The Petting Part of Buffalo Park

This is a very common postcard often listed on eBay. It's a signature, iconic view of Old Buffalo Park in Flagstaff.  What could be more evocative & innocent than a very young girl and a baby fawn?  Talk about mixed metaphors!

However, despite this postcard's obvious visual appeal, we've always been perplexed.  The young girl is NOT petting the fawn. Petting the animals was supposed to be part of the gig.  So, what's happening here?

Well, we found out today, the young girl is FEEDING the fawn.  Yessirrie, there was a vending machine onsite that dumped a child's hand size dose of corn kernels for a mere nickle.  So, this young girl had obviously bought her five cents worth of corn to feed the fawn.

As a result of the April 19, 2020, "Arizona Daily Sun" article about Buffalo Park we received this email from Robyn Martin:

"I was born and raised in Flagstaff and celebrated my 6th birthday party at Buffalo Park. My best friend and I used to walk up Cedar Hill from where we lived on Forest Avenue (which was still dirt then and not a major thoroughfare) in the summers armed with our 1$ bill each, and hang out at Buffalo Park. There was a "petting zoo" of sorts, limited to very aggressive goats, that would react to the sound of a nickel dropped into the gum machine dispensers that instead released shelled corn for feed, and the goats would swarm. Okay when you are adult size, but not so great when child size-it was a little intimidating. I remember riding in both the stagecoach and the wagon (stagecoach best, because you could ride on the seat in the back which was outside."

So, Buffalo Park had a Feed Dispenser! And that little girl was feeding that fawn out of her hand!

Thank You, Robyn, for such a lovely story!

(Editor's Note: We're leaving the postcard view unsourced here because it is such a common listing on eBay.  Simply search for "Buffalo Park Flagstaff Arizona" without quote marks, of course.

Sam McManis "Daily Sun" article - April 19, 2020

Many Huge Thanks to "Arizona Daily Sun" Reporter Sam McManis for his wonderful article about Buffalo Park in the Sunday, April 19th edition.  Sam really nailed what we're trying to do. The link to his article appears below.  We will see if we can get permission to reprint the article here.

We love every word of Sam's fine story.  We are very grateful that Sam included these two snippets:

"He has been stymied, though, in developing the motives of Potter, aka, “Buffalo Jim.” “I’ve posted on Flagstaff, Phoenix and Arizona history groups, trying to find descendants of Buffalo Jim,” Parsons said. “I didn't feel it's fair to do the story without hearing from (his) family members. Maybe they better know Buffalo Jim’s motivations. There's just got to be some reason why the guy was so into Buffalo.”

“Without the runners, Buffalo Park as we know it today simply wouldn’t exist,” he said. “The runners were and remain the guardians of the park.”

James M. Potter's singular passion to create Buffalo Park left Flagstaff with an enduring legacy that will be enjoyed by countless generations to come.  We hope his Family will come forward with stories and photos so Buffalo Jim's role can be better celebrated.

Meanwhile, we also hope that the Greater Northern Arizona running community will recognize an opportunity to showcase their contributions to preserving Buffalo Park in perpetuity.  The Buffalo Park Story deserves to be a small book, perhaps in the Arcadia Publishing genre.  It would be great if we could share all that we can accumulated so the runners could put together a book that would also serve as a great fund-raiser for their long-term efforts.

Note that many of the resources depicted on this blog are courtesy of The NAU Cline Library Special Collections and the Arizona Historical Society North Division.

To contact us about any aspect of this project please use:
arizonahistorystories@gmail.com

You may also be interested in our Arizona History Stories Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaHistoryStories

Thank you for your interest in Buffalo Park!

Here's the Daily Sun article link:

https://azdailysun.com/news/local/he-goes-where-buffalo-parks-history-roams/article_eae6ff41-ef57-5288-85de-4f7a95ee5885.html