On the Map

Harlem of the West: Jazz, People, and Place in the Fillmore

By Mirembe Ddumba

Stand on Fillmore and Geary streets on a Saturday evening, and you can almost hear it. Neon humming against the dusk, a saxophone warming up behind a church door, the ghost of Billie Holiday’s voice floating between the streetlights. In these few streets, jazz wrote itself onto San Francisco’s grid.

The sound arrived by train.

The Sound of Migration

During World War II, African Americans from Louisiana, Texas, and across the South boarded trains bound for San Francisco’s shipyards. Between 1940 and 1950, the city’s Black population grew tenfold, from 4,800 to 43,000, filling apartments left empty when Japanese American families were forced into internment camps.

Musicians arrived with guitars slung over shoulders, horns wrapped in cloth. They transformed twenty blocks into the “Harlem of the West.” By the late 1940s, you could walk Fillmore Street on any night and hear Dizzy Gillespie bleeding through one door, smell barbecue from the next, watch Cadillacs pull up to drop off couples dressed for Jimbo’s Bop City.

Bop City at 1690 Post Street ran after-hours sessions until sunrise. Charlie Parker traded choruses with Dexter Gordon while Billie Holiday sat in a corner booth. Down the street, Ella Fitzgerald sang at the Champagne Supper Club and tried on hats between sets. The Blue Mirror. Club Flamingo. Jack’s Tavern. Two dozen venues within one square mile, each separated by a five-minute walk.

John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, and Thelonious Monk rented rooms above the clubs, ate at soul food diners, bought records at local shops, and shaped the neighborhood’s sonic identity night after night. This wasn’t accidental. The grid itself made it possible.

Black-and-white photo showing Fillmore Street, south of Post Street, late 1940s. The neighborhood’s dense grid and constant traffic fueled the energy of the "Harlem of the West." Credit: David Johnson
Fillmore Street, south of Post Street, late 1940s. The neighborhood’s dense grid and constant traffic fueled the energy of the “Harlem of the West.” Credit: David Johnson

 

Geography as Destiny

The Fillmore’s layout made this density possible. Narrow Victorian storefronts, twenty feet wide, meant multiple clubs per block. Short blocks with corner entries created constant foot traffic. The 22-Fillmore streetcar brought audiences from downtown, turning the neighborhood into one continuous jazz experience.

In 1948, city planners declared the Fillmore “blighted.” Under Redevelopment Agency director M. Justin Herman, bulldozers arrived. The Western Addition A-1 and A-2 projects demolished Victorian homes and shuttered clubs across 104 blocks. Geary Street, once lined with music venues, became Geary Boulevard, a four-lane expressway cutting the neighborhood in half.

By 1964, authorities had displaced 4,000 residents from A-1 alone. Jazz musicians scattered to Oakland, the East Bay, and Los Angeles. Residents gave urban renewal a different name: “Negro Removal”.

 

You could go out on Friday night and not come home until Sunday night because there is so much to do.”

—Elizabeth Pepin Silva, filmmaker and author of Harlem of the West

 

The clubs closed. The musicians left. But the music never completely died.

 

Map showing Western Addition redevelopment zones A-1 and A-2, which demolished 104 blocks and displaced thousands of residents. Credit: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency archives
Western Addition redevelopment zones A-1 and A-2, which demolished 104 blocks and displaced thousands of residents. Credit: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency archives

 

Still Playing

Walk Fillmore Street now, and commemorative plaques mark where Bop City stood, where the barbershop was, where musicians bought their reeds. Listen closely, though. The Fillmore Auditorium still books acts, its walls papered with decades of concert posters. Calvary Presbyterian Church hosts Sunday jazz services. Jones Memorial United Methodist Church opens its doors for Friday night sessions.

Every July since 1986, the Fillmore Jazz Festival closes twelve blocks to cars. Over 50,000 people flooded the streets for two days. Five stages. Artisan booths. The smell of Ethiopian food mixing with New Orleans-style barbecue. For one weekend, the neighborhood becomes what it was, pedestrians moving from stage to stage, music echoing off Victorian facades.

On other nights, the music lives in smaller rooms. 1300 on Fillmore books jazz acts in an intimate room with velvet couches. The Boom Boom Room sits on the corner where John Lee Hooker used to own a club. Rasselas Ethiopian Restaurant serves injera and hosts live music Thursday through Sunday. The building that housed Jimbo’s Bop City was literally picked up and moved two blocks west. It’s Marcus Books now, an Afrocentric bookstore that archives what redevelopment tried to erase.

Stand at Fillmore and Geary on Saturday evening. Close your eyes. Past the bus engines and car horns, you can still hear it. A saxophone warming up. The ghost of a neighborhood that jazz built, that policy tried to destroy, and that memory refuses to let die.

Photo showing an overhead view of musicians playing to a packed crowd at the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Credit: Fillmore Jazz Festival
Musicians play to a packed crowd at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, which brings over 50,000 people annually to celebrate the neighborhood’s musical legacy. Credit: Fillmore Jazz Festival

 

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Awardees

AAG Honorary Geographer: Jennifer Clapp

Jennifer ClappJennifer Clapp is this year’s AAG Honorary Geographer. She is recognized for her groundbreaking work at the intersection of global economy, food systems, and food security, along with her commitment to praxis, including her current service as a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and her previous service on the Steering Committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) from 2019-2023 (vice chair 2021-2023).

She is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Her recent books include Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why it Matters (MIT Press, 2025), Food, 3rd edition (Polity, 2020), Speculative Harvests: Financialization, Food, and Agriculture (Fernwood Press, 2018), and Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid (Cornell University Press, 2012).

Dr. Clapp is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an International Fellow of the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. She has also received numerous awards for her interdisciplinary research, including a Killam Research Fellowship, the Innis-Gérin Medal for contributions to Social Sciences from the Royal Society of Canada, a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize, and the Canadian Association for Food Studies Award for Excellence in Research.

We are honored to recognize Dr. Jennifer Clapp as Honorary Geographer, 2026.

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News

Announcing a New Specialty Group at AAG: Critical Islands, Archipelagos, and Oceans (CIAO)

From CIAO founding members Meagan Harden, Marina Karides (Chair), Neha Kohli, and Emily Mitchell-Eaton

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the AAG’s newest specialty group, Critical Islands, Archipelagos, and Oceans (CIAO). CIAO is a scholarly and activist community committed to advancing the study of islands, archipelagos, and oceans as lived spaces and geographic forms enabling for critical thought. In the present moment of environmental injustice, capitalist failure, and the enduring realities of colonialism that work to divide us, we are dedicated to building solidarities across—and through—oceanic space.

CIAO’S vision

We envision CIAO as a dynamic space for geographers, Islanders, and others committed to social justice to convene in the co-creation of knowledge specific to islands, archipelagos, and oceans. In this spirit, we invite diverse perspectives that adopt a critical lens to interrogate the following topics:

  • Migration, mobility, and transoceanic networks
  • Archipelagic relationalities
  • Indigenous sovereignty
  • Island economies
  • Oceanic borders, territorialities, and governance
  • Responses to climate change
  • Militarism and militarization
  • Island feminism and island-based social movements
  • Indigenous futurisms

These topics are starting points rather than constraints and we welcome scholarly engagement beyond these themes.

CIAO’S activities

Upon joining CIAO, members can look forward to the following activities:

  • Virtual and in-person networking opportunities
  • Professional development and peer mentoring
  • Student travel grants
  • Awards for outstanding papers and creative scholarship
  • Conference activities at the AAG Annual Meeting including paper/panel sessions, social gatherings, and organized field trips.
  • At AAG 2026, CIAO will sponsor:
    • A session titled “Island Feminisms: Anti-racist and Decolonial Scholar-Activist Solidarities for Social and Environmental Justice/Feminismos isleños: solidaridades antirracistas y decoloniales entre académicas/os activistas por la justicia social y ambiental”
    • A panel
    • Any relevant sessions that AAG members suggest!

CIAO’S commitments

As a Specialty Group that explicitly recognizes the colonial legacy of the geography discipline, as well as the myriad ways that academia reinforces social, political, and economic inequalities, CIAO is committed to building an inclusive space safe from discrimination and violence. In addition to the professional benefits of CIAO membership, CIAO is committed to:

  • Celebrating and amplifying the voices of Islander and coastal communities; Indigenous peoples, women, people of color, and other marginalized communities
  • Upholding academic freedom within CIAO activities;
  • Facilitating transparent and accountable governance; and
  • Aligning with the AAG’s ethics of care for creating safe space at AAG Meetings, its Statement of Professional Ethics, and Professional Conduct Policies and Procedures

Join CIAO today

We warmly invite all geographers conducting critical work on islands, archipelagos, and oceans to join the CIAO community.

  1. Go to  aag.org and log in.
  2. From My AAG Dashboard, click on the red “Add a Group” link in the My Communities section.
  3. Review your current groups, then click the grey “Continue” button in the lower right.
  4. When the Specialty Groups list appears (it may take a minute), check the box next to “Critical Islands, Archipelagos, and Oceans,” then click “Continue.”
  5. Continue through the Affinity Groups and Communities of Practice screens until you reach your Shopping Cart, then proceed to Checkout. Fees are $20 for regular members and $5 for students.
  6. Once payment is complete, you’ll see a confirmation message. Allow up to 15 minutes for your dashboard to update. If the update doesn’t appear, try logging out and back in—or use a private browser window to clear any caching issues.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected].

We are so excited to host this new space, and we can’t wait to build the CIAO community with you!

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News

Anthony Howell joins ‘Annals of the American Association of Geographers’ as newest editor

Anthony HowellAnthony Howell is the new Geographic Methods editor for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. He is an associate professor, director of the Center on Technology, Data, and Society (CTDS), and senior sustainability scientist at Arizona State University.  Howell brings to the editorship at Annals a background in computational, geospatial and quantitative social science methods. He currently serves as an associate editor for two journals (Progress in Economic Geography and Urban Governance) as well as having served as a guest co-editor for Economic Modeling. He works across several subspecialties in geography, including economic geography, industrial geography, development geography, and population geography, as well as the broader social sciences.

Howell’s work engages with interdisciplinary scholarship, extensive international research, and quantitative, geospatial and computational social science methods. His goals for his editorship include “helping to attract, guide and strengthen the quality of cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary research, hoping to raise the profile of the journal both within and beyond the AAG community.” His approach to attracting and working with authors will draw on lessons he has learned in his own scholarly experiences–such as helping to pioneer ethnic disparities research within China relying on mixed-methods survey data collection, advanced quantitative methods, and computational social science approaches—and co-publishing with a wide variety of colleagues in geography, planning, politics, economics, and strategy. His networks have grown to be international ones, particularly focused on China and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

Dr. Howell’s term begins in January 2026.

Ling BianWe thank longtime, outgoing editor Dr. Ling Bian, an AAG Fellow and professor in the Department of Geography at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Bian has been the Geographic Methods editor of the Annals since 2018, and also serves or has served on the editorial boards of numerous geography and GIScience journals, as well as on review panels for the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Her current research interests include conceptual and analytical frameworks for the representation of dynamic geographic phenomena, individual-based and spatially explicit modeling of health behaviors, and spatial networks. During her tenure as an Annals editor, Dr. Bian has dedicated her efforts to advancing the geography discipline by promoting intellectually in-depth and socially relevant research outcomes.

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Council Meeting Minutes

Council Meeting – September 2025

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Wayfinding

Maps as ‘Materials that Carry Memory’

Joanathan Bessaci poses showing his profile facing his artistic rendering of a profile. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci
Joanathan Bessaci with his art. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci

 

When artist Joanathan Besacci was growing up in Lyon, France, he was surrounded by the vast variety of the world, past and present. His maternal grandmother emigrated to France from Vietnam, and his paternal grandfather was from Kabylia (Northern Algeria). As a child, Bessaci spent hours watching his artist father work and exploring the flea market in Lyon, France, where his grandparents had a stall.

The flea market was a magical place, he says, “a doorway to other worlds.” His memories of it go back to 1986, when it was still called La Fecine, in Villeurbanne, set up on a street closed on Sunday mornings. In the 1990s, it moved to Vaise, and by the end of the decade, it found its current home: Les Puces du Canal.

Aerial view of a flea market in Lyon. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci
Flea market in Lyon. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci

 

“I went there as a child, still half-asleep but filled with excitement,” Bessaci recalls. “My grandfather arrived as early as 4 a.m.; I followed my father around after 5 a.m. You had to get up early to hope for a good spot. Sometimes sales began right in the trucks, under the flickering light of flashlights, before the sun had even risen.”

It was here that he first discovered the maps, books, and old photographs that now form the essential materials of his art. “They carried stories, past lives, fragments of humanity which, though I didn’t realize it yet, would become the very substance of my work.”

The flea market also influenced Bessaci’s fascination with the riddles presented by old objects and artifacts, “guessing what an object had been used for, what life it had lived, who had touched it before me. In some maps, I find traces of passage—a handwriting, a stain, a tear. These marks of time move me deeply. They make each piece unique, irreplaceable, like an imprint left by history. It is in this intimate relationship with objects, memory, and enigma that my artistic practice took root.”

Bessaci started as a graffiti artist, in his teens. His work evolved over time into the elaborate paper cut-out sculptures, using maps and photographs, that he makes today. At art school, he says, “I discovered the relationship to time. Coming from graffiti, where everything must be done in urgency, I was stunned to learn that a single project could take 80 to 100 hours of work. At first, it was a trial, almost a violence against my rhythm. But little by little, this temporality became an obviousness, a new kind of breathing.”

Now based in the United States, Bessaci continues to develop his practice and present his work in exhibitions and art fairs. He draws inspiration from antique Michelin road maps, primarily from the 1920s to the 1970s. He combines them with photographs and vintage textiles to create works that blend the markers of human individuality with topographies and routes. “My process is instinctive, almost archaeological,” he told Bold Journey magazine in 2025. “I collect, cut, layer, stitch. Each gesture is an attempt to surface memory, to retell what we think we already know.”

Artist's rendition of a portrait of Arthur Ashe. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci
Portrait of Arthur Ashe. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci

 

The maps Bessaci includes in his art create what he calls “layered stories.” The roads and rivers become metaphors for “chosen or imposed paths, uprooted or rediscovered roots.” The cuts, overlaps, and fragmentation he imposes are ways to question his subjects, and to challenge the idea of the subject as fixed. He seeks to portray “something in motion, composed of ruptures and recompositions.”

Bessaci had been primarily a painter for more than 15 years when he shifted his practice these sculptural works on paper. The change coincided with the birth of his daughter, and an extended period of time in a secluded studio in a very small town in France. On a visit to his grandfather at around this time, Bessaci received a box of old items, including old road maps. “It was as if the flea market had returned to my hands, charged with memory and secrets to be revealed.”

At first, Bessaci was reluctant to make any changes to the maps: “The day I dared to cut directly into a map, I felt an inner shift,” he says. “The maps immediately spoke to me: they were at once adventure, travel, and a profound resonance with my family, my memories of the flea market, and this need to explore the traces left by time.”

As Bessaci experimented and refined his technique, he began layering the maps, up to five layers at a time, to explore depth. The more he worked with old maps, the more he saw correspondences with people, and with memory and life itself: “The roads and rivers reminded me of veins, a living cartography of the body and of memory.”

Bessaci describes much of his raised work as bas-relief. He frames his cutouts between layers of glass and road maps, comparing them to mille-feuilles, a many-layered dessert. The layers create depth, “almost a vibration.”

Today, Bessaci owns nearly 5,000 maps, mainly Michelin, dating from 1890 to 1990.

“Their texture, their faded colors, their smell of ink and aged paper fascinate me,” Bessaci says. “A map is a displacement, an adventure, but also an anchor. It helps us know where we are, and I like to believe it also helps us know who we are.”

Bessaci is now working on a new series he calls Roots and Paths, using the kinds of photographs that turn up at flea markets, secondhand stores, and estate sales, devoid of their original context and family connections. Bessaci cuts the people from these images, leaving only their silhouettes, emphasizing their gestures. His goal is to neutralize “any visible markers of race, gender, and age, allowing the viewer to project their own memories, their own emotional history.” In place of the removed material, he fills in map fragments—roads, rivers, mountain ridges—as “layers of inner geography.”

He can foresee many years—perhaps a lifetime—of working with maps as an artist. “Maps, more than any other medium, have something magical: I don’t feel like I chose them—they found me,” he says. “They reflect my identity, but also the memory of my family, of places, of stories that shaped me. What I love is that they never fully reveal themselves. They hold secrets, hidden stories. I like to slip clues into my works, and sometimes, years later, a collector tells me: ‘I’ve just discovered this detail.’ At that moment, I feel that the map keeps speaking, long after me, as if it carried its own narrative.”

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On the Map

North American Beavers in South American Forests?

Beaver's head above water as it swims in a body of water. Credit: Camerauthor Photos, Unsplash
Beaver in its natural habitat in Northern Ontario. Credit: Camerauthor Photos, Unsplash

Geography In The News logoGeography in the News is an educational series offered by the American Association of Geographers for teachers and students in all subjects. We include vocabulary, discussion, and assignment ideas at the end of each article. 

By Cadence Bowen

Patagonia, a remote region at the tip of South America, has some long-distance intruders. In 1946 the North American beaver (Castor canadensis), was brought here. Its population has thrived—to the dismay of local humans.

The story of beavers in Patagonia shows how humans can introduce invasive species. These are non-native species which can overrun native species. This often causes an imbalance in the ecosystems in these environments. The problem of invasive species is driven by human interests, such as commercial or agricultural use of animals or plants.

North American beavers were almost wiped out in their native habitats by 1900. They were saved through intense conservation. Ironically, in Patagonia the focus is how to get rid of them. The Wildlife Society’s Pablo Jusim says, “Technically, it’s viable to eradicate beavers from South America—one of the biggest eradications in the world if we achieve it.” He estimates a cost of about $31 million and 20 to 30 years to eliminate Patagonian beavers and restore ecological balance.

Well, How Did They Get Here?

Imagine the southernmost part of South America: that’s Patagonia. Part of both Chile and Argentina, Patagonia is known for its diverse geography. Snowy mountains and lush forests in the west are answered by steppes and deserts in the east. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is at the tip of this area. It has its own diverse and rugged terrain, from lowlands and glaciated coasts in its north to high mountains in the east.

Map showing Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Map showing Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

 

In 1946, the Argentine government introduced just 20 North American beavers to Tierra del Fuego. The intention was to kickstart a fur trade for pelts. Officials believed the climate would be similar enough to the beavers’ native climate to suit them. Little thought was given to native trees, plants, and ecosystems. The trees and forests of North America co-evolved with beavers and can take their energetic tree felling and dam building. The native forests of Tierra del Fuego had never experienced anything like this. Plus, beavers have no natural predators in Tierra del Fuego. Eighty years later, the species’ population is more than 150,000, almost outnumbering human inhabitants.

Impacts of these “Ecosystem Engineers”

Beavers are ingenious animals with the ability to alter the landscapes they inhabit. These furry creatures are admired for their important roles in North America, both their contributions to river ecologies, and their earlier pivotal role in the fur trade of early America. They shape the environment more than any other species besides humans. Kodi Jo Jaspers, manager of the Wenatchee Beaver Project in Washington State, calls them “ecosystem engineers.”

When beavers build dams in North America, they create habitat for a lot of different species. This can help address the impacts of climate change by retaining groundwater, absorbing rain, and stopping or slowing the spread of wildfires.

Beavers’ impacts in North American ecosystems don’t translate well to the South American islands of Tierra del Fuego. They have become destructive toward its pristine forests and rivers. They lack the natural predators that North American beavers face, such as bears, wolves, and coyotes. Their natural behavior—gnawing trees and building dams—causes the roots of the remaining trees to rot in the saturated soil. Eventually, these trees to die. The river systems and watersheds that support life on the islands are filled with dead flora and sediment.

“I admire the animal actually. … How it works with the rivers, how it is adapted, how they molded nature for their own benefit, builds his house, his dams. ”

—Pablo Kunzle, Interviewee in Beavers: Patagonia Invaders

Is there a future Patagonia without beavers?

The 2015 documentary, Patagonia Invaders, highlights the community response to Tierra del Fuego’s beavers. From trendy fur coats to beaver tenderloins, locals have taken unusual steps to reduce the numbers of these invasive critters and their continuing impacts.

A study in the 1990s showed they had colonized about 94% of the rivers in the archipelago. Peacefull population control measures had limited results. In 2015, the Argentine government began a three-year eradication project. They applied the toughest means: full-body traps and hunting. The approach was successful enough for The Wildlife Society to recommend a larger-scale approach.

Researcher Mara Dicenta coined the term “Beavercene” to describe the changed landscape of Tierra del Fuego since 1946. She views the introduction and attempted eradication of beavers there as two ends of the same spectrum, caused by “a history of colonial interventions that ignore local environments.”

The latest approach to managing beavers in Tierra del Fuego’s forests might result in harmony or further destruction. In a fragile place that is out of balance, that question still hangs in the balance.

And that is Geography in the News, updated October 10, 2025

Material in this article comes from “North American Beavers Destroy South American Habitat” (2008), an original article for Geography in the News by Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner. 

AAG’s Geography in the News is inspired by the series of the same name founded by Neal Lineback, professor and the chair of Appalachian State University’s Department of Geography and Planning. For nearly 30 years from 1986 to 2013, GITN delivered timely  explainer articles to educators and students, relevant to topics in the news. Many of these were published on Maps.com’s educational platforms and in National Geographic’s blogs. AAG is pleased to carry on the series.

 

Sources Consulted for this Article
Vocabulary and Terms
  • Archipelago: A group of islands scattered across a body of water
  • Co-evolve: When two or more species have evolved together over millions of years, and have influenced or supported each other’s evolution
  • Ecosystem: A place that is defined and shaped by the relationships and interactions of many species within it.
  • Flora: Broad definition for plant life
  • Habitat: The place where life forms live; the habitat is made up of the conditions and features of the land, as well as the habits and relationships of species living there.
  • Nonnative Species: Living beings that are removed from their original natural environments and introduced to another by humans
  • Invasive Species: Nonnative species that have traits which enable them to outcompete and threaten native species, or cause damage to habitats..
  • Steppes: A large area of flat, unforested grassland
  • Terraform: To transform an area of land, often with removal of material, new structures, or addition of non-native species of plants and animals that can change the habitat.
  • Watershed: A geographical area that channels precipitation to rivers, streams, or creeks to eventually reach a larger body of water, such as bays or the ocean
Questions for Discussion and Further Study
  1. What are invasive species? What is the most common way for invasive species to be introduced?
  2. When we talk about species that have co-evolved, are we only talking about native species?
  3. Why were North American beavers introduced to Tierra del Fuego? What was the result of this introduction?
  4. Why do North American beavers thrive in Patagonia?
  5. Can you think of any invasive species in your local environment? What efforts are being made to control or eradicate the species?
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On the Map

The Geography of Bison: Returned from the Brink

Close up image of a couple of bison from a herd at Yellowstone National Park. Credit: Taylor Wright
Close up image of a couple of bison from a herd at Yellowstone National Park. Credit: Taylor Wright

Geography In The News logoGeography in the News is an educational series offered by the American Association of Geographers for teachers and students in all subjects. We include vocabulary, discussion, and assignment ideas at the end of each article. 

By Neal Lineback
Edited by Jane Nicholson, with mapping by Rachael H. Carpenter

The American bison, commonly known as the buffalo, is an icon of the U.S. “Wild Wild West.” The wild American bison was a major food source for native Americans for thousands of years. Yet, by the 1900s, it had been hunted to near extinction by settlers, trappers, and hunters,

The bison is the largest animal native to North America. Males weigh up to a ton (2,000 lb or 1,000 kg). At the turn of the century, there were only reportedly 23 wild bison left inside the territory of Yellowstone National Park and perhaps only a few hundred or so more scattered elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada.

In attempts to salvage the species, governments, organizations, and individuals made efforts to save a few bison. Those few in Yellowstone were successfully protected and became a core of the revival of a herd whose numbers rebounded rapidly. Other captured bison were protected by enterprising farmers and agencies, some on small farms and others as the beginnings of small herds. All of these actions saved the bison’s genetic profile from extinction.

The bison is a hardy creature, able to withstand extreme temperatures, heavy snow, drought and onslaughts of most predators. The bison’s size, herding instincts and aggression help ward off wolf packs and bears, the animal’s main threats. Accord to the National Bison Association, there were 1,986 bison ranches and farms in the U.S. in 2022.

Map showing where bison are raised in the U.S. Credit: Rachael Huerta
Where bison are raised in the U.S: both on ranches and public lands. Credit: Rachael H. Carpenter

 

Several issues still plague the bison from reviving to historic numbers. First of all, the territories available for wide-ranging herds of wild bison are very limited. Fences must be very strong and/or electrified to usually contain them, but even the strongest fencing cannot always contain bison, particularly large males. Private herds must be constantly managed. Although a large bison bull can literally run through fences when frightened, more “escapes” are caused by mating instincts where several males will push through their containing fences en masse to reach a female in estrus (ready to breed).

When they escape their containment as on bison farms surrounded by fences, bison are very hard to retrieve. They often require tranquilizer shots to neutralize their natural aggressiveness. Unlike cattle that can be rounded up with help of dogs, bison are almost immune to that process, sometimes only responding to food (grain) to lead them back into confinement.

Whereas bison escapes are mostly associated with bison farms and smaller ranches, the unfenced 4,900 bison in Yellowstone’s free-ranging herd are unconfined, which brings a new and different problem. When these bison leave the Park, they range onto surroundings under private ownership and National Forest Services land. Thus, they may cause jurisdictional problems, whereby they enter private grazing land and cropland, tear down farmers’ fences, damage farm equipment, destroy delicate ecosystems, and harass farm animals. Once on private land, they are unprotected and exposed to hunters and highway vehicles.

There are an estimated 400,000 bison in the United States, including 31,000 in conservation-focused facilities (parks and Tribal Lands), and the rest on bison farms and ranches. The Native Lands Advocacy Project (NALP) estimates that bison numbers overall increased at a rate of 13.36% between 2012 and 2017, while Tribal bison increased by 1031%. Clearly, Native Americans’ reverence for bison has enhanced the reproductive and survival rates among the herds under their care.

So what is the geographic distribution of bison in the United States today? Every state except the smallest East Coast states contains some small bison farms and larger

ranches. Most of the bison are raised as food, with the market prices for ground bison being three to five times more costly than beef. Consequently, commercial bison meat is mainly marketed to high-end restaurants and advertised as a healthy specialty item.

The word is out: Bison are BACK!!

And that is Geography in the News, updated October 1, 2025.

AAG’s Geography in the News is inspired by the series of the same name founded by Neal Lineback, professor and the chair of Appalachian State University’s Department of Geography and Planning. For nearly 30 years from 1986 to 2013, GITN delivered timely explainer articles to educators and students, relevant to topics in the news. Many of these were published on Maps.com’s educational platforms and in National Geographic’s blogs. AAG is pleased to carry on the series.

Sources Consulted for this Article
Vocabulary and Terms
  • Bison — Shaggy, humpbacked ox native to North America and Europe.
  • Buffalo — A term used interchangeably with “bison” in North America, but actually a different of four-footed grazing mammal native to Africa.
  • En Masse — French for “as a group.”
  • Estrus — The state of a female ready to mate.
Questions for Discussion and Further Study
  1. What happened to buffalo populations in the 1800s?
  2. Are buffalo dangerous to humans? Why or why not?
  3. What are some of the challenges ranches and public land managers face in raising and caring for buffalo?
  4. Buffalo populations are increasing swiftly, but are they anywhere close to the population that once lived in North America before European settlement? See if you can use the sources above and your own search to find that information.
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Geography Essentials Living within Ecosystems Sharing Knowledge
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Featured Article

Helping Students Bridge the Gap from Student to GIS Professional: How Esri YPN Supports Educators

Photo of Golden Bridge in Vietnam with sculpture of two hands supporting the bridge. Credit: Khải Đồng
Golden Bridge, Hòa Ninh, Hòa Vang, Da Nang, Vietnam. Credit: Khải Đồng

By Rosemary Boone, Senior Industry Marketing Manager – Education, Esri

Graduating from a higher education program is an exciting milestone, but it can also feel overwhelming. Students often ask, “What comes next?”

Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN) helps answer that question by bridging the critical gap between being a student and becoming a working GIS professional. The network also plays a vital role in supporting educators, who are deeply invested in their students’ success, both academically and professionally.

What is Esri YPN?

The Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN) is a global community and network of over 20,000 members worldwide that anyone can join at no cost. Esri YPN is designed to support its members to thrive at any stage of their GIS journey. Members consist of college students, recent graduates, emerging and seasoned GIS professionals, truly making it “a network for all” no matter your age or experience.

Built on three core pillars: Learn, Connect, and Lead, our mission is to provide members of Esri YPN with opportunities and resources to strengthen their skills, expand their networks, and step confidently into leadership roles within the geospatial industry.

Through networking events, professional development opportunities, and its Ambassador Program, Esri YPN empowers students to grow beyond the classroom and begin building the foundation of their careers while still in school.

Why It Matters to Students

By joining YPN, students gain:

  • A support system beyond graduation – Access to peers and mentors through the YPN Chapters, conference activities, LinkedIn group, and YPN Networking Space.
  • A platform to build their professional brand – Opportunities to showcase their work, present ideas, and raise their visibility through the YPN Ambassador Program.
  • Professional development resources – Engage in professional development through attending our webinars, conference sessions, chapter meetups; and by subscribing to the YPN blog on Esri Community.

For students, Esri YPN is more than a network, it’s a launchpad for their future in GIS.

Why Educators Should Take an Interest

By getting students involved in Esri YPN, educators can:

  • Strengthen their program’s value by demonstrating clear pathways to professional growth.
  • Help students gain confidence in their ability to enter a competitive job market.
  • Ensure graduates remain connected to a community that will continue supporting their careers long after they leave campus.

While curriculum and experiential learning opportunities build technical knowledge, students also need guidance on how to bridge the gap from student to professional. By encouraging participation, educators can equip their students with tools and connections that extend well beyond the classroom.

How to Get Started and Involved

Getting students connected with Esri YPN is simple—and the benefits begin immediately.

  1. Encourage students to join online – Direct them to esri.com/ypn, where they can join at no cost and gain instant access to resources, events, and community spaces.
  2. Reinforce their ability to participate tand network. Upon joining, members receive a confirmation email linking to their member badge and digital swag they can share with their networks.
  3. Suggest they join a local YPN chapter. Esri YPN has ten chapters across the United States each hosting local in-person networking meetups. Join a local chapter and search for upcoming chapter events.
  4. Encourage them to become a YPN Ambassador. Students can take steps to become a YPN Ambassador to make them stand out to their peers and recruiters. Upon completion, YPN Ambassadors receive a badge and certificate.
  5. Remind them to browse and subscribe to the YPN blog. The YPN Blog on Esri Community is rich in GIS career content brushing on topics like building a GIS portfolio, overcoming imposter syndrome, and GIS career pathway highlights.
  6. Keep encouraging them to start networking online. Join the YPN LinkedIn group and YPN Networking space on Esri Community to begin meeting peers and mentors in the geospatial field from across the globe.

Students who start engaging with YPN early will be equipped with a better sense of a professional identity, supportive network, and the confidence to step boldly into the next stage of their GIS journey.

Rosemary Boone is a Senior Industry Marketing Manager for Esri, concentrating on executing marketing strategies for K-12 schools and higher education institutions. She holds a master’s degree in education technology with an emphasis on multimedia. Prior to her career in marketing, she taught elementary school and taught overseas. In her free time, she likes to listen to music, exercise, and spend time with her two Dachshunds.

Featured Articles is a special section of the AAG Newsletter where AAG sponsors highlight recent programs and activities of significance to geographers and members of the AAG. To sponsor the AAG and submit an article, please contact [email protected]. 

 

 

 

 

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Resources

Geography Awareness Week 2025

Blue sky and clouds encircle the top half of North America and the Arctic

Hope keeps our sights on the horizon of possibility—or perhaps, more aptly, on the horizons of possibility, multiple and fluid, for there is no terminus to a politics of hope, and no geographic fixity to its imagined spaces.”

—Cindi Katz, “Topographies of Hope”

 

NOVEMBER 17-21

Making Spaces of Possibility

Possibility is … a footstep, a hand outstretched, a horizon glimpsed, a purpose spoken. Possibility is grasping the past and present of a place, and acting to move it into a positive future.

Geographers recognize and realize possibilities every day in their work, using their training to spot spatial patterns, convey information in vivid terms, and open up what we can know about places—and what we can believe and plan for them. Whether by exploring conservation, community, or the grand geopolitical stage, geographers are there to ask questions, harness ideas, and map the possible.

Take part in National Geography Awareness Week: Making Spaces of Possibility, and help AAG tell the world about how geographers are broadening and deepening our sense of the possible. Use our map to find out about GeoWeek events and happenings where you are, and all over the world.

 

Get Involved!

Here are a few ways to get involved in GeoWeek right now:

  • Become a GeoAdvocate. Get GeoWeek information and see your name listed below on this page. Sign up today
  • Be a Promotional Partner. Are you an organization interested in helping spread the word about GeoWeek? We provide you with information and public acknowledgment of your partnership. Sign up now
  • Help Us Publicize Your Events. Share your work with us and we’ll add your events to our map. From mapathons to mentoring events, from webinars to community meet-ups, we want to know how geography is showing up where you are. Sign up now 
  • Get classroom resources from AAG. We’ll send you a kit containing posters, stickers, bookmarks, and more. Get your kit today

Sponsors

AAG is grateful for the support of GeoWeek by our sponsors:

Esri is AAG 2022's platinum sponsor

National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) logo with comment icon surrounding a lined blue globe

Contact us at [email protected] for information on how to sponsor GeoWeek.

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