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These good folks up in Flag have had a hard decision to make....sigh......anyone want to buy a ranch ?? Couple's labor of love comes to an end 01/04/2005
It's a full house at the White Buffalo Ranch, located 20 miles northeast of Flagstaff on Highway 180, where six white buffalo are waiting out a snowy winter. Their owners and caretakers, Jim and Dena Riley, will probably not be waiting with them.
After three hard years toiling to turn the five-acre spread they bought in 2001 into a recreational attraction for visitors wanting to see the buffalo, the Riley have reluctantly decided to sell the ranch and the animals. The property went on the market New Year's Day.
White buffalo are considered sacred to many cultures, including Native American tribes. A Lakota prophecy says the white buffalo will be born in the midst of chaos and war, and it will represent to all people in all nations abundance and healing of the earth.
Year 2004 was not a good one for the Rileys. Dena was in a major car accident in April and almost died. "I lost my life; I was pronounced dead," she says. "They had to resuscitate me. I ended up with 25 cracked bones. So it's just an awful lot that's happened this year for us."
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"We've put our heart and our soul into this, into all of this -- the business, the animals. We never even leave the property together, Jim and I. We're married to this. We take this responsibility really seriously."
The extended white buffalo family now includes four girls and two boys: Miracle Moon, Rainbow Spirit, Mandela Peace Pilgrim, Arizona Spirit and two babies born last year, Sunrise Spirit (May 22) and Spirit Thunder (May 27).
The white buffalo family will get bigger very soon.
"Three white ones are pregnant, and a brown one is pregnant with our two-year old bull," Dena Riley said. "Isn't that amazing?"
The Riley's first white buffalo, the female Miracle Moon, was born in the spring of 1997, on the edge of the Black Hills of Wyoming on the Dream Maker Bison Ranch. Miracle Moon's two daughters, Rainbow Spirit and Mandela "Mandy" Peace Pilgrim, both white buffalo, were born before the couple moved to Flagstaff in December 2001.
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"We've done a lot to it to make it what it is today," Dena Riley says. "It's completely fenced. We've painted, caulked, repaired, added. We've enclosed the front porch. We've just worked our buns off the last three years."
The Rileys declined to give the asking price for their property. In a press release, they said they will be donating $100,000 from the proceeds of the sale for disaster relief for people affected by tsunamis in nearly a dozen Asian countries.
The couple are hoping a buyer will be able to afford changes that will benefit the herd.
"Maybe they can get them the land they need, in order for our herd to grow," she said.http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=101103
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