After a lifetime of hunting and nine years applying for the chance, Kalispell resident Jack Garfield finally got to harvest a bison north of Yellowstone National Park.

“It’s not like it’s a great big deal,” Garfield said, referring to the relative ease in hunting bison. “But it’s different.”

It can require some patience, and that was the case with Garfield’s hunt. 

But first it required luck — Garfield was one of just 50 people whose names were drawn for bison tags out of 10,273 applicants for this year’s hunt. 

He was among six who were allowed to hunt between Jan. 1 and Jan. 22 in the area north of Gardiner. Garfield had been applying for the hunt ever since 2005 when it was reinstated by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

It was an exciting opportunity for someone who started hunting at the age of 12 around his hometown of Sparta, Wis. In the years that followed, Garfield pursued a career with the National Park Service, which included an eight-year stint as Glacier National Park’s personnel officer. He retired in 1994.

Garfield, 78, and two hunting partners departed at midnight Jan. 15 after a close family friend who lives in the Gardiner area, Bill Tyson, told him to get down there as soon as possible because bison were migrating north out of the park.

“We started scouting right when we arrived,” Garfield said.

It didn’t long for him to encounter members of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that has been critical of the hunt and Montana’s bison management policies.

“They kind of were around,” he said. “They cannot interfere with a legal hunt so we didn’t have any problem.”

Garfield didn’t see any hunting possibilities until two days after arriving when eight bison were seen in the distance.

The next morning the same group was spotted about a mile and a half away and they were moving Garfield’s way. He set up in some tall sagebrush on private property where he had permission to hunt, and he waited.

Eventually, a large bull wandered into Garfield’s sights. “All I saw in my scope was hair,” he said.

Garfield dropped the bull with a single shot from about 40 yards away with his Browning automatic .30-.06 rifle.

“That’s when the work starts,” he said, referring to the grueling task of field-dressing an animal estimated to weigh 1,300 pounds. Soon after starting, a group of locals familiar to Garfield showed up and offered to help.

The task took about three hours.

“The guys that came over to help us, they knew what they were doing,” he said.

The bison was quartered and skidded out on sleds. It took two men to lift the heavy head and hide into the back of a pickup truck.

“Front to back to top, that truck was full of meat and head and hide,” Garfield said.

After Garfield returned to the Flathead Valley, the meat was processed by him and one of his hunting partners, Frank Levandowski.

“We did all of our own butchering,” he said. “We cut and wrapped the entire animal and it took about 3 1/2 days.”

Garfield estimates he has nearly 600 pounds of bison meat, and he is proud of it.

“I don’t find a thrill in killing animals. To me, it is a harvest,” he said, adding that he is sympathetic to National Park Service concerns about bison overgrazing the northern part of Yellowstone Park. 

Garfield approached Snappy Sport Senter and Sportsman & Ski Haus about donating the bison head for a mounted display, but neither place needed it. He then talked to Cabela’s, which tentatively agreed to have the head mounted and displayed at the store that is being built in Missoula this year.

In exchange, Cabela’s will cover the costs of tanning the hide for Garfield, who enjoys working with leather.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am pleased to harvest a bison,” Garfield said. 

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.