Leavitt wasn’t around?
Leavitt was in Medford. We were pretty much autonomous up here in the wintertime. So we took that bear and went up toward the rim. But of course you couldn’t get very far anyplace then with the snow on the ground. So we threw it over the edge. The only problem was that the next spring when the snow melted, that bear showed up down there and another bear showed up eating it, the carcass at the same time. Of course, this was reported at the entrance station. Of course, as far as the entrance station was concerned, as far as our explanation was concerned, it was just a bear that had died. This was the nature of bears to feed on each other. That’s what happened. There was one other bear situation. I was told by Clyde Gilbert, who the Chief Ranger was at the time that I almost got myself fired because of it. There was a bear that was killed up at the lodge. It was during the time that they were closing up in the fall. This bear was trying to break in to a building up there. None of us did know who actually killed the bear. We had ideas as to who did, but we could not prove it. But some visitor found parts of this bear in a sack out toward the north entrance and turned it in to the ranger force. I think it was turned in to me, and I was on duty at the entrance station down at Annie Spring at the time. The superintendent didn’t think that we took fast enough action. Since I was involved in it, why I was told that the chief ranger had to argue an awful lot to keep me from getting fired. Now I question that, in light of certain things that happened after that time. I don’t think that’s what happened. But that’s beside the point. Those are the three bear stories that I can think of at the present time.
Did you have problems with porcupines?
We didn’t have many problems. There were some problems down in the south particularly in that southeast entrance. Are there problems now?
Just some evidence of porcupines. What we call Rat Hall, the old machine shop, has its steps that lead up to the second floor chewed by porcupines.
I’ll be darned.
