Last Updated on April 24, 2025 by JJ
Where the Buffalo Roam (Yes, in Florida)
If you happen to be barreling down I-75 just south of Gainesville, you might catch a glimpse of something that makes you tap the brakes. Not a palm tree. Not an egret. But… a buffalo?
Welcome to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, the only place in Florida where wild bison and horses roam freely—like ghosts from a forgotten frontier. The prairie spreads out like a sun-drenched sea, golden and flat, punctuated by cypress domes and the occasional gator blinking through the marsh. Most Floridians don’t even know it’s here.
And yet, it’s one of the most biologically rich landscapes in the state—a place that feels more like the Serengeti than the Sunshine State.
An Accidental Paradise
Paynes Prairie wasn’t always a nature preserve. In fact, for much of its human history, it was a sinkhole-in-progress. A prehistoric lake, drained and refilled over millennia, it became a seasonal floodplain where Native Timucua tribes hunted and Spanish cattle once grazed…