Taken by Bear in Yellowstone: More Than a Century of Harrowing Encounters between Grizzlies and Humans

by Kathleen Snow

Overview

Humans and grizzly bears have been coming into contact in Yellowstone National Park ever since it was founded in 1872. Most of these encounters have ended peacefully, but many have not. In order to most accurately tell the stories of those involved in the more deadly incidents, Kathleen Snow went directly to the source: the National Park Service archives. With help from personnel at park headquarters, Snow has collected more than 100 years’ worth of hair-raising stories that read like crime scene investigations and provide hard-learned lessons in outdoor safety. A must-read for fans of Death in Yellowstone and anyone fascinated by human-animal interactions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493017713
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/07/2016
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,108,489
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kathleen Snow is the current president of the Montana Writers Guild. Her journalism has been published in Harper’s Magazine, Women in Natural Resources, Where New York, andtheMissouliannewspaper, among others. The University of Montana Press will publish her new mystery Searching for Bear Eyes in 2015. Her short fiction has been published in book form by The Island Institute Press and Montana Voices anthologies,as well as in literary magazines.

Table of Contents

The How and Why of Taken by Bear in Yellowstone National Park viii

Author's Note: Ten Years, Thirty Miles from a Death in Yellowstone x

Part I 2015, 2011, And 2010: Five Bear-Caused Fatalities, Two Maulings 1

2015-Day Hiker Killed in Park

Chapter 1 Victims-Human and Bear: Lance Crosby 2

2011-Two Day Hikers Killed in Park

Chapter 2 Every Hiker's Worst Nightmare: Brian Matayoshi 8

Chapter 3 Found Dead Along Trail: John Wallace 24

2010-Day Hiker and Car Camper Killed Near Park, Two Mauled

Chapter 4 Final Expedition (6 Miles from Park): Erwin Evert 44

Chapter 5 Man as Prey (5 Miles from Park): Kevin Kammer 54

Part II Becoming Prey: Four More Fatalities, One Probable Fatality 65

Chapter 6 Woman and Nature: Brigitta Fredenhagen 66

Chapter 7 Blood on the Lens: William Tesinsky 87

Chapter 8 In the Darkness of the Night: Harry Walker 109

Chapter 9 The Scalp on the Blanket (1970) 127

Chapter 10 Weakest Prey in the Forest (1 Mile from Park): Roger May 138

Part III Night Side of Nature: Four More Fatalities, Seven Maulings 149

Chapter 11 Fatality-Jumped from the Rear (1942): Martha Hansen 150

Chapter 12 Early Attacks: Three Fatalities, Seven Maulings (1870-1930s) 158

Part IV Narrow Escapes: Five Near-Death Maulings 169

Chapter 13 Eye Gone-Couldn't Find (1977): Barrie Gilbert 170

Chapter 14 Super-Bad Nightmare (1992): Sarah Muller 181

Chapter 15 Biting Him on the Head (Two Miles from Park, 1992): Hunters Mark Matheny and Fred Bahnson 197

Chapter 16 Multiple Wounds, Multiple Body Parts (1994): Robert O'Connell 202

Chapter 17 His Face Was Hanging Off-Mans Second Mauling in Second National Park (2007): Jim Cole 208

Part V Trends? Other Recent Attacks (1986-2015) 217

Chapter 18 Bear Attacks 1986-1992 218

Chapter 19 Bear Attacks 1994-1997 229

Chapter 20 Bear Attacks 1998-2000 244

Chapter 21 Bear Attacks 2002-2004 263

Chapter 22 Bear Attacks 2005-2015 285

Chapter 23 What About the Black Bears? 294

Chapter 24 The Latest on Safer Travel in Bear Country 302

Afterword 312

Endnotes 315

Bibliography 321

Index 327

About the Author 342

Editorial Reviews

"Bear attacks are multifaceted, fascinating and often chilling events. Snow gives carefully researched and detailed first person accounts of Yellowstone’s National Park’s bear attacks. Her accounts and images inform and let the reader draw their own conclusions. Ms. Snow gives accurate advice regarding how to avoid a bear attack. If you want the details of Yellowstone’s bear attacks told in vivid detail Snow’s book is the place to go.” –Stephen Herrero, author of Bear Attacks and leading authority on bear ecology, behavior, and attacks

“Kathleen Snow’s book reads like a series of crime scene reports, only they are not crimes. She uses careful and vivid detail to describe, incident by incident, 142 years of harrowing encounters between grizzly bears and humans in Yellowstone National Park, with a recap of earlier incidents dating back to 1870. These stories, usually told in the words of the people involved, are a non-judgmental but stark reminder of why we need to respect an animal that rightfully symbolizes the wildness in wilderness.” –David Knibb, author of Grizzly Wars: The Public Fight over the Great Bear

“Kathleen Snow has done an outstanding job in putting together the details of many Yellowstone bear-human confrontations from numerous sources. She weaves the stories in both a comprehensive and compelling narrative. I have already referenced it during my lectures on bear attacks even while it has been in manuscript form. It is a must-have reference book for anyone interested in human-bear encounters.” –Steven P. French, author of “Bear Attacks” in Wilderness Medicine and cofounder of the Yellowstone Grizzly Foundation

“Kathleen Snow has done an excellent job of chronicling the bear/human conflicts in Yellowstone with this book. She paints a picture of each event with her own prose and includes all the official transcripts detailing the events. This contrast between a writer’s view of an incident and the stark forensic details of agency reports allows the reader to imagine each scene from different perspectives. It helps to soften the forensic evidence but also gives a glimpse of the stark reality that rangers and tourists have actually faced every time there is an incident. The bad news is that such incidents will probably always happen as long as we value wild bears and wilderness. The good news is that they rarely do happen, and bears in general go out of their way to avoid them.” –Frank Lance Craighead, author of Bears of the World and executive director of the Craighead Institute

“Valuable for its collection of facts.” –Lee H. Whittlesey, author of Death in Yellowstone and Yellowstone Park historian

“Kathleen Snow’s exhaustive investigation into bear attacks brings home the message that Yellowstone is a wild, predator-rich ecosystem. While the details of these incidents remind us that our safety in bear country is not guaranteed, Snow provides the latest information on precautions to take to avoid a bear attack.” –Orville Bach, Yellowstone seasonal ranger

From the Publisher