How the Elk Came to Minnehaha Springs

 

IMPORTATION OF ELK .

( Address delivered by Dr. T. s . Palmer , Biological Survey U. S. Government , at the Seventh Annual Meeting of the West Virginia Forest , Game and Fish Protective Association , November Fifth , Nineteen Hundred Thirteen . )

MR . PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE WEST VIRGINIA FISH AND GAME PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION , AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :

It gives me great pleasure to meet with you here this evening , not only to attend the meeting of the West Virginia Game and Fish Protective As sociation , but to be with you at the dedication of this magnificient Club House , and I congratulate the Allegheny Sportsmen's Association in the work that they have so successfully inaugurated and on the experiment they have undertaken on these grounds which means so much , not only to the Association and to the streams of the State , but to the entire Commonwealth of West Virginia . 

 I refer to the experiment in restocking this State with one of the grandest game animals on the continent , namely , the elk . Many of those present have doubtless seen the 60 elk or some of them which are in the enclosure nearby , but I wonder whether you really appreciated what those animals really mean to this association and to this State .

The elk , you doubtless know , is the largest of the round horn deer . In the early days it extended from southern Canada to the Gulf States , and also from the Atlantic to the Pacific . Civilization and development of the country , as we are pleased to term it , have driven the animals out of probably 75 % of their former range . Hardly any species of big game on the continent occupies today so contracted a habitat as does the elk .  

You may say it is practically exterminated everywhere east of the Mississippi ; practically everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains ; practically every where in the southern Rocky Mountains , and everywhere on the Pacific Coast , except few localities . While we apply the term “ Elk ” to the large round horn deer indiscriminately , we now know , instead of one species , there were several . The point I wish to make in this connection is that within the memory of many of those living , within the last decade , there has been absolutely exterminated in the southwest one of the largest species of the kind - the elk that was in New Mexico has disappeared since the year 1900 , and so far as we know , there is not a live specimen left . So you can see the importance of any experiment which makes for the preservation and perpetuation of this great species of big game . 

 Several years ago the State of Wyoming inaugurated a plan of moving a few elk from Jackson Hole to a game ranch . Twenty - five elk were caught in the winter and transported from Teton Pass over the snow and shipped by rail around the northeast part of the State , at a cost of something like $ 1300 or $ 1400 . The following year the Government made two small ship ments of elk , one to Montana and one to the game preserve in Oklahoma . Last year there were moved through State and Federal auspices 1038 head including the 50 which came from the Yellowstone Park , and which are now upon the grounds of the Allegheny Sportsmen's Association . 

 These elk , while brought to West Virginia by the Association , were loaned by the Government , not to the Association , but to the State of West Virginia , and were brought here through the foresight and energy of your State Warden . They represent an allotment of the Government to the entire commonwealth and the reason they are here is because your State Warden and the Allegheny Sportsmen's Association , cooperating together , have established a place where they can be properly taken care of and because your Legislature , through this Association , has enacted a law for their proper protection . It occurred to me as you might be interested to know something about the place where these elk came from ; that you might like to know something of the steps that are being taken by the Government to protect and increase , if possible , this noble species of big game . Three or four years ago , during a very hard winter , many of the elk in Jackson Hole , Wyoming , starved , and the Legislature petitioned Congress to feed the animals .  

Acting on this request Congress appropriated $ 20,000 , and placed the work in charge of the Department of Agriculture . From that day to this I have been somewhat closely associated with the work of feeding and taking care of part of the herds in the west . I might say that the elk in the Rocky Mountains are now confined to the regions immediately north and south of this Park . For merely ranging over most of the mountains from Canada to Mexico , they have now been crowded to the roof of the continent and during the sum mer time , you will have to climb nine or even ten thousand feet to find them , for they range close to the timber line but when cold weather comes on in September or when the first snow begins to fall , they are driven from high altitudes to the lower valley and then , as they wend their way down the ranges and mountain sides , these herds separate , one following the Atlantic , the other coming south to the Snake River down to Jackson Hole , Wyoming .  

We have in reality, then , two great herds of elk in the Rocky Mountain region , somewhat widely separated in winter but close together in summer on the high elevations in the Park . The elk in Jackson Hole formerly went much farther south , but development of the country and the grazing industry cut off their winter range . The farms have taken up much of their land and as the animals come to the park they not only find their winter grounds occupied but the hills on which the grass grows have already been browsed over by cattle ; consequently being forced from a restricted to a still more restricted area ; but I would not have you believe this occurs every year ; on the contrary , it is only occasionally. 

The first winter which we took hold there were probably 4,000 elk starved in Jackson Hole . Last winter there were approximately none . At Jackson Hole the Department is feeding the elk , so far as it can , during the severe weather . Year before last we fed 7,500 head . Last year we fed about 4,500 head , but we fed more hay last year , for the reason that the season was cold and more animals came down and we were also better provided . We fed some thing like 700 tons of hay last winter . Not only have we been feeding these elk , but we have been making a census of them . They are accounted for in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Park and we know something about the size of the herds . 

In round numbers the two herds now include about 50,000 head and an apparent increase of about 2,000 head over last year ; partly because we had a very favorable winter and partly because the hunting season last year was not favorable and the little quota was not killed in the States of Montana or Wyoming .

Now , a word as to transportation of these elk . The elk you have here number 60 and are perhaps 3 % of all of the elk in captivity for there are now 2,000 head scattered at 90 points in the country , which are either in captivity or in preserves . 

 Under the regulation of the Department of the Interior , which administers the Yellowstone National Park , the transportation was limited to 538. Not more than fifty head are allotted to any one State in one year . No State receives any elk unless they have a law on their Statute books which will protect the animals at least for a few years until they can become established . No elk is distributed to private individuals or private organizations . 

 They were distributed last year , counting the States of Montana and Wyoming, to thirteen different States . Those shipped the greatest distance was the herd to West Virginia , 50 head to Pennsylvania and 25 to Virginia , in the adjoining County of Bath . So that , all told , there were shipped 125 head east of the Mississippi . In the west the elk was distributed to Washing ton , North California , Arizona , Utah , and Colorado , and I think one or two other States . 

During the coming winter the elk will be still more widely distributed . Regulations for this year have not been announced but I presume they will be substantially the same as those last winter . This work has only just begun and its success depends , not merely on the ability or the willingness of the Government to donate a certain number of elk each winter , but it depends upon the public interest the people in general take in this work and the personal interest they feel in seeing that these elk , when transported , are not only protected but kept in places where they have a chance to increase . The reason for the seemingly small allotment to the different States is so that the total number of elk taken from these herds will not be too great . Given a total of 50 head , the plan was to increase , say ten head each year ; 10,000 to be divided about as follows : 4,000 for the States of Montana and Wyoming , into which the elk overflows , as a reservoir overflows when it is full . This 4,000 to include not only the animals killed during the hunting season but those which naturally die there of old age , accident or severe winters . 2,000 or less being used for propagation , divided between the States of Wyoming and Montana . Montana and Wyoming shipments , do not leave the State except those transported by the Department of Agricul ture for Jackson Hole . The shipments from the Park are distributed broadcast to other States which are qualified to receive them .  

Now , a word as to shipments . The elk at Gardner are trapped in a large corral into which they are enticed by alfalfa hay . Sometimes 50 or 100 are captured at a time and it is a comparatively easy matter to haul them to the station a mile distant . The cost of trapping them is $ 5 a head . In Jackson Hole the animals are trapped in the same way , -in a corral , but after being put into an enclosure . They are transported on a sled and are hauled over the mountains 80 miles to the railroad . 

Remember , this work is done in the dead of winter , between the first of January and the first of March , when the temperature is 30 deg . below zero . The pass is 8000 ft . It takes 8 days of good traveling to haul them to the nearest point . About four or five elk are carried in each lot on a sled . It frequently takes four horses or even six horses to haul these head . Arrived at the railroad station , the elk are placed in cars and transported some times a thousand or three thousand miles distant to their destination . We have had some curious experiences in moving elk by sled and by rail . 

 One difficulty is to provide them with proper feed . It is easy enough to feed alfalfa hay , but elk are not used to traveling by rail and are sometimes rather disinclined to feed on freight trains . Some of the animals we transfer in the palace stock cars , but elk are not used io drinking out of cast iron troughs , and in fact it was found very difficult for them to take water en route ; some of the attendants conceived the idea of feeding them snow and snow was shoveled into the car ; this met with great success as doubtless many of the elk in the Park eat the snow instead of drinking water . 

 It is often difficult sometimes in preventing the elk from being injured in transportation . When cattle get down , they are often punched up with sticks ; such treatment would hardly do in the case of elk , and unless they are put on their feet shortly after being down , they suffer internally and do not always recover . 

 This year those who receive elk will probably be required not only to ship the elk in a certain way , but to have a guard with them en route . One successful way was to take a box car or cattle car and build two walls or enclosures , sorting the elk according to sizes , carrying the feed in the middle space and leaving the doors open for ventilation . I mention these various details merely to show you that the work is in an experimental stage . It is a rather difficult undertaking to capture these wild animals and transport them across the country , but as the result of the efforts thus far made , we have only been at the work ree years , the total loss is less than 10 % , and we hope this loss can be still further re duced .  

These elk which you see here in the enclosure in this Park repre sent not merely an isolated experiment in putting some wild game on this preserve , but they represent West Virginia's contribution to this great animal movement in re - stocking some of the area with game which for merly ranged over this continent, and a nation wide movement to prevent destruction of one of the grandest species of our big game .

STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY , GAME AND FISH , Belington, July 25 , 1914 . Dr. T. S. PALMER , Assistant , Biological Survey ,

Washington , D. C. DEAR SIR : - I have had many inquiries as to the success of propagating elk in West Virginia and desire to refer to this in my next biennial report .

If not asking too much will you write me a short letter giving me your observations as to the condition of our elk when you made a personal visit to our state last fall . I desire to incorporate your letter in my report .

Yours very truly ,

J. A. VIQUESNEY , Forest , Game and Fish Warden .

#1459 (p.109)

1913 ] 109 FOREST , GAME AND FISH WARDEX .

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY Washington , D. C.

October 12 , 1914 . MR . J. A. VIQUESNEY , Forest , Game and Fish Warden, Belington , West Virginia. 

DEAR SIR :

In response to your request I take pleasure in submitting the following brief statement regarding the elk which I had the pleasure of inspecting last autumn .

Among the experiments in reintroducing elk in the eastern States one of the most promising is that undertaken in West Virginia by the Alleghany Sportsmen's Association . This Association has an extensive preserve near Minnehaha Springs in Pocahontas County , comprising about 25,000 acres and including both woodland and grazing lands , and an enclosure of about 100 acres surrounded with an 8 - foot woven wire fence . Both deer and elk have been placed in the enclosure . In March , 1912 , 15 elk were purchased in Iowa and early in 1913 , through the cooperation of the State Forestry , Game and Fish Warden , 50 elk were obtained from the Yellowstone National Park , Wyoming . The animals from the Park were shipped east with a similar consignment for Pennsylvania , in charge of Mr. Howard Eaton , and were delivered at Minnehaha Springs without loss en route . Subsequently , some of them escaped from the en closure and were not recaptured .

In November , 1913 , when I had the pleasure of examining the elk in the enclosure , the herd comprised 32 head - 5 bulls and 27 cows . Of the 65 elk originally obtained , 4 had been lost by various accidents , and one , an unruly bull , had been killed ; about half were under fence , and 28 were running at large . The elk in the enclosure were in excellent condition , quite tame , and seemed very much at home .

The preserve on which the elk have been established includes some of the higher mountain ridges and extends to the eastern boundary of the State adjoining some of the lands which will ultimately be included in the Appalachian National Park . The location is ideal and there is every reason to expect that the elk within and without the enclosure will increase rapidly in numbers . Great credit is due the State Warden and the Association for their foresight and public spirit in thus inaugu rating the movement to restock this part of the Alleghanies with one of the noblest big game animals formerly native to the State.