A Montana Love Story
he regularly allowed hunts on 80 acres of leased land near his mountain valley ranch. Most took several days. Some could take a week. “Bison can be a way better hunt than even hunting elk,”
he says. “The first two bison you kill might be really easy, but the others, once they got it figured out, then it’s a hunt.” He recounts a friend’s experience tracking an escaped bison. “It was so smart, it would bail off cliffs eight or 10 feet tall. It would circle back on him and watch its back- track. My friend said he’d never hunted anything as good as that. They have very keen eyesight, very good ears. “They’re very intelligent. That’s what I like about them. They’re awesome.”
Prompted by his wife, Marlene, Wells chuckles and adds, as though recalling a memory,
BY GLENDA WALLACE
“You can‘t use the river for a boundary. They love to swim. If you put them in the Yellowstone down here, you’ll pick them up in Miles City.”
According to the Montana Bison Association, bison can be easily raised within fences. Consequently, there’s an estimated half million “commercial bison,” meaning they’re raised for human consumption, in North America. Another 15,000 are considered “wild bison” living free in their natural range, which includes Montana. Well’s operation began with three prairie bison heifer
calves. “I paid $2,500 a piece. They were very expensive at that time. Everyone wanted to get in ...and get rich quick selling calves,” he says. Wells saw the dollar signs, too, he admits, but there were two problems.
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ROBERT RATH
