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The Montana Grizzly
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I want to thank all the readers who have visited my Examiner.com blog pages and as my Fourth of July Vacation Tip article for you I will be writing an article about how to stay safe around bears for vacationers and travelers who will be visiting the Montana wilderness this holiday weekend. What better way to begin an article about how to stay safe around bears than to have an article first about a little history of bear/human encounters in Montana that could easily be entitled, "How not to be safe around bears". I will even include my own bear story at the end of this article.
Avalanches in 2000 and 2001 in Montana killed more people than all the fatal bear attacks in the state's history combined. During the highly competitive fur trading days of the 1830s the Rocky Mountain Fur Company paid $4.00 for every grizzly bear pelt that made it down river to St. Louis, Missouri. The mountain men who were trapping in the rivers and streams of Montana Territory killed hundreds of grizzlies which was not an easy task considering the lack of firepower in the typical muzzle loader of the era something like a Hawkins plains rifle that had to be loaded by hand with a gunpowder charge, wadding and a .50 caliber ball. This type of rifle was seriously limited in range and penetrating power so trapping a bear and then stalking close enough to get a sure shot was an extremely dangerous practice that resulted in the death of many fur trappers. One of the best traps used in those early days was The Number 5 Newhouse forged in Oneida, New York. The powerful jaws on this trap shut so quickly that they could not be seen. The trap jumped as it closed to grab a bear high on a leg and the mighty springs had to be compressed with a special clamp. http://www.hunters-trading-post.com/dynapage/PP05.htm
The Number 5 Newhouse
John Graham was 63 years of age and a market hunter and miner. On May 4, of 1912 Graham fired twice at a grizzly he had trapped in the Jardine, Montana area. The bear was only caught by three toes and these toes were left behind in the trap as the bear ripped himself free and attacked Graham. The grizzly swatted away Graham's rifle and in the next swats he opened Graham's throat, shattered his jaw and nearly tore off the man's face. After the attack, another miner named Adolph Hageman went for a doctor but by the time they had returned Graham had died.
"Old Two Toes" was seen many times in the years that passed at the garbage dumps around Yellowstone National Park. In 1916 "Old Two Toes" was bothering government teamsters by trying to get at their wagons that held horse feed and other supplies. The teamsters set a trap which was a dynamite charge over which they placed garbage. When "Old Two Toes" took the bait the teamsters set off the charge and blew the bear into fur and bones.
In June 1922, Joeseph "Frenchy" Duret caught a big male grizzly in a trap near Slough Creek near Yellowstone National Park and was approaching with a rifle and dog. The bear lunged and the chain holding the trap down broke. "Frenchy" tried to make it back to his Slough Creek cabin but died of the wounds inflicted by the bear.
Grizzly Bears, Ursus horribilis, were wiped out in Texas in 1890. In North Dakota in 1897, in Nevada in 1907, in California in 1922, in Utah in 1923, in Oregon in 1931 and in Arizona in 1935. But the Montana Legislature classified the Grizzly Bear as a game animal worthy of game management like deer or elk and not a pest like the coyote. The downside for some: no more trapping of grizzly bears. Grizzly bears average about 490 pounds but range from 350 to 700 pounds and they live for about 25 years. They are the most powerful animal of their size in the world. They are strong, agile, fast, highly intelligent, with acute senses and instincts and this combination makes them a dangerous wild animal. Most grizzly bear today are classified as Ursus arctos but the Montana Grizzly is Ursus arctos horribilis. http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/grizzly_bear.php
Griz at Glacier National Park
On the night of 13 August 1967 Roy Ducat, 18, from Ohio and Julie Hegelson, 19, from Eden Prairie, Minnesota were taking some time off from their summer jobs at East Glacier Lodge in Glacier National Park so they hitch hiked to Logan Pass to camp at the Granite Park Campground. The weather was beautiful so they set their sleeping bags out under the stars without a tent. Roy stashed some sandwiches under a log. Maybe those were what attracted the bear or maybe it was the lipstick, bug spray and chewing gum in Julie's bag. Whatever caused the attack when the 265 pound bear attacked them they were knocked five feet out of their sleeping bags. Julie tried to play dead but she was horribly bitten in the throat and chest and the bear dragged her away. Other campers built a bonfire in a big, tin washtub and carried this with them to try and find Julie. They followed a blood trail for 225 feet downhill and then when the trail ended they continued for another 65 feet when they heard Julie moan. They found her 50 feet further away barely breathing. They took her back to the Granite Park Chalet and radioed for a helicopter but by the time the helicopter arrived Julie had died from her injuries. Park rangers killed all 5 bears that had frequented the Granite Park dump. The killer bear was believed to be a sow with two cubs. http://www.nps.gov/glac/
On 12 August 1967 five young hikers walked from Lake McDonald in the park to Trout Lake. They were Roy Noseck, 21, from Arizona and his brother Ray, 23; and two California girls Denise Huckler, 20, and Michelle Koons, 19. With them was teenager Paul Dunn, 16, from Minnesota. All were taking time off from their summer jobs with Glacier Park, Inc. They had planned on hiking to Arrow Lake but heard about a bear that chased two fishermen so they stopped at Trout Lake and camped on a flat area and fished. They built a fire and cooked some hot dogs and were eating when a large grizzly entered their camp as if invited. The bear chased the campers out of their camp and then sat down and ate all their suppers. The campers drove the bear off by throwing rocks. It was 8 p.m. and too late to hike out so they went back to the lake shore and built a big fire with the plan of keeping it going all night. By 4:30 a.m. everyone had fallen asleep and the fire died out.
The bear returned and everyone except Michelle left their sleeping bags and climbed trees. The young people in the trees could hear Michelle scream that the bear had the zipper of her sleeping bag in its mouth and she couldn't escape the sleeping bag. The bear was dragging her away when the campers in the trees heard Michelle scream, "It's got my arm off! Oh my God, I'm dead!" At daylight searchers found Michelle's remains and she had been partially eaten. Two days later that bear was killed by park rangers. Neither Julie or Michelle had ever fed any bears but they were killed because many other inconsiderate people had fed them in years before. The night of two fatalities by grizzly bear on the same night was dubbed "The Night of the Grizzlies".
On June 24, 1983 Ted Moore and Roger May from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin were camping at Rainbow Point Campground at Hebgen Lake on the Madison River 9 miles northwest of West Yellowstone, Montana. In that area there was a "problem" or "garbage" bear, Bear Number 15. Bear 15 had been removed from the area several times already. The tranquilizer used on bears was Serylan, a banned surgical anesthetic also called phenylcyclidine or PCP, "angel dust".
At 2:30 a.m. that night Bear Number 15 tore a hole in the men's tent and dragged Roger May through it. The bear grabbed Roger's ankle in his jaws and dragged him away. At 3:20 a.m. a sheriff deputy arrived and the bear chose that time to drag May's body across the dirt road just behind the deputy's parked patrol car. May's body was finally recovered 50 feet from the campground road and 200 feet from the tent where the attack began. 70 pounds or 1/3 of Roger's body had been eaten. Deputies cleared the campground and trapped and killed Bear Number 15.
Charles Wayne "Chuck" Gibbs from Libby, Montana, a photographer, was killed on 25 April 1987 while following a sow with three cubs on Elk Mountain Trail at Glacier National Park. Gibbs was carrying a Canon T-90 SLR camera with a 400 millimeter lens and a .45 caliber Colt pistol in violation of federal law in a national park. The bear turned on Gibbs when he was 170 feet away. Gibbs climbed 18 feet up a tree but the grizzly got him anyways. His .45 pistol was found with the safety off and the hammer locked back but he never got to use it. Another Montana wildlife photographer, William J. Tesinsky of Great Falls, was killed and eaten by Bear 59 just 7 months earlier in the park while photographing bears. Bear 59 was killed but the bear that killed Gibbs was never hunted. If you want to photograph bears do it at a game farm or zoo! Bears will react to humans within 150 yards. There is an invisible line that only a mother bear knows and if you cross that line while she is with her cubs that is the final time.
On 24 July 1987 Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Ranger Lou Kis had a close encounter with a grizzly that he was trying to let out of a trap near Bunker Creek off U.S. Highway 2 near Hungry Horse, Montana. The bear turned on the ranger and he shot it 6 times with his .357 magnum hand gun finally killing the bear with the last shot. Photos taken of the bear on man battle appeared all over the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcn0Qqm-u7M&feature=fvw
Timothy "Omar" Hilston was a USAF retiree originally from Ohio. He now called Great Falls his home and on 30 October during the 2001 hunting season he was hunting elk on Boyd Mountain in the Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range just north of U.S. Highway 200 west of Great Falls. When Hilston did not return from his hunt searchers looking for him found a fresh elk carcass buried under an aspen tree. Curiously, one of the elk's leg's was tied to the tree with twine. 12 feet from the tree was found a .270 rifle and 100 yards away they found the body of Hilston, killed from behind by a grizzly as he was field dressing the elk. He never saw the attack coming.
In 1956 Kenneth Scott, a hunter from Loma, Montana, was killed by a grizzly that had already been shot 6 times! Since the 1950s only two hunters have been killed by bears but over 100 hunters have been killed by gun fire from other hunters.
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Ursus americanas
Okay, here is MY bear story. When I was working as a cook and playing guitar at the Tinker Street Cafe in the town of Woodstock in Ulster County New York I camped on Meade Mountain near town. A sign at the bottom of the mountain said that there were several hundred black bear Ursus americanus on the mountain. It was June, still spring, and one night it rained really, really hard! I had cooked potatoes and a can of beans over a campfire but had cleaned up everything. Late at night or early in the morning while it was still dark I was lying awake as the rain was completely flooding me and my sleeping bag. I had no tent just a large piece of mylar plastic for a ground cloth and lean-to. Out of the dark as I lay there I heard a little 'yip, yip'. I immediately recognized it as the sound of a bear cub in the woods nearby. Suddenly a huge roar exploded out of the darkness. It was mother black bear saying to her cub, "I'm over here. And we're bears!" I froze and lay still and waited for dawn which seemed an eternity away. Fortunately, mother and cub did not invite themselves into my camp for introductions. http://www.bear.org/website/ http://plochmann.blogspot.com/2008/08/tinker-street-cafe.html
Meade Mountain New York where Gregan encountered Ursus americanus
Gregan Wortmann
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