Vore Buffalo Jump beefing up infrastructure with giant teepee - KOTA Territory News

Vore Buffalo Jump beefing up infrastructure with giant teepee

If you drive down Interstate 90 across the border into Wyoming, you'll see something new to the north.

It's a big building, but it's not your average structure; it's a teepee.
 
"It's been a fun project," said Bob Olson, who designed and whose company building the 1,200 square foot teepee for the Vore Buffalo Jump outside of Beulah.
 
"It's going to be a real nice building for them," Olson said. "And it's going to be real visible from the interstate."
 
That's what Ted Vore and the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation are counting on.

They want to drive more visitors to the jump, and with the new building, they'll actually be able to handle them.
 
"There will be men's and women's restrooms" in the teepee, Vore said. "We have put in a sewer system; we are now in the process, as you can see, of drilling the well."
 
The teepee will also house a gallery, which will help explain how the sinkhole was used by Native American tribes to trap and kill large numbers of buffalo all at once.
 
The teepee is really just the first step. The Foundation wants to line pretty much the whole northern rim with similar structures to tell people more about how each tribe used the sinkhole.
 
"This one is a little but more expensive because of the restroom facilities," Vore said, adding the price for the rest will depend upon what's in them.
 
The first one has a price tag of about $175,000, a lot for a nonprofit. But Vore said it'll be worth it to increase their educational opportunities.

The building also incorporates traditional teepee customs, like having the door open to the east.

The group hopes to finish construction in April to be ready for the Jump to open in June.