From Wall Street to Montana
Chris McCleary spent two decades on Wall Street — Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns — predicting markets and managing risk at the highest levels. On March 2, 2016, he walked away from all of it and drove to Montana with a simple conviction: America's national mammal deserved a sanctuary, and no one in the world had built one.
What started with a handful of rescued bison grew into the first dedicated bison sanctuary on Earth — a place where animals rescued from slaughter, rodeos, and failed operations live out their natural lives on open rangeland beneath the mountains of Montana. Not a reserve. Not a range. A sanctuary — where injured animals see a veterinarian, not a rifle.
Bison are highly intelligent, wildly athletic, and dangerous. They can jump a six-foot wall running uphill. They live for thirty-five years. And each one has an extremely distinct personality. They form friendships, have a sense of humor, and hold grudges. The matriarch of this herd is Allie — born with a deformed neck, she waddles when she walks. Every bison on the property knows it. They follow her anyway. They protect her. She happens to be the friendliest animal on the ranch. The herd chose their leader, and they chose kindness.
Chris lives among the herd. He feeds them by hand. They come when he calls. The bond between a man and a two-thousand-pound animal built on nothing but trust — that's the story the cameras can't stop filming and the visitors never forget.
