In 1910, George Wingfield established a summer residence south of Susanville,. He had a special interest in wildlife and established his own little preserve. That fall, he fenced off eighty acres for an elk and deer park. In 1914, he added four buffalo to his collection. It was purported that the buffalo came from Nevada Governor Sparks. This became a major attraction to local residents to view these creatures.
Wingfield also brought in such “exotic” species as peacocks and mammoth size frogs imported from New Orleans. He had two small lakes constructed on the property to plant with a wide variety of fish.
In 1923 Wingfield sold the property to the Lassen Lumber & Box Company who were primarily interested in the timberland he owned there. The buffalo were shipped to Reno. The fenced enclosure to keep the elk in, was no longer maintained and the animals began to roam the region, with spottings from nearby Bald Mountain to Willow Creek Valley. The elk were poached by hunters over the years, and were wiped out by the early 1940s.