Today, Flagstaff’s Buffalo Park is a scenic gateway for casual hikers seeking views of Mount Elden and Humphreys Peak. But beneath the soft crunch of the gravel paths lies the quirky history of a mid-20th-century dream that aimed to bring the Old West to life as a theme park.
Flagstaff purchased the land that later became Buffalo Park from the U.S. Forest Service in the late 1950s. In 1964, entrepreneur and Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce President James Potter spearheaded an effort to lease the site from the city and operate it as a tourist attraction — one that also served as a refuge for elk, deer and pronghorns, along with bison, which were misidentified as buffalo.
Gwen Groth, executive director of the Northern Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society, says the park even boasted a touch of Hollywood royalty: Lucille Ball donated a stagecoach, and Ball’s brother led tours. Another feature was the bison statue at the entrance, which still greets hikers today. Back then, it was a frequent target for local students.
“The poor buffalo was always getting repainted, either for senior pranks or maybe April Fools’ Day,” Groth says. “You would just never know when the poor buffalo was going to be polka-dotted, or the colors of Coconino High School, or the colors of Flagstaff High School.”
As for the live bison, they would, at times, exact revenge on nearby residents. A former police chief once shared stories of trying to herd escaped bison back to the park. “[Officers] would be called up there with their cruisers to try to move them off of the playground [at Sechrist Elementary School], and they wouldn’t budge,” Groth says. “They would just stare at the patrol car and stay in place.”
Amid winter storm damage and financial hardships, the amusement park was shuttered in 1969. In 1973, the Flagstaff City Council rededicated the site for municipal recreation. And while the live bison and amusement park rides are things of the past, people can still imagine what Buffalo Park used to be. It’s a place, Groth says, where the history of the community is “kept intact” and serves as an appetizer for the wilder trails of the neighboring San Francisco Peaks.
FLAGSTAFF Buffalo Park, flagstaff.com/buffalo-park