111 years ago, elk came back to the Bighorns

Today, over 12,000 elk roam the Bighorn Mountains. But this wasn’t always the case. Due to unregulated and market hunting, the elk on the Bighorn mountains nearly became extinct. Elk were being hunted to supply meat for cities such as Cheyenne and Denver, and for mining camps, logging camps and Army forts. Elk was also on the menus in many high-end restaurants.

In a government document Re-establishing Elk in the Bighorn Mountains that is available in the Fulmer Library Wyoming room, author Calvin L. King quotes from an interview with Mr. E.N. Kavanaugh, supervisor of the Bighorn Forest Reserve, there were 27 wild elk that he knew of in the Bighorn Mountains.

In late 1909 Sheridan Area Deputy Game Warden John Duncan asked the Sheridan Rod and Gun Club if they would partner in a project to return elk to the Bighorn Mountains. Many landowners, including Howard Eaton, supported the plan.

In the same interview with Mr. E.N. Kavanaugh, he talks about about the difficulties that might be encountered trying to move the elk the 300 plus miles to their new range. “I know the plan to drive the elk from Jackson’s Hole to the Bighorn is seen by many as chimerical,” but he added but that was because it had never been done before, but he still felt it could be done. One way they suggested was move the elk in the winter, using a hay wagon as a lead vehicle, as the elk would “follow the hay anywhere.”

Finally, the plan was to trap the elk near Jackson, Wyoming, and transport them via wagons and railroad cars, to Eaton’s Ranch at the foot of the mountains. According to an article by Christina Schmidt Shorma in the January 2017 Wyoming Wildlife Magazine, elk were baited into a corral with hay, loaded on sleds in individual boxes, and sledded over the Teton Pass to St. Anthony, Idaho, where they were then loaded into railroad cattle cars. It was a 19-day journey, from Idaho to Rawlins, Wyoming then to Alliance, Nebraska, then back to Wyoming, arriving in Sheridan on Saturday, April 2, 1910.

Twenty-five of the first twenty-eight elk survived the journey. After spending some time in Sheridan, in what is now Kendrick Park, the elk were then moved to Eaton’s ranch. From there, they were herded by men on horseback and released into the mountains.

No doubt it was similar to the release of elk near Greybull in 1914, according to a Nov. 1938 Wyoming Wildlife article. “The cowboys turned out en masse to escort these frightened, bewildered animals to the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains.”

The men were cautioned that “no whooping, no charging around or roping was allowed” to avoid stress on the elk. From that small herd, and other re-introductions from 1910 until 1941, the elk herd grew from only a handful to around 12,000 today.

Today, elk hunting is popular with not only local hunters, but is also a business for local outfitters guiding out-of-state elk hunters. In 2020, over 4,000 elk were harvested in the Bighorn Mountains, a testament to the vision of far-seeing wildlife lovers at the turn of the 20^th Century.

In fact, Kavanaugh’s words were almost prophetic. “In the Bighorns is some of the most magnificent scenery in the world….they could become the Mecca of thousands of tourists.” In his opinion, the only thing missing was “big, wild animals,” and he felt that the noblest animal in the world was the elk. By re-introducing the elk, Kavanaugh felt that the Bighorn mountains would be the ‘biggest asset in the country.”

Perhaps he was right.