Vision, Mission, &
Core Values

Privacy Policy

In Honor of Jesse Stovall, 1910-2005

When the Buffalo Field Campaign came to town in 1997, the Stovalls adopted us and treated us as family. Joanne and Jesse have been our surrogate Grandparents ever since. Since the earliest days of the Buffalo Field Campaign, Joanne and Jesse have been there for us with advice and wisdom. Jesse’s guidance helped make the BFC what it is.

Jesse was born on December 4, 1910 and lived nearly his entire life in Montana. At the age of 20 he took a job breaking horses for Tony Grace on the Horse Butte ranch that now belongs to the Munz family. In 1938, using an axe to hew and shape the logs, he built a cabin for his friend, Lewis “Val” Valentine. At the time he had no idea that the Valentine homestead would one day belong to he and his family.

In 1940 Jess was hired to run the B_K (B bar K) ranch at the base of Lone Mountain near present-day Big Sky. He ran the ranch until 1942, when he enlisted in the military and went to fight in World War II. He fought for the remainder of the war and remained enlisted for a total of 7 1/2 years.

Though he didn’t know it at the time, fate had a treat in store for him in the form of a beautiful girl from the East Coast. In the Spring of 1946, Joanne Geoff and her girlfriend Smitty headed out of Boston on a grand adventure to the West in search of a pair of handsome cowboys. They stopped briefly in Fort Worth, Texas, but finding no cowboys there, headed northwest, running out of money in Salt Lake City, Utah. A stranger they met there offered them both summer jobs in Yellowstone National Park, so they moved to West Yellowstone. Joanne fell in love with the Yellowstone country that summer and, after returning East to finish school, returned to Montana and took a teaching job at Montana State University. She was 22 years old.

One night in 1947 Joanne and some girlfriends went to the Corral Bar where she finally found her handsome cowboy, Jesse Stovall. They courted, fell madly in love, and were married on June 11, 1949. They had three children: Morgen, born in 1951; Kirk, born in 1954; and Anne, born in 1955.

Joanne's mother Gladine, wanting to be closer to her daughter, moved to Montana shortly after Joanne and Jesse met. Jesse and Joanne introduced Gladine to Jesse’s friend Lewis Valentine and the two married shortly thereafter. The beautiful log cabin Joanne now calls home was built in 1963 with the help of Jesse. Joanne and Jesse’s daughter Anne now lives in the Valentine homestead that Jesse built in 1930.

In the late 1980’s the Stovall’s lives began to be blessed by the presence of buffalo. In 1990 a buffalo they nicknamed “Charger” became a regular visitor to their property. Another buffalo that became a regular was a buffalo they called “Sammy.” Every winter he would migrate out of the park to Horse Butte. Sammy used to lay in the yard with their dog. During his fourth winter on the Butte, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks agents gunned down four buffalo in the meadow in front of Jesse and Joanne's house.

Joanne was worried that one of the buffalo was Sammy so she walked up to the buffalo that lay in the meadow. Sammy was easy to point out because one of his horns was bent in a unique way. When she approached them she noticed that they had not been completely killed and were lying in the field writhing in pain. Four days after the four buffalo were shot in the meadow nine buffalo came and formed a circle in the exact spot where they had been shot. To Joanne it was clear that they were mourning their lost family members.

Now, with Jesse’s passing, all who knew him are mourning for our loss. Jesse was strong, bull-headed, and stuck to his opinions, unless set straight by Joanne. His love for the wild beauty of Montana was steadfast, and served as the backbone for all his decisions. This love made him angry at the treatment of his friends, the buffalo. Even with his history of working on Montana ranches, he never bought the Montana Department of Livestock's (DOL) lies, and created Buffalo Safe Zones of his and surrounding properties. The DOL, not wanting to earn Jessie's wrath, never did cross these boundaries.

On December 19, 2004, as a strong and gusty windstorm shook the Madison Valley, Jesse Stovall passed away. He was 94 years old. In the West Yellowstone area, Jesse’s passing is felt by his wife Joanne, his daughter Ann, and all of the West Yellowstone community, especially those of us who called him “Grandpa” here at the BFC.

Jesse’s wisdom lives on in all who knew him. "Buffalo are the fastest moving, slow animal I've ever seen," he was fond of saying, “They are the only animal that faces into a storm and feeds in it." He also liked to say, “If you can’t be good, be careful.” When talking about the modern-day buffalo slaughter he would remark, “There’s more strangeness in the truth than there ever is in any goddamned lie.” Jesse made his mark on the world and will never be forgotten. His advice continues to guide the BFC. His family is our family.

Joanne's dedication to the buffalo has never faltered. The Stovall cabin is always open to BFC vounteers