Where the Buffalo Roam: ‘Dances With Wolves’ Ranch Heads to Auction

A massive South Dakota buffalo ranch whose wide swaths of native prairie have been featured in television commercials and movies, including “Dances With Wolves,” is headed to auction July 9, according to listing agent Tom Metzger of Hall and Hall. The auction is selling about 46,000 acres of Triple U Ranch, a roughly 60,000-acre ranch near Fort Pierre. Included in the sale is a three-bedroom main house on the property as well as two other houses. There is also a shop, barns, slaughterhouse, livestock scale and indoor riding arena. The ranch’s herd of buffalo, numbering about 1,500, is available for sale separately, said Scott Shuman of Hall and Hall, who is handling the auction. There is no minimum bid, but the owner can choose not to sell if the bids aren’t high enough, Mr. Shuman explained.

The auction represents the first time the Triple U Ranch has been on the market since 1959, when it was purchased by the parents of Kaye Ingle, who owns it with her family. She says the family is selling to pay off debts. Initially the ranch raised cattle, Ms. Ingle said. Her father bought a few buffalo “for a novelty” at first. But as the hardy creatures proved themselves well-suited to the area’s tough winters, the family decided to focus on buffalo rather than cattle. In 1989, the family was contacted by the South Dakota Department of Tourism and told that Kevin Costner was looking for a buffalo herd to film for a coming movie. The family agreed to let the crew film on their ranch for more than two months. Later, the family was surprised when “Dances with Wolves” became a box office hit and won a bevy of Academy Awards. “We didn’t expect the movie to be the hit that it was,” Ms. Ingle said. “We thought it was just another Western with soldiers and Indians.” She said a number of fans have visited over the years, especially since the fort built for the film was still on the property. The structures recently succumbed to the weather, however.