"...where the buffalo roam..."

Last weekend, I brought Peggy up to Brigham to spend a little time with Sarah and her family. On the way back I spotted the sign for Antelope Island and on a whim, decided to go check it out.
This view is looking north from the causeway linking Antelope Island with the mainland.

It appears as if the mountains are floating in air.

Antelope Island is a lonely, bare, windwept place. I can't imagine spending a winter there. The only trees are clustered around the springs. The ranch house and barns are in a nice spot, but it took a lot of effort through the years to make it that way.

The first house was built on the island in 1848, barely a year after the Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley. It was first used as a pasture for church tithing cattle herds, passed from the church into private hands, and sheep and buffalo were introduced. The sheep and cattle are gone, but the buffalo (bison, if you want to be technical) have mushroomed from an original twelve into about six hundred. The state established a state park on the north end and later aquired the rest of the island.


And yes, I did see an antelope, but didn't get a good picture of it.