Did you know that these gigantic animals are not really buffalos? The technical name is "American Bison," however when the first settlers and mountain men happened upon the great mammals, they didn't know what they were and for lack of a correct name they called them "buffalo." Since then, the name has stuck and today many people only refer to the mammals as buffalos.

This past week I had the chance to visit Sayersbrook Bison Ranch near Potosi, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis. Skip and Connie Sayers run a really cool ranch where people can have meetings, tour the 1,700-plus acres of forest and plains or feed the huge herd of bison. In fact, some people even bring their Jeeps or Hummers to have fun driving through the woods. Mr. Skip says there are trails for four-wheel drive vehicles to follow, but I sure didn't see a trail. I think Mr. Skip just likes taking off through the woods.

The Sayers decided to raise bison after reading the Plains Indians lived on bison meat and never had cancer, heart disease or strokes, despite living to be eighty to ninety years old. In fact, scientists speculated that had they had dental care, they would have lived to be one-hundred and thirty-five. The flavorful red bison meat is 97 percent fat free and contains 40 percent more protein than beef.