The Stangels come from a long line of farmers and ranchers who migrated from north central Oregon to their current location, Enterprise, Oregon, in 1958. The three Stangel brothers, Joe, Bob, and Dick formed a partnership that was originally comprised of farming dryland grain, raising cattle, and operating a heavy equipment and machine shop. Bob has managed the farm and ranch portion of the partnership, which began its transition from cattle to buffalo soon after Bob graduated from college. In 1979 Bob and his brother Joe purchased six heifers and two bull calves from a rancher in Colorado and by 1987 all of the cattle had been sold and the transition to a strictly buffalo livestock operation was complete. Throughout the years the ranch numbers have fluctuated from a high point of over eight hundred head to its current number of close to five hundred.
