It Happened in Alaska by Olthuis Diane;

Author:Olthuis, Diane;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4459014
Publisher: TwoDot

HARRIMAN BAGS HIS BEAR

Kodiak

1899

In 1899, America’s richest railroad man traveled to Alaska to shoot a bear. Edward Harriman never did anything in a small way, and it wouldn’t have occurred to him to hunt for a bear anywhere but on Kodiak Island, where Alaska’s largest brown bears lived.

Harriman’s New York doctor had told him to take a vacation from work and to get some rest. In response, Harriman rented a large steamship, fixed it up for luxury travel, and decided to go bear hunting in Alaska. Mrs. Harriman liked adventure, and it was decided that she and their children would go along also. Knowing that the trip would be long, they invited friends so that Mrs. Harriman would have female company. For the bear hunt Harriman brought a guide, packers, and a taxidermist. He suspected there were unnamed animals, plants, and glaciers in Alaska so he decided to bring along a team of scientists as well.

Harriman’s list of Alaska-bound scientists grew to include twenty-five of America’s most famous, among them the chief of the US Biological Survey; the director of the California Academy of Sciences Natural History Museum; the editor of Forest and Stream; plus the founders of the Arctic Club, Sierra Club, Boone and Crockett Club, Audubon Society, and American Forestry Congress. Two artists and a photographer were included for good measure. The two-month trip was called the Harriman Alaska Expedition. From Seattle to the Bering Sea and back, they covered 9,000 miles and stopped fifty times. The bear hunt was Harriman’s most important stop.

On the morning of July 1, the ship was in a bay on Kodiak Island. Harriman went ashore with the ship’s hunting guide, packers, a Kodiak Island hunter, and others. The island was a rolling sea of thick grass. The crew pitched several big canvas tents, laid out a table and chairs, and set up a woodstove with a tall chimney. They even had a tablecloth! This was camping in style. Meanwhile, Harriman and his guides hiked high and low over the hills, looking for a bear. They found none and returned to camp for the night.

Trying again the next day, it wasn’t long before they spotted a golden-brown hump moving in the tall grass. A female Kodiak brown bear was grazing with her cub. In early July, the male and largest female bears gather along early-run salmon streams. The larger bears don’t give the smaller bears much opportunity to fish, so the smaller bears have to wait for the larger ones to have their fill before it is their turn. On this day, this small female and cub chose to eat grass rather than wait for the larger bears to finish fishing. She had not started to grow her winter coat, and looked almost scruffy. However, there were no hunting laws, and a hunter could shoot any animal he wanted, at any time. If Harriman saw a better bear later, he could kill it also. Everyone readied their rifles, in case the bear charged. They knew that female bears guarded their cubs fiercely.

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