This Geocache is part of an annual Geocache Challenge put on by the Heritage Program at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area as part of our outreach to the public, to get people to explore their forest and their history, and to share the unique heritage of the families from Between the Rivers.
This Geocache is part of the “2022 Land Between the Lakes Heritage Geocache Challenge: Conservation Heritage Between the Rivers”. There are 6 geocaches placed across Land Between the Lakes related to the history of wildlife conservation between the rivers. If you locate each geocache, and collect a numbered aluminum tree tag from each cache, you can turn them in at the Golden Pond Visitor Center for one of 150 Challenge Coins created for this event.
The Geocache is a 6” x 6” orange watertight plastic box marked “Heritage Geocache” on the top. The geocache is placed at the South Bison Picnic Area.
Thank you to Phillip Toon for providing the new Geocache Boxes.
Bison and Elk Conservation Geocache
The American Bison once roamed North America in expansive, earth-shaking herds until large-scale commercial hunting brought the continent's largest mammal to the brink of extinction in the 1800s. Only a few hundred remained. And the impact on Native American populations was devastating.
From a population of over 60 million in the late 1700s to just 541 individuals in 1889 it was more than a little obvious that something had to happen or the bison would be gone. Conservation and protection efforts quickly began on both private and public lands. Because of these efforts, populations of American Bison in 2011 were over 500,000 on private and public lands.
The bison herd in the 200-acre pasture of the South Bison Range on LBL began with just 19 individuals from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1969. Currently there are about 57 head.In 2016, Congress passed the National Bison Legacy Act, which designates the bison as the National Mammal and recognizes its importance to our nation's cultural, economic, and ecological heritage.
In Trigg County, just north of the Trace and Highway 68/80, is the Elk and Bison Range where currently 45 bison and 68 elk reside. The best time to visit this range is during the first and last 2 hours of daylight each day.
Over the years Land Between the Lakes has sent elk to:
•Sundquist Wildlife Management Area in TN, 31 elk in 2003
•Royal Blue WMA in TN, 34 elk (21 m, 13 f) in 2008
•Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort, KY, 2 female elk in 2012 and 2015
•Tomblin, WMA in West Virginia, 39 elk (23 m, 16 f) in 2016 and 2018!