Explosive Account of First Ever Man-Killer Grizzly in Yellowstone

Here's a perfect example of how they did things back in the old days that sure wouldn't fly today.

Mark Heinz with Wyoming's Cowboy State Daily shared a fascinating, extremely well-written and rather bizarre story of how officials dealt with the first-ever documented account of a grizzly bear killing a human in Yellowstone National Park. With no history scale of how it might have been dealt with previously, they chose to take measures that seem reminiscent of a Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote cartoon. But unlike the always foiled Wile E., this plan worked.

Mark tells us that in 1916, Yellowstone recorded its first officially documented fatal grizzly bear attack. The victim was Frank Welch, a 61-year-old government teamster. Mr. Welch was camping near Turbid Lake when he was fatally mauled by an elderly grizzly, with a salty-enough reputation to have earned the name “Old Two Toes.” According to Mark's article, prior to this incident, Old Two Toes had reportedly exhibited aggressive behavior towards humans, likely due to his deteriorated condition and worn teeth, which made natural foraging difficult.

So, in response to the attack, a government road crew devised a plan to eliminate Old Two Toes. Keeping in mind this was 1916, they set a trap of spread garbage, which lured the bear to an overturned barrel containing a dynamite charge equipped with an electric detonator. When the bear began to feed, the crew detonated the charge, resulting in his death.

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In the Mark Heinz article for Cowboy State Daily, he references the 1995 book
“Death In Yellowstone” by Lee H. Whittlesey, which documents the history of lethal accidents, misadventures and misfortunes in the park.

What a stark contrast in bear management between 1916 and today. A retired law enforcement ranger, Greg Jackson, was quoted in the article as saying, "Just from a 100-years-plus later perspective, the way we think about it, it’s so ridiculous, it’s funny.

“How they thought that was a good idea (dynamiting the bear), I don’t know.”