HOLLAND, Mich — When you think of Holland, you probably think of a handful of things like tulip farms, wooden shoes, and of course... bison?
Yup, you read that right. The Western American icon can be found right here in West Michigan.
“Most of Americans never saw an American bison,” Jim Veldheer, President of Veldheer Tulip Gardens Incorporated told me.
That unfortunate fact can easily change though, with a stop at Veldhheer Tulip Gardens in Holland, where the American icon can’t help but stand out just a little in an area with more windmills than western wildlife.
But the Veldheers think they seem right at home.
"I love them," said Jacob Veldheer. "I love seeing them here. I love how people come in and they can see it where they don't have to go, like out west or anywhere else to really see them and all that. I love the animals."
Raising the animals for both meat and as a tourist attraction, Veldheer’s have had as many as 35 of them and as low as the two they currently raise.
“With the area developing, we need to make a serious decision whether we stay in it or whether we move on to something else,” said Jim.
That final decision hasn’t been made yet though, because there is just something special about these animals.
"We've got lots of people that come, and they're amazed [at] how big they are," Jim added. "They're amazed how small a calf would be when it's newborn."
But, as I’m sure you’ve seen, some people get a little too amazed — as demonstrated every year by tourists getting themselves hurt, getting too close to bison at Yellowstone National Park.
"Never— EVER — think you're going to walk up to an American bison, buffalo, whatever you want to call them, and think you're going to walk right up and pet them," Jim cautioned.
Because even in these docile surroundings - the bison is a well-deserving reminder of the American wild.
"I've had a couple of close calls," admitted Jacob.
“I walked out they were on the other end of the pasture to put some grain in the trough, and I turned around and from me to you, stood the big bull," Jim told me. "I can't make that gate safely, so now you go back into who truly is the alpha male, him or me? I took the bucket, drew it back, and clobbered him across the head as hard as I could. I said, Tacoma, go eat now. And I pointed to the trough. He put his head down, he put his tail down, and he walked right over to the trough, and he never, never questioned me again.”
That’s the kind of intestinal fortitude that it takes to have a herd of bison here in West Michigan.
And if you keep you distance maybe you’ll get a chance to see them for yourself.
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