You don't have to wander too far outside center city Allentown to take a walk-- or a drive-->> ... on the wild side. It may seem like these buffalo fit right in on the grassy, rolling hills of rural Lehigh County. .. But the whole reason they're just a "sniff" away..>> That's pretty close.. that's the closest I've ever been>> reporter: ... is because of this man... Allentown's own General Harry c. Trexler.>> richard rosevear: In 1911 he brought in bison, elk and whitetail deer which may seem strange now but at the time they had been hunted out and were rare to see in this area. >> reporter: That was the very beginning of what would come to be called the Trexler Game Preserve- known today as the Trexler Nature preserve. At the time... Trexler owned a ranch in Wyoming... and was concerned about the dwindling herds of American bison.>> richard rosevear: This is at a time when there were about 800 wild bison left from an estimated 60 million when Europeans first came here. >> reporter: Trexler had the initial herd shipped in from Oklahoma... via train car. At the train station they were coaxed into crates... and trucked over to their new home. They seemed to adapt quickly to life in the northeast- they soon began to produce several calves a year. >> At one point the bison herd was the largest east of the Mississippi.>> reporter: a few decades later... after Trexler's death.... tragedy struck.>> richard ROSEVEAR:Unfortunately in the 1950s the herd was stricken with tuberculosis and had to be destroyed but was replaced. >>> reporter: So the preserve brought in new bison... and started over. Today.. the preserve... along with its spin-off, the Lehigh Valley Zoo... are home to dozens of species of animals from around the globe. And to think... it all started with one man... who wanted a home.. where the buffalo roam.
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