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I met a man named Richard at a party and he told me his Catalina Island Buffalo story. I took his true story and added some of my own thoughts to it and retold the story to my nephew Andrew and his friend Hunter.

Several years ago Richard and his friend Mike were hunting on Catalina Island. They used old fashioned cross bows, the kind you can buy at that great place in Newport Beach called “Grants for Guns.” Richard has a winery in Newport Beach and he told me that when he gets bored he shoots rifles at targets in his underground 100 foot wine cave. I believe him because he seems like the type to scare the Newport Beach police into leaving him alone. He seems to be a real traditional “man’s man”, handsome, and very macho.

In the old days you could hunt wild boar, fox, deer, and other interesting animals on Catalina Island. The boars were scary with big fangs sticking out of their mouths. They would attack you if you weren’t careful and run right at you from out of the brush. The day that Richard and Mike went hunting there were very few wild boars or other animals around. They really wanted to use the new cross bows and were anxious to kill something. During the hunting expedition all of sudden they see this wild buffalo coming at them. Now I have actually seen a herd of wild buffalo out by the airport in Catalina. They scared the life out of me as I was hiking on a path. The buffalo are really HUGE BISON and they have been living on the Island as a protected species since they were dropped off to make Hollywood movies back in the 1920’s. They had a one way ticket to Catalina and managed to multiply over the years.

Richard’s friend Mike decides to shoot the buffalo with his bow and arrow. He ends up KILLING the buffalo! The Catalina Island Conservancy, and the “powers that be” on the Island do not think that this is ok. They tell Mike that he has committed a crime by killing the poor buffalo and that he better replace it. They fine him $5000. Mike feels bad and goes about trying to find a new buffalo. He searches all over and finds a buffalo way out in South Dakota, back on the mainland. Of course he has to figure out how to get this buffalo from the Indian reservation in South Dakota to Catalina Island. He finally manages to get the buffalo on a train and into the Long Beach Harbor to load onto a boat. The buffalo is rather traumatized by the whole journey. He did not want to leave his native lands and as it turns out there was something wrong with him. Either way the poor buffalo DROPS DEAD on the dock while waiting to load onto the boat. Now the shipping company, Mike, and the authorities in Long Beach have to deal with a stinking, rotted, carcass of a buffalo. This costs Mike more money AND he now has to buy ANOTHER buffalo to replace this dead buffalo! Mike ends up finding another buffalo in South Dakota that has a better health record and ships it over to Catalina successfully. The new buffalo is now a happy airport buffalo. You can visit him if you are brave enough to go hiking around the airport, and don’t bring your bow and arrow or you will be sorry!

Kathy Hamilton 
May 2012

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My wonderful artists from Dana Point

After I gave her the mask.

I made it from Peacock feathers and she collects them