{"id":133496,"date":"2026-02-20T07:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalbison.org\/?post_type=tribe_events&#038;p=133496"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:46:44","slug":"the-great-american-bison-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/nationalbison.org\/event\/the-great-american-bison-road-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great American Bison Road Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is a featured stop on a historic cross-country journey celebrating the American bison. Three larger-than-life bronze bison sculptures, created for the Smithsonian&#8217;s National Museum of Natural History, will arrive in Iowa City as part of a road trip from Colorado to Washington, D.C. This national journey is party of the Smithsonian&#8217;s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, highlighting the bison&#8217;s enduring cultural, ecological, and scientific significance as the national mammal of the United States of America.<\/p>\n<p>The sculptures will be parked outside the museum throughout the day, offering a rare opportunity to see them up close before they continue their trek to DC for permanent installation on the National Mall. Inside the museum, visitors are invited to a special bison-focused program featuring short talks and up-close experiences. Pentacrest Museums Director Liz Crooks (now officially dubbed a &#8220;Bison Ambassador&#8221;) will discuss Iowa&#8217;s long history and connections with bison, highlighting ties to the museums&#8217; founders, collections, and exhibits. Smithsonian content experts will share perspectives on bison history, science, conservation, the bronze sculptures, the national road trip, and the forthcoming exhibitions in DC.<\/p>\n<p>The program will conclude with close-look tables featuring bison research collections, a visit to museum galleries with bison connections, and a farewell gathering outside to wave off the bronze bison as they depart for their next stop.<\/p>\n<p>The day&#8217;s events are free and open to the public. All ages welcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Day&#8217;s events breakdown:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Morning &#8211; 3:00 p.m. find the bronze bison parked on Clinton St. in front of the Museum of Natural History and meet Smithsonian Content Experts for general info, Q&amp;A<\/li>\n<li>1:00 p.m. &#8211; 5:00 p.m. Museum of Natural History open to the public; come inside to visit our bison displays<\/li>\n<li>1:30 p.m. &#8211; 2:30 p.m. Public bison talks and programming inside the Museum of Natural History<\/li>\n<li>3:00 p.m. &#8211; A warm Iowa City send off! Meet by the bison sculptures to wave them off as they depart<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is a featured stop on a historic cross-country journey celebrating the American bison. Three larger-than-life bronze bison sculptures, created for the Smithsonian&#8217;s &#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-133496","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Great American Bison Road Trip - National Bison Association<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalbison.org\/event\/the-great-american-bison-road-trip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Great American Bison Road Trip - National Bison Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is a featured stop on a historic cross-country journey celebrating the American bison. 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