Hot herd of buffalo rounded up Sept. 26

By Leslie Hladysz

“It was a great roundup,” said Gov. Larry Rhoden, who said the park moved 1,500 buffalo in the 2025 Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup 
“The weather was pretty hot for the buffalo,” Rhoden said as temperatures were in the 80s with a slight breeze. 
Rhoden, who rode in the event, said the roundup  “embodies South Dakota.” 
Kevin Robling, secretary of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks said because of the heat, the herd was not pushed too hard. Sixty horseback riders along with trucks moved the herd.
“Those buffalo went the way we wanted them to, sometimes they don’t,” Robling said.
Robling also explained the purpose of the roundup.  
“We round them up to work them, actually. We do a herd health check,” he said. 
Robling said some of the herd get vaccinated, and some get branded. Five hundred of the herd will be sold Nov. 1. Because of the grass conditions, the park will overwinter 1,000 bison, which is more than last year, said Robling. 
In this year’s roundup, our own Tracy Spaans of Keystone rode her 12-year-old horse Jesse carrying the South Dakota state flag. This was Spaans’ third time riding in the roundup, and she said it was a bucket list item “because it’s such an awesome South Dakota tradition.”
Riders need to apply to be considered for the roundup, and even then, it’s a lottery draw in terms of who gets chosen. The past two times she has ridden in the round up Spaans was corralling buffalo. 
Her first year she was on the white team, “which kind of stays in the bottom of the draw. It’s an easier ride. The buffalo are all down there, and they moved pretty well so it was just kind of keeping up and keeping them where they need to be,” she said.
Spaans was on the blue team her second year. She called that experience more rugged. 
“We actually had some buffalo that got away from the group and went back up the hill where they weren’t supposed to go,” she said. 
Spaans chased the buffalo. 
“You’re going through the most rough rocky crazy terrain, and the buffalo just plowed through it like a freight train, and horses are not quite that stealthy,” Spaans said. 
She called that year the “real deal” Buffalo Roundup experience. 
This time Spaans, a reporter at the Hill City Prevailer News, wanted to cover the event via horseback but instead was asked to carry the state flag.
Spaans said the experience was awesome. Wearing her pink chaps given to her by her husband, Matt, on their first anniversary, Spaans was one of three flagbearers the audience members saw, along with the American flag and the POW MIA flag,  as the buffalo moved across the prairie.
Jim Hagen, secretary of tourism for South Dakota, said he spoke with visitors from all over the world who came to Custer State Park specifically for the unique  roundup experience. 
He said the tourism season in South Dakota has been steady. According to Hagen, the tourism promotion tax is up almost four percent.
Custer State Park is up two percent year over year, and national parks in the state are up 5.8 percent.
“We are bucking the national trend,” Hagen said.