National Park After Dark - Night of the Grizzlies: Glacier National Park (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

This week we are taking you deep into the backcountry where the world is still wild and unpredictable. The views may be beautiful but this is no time to get distracted because you never know what might be lurking in the thick brush of Glacier National Park. On this trip you’re going to need to stay alert, bring all of your gear, and bring plenty of protection. For this episode we will be retelling the story of Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson, a true story that took place in Glacier National Park during the summer of 1967. The events that took place this summer built up to TWO catastrophic incidents that would change the way we look at grizzlies forever. And this is just the beginning....For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The grizzly needs space, and the continental United States no longer has space to give him. If he is denied running room and the human animal continues to bump against him in ever-increasing numbers, the grizzly will maim and kill. So long as the National Park system continues to permit more and more humans to flow willy-nilly to all the nooks and crannies of Glacier National Park, no one will need a crystal ball to see the tragedy that is shaping up. There may be a summer or two, maybe three or four, without serious injury, but inevitably standards will slip, complacency and human error will return, and along will come another grizzly that is peculiar, or another grizzly that has been baited by proximity with humids and has lost its respect and fear. Then, more human life will be sacrificed, almost as certainly as

tamaracts lose their needles and beavers eat aspen bark. After the next touch frondeau of death in Glacier Park, the grizzlies will almost certainly be banned into Canada, and perhaps sent to Alaska to live out his last years as a species. All the goodwill and understanding in the world, all the good intentions and prius proclamations will not alter his eventual fate. Man and grizzly are at core antagonists, and with the same ingenious tools that fell the giant redwoods of California and strip the topsoil of western Pennsylvania and pollute the streams of Oregon, man will rid himself of his antagonists. The planet is man's. He has bent it to his will and made it his to enjoy, his to develop,

and his to destroy. The grizzly will be exiled and then destroyed. What we never have remains. It is the things we have that go. grizzly will not return. He will be lost along the wild frontier in which he lived his final few years as the mightiest animal, the lost American wilderness. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Welcome back, everyone, to National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle. And I'm Cassie. And another week, another episode, happy Monday. We're glad to have you all here. We do have a couple announcements this week. And the first one is you all might have noticed that we have new podcast art.

So while you're listening to this, you might see a little different image up there. And that is because this is the image that got voted on on our Instagram. So we put a couple different designs up for our Patreon. And they voted for her two separate ones that could be our new podcast art. Between the two that they chose, we posted it on our Instagram and had everyone vote for. So this is the one that made the cut and won and we're really excited about it. We think it really shows kind of a mix of what our podcast is about. So this is what you're going to be seeing from now on.

Yeah. It was time to upgrade the Canva design that I threw together back in late December, early January. So we're excited that this new art kind of portrays our interest, what the podcast is about if you're new here, which I think a lot of people are, because we have a lot of new listeners. So welcome, if this is your first episode. If not, you already know what the vibe is about, but our podcast is about death and tragedy and accidents and national parks and also why we love them and why we need to protect them. Kind of like a mix of cautionary tales, sad stories, etc. Some of it can get a little morbid, graphic, and upsetting.

But underneath it all is really a true love for our parks. I think today Cassie is going to bring us to a park that has a really tragic story. But first, we have one more announcement. On our Patreon, we have two tiers currently. A $4 and $8 tier, you can go on and take a look at which one includes what. But we are going to add another feature onto the $8 tier. We are going to add-free episodes. So you can access from here on out.

We're not going to backlog them, but from here on out, we're going to add each episode onto our Patreon, $8 tier with no ads. I know there's a lot of people who don't want to listen to them either. And we have created the option on our $8 Patreon for no ads. And if you are currently on the $4 Patreon, you can certainly upgrade if you want. We appreciate all of our patrons. This just came to be something that we thought. that was doable for one of our tiers that we have. So we do have that.

Check it out. You can go on to our Instagram National Park After Dark and click the link. And there's our Patreon link there. Or you can go on our website, M-PADPodcast.com. And there's a link for a Patreon there as well. Yeah. And lastly, we know that not everyone can become a Patreon. Sometimes it's not doable.

You don't want to, et cetera. I get that. We get that. But if you would still like to support or show your support to our podcast, you can always give us a quick rating, a review, and subscribe. That would mean a lot to us as well. Do you want to get into your story? Yeah. Let's go into my story.

So I'm excited because this week we are going to Glacier National Park. For how beautiful this park is, we are going to be telling a very tragic and graphic story for today's episode. I just want to warn you all. If gruesome is not really your thing, and that's a little bit too much for you, I would just skip this episode or have one of your friends listen to it first and tell you if it's too much for you. I just want to warn everyone before we get started that it is a hard episode, but it felt like it needed to be told. And I did a lot of research into it while I listened to another book for this one. And the book is called Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson. So we are going to head into Glacier National Park.

And as always, before we get started into our story, I just want to talk about Glacier a little bit and tell you a little bit about it. So Glacier National Park is located in the northwestern part of Montana. The park was established on May 11th, 1910. So the anniversary, its birthday, was actually a couple days ago last week. Oh, happy birthday. Yeah, happy birthday, Glacier National Park. We are talking about you today.

There is an estimated 3.5 million visitors that visit the park every single year, and the park itself encompasses 1 million acres, and it includes parts of two mountain ranges, over 130 lakes, and more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals. Glacier National Park almost has all of its original native plants and animal species. They have large mammals, such as grizzly bears, moose, and goats. They're also home to endangered species such as Wolverines and Canadian links. The park also has numerous types of ecosystems that vary from prairie to tundra. And also in this park, wildfires are very common, and they actually experience wildfires every single year. The only documented year since the park became a national park was in 1964 that they didn't have a wildfire. And this is not just controlled burns.

No. Interesting. Yeah. And actually the one, I did have a plan trip to Glacier. I was doing a road trip from Utah, Wyoming, Montana. And then I was road tripping out to Washington. And I actually had to cut off the Montana trip because we were going to go to glacier because Lake McDonald and that whole entire area was, there was a huge fire there

that year that I was trying to go. So I almost went there. but then we had to switch our plans because of the wildfires. Yeah, and I mean, a lot of people who had plans, especially this last year, to go to a lot of national parks out West, probably felt that, especially with all the wildfires that we were experiencing out here towards the end of last year. Yeah, yeah, last year was a hard year. I actually, I posted it on our Instagram, but I drove through Oregon and I drove through this huge stretch that a huge wildfire went through. and demolished everyone's homes. And driving through that area was really sad because the only thing left after the fire are the chimneys.

So you can see where all the houses are and all the burnt trees around it. And then there's burnt rubble on the ground and then just a fireplace. Yeah. I mean, it was tragic for so many people. Yeah. But Glacier National Park is made up of mountains that were made from huge glaciers from the last ice age. So the glaciers in the park have largely disappeared over the past 12,000 years, but there are evidence of them throughout the park in the shape of U-shaped valleys and a large outflow of lakes. The land that makes up Glacier National Park is wild and it's beautiful.

More than 75% of the park remains untouched wilderness. There is actually only one road that goes through the entire park, and this is the Going to Sun Road, which is a 50-mile stretch of highway. I love that. Yeah. So going into our story of Glacier National Park, my resource for this story is Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson. And I did listen to it instead of reading it. But if you are interested in the story after hearing it, I would definitely recommend reading it as well. There's a lot more detail. But for this story, I take almost word for word information at certain parts just because I thought it was described so well. But the book is a lot longer than this podcast will be. So there's a lot more. a lot of information kind of condensed into one here. Glacier National Park is a very popular destination in the summer months for families to visit and hikers and all sorts of people. And going all the way back to June of 1967, the Berry family visited Kelly Camp that is located near Lake McDonald. Joan Barry and her two 16-year-old sons had been regular visitors in the park and they

came every single summer for the past 10 years. They actually had their own homestead in the camp. It was a big cabin there that their family had for generations. So they came to this park very often. They were very familiar with it. And they actually saw bears very often because Glacier is known to have its grizzlies. So it was shortly after the middle of June when Joan first noticed a bear in their camp. This bear was different than any of the bears that she had normally seen inside the glacier. This bear was very ragged, and it was emaciated. She observed the bear eating from her trash cans behind their cabin, and she noticed that this bear had bald spots along its spine,

and its head looked long and narrow. It was almost misshapen. She observed its claws, and noticed that they were longer than she had ever seen on a bear before. And looking at these, she realized that it was probably because he wasn't used. using its claws properly. It wasn't digging for roots like they normally would and wasn't wearing its claws down the way that a normal bear would. So she assumed that this bear had to have been very old and seemed to be just hanging on to life at this point and it had to have been sick. So she actually mentioned the bear to one of her ranger friends that were inside the park.

And although this was strange, she was not concerned about the bear being nearby. Bears were really common and at this point inside the park no one had ever been hurt or killed by a bear. So it wasn't super concerning to see a bear digging through her trash cans. Grizzlies were known they would run from people if they saw them and it was known inside the park that grizzlies weren't dangerous. Well, if no one had ever been hurt historically or had any bad encounters with a bear, then why worry? Exactly. Even though she originally thought that soon she noticed that this bear's bear's behavior was a lot different than most. This bear was going through trash in broad daylight, which was very weird and different from other bears. And when she would yell at the bear to leave,

it would just stare at her and sometimes it would actually take a few steps angrily towards her. Oh, so he's brave. Yeah. Not afraid of people, clearly. And so she starts to get nervous and she warns her two 16-year-old sons to stay away from it and not to treat it like a normal bear. If it was anywhere nearby, they needed to go inside immediately. After only a few visits to their camp, the bear actually started to become very disturbed by any noises that would come from inside the house. If there were any noises that came from inside, even just them walking around, closing a door, any type of noise that would happen, the bear would charge the outside of the house and smash into the walls, and it would actually take its paws and slap it against their window panes.

That's very terrifying. Very scary. It's like you're a prisoner of your own house. And that's exactly what was happening. They did become prisoners of their own house. They actually found that they had to stay completely silent when they were inside if the grizzly was outside going through their trash cans. And although they were able to remain still and quiet themselves, they had a German short-haired pointer who did not remain silent when there was a grizzly bear outside. And any time this dog would bark at the bear, it would result in an immediate attack on their house and would start smashing into their walls again.

And one day, Kelly's camp was noisy and it was full of vacationers. And there were people out on the boats at Lake McDonald. There were people having family, family barbecues on outside picnic tables. They had food everywhere. And today at one specific cabin campsite, they were celebrating a birthday. And on the porch of this cabin, they had lots of food set up. They had guests. They had everyone sitting around.

They sang happy birthday. And then one of the guests noticed that there was a bear close to the bottom steps of the porch. And then the bear started calmly walking towards the cabin. Even with yelling from the guests, the bear continued. It came halfway up the steps of the porch. And the man who originally saw this bear grabbed a heavy heavy. bench that was there and actually hit the bear with it.

This is a very close interaction. Very close encounter. And this bear was pretty unfazed. He backed down a few steps and stood on his hind legs, snorted a few times, and then walked away. This seems like foreshadowing. So they resume their party. Bears gone.

Everything's safe. It's fine. A few moments later, they hear a yell south of their cabin that says, get a gun. There was a bear following two children. walking down the road and one of the men there fired a warning shot at the bear. The bear jumped out of sight and walked into the brush and a few minutes later he was seen continuing to roam around Kelly's camp. The guests called the park rangers to let them know what happened and what was going on and no one arrived. No rangers showed up for hours. And when they finally

did, they told guests that there was nothing to worry about. They saw the bear run off in the opposite direction. It was not a threat to them because clearly this bear got scared and ran off like other normal bears. Over the next few weeks, families complained to the ranger's service about the bear, and eventually the rangers set out a trap for it, but it never caught the bear. Every time that the rangers would come to bear reports, it was scared off by engines, and this made the park service believe that it was more of a normal bear where it got scared from an engine took off, wasn't interested in people. One guest who had been visiting the park for a long time told the Rangers that the bear was

dangerous and that he was going to hurt someone. They were pretty concerned and they told the Rangers, this bear needs to be killed. The Rangers responded by telling him that they needed to preserve the species and did not want to kill the bear. Initially, at face value, I understand both sides of this story. From the Park Ranger perspective of wanting to. preserve an already threatened species. I get, I can say I see that point of view, but at the same time, the National Park Service at this time in 1960s had a specific rule in their whole guidebook,

rule book of the park that if a bear had any violent interactions with visitors that they were immediately killed, and he has. He's attacked this person's house, the Barry's house. He's been continually he followed children, he hasn't been afraid, and they just kind of said, you know, we've seen him running away from cars, so we don't think he's dangerous. That would never fly today. No, no. And part of why this wouldn't fly today is because of this story. Okay. I'm intrigued. Go on. By the time August first arrived, they had figured out the bear's schedule, and since the middle

of June, the bear had visited the camp 15 times. First, he arrived every three days, then every four, and now he was arriving every fifth day. One day a ranger arrived in Kelly's camp and they told everyone there that the bear had left the area and was now seen at Trout Lake, which was a few miles away and didn't seem like it was anything that they needed to worry about anymore. So Trout Lake was a popular spot with fishermen and it was a hard area to get to. So in order to get to Trout Lake, you have to hike out there and at short distance it gains 2,000 feet in elevation to a ridge over just a period of two miles, and then it's a 1,500-foot

descent to the actual lake. This didn't bring in a ton of tourists. It was more serious hikers and fishermen that would go out to this area. This area was also very popular for both grizzlies and black bears, and this had been a home to both of them for decades before it became a known camping area in the park. It is one of the most reported areas of bear sightings in the entire park, as many as five grizzly bears being seen at one time. The reason for the bears in this area is because of all the fish from the lake and also all the berries that inhabit the area. There's raspberries, strawberries, and huckleberries. And because of all these berries and flowers and things, there's thick shrub that make it very easy for bears to hide and be unnoticed. So there were

lots of times where fishermen were out fishing and they could not notice the bear that was only a few hundred feet away because there was so much brush. Reading that actually reminded me of one time when I was in Donali and they have a lot of thick brush there and there was this huge grizzly walking down towards us on a road. And I mean, it was very far away. We were very far away from it, but I could see it and a car drove up and of course, like Torres do, stopped directly next to this grizzly bear. And the grizzly bear, thankfully, didn't get agitated, he just walked off of the road and into the brush. How quickly I could not see this bear was really wild to me because it wasn't really tall, it wasn't super tall or anything,

but the second this grizzly bear went in, within like six or seven feet into the brush, it was gone. I could not see it anywhere. Yeah, it's the way that nature swallows up and camouflages animals is nuts to see. And that's why being out in these areas, especially Grizzly territory, you really have to keep a good eye out and see because there are things lurking everywhere that you just aren't going to notice. Just hearing this description of Trout Lake just reminded me of that of how easily they can be camouflaged in this area. So on June 27, 1967, a week or so after the grizzly had first been spotted at Kelly's camp, a pair of 22-year-old Honeymooners, Pete Cummings, and Ellen Cummings, planned to camp at Trout Lake before heading

onto a four or five day hike into the wilderness of the park. And this couple, they were pretty aware of Grizzlies in the park and they had done research on them. So they were kind of nervous to see them out in the wilderness, and they knew that there was a real possibility to see some in Glacier. However, they were always told that there was no real danger from Grizzlies, unless they were to come across any with cups. They were advised that a bear attack was so rare and unlikely that it was almost ludicrous for them to even be nervous of a bear. And they were actually told by park rangers if they were really nervous about it, then they could carry some bear bells on their packs, and that would alert the bears of their presence, and then they would leave.

So Peter and Ellen were still pretty nervous, and they decided that they would arm themselves with bear bells. Seems like terrible advice. I mean, the bear bells, great. You should carry some sort of mechanism to make your presence known, such as bear bells. However, that other stuff that preceded that statement, trash. You need, especially in grizzly territory if you're out there, there's a lot of steps you can take to try and avoid them, but if you do have an encounter with one, you need a type of protection. And bear bells are not going to do anything. So horrible advice, but again, this was a different time they had never had a grizzly attack

before. When they reached Trout Lake, they were getting ready for dinner. They set up their tent and heated up a can of ravioli over the fire. Then they went to their tent to eat. They were just about to dig into their food when they heard a crash. Peter asked Ellen to open up the tent as she was closer to the zipper, but she refused saying she was too afraid, and she asked Peter to look instead.

Upon opening the tent, he saw a grizzly bear in their camp that was popping open some of their food cans with its teeth. Peter motioned to Ellen to remain quiet and grabbed her hand. They slowly left the tent and headed up the hill away from the camp area. The bear showed no interest in them at all, And when they got about 150 yards up the hill, they stopped to catch their breath and they looked back. They watched and noticed that the bear was very thin. It was a brown grizzly bear and it had a strangely long head.

So very similar to the bear that we were seeing in Kelly's camp. It continued to rip up their supplies and eat all the food that they had for their planned camping trip. Peter started shouting at the bear to get out because he noticed that the bear was eating all of their supplies. they were planning to be out there for five days. So he starts shouting at this bear. He says, go home bear. You're not wanted. Get out. He's yelling. But the bear was unfazed and continued to destroy the camp. When the food was gone, it turned to their tent. And with one single swipe of its claw, it ripped the entire tent open and then continued to destroy everything inside. just causing mayhem, like destroying, blowing up this couple's whole plan trip.

Every, all their supplies, watch, imagine watching that. Well, and imagine they were just in that tent. Like, thank God they didn't just sit there and wait for the bear to leave because the bear came after their tent. So then after it was finishing, destroying their entire camp, it casually walked down to the lake and started going in for a drink. Peter and Ellen then tiptoed to the camp where their bear was only a few yards away. They wanted to see what they could salvage, and of the 15 cans of food they had brought, they had two left that weren't destroyed. Their first aid kit was ripped open, their tent was shredded, their clothes were shredded,

everything was destroyed. And with this bear still so close, they quietly began to gather all the belongings, grabbing whatever was preserved after the attack, and they grabbed. grabbed their sleeping bags that were surprisingly not damaged from the attack, and then they picked up their bags and their bear bells began to jingle. That just gave me full body chills, and I feel like I'm there. Like, I feel like I just picked up that backpack, and the bear bells started going off. The bear looked up.

He immediately started to head in their direction. The two turned in the opposite direction, and they began to run. Don't run. Oh, they're running. And they actually, they ran two miles down the trail until they got to a cabin shelter and they ran inside. Oh, okay. Things are looking up. Things are looking up. And then the next day, they returned to their car and they filed a report with the park rangers explaining what had happened with their gear. Park rangers enjoyed their story and jokingly asked what the bear's name was.

He then explained that bears known to disturb multiple people usually got names, and annoyed, they respond that they didn't give the bear a name. So the park rangers are not taking them seriously at all. That's very insulting. Yeah. So for the next several weeks, this bear would harass visitors at Trout Lake with many reports to the park service about incidents. But with no actual contact reported, the park service did not see it as a dangerous situation. There were even instances where the bear was reported following campers for hundreds of yards and scaring visitors. This is just a rogue bear.

He's just out here doing what he wants. No repercussions. He runs this park, it sounds like. Yeah, no one's doing anything about this bear. And it actually got to the point where after reporting the incidences to the park service, the visitors were embarrassed by how afraid they were because of how the park service reacted to them. being like, bears aren't dangerous. You're fine. A lot of people have said this, but this bear has not done anything. Everything's fine. But this bear was a lot different. This bear didn't run from people. And although it was normal for bears to scavenge camps, it was never normal for while they were

occupied. Whenever bears would come into people's camps, it was when they were out. And they would come back to find it that way. And this bear didn't care if people were around. It would stay as long as it liked, and it ignored people entirely. So although park guidelines specified, and I kind of mentioned this earlier, it specified that a bear exhibiting this behavior must be shot and killed, somehow this bear managed to stay alive through all of June and July, harassing visitors. No one in the park seemed to be listening to the reports of visitors. A biology teacher named Bronjohn's and his small children were followed by the bear for several hours.

And when they told rangers, they told them that there had been other complaints and the animals should have been eliminated, but they just didn't have the time to do it. Two hikers from California were treeed by the bear, and when they told rangers, they told them the same thing, that something needed to be done about it sooner or later, but they just didn't have the time. Didn't have the time. It seems like this should be priority number one. You would think that as well, but, and I'll kind of get into it a little bit more, and we mentioned it earlier, there were a lot of wildfires that happened inside this park, and we're in the midst of summer.

So there were wildfires happening in the park at this time, and we'll go into that a little bit more. But the rangers were kind of stretched a little bit thin as well. A railroad man, Paul Price, from Whitefish, Montana, lost his trout that he caught to the bear, and he was chased halfway around the lake shore, and he reported it to Park Rangers. When he reported it, the ranger he reported it to almost seem bored of his story. And this made Paul really upset. And he got mad at him and he said, well, what happens when this bear actually catches somebody? I was lucky.

And the ranger laughed at him and he said, well, I don't know. It hasn't caught anybody yet. And then he continued on to tell him that this bear had been chasing people all summer and some of last summer as well. And it had never hurt anyone before. Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it's never going to. Exactly. If we've learned anything at all through our journey, that is it. So by midsummer, Glacier was experiencing sweltering heat, and the park was in a drought, and wildfires started to break out in the park. There were smoke jumpers who were called out

frequently to put out these fires, and rangers were also called to assist. At the end of the hot July, two 14-year-old boys, John Cook and Steve Ashlott, hiked into Trout Lake for a three-day expedition of fishing. They hardly set up camp when a fire broke out and they were promptly met with a group of 10 smoke jumpers and then shortly after five bears, both black and brown, coming to the lake for water. Later, when the bears dispersed, they went out fishing and caught a few cutthroat trouts. The next day when they were walking around exploring, they heard a noise coming from their camp behind them.

They turned to see a dark, skinny grizzly eating a loaf of their bread. John and Steve knew that a grizzly would run from humans, so they got actually within 10 to 15 feet of the bear and started yelling. But this bear was unfaced and continued to eat the bread. The boys started to throw rocks at it, and the bear reared up and got closer to them and started growling. When they threw another rock, it growled even louder. They then threw another rock, and when,

one of them hit the bear in the leg, it darted from the camp and started running and circling only to return to their camp and start rummaging through their packs and continued to destroy their entire camp. This bear is just so brazen. Yeah. This bear just is not afraid. It's angry. It's dangerous.

It's hungry. And when these two boys saw how fast and strong this bear actually was, they became really scared and they retreated. and they watched this bear continue to rummage their camp and eat all the trout that they had caught previously. After the bear had eaten the boy's trout, it looked up and noticed the boys again and started charging towards them. Thankfully, mid-charge, the bear was distracted by another trout that they had caught and ate that and then returned back to their camp. So at this point, the boys managed to sneak around the bear and back onto the trail. It was there where they proceeded to run all the way to the road.

road where they reached it at 10 o'clock at night. And when they told a ranger, the ranger told them to wait until the morning to go back and grab all of their gear. So the next morning, they went back to their camp and they gathered what they could and they went home. A few days later, an official report appeared in the park's records. It read, 729, Steve Ashlot, John Cook, two torn packs, torn shoes, torn tent, ate all food, dollar value of damage, $30. No action taken, backcountry incident. But it did not state that it was pursuing them or anything like that. Yeah, they didn't even mention that it was charging at them.

How convenient. So around nine miles away from Trout Lake, over the mountains and ridges, lies Granite Park Chalet. To reach this area, you must have to reach this area, you must have. hike out to it. The closest you can get otherwise to it is from Sun Highway. The area itself intersects with many trails and is only open two months out of the year due to weather. The last of the snow melts in July, sometimes August. But during these months, it's beautiful. It's filled with wildflowers, there's tall mountain peaks around, and there's lots of green, beautiful trees. It is also known for grizzlies to regularly visit this area. With a designated area for campers,

there are a lot of visitors during the open season, but very rarely do Rangers make it out. Tom Walden and his wife Nancy accepted a job at the Granite Park Chalet. In June, 1967, they headed out on horseback to the area, and to their surprise, they saw no grizzly tracks. For several days, they worked along with a woman named Charlene Anderson, around the clock to get the chalet ready for visitors. Is the chalet like a lodge? It is. It's like this big lodge that people can hike out to and they can stay there. Okay. So I was just trying to get in my mind what that was because I was confused.

Yeah. I'll post some pictures of it too so people can see exactly what it looks like. This area is really beautiful. There's these huge mountains around it. It's kind of on the top of this open area. It's a really beautiful place. I can see why people, would want to hike out there and stay there. So while they're there, Tom prepared the incinerator for guests, and the incinerator was there to burn leftover food. Instead of putting it in trash cans, they wanted to burn it all to avoid attracting any of the grizzly bears because grizzly bears were very known to this area. So the first thing that he notices is that the incinerator is not the right size, and it's not going to be able to handle the amount of visitors that were coming in.

and he kind of shrugged that off and decided, you know, we'll figure that out when we get there. So Greenwich-Cillet was actually known for its grizzly bears. It was the main reason why people went out there and it was a huge attraction for visitors. Many people would go there specifically to see them. And as the time for guests to start arriving got closer, Nancy actually became kind of concerned. They hadn't seen a single sign of a grizzly bear the entire time that they had spent there. Tom, however, he didn't really care if he saw a grizzly bear or not. He wasn't afraid of bears and knew that they were relatively harmless.

However, if something were to ever happen, they were four miles away from the nearest road with limited first aid and no shotgun for protection. I wonder why that is. I know the whole school of thought back then was that grizzly bears aren't a threat to people, etc. but it seems like in an area so concentrated with them and known for them that you would at least have some sort of firearm for protection, whether it be a shotgun or a smaller firearm. Yeah, but really they just didn't see that you needed protection from grizzly bears, which is wild now. Yeah, I'm just coming from a way different point of view and perspective. So I guess I have to take all this with a grain of salt and just keep on going with it. It's hard not to say something when you're seeing all these mistakes being made in the terms of being around a grizzly.

Well, don't even get me started on the food storage situation in all of those stories that you just said. But I'm sure we'll get into that. So the night before opening on June 30th, while asleep in bed, Tom heard a crap. against the front door. At first, he was kind of annoyed. Like, what's going on? I'm sleeping. Why is there a crash at the front door?

So he opens the front door and he points his flashlight outside. His flashlight light was met with huge yellow eyes of a large animal. It was a grizzly bear. He slammed the door shut and locked it. Don't go outside. It's a grizzly bear. He yelled to the girls. The girls jumped up out of bed and immediately ran outside to find this bear.

Why would they do? Okay. They had not seen a bear yet. They really wanted to see one. And luckily, this bear had already taken off at the sign of Tom. Okay. Over the next few nights, Grizzly started to arrive walking around the chalet at night and would always be gone in the morning. But there were still some leftover snow, so they would see their tracks every night that they were coming in. They were fascinated by the tracks in the snow. Specifically, there was a set of bear tracks that were with two cups. They would stay up late looking outside, trying to see if they would be able to see them. But every night, they would never see them and see their tracks in the morning. By the end of July, regular visitors were starting to come into the chalet,

and the incinerator could no longer handle the load of food. Bears were feeding on the unburied residue leftover. So to combat this issue, they started bringing out pails of leftovers to a location away from the chalet. However, it was close to a campground, and every night bears would come and eat the food. Then in mid-July, a pattern began to arise. There would be two bears that would come to the area to eat. There was a bigger silver-tipped bear that would arrive first, and then a smaller bear. The smaller bear would wait and cry and sometimes leave, or it would wait for the bigger bear to finish.

When it would finish, the smaller bear would go in for their turn. The news soon spread across the area and tourists began to look forward to this show every night. With the chalet at a max capacity of 65 people, there were lots of visitors who'd come to the area to see these bears. So there was a chalet that held 65 people and there was a campground nearby that held more people. On one of these nights, the bucket that they put out contained a lot of bacon. This made the bears a lot more interested in the food and actually made the bears fight. and a fight broke out between them. This excited the guests, and they began to clap.

One guest even tried to get a closer picture, but Tom told him to stay farther back for his safety, and then Tom realized that this was actually a good attraction for guests, and they enjoyed seeing the bear's fight, so he started adding bacon into their buckets nightly. No. Why? I know. I read this. Why?

Why? And this is someone who works for the park, too. Well, that's, I know. It just, just when you think stories can't get worse or more questions can't pop up, it just keeps going. This whole story is a question of why, why would you do that? So Word actually got around to the park service of these feedings and the nightly viewings of the bears, and they told Tom that he could no longer feed the bears. However, there were many park officials that had already seen what was going on and participated. in the viewing, and they didn't seem to care at all. So Tom kind of took this with a grain of salt in that it wasn't serious, and he decided that he was going to keep feeding them anyway. So word got around that the park feedings were still happening and the nightly viewings of the bears were still happening. And the park ranchers assumed it was fake because there were so many rules that

were listed against feeding the bears. They just assumed that there's no way that this could still be real. And the park personnel that did end up reporting it, the higher-ups of the National Park continually denied it and said that it wasn't happening. So it actually started making it so people who did see what was going on just stopped reporting it. It's like they're shamed into not. Yeah, I was like, well, we're reporting it. No one's doing anything. So I'm not going to report it again. God, that sucks. Yeah. So while these two bears became regulars every single night, There was also still signs of the Big Bear in her cups that were coming in later hours of the night. And although they were never seen, there would be more scraps missing, there would be footprints of them, but they were never seen by any of the visitors.

By the beginning of August, 1967, they were in the middle of their busiest season. The summer remained scalding hot regularly, reaching in the 90s with frequent fires breaking out in the dry brush of the park. Rangers were being pulled in all different directions to help with the fires and the problems of the heat that they brought. This left few of the Rangers to actually work within the crowds of people, and no one had time to keep track of the bears in their interactions with visitors, specifically in Granite Park and Trout Lake. So in the midst of August, Robert and Janet Klein, a newly married couple, hiked out to Granite Park Chalet.

Along their hike, they ran into several other hikers who noticed their packs and asked them if they were sleeping. outside for the night, to which they replied yes. Each hiker told them about the bears. The pair had known about bears in the park but had never heard anything in particular about Granite Park Shillay. And each hiker they came across did the same thing. They told them that they would not be caught dead sleeping outside with the grizzlies wandering around. Janet, who originally wasn't nervous about the bears, was now really second-guessing her decision. Every single person was saying, there's bears, they come at night, they're right near where you're camp. camping, don't camp outside. So Janet comes up to her husband and she announces that there is no

force on earth that can get her to camp outside at night. And Robert was still not convinced that the bears were anything to be afraid of. When they originally arrived to the park, they had stopped to see a friend who was a ranger in the park. He told them that there was nothing to worry about with bears and it was very unlikely to even see one. But they could carry bear bells if they'd like. Janet even asked him what they should do if they were to see one. The park ranger was unsure, and he said maybe they could try to climb a tree or curl up in a fetal position until the bear was done with her. This did not make her feel any better, but they did decide to carry bear bells. Robert approached a park naturalist at the chalet and asked about grizzlies and if people were still camping at the campground.

She replied and told him that although grizzlies were right in the area, they hadn't had any issues. shoes and they weren't bothering people, so many people were still camping there. This did not sit right with Janet and Robert, and they decided to look into staying in the chalet instead of camping outside. They were told to talk to a man who was out behind the chalet burning trash in the back, and when they went to find him, they were introduced to Tom Walden. He informed them that they were completely booked and had no openings, to which Robert asked if they could just sleep on the floor. Tom told them yes. However, they would still have to pay the $12.50 each to stay there, which also included three meals. I think that's a pretty good deal. I'd take it. Right. If it's going to keep me

inside and fed and safe, sure. Take my money. Yeah. So Tom then told them that even though the bears are out, there's not an immediate danger and they had not eaten anybody. Janet was terrified at this to the point where she did not want to stay outside at all and she was willing to pay the money. Robert, however, was still unsure and he went out for a hike to scout the area for a safer place to camp. When he returned, Janet introduced him to a young man she had met named Don Gullet, who was planning to camp. He showed the two a beautiful campsite that he found that seemed to be a safe distance away from the campground. And in this area, it was actually close to a little small cabin with a metal roof and there was a ladder that would bring you up to the top. Robert pointed this out to Janet and said that if

bears did enter their camping area, they could just climb up the ladder to get away from them. And Janet thought that this was comforting and she agreed. So they decided to make camp there and Don made camp about 30 feet away from the couple. When they were about to eat for the night, two 19-year-old, Roy and Julie approached them and asked where the campground was. The couple told them. And then they asked, well, if the campground is over there, why are you over here? And they told them that they were afraid of bears. And to this, Roy and Julie laughed and said that bears weren't anything to worry about. And then Roy told them a funny story of a bear encounter that he had himself. They all laughed and eventually Julie said that it was time for them to get going and they headed

for the campground. After cleaning up for the evening, Robert and Janet curled up in their sleeping bags under the stars. Jana turned to Robert and said, What do we do if a bear comes again? To which he replied, climb up the ladder to the roof of the cabin. And they both went to sleep. Roy and Julie, the two 19-year-olds, were really excited to be there. They were both an attractive couple, both in college, and both very fit. Julie had been in the park for about two months working, and that is where she met Roy, and they decided to go out on this hiking trip together. It was 8 p.m. when they had picked out their camping spot. After eating dinner, Roy took the leftover food and buried it under a log about 200 feet away. Then they both went to

sleep. Roy awoke shortly after to a rustling in the woods. Looking around, he found a squirrel rummaging in the bushes. He got up to go to the bathroom, came back to his sleeping bag, and he went back to sleep. Earlier on the same day, August 12th, a group of five teenage park employees began the hike to Trout Lake. They were heading up there to fish for a few days in camp. There were five of them, Denise, Paul, two brothers, Ray and Ron, and Michelle Coons. And they also brought a puppy along with them. This puppy was some type of mix, but it had big paws like a German shepherd puppy. And even though they brought this puppy along with them, there was a strict rule in the park that no dogs were loud on the park trails or in the park under any conditions.

Everyone was experienced hikers and backcountry campers except for one, Paul Dunn, who was 16 years old. He had not heard much about grizzlies in the park, except that they were not dangerous, and if you were to see one, just jump into a tree, and they will generally not bother you. Now, less than 24 hours before their hike, lightning storms came and struck down in the park, igniting small fires. But the group was not concerned about the lightning or the bears. So they just head off onto their trip. And when they arrived at trout camp, there were two fishermen that met them there that warned them that they had been treed for two hours by a very aggressive bear at trout lake. And again, this didn't bother the group at all. They thought that being chased up a tree

by a bear in Glacier was actually part of the adventure of being in Glacier National Park. And And after all, no one had ever been killed by one, and they didn't have much to worry. If you didn't bother a bear, it wasn't going to bother you. What are people worried about, is my question, because all of these things are very, you should be worried. Absolutely. No, no one's worried about anything. Specifically, no one cares about bears. Guess not.

As they got ready to go out and fish, the puppy was really excited and running between their legs and kind of getting. in between them gathering all their equipment. So Michelle Coons elected to stay behind with the puppy so everyone else could go out and fish. And she stayed behind and she set up camp. Three hours later into the evening, everyone returned with her catches of the day. And soon they were all sitting around the fire, cooking their fish. And while they're sitting there, Michelle notices a large shadowy figure approaching them through the bushes.

Here comes a bear, she shouted. all five of them jumped up and ran away from the camp. And when they looked back, they watched a large skinny bear enter their camp, and one by one, he ate every single catch. Just helping himself. Just helping himself enjoying this meal that's just been spread out at this campsite for it. One of the members of the group suggested that they shouldn't go back to the camp and just to camp where they were now. They got a new fire built. They started setting things up.

and as soon as they had their fire built and going, the skinny bear that had been eating all of their food had left and went off into the woods somewhere. So after he had been gone for a few minutes, the three boys, Paul, Roy, and Ron went down to their camp and gathered their sleeping bags and left over snacks that the bear hadn't gotten to. And they decided to be safe, they would keep their fire roaring all night long to try and help deter the bear. So that night, as they went to bed, Denise snuggled up with her puppy, said the puppy was hers. the puppy's name is squirt. She snuggled up with squirt in her arms under her sleeping bag and they all went to bed. In Glacier National Park Shillay, Janet and her husband, Robert, and Don all slept. And we're kind of going to be going back and forth.

So there's two main locations in this story and that is Granite Park Shillay and Trout Lake. So we're going to kind of be going back and forth between these two locations because this is all happening at the same time. And how far away are there? they from one another again? They're about nine or? No, so these two locations are about nine miles from each other. Okay, nine miles. And this is now we're all caught up to the same time.

Yes. It's the same night. Same night. Just nine miles apart. Yes. Okay. So Janet had been in a deep sleep when suddenly she awoke to the sound of screams. At first she thought that it was an animal or two that were fighting.

And to her, her first thought was that it sounded like a mountain lion. attacking a deer. And the scream was cat-like and it couldn't be anything except for maybe it could be a human. And then she thought it couldn't be a human. That can't be right. Then she started to hear words. She heard a long scream and then help. Another long scream came followed by, Mommy, Mommy, and more screams. At this her husband, Robert awoke. What is that? He asked. More screams started, and at first they thought it might be a child having a nightmare. More screams came, but it started to sound farther away. The sound stopped.

It was 12.50 a.m. Dawn awoke. Unsure what had woken him and disoriented, he looked around. It took him a moment, and sleepily he saw a figure in front of him standing, and then slumped to his knees. He looked at it a little longer and realized, It was a teenage boy. It was Roy Ducat that he had met earlier in the evening that had decided to go to the campground to camp with the girl.

Roy was giggling and babbling, clearly in shock. A bear got a hold of me. I tried playing dead, but it didn't help. He dragged her off into the brush. You have to go after her. Please forget about me. The bear dragged her away. Can somebody go find her?

Roy begged. As Dan got a better look at him, he saw that Roy's arm was dangling beside him. Blood was soaking through his shirt in an area on his thigh. Dan was suddenly wide awake, and Roy begged him to take him back to the chalet for help. Dan began to help him and began to help him walk. Roy was trembling terribly,

and a voice suddenly came down from the chalet. Is everything okay? No, Robert shouted. What happened? said the voice. Bear, Robert replied. Roy Ducat was slipping in and out of panic, and he told them what happened. Roy had been asleep when he awoke to Julie telling him to play dead.

Suddenly, a single blow from a huge paw struck them and launched them five feet and onto the ground. Roy laid on his stomach, and from the corner of his eye, he could see Julie a few feet away. He felt something bite deep into his shoulder and scrape against his belly. phone, Roy heard the words that Julie had told him to play dead, and he managed not to make a sound. The biting stopped. He looked up to see the grizzly on all four standing over Julie. The bear was tearing at her body. Then the bear returned to him. He grabbed a hold of the back of his thighs and bit down hard. Still, Roy managed not to make a sound. Then, once again, he returned to Julie, biting her. Except this time, Roy could hear her bones crunch under the strength of the bear's

bite. This hurts. Someone help us, Julie cried out, but now her voice was starting to get further and further away. The bear was dragging her. When her screaming stopped, Roy got up and started running as fast as he could despite his injuries, and he crumpled at the first sleeping bag he found, which was next to dawn. Shortly after he found, shortly after he found, he found, he was next to dawn. Shortly after he finished telling his story, a large group of guests from the chalet arrived. Among them were two doctors, Dr. Lyndon and Dr. Limpinski, who was also a surgeon. Dr. Linden jumped in and borrowed the first aid kit from Robert and started tending to Roy's wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. Dr. Lampinski stood by preparing to suture anything that was going to be needed to help try and save Roy.

Roy just continued to ask about Julie. He wanted them to forget about him and go find her. And the doctors knew that this was not possible. It was most important to save him. When they were triaging him, it was really apparent that he was in desperate need of care, but also that he had a really strong chance of survival. And at that point, they had no idea what condition Julie was in,

and they had no time to waste. Looking at Roy, his injuries were severe, but the biggest thing that they had to worry about and what was most fatal was him losing too much blood. So if they were to just leave him there and go find Julie, who they had no idea based on the story if she was alive or not, that Roy could bleed out and die right there. So the doctors decided he is the number one concern here. We can save him. We have to do this first.

Well, because at this point, Julie is an unknown. And it's so terrible to say that, but it's true. It's true and they had to make a really difficult decision and they decided that they were going to work on Roy. A naturalist working in the park among the group, Joan Devereaux, attempted to get in contact with the park service through her radio. Code 3 Emergency. Code 3 Emergency. There's a bear attack at Granite Park Chalet. No answer. Emergency. There's been a bear attack. Code 3. Still no response. Code 3, emergency, there's been a mauling. Silence. Suddenly a calm voice came over the radio.

10-4. It was a seasonal ranger named Bert Gildart that came over the radio. He explained he was driving and he would get them in touch with the park service. The park service came over the radio and asked her what she needed. She explained she needed medical supplies, that there were already two doctors there. And after the help of the doctors, she relayed exactly what they needed. Sutures, plasma, transfusion, supplies.

lies. They told her they were on their way, and it would be about 30 minutes. Then the group discussed their next steps. They wanted to go out and save the girl. Joan, a 22-year-old naturalist, immediately declared that they would not be doing that. There was a bear at large. They had absolutely nothing to protect themselves, and they had no idea what direction to go in. They needed to wait for professionals to arrive. And many of the people in the group were really against this. They were saying, no, we have to go. She could be dying. She could be alive. We have to go out. We need to save her. And then suddenly they heard a noise. It sounded exactly like the low, woofing noises that the bears would make before their fights. And at that noise, they all quickly hurried up to the chelais.

They hoisted Roy onto a table to evaluate his wounds. He had deep lacerations on his shoulder and his thigh, just barely missing the femoral artery. Ligaments and tendons were torn and his His injuries weren't fatal unless he was about to lose too much blood. He needed a blood transfusion and soon. The rescue helicopter arrived and landed in a nearby field. Grabbing all the supplies, including shotguns, they ran into the chalet where Roy was waiting for them. They began to set up everything they needed for the transfusion as time was critical.

They soon realized that there was an issue with the needle that needed to be inserted for the IV and for the transfusion. And the doctor said, we don't have. time to mess with this. We don't have time to search for more things. Get him out of here. You need to airlift him to the nearest possible hospital. And in under 10 minutes, they were up in the air with Roy and headed there. Next was Julie. Where was she? The group then with the rescuers with shotguns decided it was time to search for her. Let me know as soon as she's here, Dr. Limpinski instructed. He knew that even how badly injured Roy was, Julie would be much, much worse.

Meanwhile, back on Trout Lake, the group of five slept comfortably under the stars. Denise was with Squirt, the tiny puppy that was nestled in her chest, and she awoke to the sound of splashing in a nearby lake. As she looked up, Squirt started to growl. Quickly she shoved him into her sleeping bag, and as she looked harder at the object, she noticed that it was a bear. When the bear moved farther away and closer to their original, camp that they had been at, Denise woke up all the others and she told them that there was a bear there. Two boys in the group got up and got their fire going larger to try and deter the bear, and they moved some extra snacks that they had further away from where they were camping. Within a few

minutes, the bear arrived and took cookies that they had and left again. Now, at this point, the entire group is awake, and it's 3 a.m. and they all decided that they were going to stay awake for the rest of the night stoking the fire. Dawn was around 5.30 in the morning. It was almost light out. They just all were going to stay awake. More than once, Denise could hear the bear walking around the camp off in the woods. She stuffed square even further down into her sleeping bag until he was completely hidden, praying he wouldn't make a sound again. It was 4.30 in the morning when she heard another splash, and she looked up and saw the bear darting straight towards their campsite. The bear was about five feet away from her now. Squirt let out a squeal. She lay under her sleeping bag and lay completely

still. She held squirt tightly under her arms and she felt him shaking as well. The bear grunted and sniffed around both of them and they both laid there as quiet as they could and completely still. Paul Dunn woke up at this and peeped out of his sleeping bag to see the bear directly next to him. He seeped back into his bag and lay completely still. He felt a large crunch down into a sleeping bag in his sweatshirt. As an immediate reaction, Paul jumped up out of his sleeping bag and slammed into the bear in the process. At this, the grizzly reared up on his hind feet ready to attack, and Paul dashed in a matter of seconds into a tree, getting cut up by branches in the process. And he looked down as the bear circled the tree he was in. So did the bear buy a bear?

down on him? Just his sweatshirt. Oh, okay. Okay. When Ron saw that the bear was preoccupied and circling the tree that Paul was in, he yelled to Denise that they needed to run. And she responded that she couldn't run. Squirt was tied up and she needed to undo his collar.

And Ron repeated, no, you need to get up. You need to leave now. And she still didn't move. So he actually grabs her out of her sleeping bags and shoves her. and they both ran about 50 feet up onto a hill. As they stopped to catch their breath, squirt had gotten out of his collar and caught up to them. Denise grabbed a hold of him and they both climbed as high as they could into a tree.

Oh my God, my heart is pounding. It's legitimately like I feel like I'm there. Paul could see Ray and Michelle from up in the tree and he could see that they were both still in the camp and he started yelling at them to make a run for it. The bear was sniffing around Ray's bags and Ray was laying there still. The bear slowly moved onto Michelle's bag. As soon as the bear had redirected his attention,

Ray jumped out of his bag and started running down the edge of the lake in the same direction that Ron and Denise had gone. Run, Michelle, get out of your bag and run. Unzip and get out. Ray yelled. The bear clamped its jaws on the outside of Michelle's sleeping bag. He's ripping my arm. Michelle screamed out in pain.

Unzip your bag. Get out and run. Ray yelled again at Michelle. I can't. He has my zipper. She replied. He's got my arm. My arm is gone.

Oh my God. I'm dead. The bear lifted the sleeping bag into his mouth and carried it off into the woods. With her in it? With her in it. From the treetop that Paul sat in, he could hear bones crunching. He's pulling her up the hill. She's dead.

16-year-old Paul called out to his friends. When it had been quiet for a few minutes, Paul came down from the tree and ran as fast as he could to the group. He ran up into a tree and they all sat there and they waited until dawn. It came that morning at 6 a.m. An hour and a half after the attack. They listened to the woods and for any signs that Michelle might still be alive. It was quiet.

it, but with the stillness of the morning, they thought they could hear small sounds of bones crunching. So not only did they just witness their friend getting killed and dragged away, they are now listening to her being consumed. Yeah. This is so bad. Like, I don't know if it's worse than Timothy Treadwell, but it's like... Well, it's almost worse because of these are not people going out looking for

interactions with bears. Yeah. You know, like not saying Timothy Treadwell asked for it because that's, I think, unfair to say, but he was putting himself in a position with full knowledge of what the bears were capable of. He knew the risks. Right. And these people, they were wrongfully advised, you know, against the dangers of camping in the area. And they were kind of, you know, they just weren't aware.

They didn't know the risks. It's crazy. Go on. Yeah. The group gathered their shoes, clothes, and jackets, and they all took off running down the trail. They ran for two hours until they got to the trailhead at the road. There was a couple there who were about to hike the trail and saw how distraught this group of teenagers were, and ushered them into their car and drove them to the Park Service Station.

Back in Granite Park Chalet, the rescue mission started around 2.45 a.m. for Julie, which was almost exactly two hours after the attack on the couple. And unfortunately, that is all the time that we have left for this episode. No, why? Really? Yeah, this has gone on, this has been a long episode so far. So everyone is just going to have to tune in next Monday for part two to find out what exactly happens to Julie and Michelle.

and I'm so sorry to do this to you all. I'm upset. I'm like actually a little upset because I was just on the edge of my chair of my seat. I was on the edge of my seat. Literally my hands are like kind of sweaty and I'm nervous. Yeah. It just going through this episode, there is so much detail and so much that needs to happen for an episode. So we are just going to put this into two parts, leave you on a little cliphanger here.

And don't worry, next Monday we will be jumping straight back into the story. And we'll see you then. Please don't hate us. Well, I hate you a little bit right now, but that's fine. I'll get over it. Okay. Well, our first two-parter, here it is. And you're going to get two episodes next week if you're on Patreon because Danielle will

be airing her campfire story next Friday. So if you are a Patreon member, you will get an episode on Monday and you'll get an episode, especially for you on Friday. If you are interested in our Patreon, go on to our Instagram National Park After Dark, click on the link. You can find our Patreon there or go on to our website, M-PADD Podcast.com. And you can find our link to Patreon there as well. Well, I guess that's it for this week. So while we wait for Monday, to arrive. Enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, I'm not even looking at you and I can see your reaction. And I'm on mute. I was up you. I'm like, literally can't see you and I just know your reaction. Oh my God. Okay. You're listening to this podcast,

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