As many celebrate the return of wolves to Yellowstone, we can’t help but think back on our own experiences with these iconic animals and how they have impacted our life journey.
For Jenny and I, we came just a few short years after wolves were reintroduced to the park. Coming to Yellowstone was a grand roll of the dice in the game of life. As newlyweds, we left the East Coast and drove across the country through the park’s east entrance complete with the last of our worldly possessions and the sweating top to our wedding cake stored in a cooler in the back of the truck.
The grand, big blue sky was the limit and the verdant greenery of Lamar Valley in spring was our welcome mat. The Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch was to be our new home; Jenny was to be the campus manager for the Yellowstone Association, and I was to be an instructor. From the moment we pulled into the parking lot of the Ranch, with piles of parked cars and people with spotting scopes (they were watching wolves test a heard of bison in an attempt to get one of their little, red calves) it was apparent that this was a unique place. Aside from park ranger Brian Chan, we had no neighbors, that is, if you excluded the non-human beings. Of the latter, there were bison and elk, ground squirrels, grizzly bears and more, and then there was this group of wolves known as “the Druids.” As we took up residence inside their territory, they took up a den site in the foothills of their mountain namesake, Druid Peak, a fraction of a mile from our cabin.
Two individuals in particular stood out; the alpha pair. Wolf 42F, “The Cinderella female,” and her two-toned, slab-sided mate, Wolf 21M, were easy to recognize. The two of these wolves were among the last of the originals: while 42 came down from Canada with her mother and sisters in 1996, Wolf 21 was born to the venerable Number 9F in the first litter of wolves in the Yellowstone Ecosystem in over seventy years.
Getting to know these animals taught us many great lessons including the fact that, among other things, even non-human beings are individuals; they too have stories, memories, triumphs and travails, fears, habits, quirks, and joys. These wolves were also part of the birth of my career in art and they showed me that my childhood in the arts and schooling in science were not mutually exclusive. There were too many stories to tell about these creatures and this place to fit into just words. With the help of the Druids, art and science synergized as these two pursuits became one through the medium of sculpture.
The writing, educational classes, photography, storytelling, lectures and sculpture inspired by these animals came to be the signposts along our roadway of building a life here. From the individual humans and wild animals we’ve come to know, this has been one extraordinary ride over the almost 20 years that we’ve lived here. The bronze sculptures of Wolf 21 and 42 are still available today, and they made use of all of these experiences and connections. Poured into each of the bronzes were years of field time, the passion and energy of the watchers and researchers, and the actual body and skull measurements of 21 and 42, compliments of the Park’s wolf project. To this day, you can still see one of the life-sized sculptures of 42 at the Yellowstone Forever store next to the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance in Gardiner, Montana.
If you’d like to hear more about the stories of the wolves we’ve gotten to know over the years as viewed from our perspective, we’d love for you to check out these blog posts. Telling The Stories of Yellowstone Wolves, ‘The White Lady’: Dignity and Grace, Enduring Spirit: The Last Days of the Druid Wolf Pack, Capturing an Idea: The Making of a Wolf Sculpture, and Patience is a Virtue: Yellowstone Alpha Female ’06. Many of you have been on this journey with us as class participants, collectors of my work, and as friends and community members. For that we are deeply grateful.
We’d also love to hear your stories! Feel free to send us an email and tell us about a memorable encounter with Yellowstone wolves.
To another 25 years!
