Abstract
Essay Reviews G host G rizzlies. By David Petersen. (New York: Henry Holt, 1995. 296 pages, $27.50.) The Lost G rizzlies: A Search fo r Survivors in the W ilderness o f Colorado. By Rick Bass. (Boston: Houghton M ifflin, 1995. 240 pages, $22.95.) Champions o f Ursus horribilis w ill be delighted with this year’s bumper crop o f books on the great bear— an im pressive harvest which includes such important volum es as John Murray’s G rizzly Bears: An Illustrated F ield Guide, John Craighead’s (et al.) G rizzly Bears o f Yellowstone, David Petersen’s G host G rizzlies, and Rick B ass’s The L ost G rizzlies. The books by Petersen and Bass, under consideration here, have as a comm on subject the provocative possibility that the grizzly, long extirpated from all but a few sanctuaries in the lower fortyeight , may still roam the deepest wilderness o f southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. The true tale o f the San Juan grizzlies is as tantalizing as a good campfire story. After more than a century o f systematic extermination o f bears, state w ildlife managers finally declared the Colorado grizzly extinct in 1952. However, the years follow ing were punctuated by possible grizzly sightings (invariably dism issed by authorities as misidentifications o f black bears) until, in 1979, hunting outfitter Ed W iseman provided incontrovertible proof o f the griz zly’s existence when he stabbed to death a 400-pound grizzly sow as she attacked and severely mauled him. If grizzlies had for a quarter century prowled unde tected through southern Colorado, wasn't it possible that a remnant population of reclusive griz still survived in the highest, wildest territory o f the San Juans? Responding with im peccable bureaucratic logic that the W iseman bear must have been the last, state w ildlife authorities again declared the Colorado grizzly extinct, leaving advocates o f grizzly habitat protection with desperately little sup port. Enter the inimitable Doug Peacock: author of G rizzly Years, inspiration for Edward A bbey’s Hayduke in The M onkey Wrench Gang, and the man Petersen affectionately calls “the patron saint o f apparently hopeless causes.” Forming the San Juan Grizzly Project in 1991, Peacock has used the coalition to staff an ongo ing effort to locate, document, and protect surviving Colorado grizzlies. That is, if there are any. 162 Western American Literature Into this biological detective story steps David Petersen, a Colorado envi ronm entalist and writer w hose recent work includes the edited volum e Confessions o f a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals o f Edward Abbey, 1951-1989. Petersen’s approach to the mystery o f the “ghost grizzlies” is patient and thorough, making his book an im pressive record o f the biological, political, and ethical issues surrounding grizzly loss— and, if possible, preservation and recovery— in southern Colorado. In addition to exploring high-elevation bear habitat in the San Juans with his friend Doug Peacock, Petersen also walks and talks with ranchers, hunters, outfitters, environmentalists, game managers, and bear biologists, thereby providing readers a wealth o f perspectives from which to consider the phenomenon o f the elusive grizzly. Like any good detective, he avoids premature conclusions and attends closely to all available evidence as he considers arguments for and against the existence o f a remnant population of Ursus horribilis in Colorado. Because Petersen is an inveterate follow er o f clues, G host G rizzlies becom es a sort o f tracking story— a narrative in which the explo ration o f possibilities results in a unified series o f well-inform ed forays into the wilderness o f doubt and hope surrounding the enigmatic Colorado grizzly. In The Lost G rizzlies, his ninth book, Rick Bass filters the bear story through a very different sensibility. B ass’s more literary version o f the tale is distin guished by his appealing, characteristic blend o f idiosyncratic humor and lyrical intensity. The book’s humor centers on the legendary D oug Peacock, w hose remarkable passion and eccentricity blossom beneath the author’s appreciative...
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