Bison Paddock

The Bison Paddock is an eleven-acre enclosure defined by its heavy wire fencing and the sight of large, grazing American bison. Established in eighteen ninety-one, the paddock exists because the species was then on the brink of extinction following decades of mass hunting across the American West. Park Superintendent John McLaren brought the first bull, named Ben Harrison, to San Francisco to begin a captive breeding program that eventually produced hundreds of calves.