ANTELOPE ISLAND — Davis County’s version of the late John Wayne made an appearance to check the lay of the land out prior to the official Buffalo Roundup, here, last weekend.

His advice to the hundreds of volunteers, both on horseback and otherwise: “You better be good, pilgrim!”

County Commissioner John “JP” Petroff and his wife, Pam, enjoyed a more leisurely ride, Friday.

“I’ve been out there lots of times,” he said. “On the island, you can ride out across country. I haven’t had that much chance to do that. It’s a lot bigger out there than people think.”

“Holy bison. It was incredible,” said horse afficionado and Davis Area Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO Barbara Riddle of the Roundup.

“Saturday was crazy. We had between 280 and 300 riders,” including a handful who came from other states to be a part of the annual event, she said.

“The bison were more cantankerous than I’ve seen in my five years of participating in the Roundup,” Riddle said, adding, “we had a lot of fake charges,” and reportedly a few horses that received injuries.

“We picked up the bison, first thing in the morning, between 400 and 500 of them, from the springs, drove them up to the corrals,” with motorized vehicles used to help get the massive beasts into the corrals.

“Sunday was absolutely phenomenal,” Riddle continued. “We went about a mile south of the ranch house,” to pick up 60 to 100 stray bison. “We probably had 30 riders start that morning, and the bison started in a dead run in the right direction,” she said. “It was just exhilarating to be riding alongside them. A group of maybe 10 of us stayed up with the bison herd.”

A lot of people combined to make the event happen, including Sheriff’s Posse from Davis, Cache and Weber Counties, plus a group from Custer State Park in South Dakota who generally round up 1,200 bison each year, Riddle said.

“There are a lot of great volunteers, people who come out to experience one of the great assets of the Great American West,” including those who help maintain the Antelope Island trails, she said.

A few people traveled to Utah and the island thanks to a full page article and pictures which appeared in the Los Angeles Times, last summer, that was reproduced across the country.

“We (Convention & Visitors Bureau) started getting pounded with phone calls from folks who wanted to be part of the Roundup from all over the country,” Riddle said.

The annual bison inoculation, meanwhile, will take place this weekend, Nov. 6-8, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bison will be weighed, blood-tested, inoculated and scanned. A microchip is implanted in each bison behind the ear, serving as permanent identification and a way to store that animal’s history.

“It’s a great way for folks to see the bison up close and personal,” Riddle said.

As part of an effort to keep the herd healthy and maintain proper levels on the island, “excess” bison will be sold Nov. 14. Animals can be viewed as early as 8 a.m. and the sale starts at 10 a.m. For more information, call Steve Bates at 801-209-4678.