Pittsburg ? Residents and local officials are wrangling to maintain the home where the buffalo roam near this southeast Kansas town.

An exhibit featuring a herd of American bison and other animals has been on display beside U.S. Highway 69 in Crawford County since the late 1920s.

Now the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks wants to abandon the exhibit, which has dwindled to three aging bison.

“What we have here is more of a zoo exhibit,” said Rob Riggin, public lands manager for wildlife and parks. “The agency is not happy with the setup. We take care of the state’s wildlife. Zookeepers we’re not.”

But when the agency said it wanted to shut down the exhibit, local officials resisted.

“It’s a sentimental deal down here,” said Crawford County Clerk Kevin Anselmi. “I’m 42, and they have been here since I was a kid. It’s part of our heritage; buffalo represent the state.”

Generations of area residents and travelers have stopped beside the road to show the buffalo to their children, said state Rep. Bob Grant, a Democrat from Cherokee.

“We’ve had politicians stake their political careers on the buffalo,” he said. “It’s nice to have dad take his son out and show them the buffalo.”

The exhibit is part of the Mined Land Wildlife Area, but because the topography, while picturesque, is so roughed up from past surface mining, the buffalo are limited to a small flat area of about 22 acres. “Basically, we are stuck with this exhibit that doesn’t represent the prairie,” Riggin said.

Rob Riggin, public lands manager for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, shows the three bison that remain at the display herd north of Pittsburg. The state would like to shut down the exhibit, which opened in the 1920s, but Pittsburg-area residents are reluctant to see it go.

It costs several thousand dollars a year to take care of the bison, he said, but because funds are tight and the upkeep doesn’t fit with the agency’s mission, the state would like to quit running the exhibit.

Riggin said the state was going to work with local officials to see whether another governmental entity or private group would take over the job. A work session is scheduled for Aug. 20.

“If it means that much to the community, then they could keep it here,” he said.

Passers-by turn around at the entrance to the bison herd viewing area at the Mined Land Wildlife Area north of Pittsburg. The two carloads of visitors made a quick exit when they didn't spot any of the three bison at the site.

But Riggin wondered how big a priority keeping the animals really was. He noted that the herd’s bull, which was about twice as large as the females, died four years ago.

“No one ever commented on it,” he said.

But Grant said local residents feared losing something they had had for a long time.

“It’s just one of those things you don’t think about it until you’re about to lose it,” he said.