Pioneering Conservation in Alaska

Front matter

Fioneenng Conservation

Vp

ALASKA

Part I: Early Naturalists and Wildlife Exploitation / 1 ND

2. Fur Seal’s Friend: Henry W. Elliott / 27 3. 4 5

. John Muir and the Land / 91 . The Boone and Crockett Club: George Bird Grinnell, Madison Grant,

William T. Hornaday, Charles H. Townsend, Charles Sheldon / 116

. Charles Sheldon and Mt. McKinley National Park / 135 . Robert E Griggs and Katmai National Monument / 154 . John Muir, William S. Cooper, and Glacier Bay National

Monument / 176 vii

CONTENTS Part Il: Wildlife and Wildlife Managers / 209

10. Bureau of Biological Survey Chiefs: C. Hart Merriam, Edward W. Nelson, Ira N. Gabrielson / 212

11. Alaskan Wildlife Managers: Frank Dufresne, Clarence Rhode, Jim Brooks, Jim King / 237

Notes | 441 Works Employed | 480 Index | 514 viii

Photographs

1.1 Sea otters, Amchitka Island, 1949. / 9

1.2 Aleut sea otter hunters, Unalaska, 1891 or 1892. / 10

1.3 Sea otter skins drying, Aleutian Islands, ca. 1890s. / 20

1.4 Robert D. “Sea Otter” Jones, Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, mid-1950s. / 24

2.1 Fur seal herd, Zapadni rookery, St. Paul Island. / 29

2.2 Henry W. Elliott, San Francisco, 1872, prior to leaving for the Pribilofs. / 37

2.3 William H. Dall, Western Union Telegraph Expedition, San Francisco, July 1865. / 38

2.4 Indian hunter and sealing gear on schooner Favorite, 1894. / 43

2.5 David Starr Jordan. / 47

2.6 Killing fur seals. / 48

2.7 Aleut workers at fur seal processing plant, St. Paul Island, ca. 1980. / 54 ix

4.4 4.5

Captain William Mogg and bowhead whale baleen, ca. 1916. / 64 Eskimo whaling station, Cape Prince of Wales, 1891 or 1892. / 66 Harpoon gunner striking finback whale near Akutan. / 72

Right whale at Port Hobron whaling station, 1926. / 73

Remains of villagers starved at St. Lawrence Island, early 1880s. / 78 Polar bear struck by bullet, off Point Barrow, 1920. / 81

Walrus sport hunter and trophy, Arctic Ocean, 1913. / 82

Eskimo carver, Nome, ca. 1887. / 84

Walrus herd at Walrus Islands haulout, Bristol Bay, ca. 1957. / 85 Sea lion breeding male, Northeast Point, St. Paul Island. / 87

Placer miners on American Creek. / 99

Hydraulic mining on Dan Creek in the Wrangells. / 102

Fairbanks Exploration Co. dredge on Cripple Creek, twelve miles from Fairbanks. / 103

Wood yard at Tanana River Railway, ca. 1905—1910. / 107 Matanuska Colony farm, Palmer, 1937. / 110

4.6 John Muir and John Burroughs at St. Matthew Island, 1899. / 114

6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6

George Bird Grinnell at Yale, ca. 1890s. / 122

Madison Grant at Yale, 1912. / 124

William T. Hornaday and buffalo calf, Washington, DC, 1890. / 129 Charles Haskins Townsend, 1918. / 131

Members of expedition making first ascent of McKinley’s South Peak, 1913; / 139

Charles Sheldon, in winter camp north of Mt. McKinley, 1907. / 141 Belmore Browne in climbing gear. / 142

Dall rams in McKinley Park, June 1966. / 144

Former market hunter’s cabin used by park rangers, 1926. / 146 Tourist party crossing moraine of Muldrow Glacier, 1927. / 149

6.7 Adolph Murie at McKinley Park, November 1939. / 151

6.8 7.1 7.2 1:3 7.4 eS

7.6 7.7

Charlie Ott, Fairbanks, 1984. / 152

Village of Katmai after eruption, 1913. / 156

W.A. Hesse filming Katmai volcano, 1913. / 159

Katmai volcano ash at Kodiak, 1912. / 160

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes; Mt. Mageik (left) and Mt. Katmai in background. / 162

Laura Griggs and husband, Robert, at Baked Mountain, Katmai National Monument, 1919. / 164

Father Bernard Hubbard and dog at Katmai Crater, 1929. / 167 Looking north across head of Geographic Harbor, 1940. / 168

7.8 Abandoned cannery, Kukak Bay, Katmai National Monument,

1951. / 170

79 7.10 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4

9.1 9.2

9:3 9.4 10.1

10.2

12.1

12.2

Victor Cahalane at Novarupta, August 1954. / 173

Adlai Stevenson and party at Brooks Falls, August 1954. / 174

John Muir. / 178

S.S. City of Topeka at Muir Glacier, 1890. / 179

William S. Cooper, Blackstone Bay, 1935. / 182

Park ranger and harbor seal carcass, Glacier Bay National Monument, 1964 or 1965. / 189

Commercial walrus hunters, Nome, early 20th Century. / 193 Inupiat Eskimo boy netting auklets, Little Diomede Island,

Eskimo hunter and largha seal, Bering Sea, early 1900s. / 195 Caribou left in woods by Inupiat hunters, Shungnak, 1949. / 206 English sport hunter Charles R.E. Radclyffe and guides, Kenai Peninsula, 1903. / 216

U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey officials at Lone Pine, California, June 13, 1891, after Death Valley expedition. / 223

Edward W. Nelson, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, 1877—1881. / 226 Edward W. Nelson in later years. / 228

Dr. Ira N. Gabrielson, July 1939. / 235

Alaska Game Commission officers, Fairbanks, 1939. / 239

Cache of illegally trapped skins at Mulchatna River, June 1936. / 240 Sam White, Noel Wien, and White’s TP Swallow, Valdez, 1931. / 243 Frank Dufresne and friends, upper Newhalen River, June 1940. / 247 Clarence Rhode at controls of Grumman Goose, Nome, 1949. / 251 Jim Brooks conducting polar bear research, Chukchi Sea, 1971. / 254 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Jim King and Nunamiut Eskimos, Anaktuvuk Pass, mid-1950s. / 257

Brown bear at Karluk Lake, Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge,

1958. / 261

Cow killed by brown bear, Pagashak, Kodiak Island, August

1952. / 273

Hunter and brown bear trophy, Kodiak Island, 1957. / 277

Eskimos displaying reindeer killed by wolves, mid-1950s. / 293

Seal blubber cubes used in wolf control, ca. 1956. / 295

Wolves recovered from poison bait stations, ca. 1957. / 296

Silver salmon damaged by harbor seals, Stikine River, 1946. / 302 Government seal hunter and harbor seals, mid-1950s. / 303

Seal faces gathered for bounty, Chukchi Sea, May 1967. / 305

Blue fox and seabirds it killed, Gareloi Island, Aleutians. / 307

Red foxes and predated lamb, Unalaska or Umnak Island, xt

16.3 16.4

16.5 16.6

16.7

17.1

17:2

17:3 17.4

17.5 17.6 xii

Bald eagle shot for bounty, held by Jim Dolan, Valdez, ca. 1940. / 312 Rev. Sheldon Jackson, ca. 1880. / 323

Reindeer loaded aboard revenue cutter Bear, Siberia, 1891. / 324 Eskimo mail carrier, ca. 1905-1910. / 325

Muskoxen, College, early 1930s. / 333

Mountain goat released at Hidden Basin, Kodiak Island, 1952. / 336 Unloading first buffalo, College, ca. 1928. / 337

Trappers and their catch of furs. / 341

Wolverine in leg-hold trap, Anchorage vicinity, 1949. / 346

Fish trap, Thlinket Packing Company, Funter Bay, 1907. / 352 Brailing a salmon trap. / 353

Naket Packing Company’s Waterfall Cannery near Craig, Prince of Wales Island. / 354

Alaska Packers Association ship Santa Clara. | 355

Dam on salmon stream, Helm Bay, ca. 1898. / 356

Athabaskan fish wheel, Tanana, 1918. / 360

Stream watcher’s cabin, Red River Lake, Kodiak Island, 1950. / 366 Construction train of Alaska Central Railroad, north of Seward,

English hunter Col. Claude Cane and trophies, Kenai Peninsula,

1902. / 387

Moose at Kenai River, 1920s. / 389

Henry Lucas, Frank Dufresne, and Lawrence J. Palmer, Kenai Peninsula, 1938. / 390

Moose in browse cut, Kenai National Moose Range, 1955. / 394 Arco discovery well, Swanson River field, Kenai National Moose Range, late 1950s. / 397

Kenai National Moose Range supervisor David L. Spencer and trumpeter swan nest, May 1957. / 398

Nutirwik and Bob Marshall, upper north fork of the Koyukuk,

1939. / 405

Captain Roald Amundsen and crew of Gjoa, Nome, September 1, 1906. / 415

Bull caribou, Arctic National Wildlife Range, October 1970. / 416 Wolf at Old Woman Creek, Arctic National Wildlife Range,

1966. / 417

Mardy and Olaus Murie, Sheenjek River Valley, 1956. / 419

Ginny Hill Wood and Celia Hunter, Fairbanks, ca. 1985. / 423

Maps

1. 2. 3.

Alaska. / xxvi-xxvii

Pribilof Islands. / 30

Mt. McKinley/Denali National Park and Preserve, 1932 and 1980. / 145

. Katmai National Monument/Park and Preserve, 1931 and 1980. / 166 . Glacier Bay National Monument/Park and Preserve, 1939 and

1980. / 184

. Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, 1958 and 1980. / 275 . Kenai National Moose Range/Wildlife Refuge, 1941 and 1980. / 379 . Arctic National Wildlife Range/Refuge, 1960 and 1988. / 424

Tables

1.1 2.1 3.1

3.2

3:3

4.1

11.2 11.3 12.1 13.1

13.2 13.3

14.1 14.2

Russian Fur Cargoes From North America, 1743-1823 / 18 Reported Harvest of Pribilof Fur Seals, 1786-1950 / 40 American Whalers and Harvests in the Pacific North of 50 Degrees, 1835-1913 / 61-62

Shore-Based Commercial Whale Catches in Subarctic Alaska, 1910- 1939 / 70

Recorded Pacific Walrus Harvests by the Whaling Industry, 1849- 1914 / 76

Forest Acreage Burned in Alaska, 1940-1970 / 105

Agricultural Activity in Alaska, 1940-1969 / 109

Human Population of Alaska, 1740-2000 / 213

Game Killed by Radclyffe Party, Kenai Peninsula, 1903 / 215 Game and Trophies Shipped From Alaska, 1910-1916 / 219 Game Purchased by Six Fairbanks Stores, Fall 1921 / 232

Alaska Game Commission Enforcement Actions, 1936-1937 and 1958-1959 / 241

Alaska Game Commission License Sales, 1926-1959 / 245 Travel by Alaska Game Commission Agents, 1937-1959 / 246 Estimated Harvests of Brown or Grizzly Bears in Alaska, 1945- 1966 / 278

Furbearers Purposely and Accidentally Killed in Predator Control, 1951-1952 / 297

Alaska Bounty Expenditures, 1927-1958 / 299

Species Bountied and Taken in Predator Control Programs, 1927— 1958 / 299

Estimated Harvests of Big Game Species in Alaska, 1945-1963 / 317 Ownership, Size, and Locations of Reindeer Herds, 1949 / 328 xiii

14.4 Successful Transplants of Wild Terrestrial Mammals in Alaska, 1916- 1970 / 335

14.5 Selected Land Mammal Furs Shipped From Russian America and Alaska, 1745-1890 / 339

14.6 Reported Fur Exports From Alaska, 1912-1964 / 345

14.7 Values of Wildlife and Other Natural Resources in Alaska, 1952 / 348

15.1 Statistical Profile of Alaska Salmon Canning Industry, 1878- 1897 / 361

15.2 Commercial Salmon Catches in Alaska, 1878-1982 / 370

18.1 Environmental Values Expressed by Alaskan Issues and Leaders, 1741- 1960 / 436 xiv