella found himself contemplating his own place among the 14,000 years’ worth of buffalo hunters in North America, as well as the buffalo’s place in the American experience. At the time of the Revolutionary War, North America was home to approximately 40 million buffalo, the largest herd of big mammals on the planet, but by the mid-1890s only a few hundred remained. Now that the buffalo is on the verge of a dramatic ecological recovery across the West, Americans are faced with the challenge of how, and if, we can dare to share our land with a beast that is the embodiment of the American wilderness.

American Buffalo is a narrative tale of Rinella’s hunt. But beyond that, it is the story of the many ways in which the buffalo has shaped our national identity. Rinella takes us across the continent in search of the buffalo’s past, present, and future: to the Bering Land Bridge, where scientists search for buffalo bones amid artifacts of the New World’s earliest human inhabitants; to buffalo jumps where Native Americans once ran buffalo over cliffs by the thousands; to the Detroit Carbon works, a “bone charcoal” plant that made fortunes in the late 1800s by turning millions of tons of buffalo bones into bone meal, black dye, and fine china; and even to an abattoir turned fashion mecca in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, where a depressed buffalo named Black Diamond met his fate after serving as the model for the American nickel.

Rinella’s erudition and exuberance, combined with his gift for storytelling, make him the perfect guide for a book that combines outdoor adventure with a quirky blend of facts and observations about history, biology, and the natural world. Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.

©2008, 2009 Steven Rinella (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“This is some of the best writing on our great national beast since George Catlin - and that was in 1841. A real triumph.” (Bill McKibben, author The Bill McKibben Reader)

“This is a big-game hunting story like no other: Steven Rinella is in search of an animal, quite literally. But also historically, existentially, and maybe even spiritually. Follow him on this curious armed quest - and, like him, you will quickly find yourself immersed in the fate of our mightiest and most talismanic beast.” (Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder)

“Moving and downright funny...Rinella writes with authority about the process of turning a living creature into steak, and easily renders an enormous amount of historical and scientific information into a thoroughly engaging narrative.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

If you enjoy hunting and the outdoors this is A+

The author is a great narrator. I enjoyed this more than his podcast which I like more than almost all other outdoor, hunting or fishing podcasts.

Classic Rinella tale

One thing I've learned about Steve Rinella, is that he likes to share the history of whatever he is talking about as much as the story itself. This book is no different. This book was equal parts a story about an epic buffalo hunt in Alaska and a brief history of the American buffalo. While I do like it most of the time, I found myself a few times wishing the story was more hunting tale and less history lesson. But that is what you get with Steve, and that is one reason I like him.

awesome shit

loved it couldn't stop listening to get to the end author sounds like a good old boy like someone I might know.

Rinella Really Reads

I love Alaska, hunting, and I'm from Michigan. So yeah, I'm not conflicted about hunting a North American icon in this legendary part of the world. The authors narration was good, but I could tell it was probably his first time narrating. Find that spot and kill.

Bison Fun

Love Rinella, some good stuff here. A ton of info about Bison history, but it's all interesting.

10/10

After finding Steven Rinella through the YouTube series Das Boat I knew this book had to my first audible purchase. Steven's narration of the story brings an intense edge to an already great story. This book is adventure, conservation, and history all in one. I would highly recommend recommend to any outdoor enthusiast..

Love Rinella, he tells a great story!

Loved the history, science and the tale of his own Bison hunt. Highly recommend this.

I found this very interesting

If your a fan of Steve this is a great book with lots of interesting facts

Glad I bought it.

Great info on the history of the American Buffalo. I like the way he broke it up going back and forth from his hunt and path learning the Buffalos history. I listened to a lot of it while sitting in a deer stand. I've watched all Steve's shows and he's really the only hunter I enjoy watching on TV. His Philosophy and attitude towards hunting is much like mine and he gets me out the door and into the woods on days I'm not feeling up to it. Also check out his cooking videos. I still hate the deer liver but I'll try again.

the best! great from beginning to end.

absolutely great one of my all time favorites. you well not be disappointed. once you start you won't want to quit.