Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch

For twenty years Dan OBrien struggled to make ends meet on his cattle ranch in South Dakota. But when a neighbor invited him to lend a hand at the annual buffalo roundup, OBrien was inspired to convert his own ranch, the Broken Heart, to buffalo. Starting with thirteen calves, short-necked, golden balls of wool, OBrien embarked on a journey that returned buffalo to his land for the first time in more than a century and a half.

Buffalo for the Broken Heart is at once a tender account of the buffaloes first seasons on the ranch and an engaging lesson in wildlife ecology. Whether hes describing the grazing pattern of the buffalo, the thrill of watching a falcon home in on its prey, or the comical spectacle of a buffalo bull wallowing in the mud, OBrien combines a novelists eye for detail with a naturalists understanding to create an enriching, entertaining narrative.