U.S. Department of the Interiorand Preserve

AT THE HEART OF KATMAI

AN ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE BROOKS RIVER AREA

With Special Emphasis on 

Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Katherine Ringsmuth 
As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has 

responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural 

resources. Th is includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water resources, 

protecting our fi sh and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of 

our national parks and historical places, and providing for enjoyment of life through 

outdoor recreation. 

Th e Cultural Resource Programs of the National Park Service have responsibilities that include 

stewardship of historic buildings, museum collections, archeological sites, cultural landscapes, oral and 

written histories, and ethnographic resources. 

Our mission is to identify, evaluate and preserve the cultural resources of the park areas and to bring and 

understanding of these resources to the public. Congress has mandated that we preserve these resources 

because they are important components of our national and personal identity.

Published by the United States Department 

of the Interior through the Government Printing Offi ce with the assistance of 

Debra A. Mingeaud, National Park Service.

At the Heart of Katmai: 

An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, 

with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Katherine Ringsmuth

ISBN-978-0-9796432-7-9

Research/Resource – Management Report NPS/AR/CRR/2013-77

2013

Front Cover: At the Heart of Katmai is the Brooks River, home to world-class À sh runs, the famous 

Brooks bears, and ancient archeological sites. It is a place that holds a great deal of meaning for a 

variety of people. Artist Murial Hannah captured the swirling beauty of the Brooks Falls in the early 

1950s. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and Katmailand, Inc.

Back Cover: NCA tent frames painted sometime in early 1950s. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.

Title Page: Detail from a 2003 Brown Bear Booster pin, part of a program created by former chief of 

interpretation, Mark Wagner
At the Heart of Katmai: 

An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, 

with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai 

National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

U.S. Department of the Interior

National Park Service

Katmai National Park and Preserve

Author: Katherine Ringsmuth 

With major contributions by:

Timothy Rawson

Chris Allan

2013

 
Dedication

Lying at the geographical heart of Katmai is the Brooks River, a place well-known for its worldclass trout and salmon fi shery, brown bear population and as a part of the ancestral home of the 

area’s Alutiiq people. Th e administrative history of the Brooks River area is a complex story of 

the long standing relationship between fi sh, bears and people. 

Th is work is dedicated to the Katmai Descendants, whose ancestors lived along the Brooks 

River for centuries, and to the park employees, lodge employees, fi shing guides, pilots, scientists, 

and researchers, who endeavor each year to preserve and share the area’s spectacular ecology and 

enduring past with the world.

Qit’rwik (variously spelled “Kittevik,” “Kedevik,” “Kittiwick,” etc.) is the Native place name for 

the Brooks Camp area, meaning “sheltered place behind a point.”

“Kittevik” the site where Superintendent Been 

and Victor Cahlane witnessed Pelagia Melgenak 

and her family harvest spawned salmon in 1940. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Kittevik” thesite where Superintendent Been

and Victor Cahlane witnessed P elagia Melgenak

and her f amily harvest spawned salmon i n 1940.

KATM P hoto A rchive, Records of Katmai National

Park a ndPreserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Kittevik” the site where Superintendent Been 

and Victor Cahlane witnessed Pelagia Melgenak 

and her family harvest spawned salmon in 1940. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Table of Contents iii

Table of Contents 

 Foreword by Frank Norris vi

Study Description, History and Acknowledgements viii

A Note about Numbers xiv 

 

Introduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xv

The Brooks River Area Today xv

Why Brooks Camp Works xviii 

A History of Bears and People xxii

Brooks Camp Develoment Maps xxvii

PART I: ESTABLISHMENT, 1912-1967

Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks River Area 1

Katmai Volcano Makes History 1

A New Purpose: Monument Expansion and Protecting Alaska’s Brown Bears, 1918-1931 4

The “Period of Neglect”: Managing Katmai from Afar, 1931-1941 6

Commercial Salmon Management brings Biologists to Brooks Lake 9

Bureau of Fisheries Biologists Establish the Brooks Lake Field Station, 1940-1941 15

Fisheries Research, the Fish Ladder, and the End of the ‘Eicher Era,’ 1941-1957 18

Military Sportsmen Discover Katmai and the Brooks River 23

Endnotes 26

Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 30

The Area’s First Tourists: Anglers 31

Flying Fisherman: Ray Petersen 32

Early Development of Brooks Camp 34

Use of the Brooks River Area: from the Solitary Angler to the Sightseeing Tourist 38

NPS and NCA: Visions for Brooks Camp Diverge 40

Managing Katmai Year-round from King Salmon, 1964-1967 42

Endnotes 46

Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 48

Food-Conditioning: A “Bear Problem” or “People Problem”? 49

An Opportunistic Eater 49

Enticing Bears Back to the Brooks River 51

Garbage Disposal Methods—Sinking, Burning, and Dumping—Attract Bears and People 53

Brooks River Campground: “The Most Dangerous Place in Brooks Camp” 55

The 1966 Campground Bear Incident and its Repercussions 58 

Endnotes 60

PART II: TRANSFORMATION, 1968 TO 1980

Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 62

Pioneers of a “Scientifi c Wilderness” 63

Archeologists and Fish Biologists: First to Study Katmai’s Resources 63

Bristol Bay Investigation of Sockeye Salmon at Brooks Lake 67

The Call for a Bear-Human Interaction Study for Katmai: Fredrick Dean’s Report 72

Dealing with the “Problem Bear”: Relocation 75

Independent Administration of Katmai Begins, 1971 76

Keeping Camp Clean and the Mauling of Richard Jensen 77

The Plane Crash at Geographic Harbor and the 1973 “Bear Policy for Developed Areas” 78

Hazing Techniques Developed 79

Wildlife Science Resumes: 1974-1979 79

“Science versus Scenery” 80

Archeologists Study the Brooks River’s Cultural Past 

and Clash with Brooks Camp’s Vision for the Future, 1974-1975 81

A Clear Need for a Bear Management Plan 82

Endnotes 83
iv At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishers: Bears and Anglers 86 

 Inherent Problems 87 

The Lure of the Trophy Rainbow: Angling as a Deep-rooted, Visitor Activity in National Parks 91

Expansion of the Lodge Industry Sparked by the Popularity of Angling 95

Anglers as an Interest Group 97

Fall Fishing, Angler Competition, and Aggressive Food-Conditioned Bears 99

Endnotes 102

PART III: IMPLEMENTATION 1980-1995

Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs, and Politics 104

The Morris Administration Improves and Expands Brooks Camp’s Facilities 105

Park Headquarters Established at King Salmon 110

Students Study Bears and Tourists at Brooks Camp 111

Katmai’s First Bear Management Plan Developed and Implemented 112

1986 General Management Plan, Reactions and Responses 115

Ray Bane’s Administration: Seeking Solutions from the Scientists 117

First Steps to Building Cultural Resource Capacity 120 

The Space between Bears and People Becomes Harder to Defi ne 123

Endnotes 125

Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 128 

“Excited with Seeing Bears so Close” 129

Creating a Wilderness Park for the Symbolic Grizzly 33

“The Shot”: Seeking the Wild Things 137

Easing Mobility for Bear Watchers and its Repercussions 139

Enhancement and Education 143

The Dilemma of Managing Brooks Camp as Front Country 148

Endnotes 151

 

 

PART IV BALANCE (AND ITS CHALLENGES), 1996-2006

Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 154

Bears, Fish, and the People Who Love Them 155

Solving Problems: Visitor Numbers Rise, but Food-Related Incidents Decline 157 

Dealing Successfully with Limited Viewing Space, Preferential Treatment, and Complacency 159 

Clustering the Southwest Parks and Building a Cultural Resources Program 161

The Legal Battle for Public Access and Appreciating the Native Presence 165

Katmai Descendants and the Redfi sh Fishery 171

The 1996 Brooks River Development Concept Plan 174

The Decision to Move Brooks Camp 175

The Public Responds 176

Political Infl uences 177

Endnotes 179

Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 182

“There Were Simply Too Many People” 183

NPS Seeks to Improve Visitor Safety 188

Solutions Inadvertently Create Problems 189 

An Aging Camp with No Room to Grow 190

The Struggle for Common Vision and Reorganization 192

Managing Guided Visitors at Brooks and other Park Areas 193

Endnotes 200 

Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 202

Bear Management in the 21st Century 203

Practicing Pragmatic Management 206

Studying the Effect of Elevated Structures on Bears 209
 Table of Contents v

 

 

 

 

A historic aerial view of Brooks Camp, circa early 1950s. Note the Native fi sh racks near the bend in the Brooks River. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and Katmailand, Inc.

The Moore Administration: Meeting Challenges Head On 210

Endnotes 214

Conclusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 217

Endnotes 228 

 

Afterword by Ralph Moore (Superintendent 2006-2012) 230

Appendices A: Growth in Katmai’s Boundaries, 1918 to Present 234

B: Katmai Permanent Employee Roster 1912-2006 235

C: Permanent and Seasonal (s) NPS Employees and Volunteers at Brooks Camp 240

D: Brooks Camp Development: A Timeline 241

E: Bear Management at Brooks Camp: A Timeline 246

F: Brooks River National Historic Preservation Act Compliance 1969-2006 250

G: Case Incident Reports for Brooks River Area 1974-2001 255 

Work Cited 309 

 
Errata and Additional Information Sheet

At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area with a Special 

Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1912-2006 

by Katherine Johnson Ringsmuth

Page 19 left column: correct spelling is Gomer Hilsinger.

Page 19, right column: The Japanese surrender was signed in 1945.

Page 23: Straty oversaw the completion of the lab's southern (not third) wing in 1957. 

Page 30 photo caption: The fish are grayling.

Page 31, right column, 2nd paragraph, line 9: John Woodley should be Art Woodley.

Page 34, left column: Smithsonian Institution.

Page 37 photo caption: The unidentified ranger is Nick Chura.

Page 39 photo caption: The fish are salmon.

Page 43 photo caption: Pictured is Ed Schrockman, a Katmailand, Inc. employee who shared a 

resemblance to Senator Ernest Gruening.

Page 52 photo caption: Pictured is an unidentified guest, not John Walatka. 

Page 64: To clarify the text about the funding of the archaeological team: Theodore Merrill was 

instrumental in spearheading a request to the Department of Anthropology at the University of 

Oregon to provide an archaeologist, with an offer of partial financial support. Professor Luther 

Cressman, anthropology department chairman, applied for and received a grant from the 

National Science Foundation to supplement the offer, and recruited graduate student Don E. 

Dumond to be the field supervisor for the Brooks-area excavations. The following year 

Dumond's Brooks-River crew was expanded to three, with its University of Oregon and NSF 

support supplemented by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, and with additional logistical 

assistance from the National Park Service (D. E. Dumond January 8, 2014).

Page 68 photo caption: The photograph was probably taken in September not November.

Page 68, left column: The first names of those in the crew for 1957 are: James A. Harbour, 

William H. Pogue, Richard E. Painter, Charles R. Goldman, Fred P. Meyer, Ronald A. Thorson 

(the cook) and Guy Y. Wong.

Page 69 photo caption: The person in the photograph is Dr. Norman Wilimousky and the photo 

was taken in February of 1958.
Page 144, right column, line 20: The earliest Bear Management Report Forms (BMRF) in the 

Katmai park archives are 1984. 

Page 204, right column 1st paragraph: Taxiing operations by planes are guided by the FAA 

Supplement for use of the Naknek Lake Sea-Plane base. Planes have always been required to 

taxi out to 200 yard buoys where they can then apply full take-off power.

Page 205, right column, 1st paragraph: There are three distinct 50 yard regulations under 36 

CFR 13.1206.

Page 212 photo caption: Vera (Kie) Angason was born in 1924.
vi At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

As many Brooks Camp visitors can tell 

you, spending a few days at Katmai’s most 

popular destination is far diff erent than any 

comparable Alaska experience. Th e typical visitor arrives at the camp aft er one, or 

perhaps two, rides in a small plane, and for 

miles and miles before landing on the Naknek 

Lake shoreline, he or she has seen nothing but 

sweeping vistas of mountains, lakes, and seemingly unlimited wilderness.

It can be a shock, therefore, for the 

recently-arrived Brooks Camp visitor to see 

such a concentration of biological, geological, and cultural complexity within easy 

walking distance. Here, in a remarkably 

compact space, is the majestic Brooks River, 

one and a half miles long featuring the 

iconic Brooks Falls; a world-class series of 

archeological sites, mute testimony to more 

than four thousand years of near-continuous 

human habitation; more recently-built 

residential and commercial structures, some 

now of historic vintage; large annual migrations of rainbow trout and red salmon; and, 

Foreword

crowning it all, one of the world’s most 

accessible concentrations of Alaskan brown 

bears. Taken as a whole, Brooks Camp is 

deservedly recognized as one of Alaska’s 

most iconic sites; after all, what Alaska visitor (or Alaska resident) has not repeatedly 

seen movies and photographs showing bears 

fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls?

Given such a unique confl uence of resources, it is not at all surprising that hundreds 

of thousands of visitors have descended on 

Brooks Camp since 1950, when commercial facilities opened there. And given such a throng 

in such a small space – with all the safety 

concerns attendant upon the nexus between 

bears and humans – it is also not surprising 

that National Park Service (NPS) offi cials have 

been sorely tested in their ongoing quest to 

accommodate legitimate visitor needs without 

a corresponding detriment to the area’s natural 

and cultural resources.

As the author shows, the Brooks Camp 

area – which became part of Katmai National 

An unidentifi ed NPS ranger, Gilbert 

and Elsie Grosvenor, John Walatka 

and Ray Petersen pose for the camera 

in 1954. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen 

and Katmailand, Inc.
 Foreword vii

Monument in 1931 – grew from a fi sheries 

research station and occasional fi shing destination (in the 1940s) to a concessioner-operated 

camp that attracted primarily sport anglers (in 

the 1950s and early 1960s). Aft er the completion, in 1963, of a road connecting Brooks 

Camp with the nearby Valley of Ten Th ousand 

Smokes, Brooks Camp began to increasingly 

attract visitors who had little or no interest in 

fi shing, and by the 1970s the area’s bears had 

become such a prime attraction that the NPS 

installed its fi rst bear-observation platform 

just south of Brooks Falls. Th e passage of the 

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation 

Act (ANILCA) in 1980, transformed the 

monument into the far larger Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, and the ensuing boom in 

Alaska tourism caused the number of Brooks 

Camp visitors – many of them day-trippers 

– to swell to unheard-of heights. Th e ramifi cations of these increasing crowds resulted in a 

new paradigm of management challenges.

In At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area with a 

Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1912-2006, 

Ringsmuth takes the long view. Aft er undertaking considerable research into the topic, 

she nimbly answers the obvious present-day 

question – namely, “What is the NPS doing to 

accommodate the needs of visitors, bears, fi sh, 

cultural resources, park employees, and the 

concessioner?” More important, she recognizes that the present management situation 

is the product of a seventy-year evolution in 

federal and concessioner management practices 

that have changed many times over the years as 

visitation has increased, local bear populations 

have grown, bear research has become more 

sophisticated, and NPS management (among 

both interpreters and resource managers) has 

become more attuned to the fragile balance 

between visitor needs and natural resource 

protection. What emerges from her carefullycraft ed history is that the NPS, over the years, 

has undertaken a series of management actions 

that have continually attempted to re-calibrate 

this balance. 

On the surface, it appears that the agency’s 

management actions have been relatively successful: aft er all, only a few minor bear-human 

incidents (none involving major injuries) have 

marred an otherwise excellent visitor safety 

record, and an undiminished number of both 

bears and fi sh return to the area each summer. 

Maintaining the balance between visitor needs 

and resource protection, however, will require 

both vigilance and vision by park managers, and 

caution on the part of both visitors and those 

who use the area for business and recreation.

 ~Frank Norris, March 24, 2010

“It was this big!” An angler tells fi sh 

stories at Brooks Lodge, circa 1954. 

Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.
viii At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

In 2005, the National Park Service (NPS) 

undertook a project that aimed to document 

the administrative history of the Brooks River 

area, with an emphasis on the management of 

the Brooks River’s growing bear population. 

Th e Brooks River area is a two-square mile forested landscape encompassing Brooks Camp 

along Naknek Lake and the Brooks Lake residential area. Th e Brooks River Archeological 

District National Historic Landmark, containing over 900 visible prehistoric house depressions and occupations dating from 4,500 years 

ago to the early twentieth century, falls within 

the boundaries of the Brooks River area.

At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area with an 

Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, 1912-2006 is not a 

history of Katmai’s bear management program. 

Rather, it is a history of the administration of 

the Brooks River area that concentrates on the 

evolving relationship between people and bears 

in a landscape shaped and inhabited by both 

for at least 4,500 years. 

Part I contains three chapters which cover 

the history of the Brooks River area, from 

the establishment of Katmai National Monument to Brooks Camp’s era of early tourism. 

Chapter one focuses on the evolution of the 

park: fi rst a reserve for scientifi c, volcanic and 

geological study in 1918, then, as a laboratory 

for biologists studying the Brooks River’s lucrative sockeye run for the commercial salmon 

fi shery. Chapter two explains how the Brooks 

River became a fi shing destination for anglers 

beginning in the 1950s, and then a destination for wilderness seekers by the end of the 

1960s. Chapter three explains how this new 

population of humans unintentionally encouraged bears to return to the river area in larger 

numbers and how NPS dealt with its most 

troublesome, yet most solvable problem at 

Brooks Camp—food and waste. 

Part II includes two chapters that cover 

the Brooks River area’s period of transformation from an angler’s paradise to a bear haven. 

Beginning in 1967, NPS commenced an era 

dedicated to the scientifi c study of Brooks 

bears. As the camp grew, some of the area’s rich 

cultural heritage was exposed by development 

and it became necessary for archeologists to 

begin identifying, evaluating and, with mixed 

results, advising park management about 

preservation of the area’s cultural resources. 

Study Description, 

History and Acknowledgements

Brooks Camp was renowned for its 

bear-watching in the early 1980s. 

Courtesy of Katherine Ringsmuth.
Study Description, History and Acknowledgements ix

Chapter four examines the studies as well as 

the corresponding policies implemented by 

NPS. Chapter fi ve describes how anglers and 

bears became Brooks River competitors, and 

how this growing rivalry created a need for a 

bear management plan for the area. 

In 1982, Katmai hired a natural resource 

specialist whose fi rst priority was to write a 

bear management plan. Part III includes two 

chapters that show how Brooks Camp made 

the transition from the fi rst bear management plan to the Brooks River Development 

Concept Plan of 1996. Chapter six looks at 

the ramifi cations of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and 

the creation of the new park, especially for the 

new bear managers, who instead of dealing 

with “problem bears”, began to see the cause 

of Brooks Camp’s bear-related problems to be 

human behavior.

Expanding Katmai National Monument 

into Katmai National Park and Preserve in 

1980 brought new attention to the Brooks 

River area. Th e area’s structural footprint 

expanded in an eff ort to accommodate a new 

category of visitors—bear watchers. NPS 

management decisions had to take into consideration the concentration of archeological 

sites, but also the interests of Native people 

still closely connected to the Brooks River area 

and its resources. Th e passage of ANILCA 

and increased development to support visitor services at Brooks Camp attracted more 

people, some who paradoxically came to the 

Brooks River to experience wilderness. Permanent structures and the motorized boat use on 

Naknek and Brooks Lakes prevented the area 

immediately surrounding Brooks Camp from 

meeting the criteria for wilderness designation 

in the 1960s. Brooks Camp’s dual function as 

the park’s front country as well as its role as the 

park’s access to wilderness created competing 

identities for Brooks Camp and a management 

dilemma for NPS. Chapter seven therefore, 

looks at how the agency, in part, created the 

camp’s dueling purposes; and how it attempted 

The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries 

represented the fi rst federally 

supported activity on the Brooks 

River. This photo from 1940 shows 

the Bureau’s temporary tent camp 

and fi sh weir. Photographed 

by Robert Hacker. Brooks Camp 

Interpretive Collection, KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska
x At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

to manage Brooks Camp as both wild country and front country; it discusses how NPS 

helped to facilitate the transition in visitation 

emphasis from anglers to bear viewers in the 

1980s, and how the agency responded to the 

cultural resource concerns in the Brooks River 

area that resulted from a growing infrastructure 

and increased visitation. 

Part IV includes three chapters which discuss how NPS attempted to balance its mandate to conserve the scenery, cultural resources 

and wildlife; to provide opportunities for 

visitors; and to leave the Brooks Camp River 

area unimpaired for the enjoyment of future 

generations. By the 1990s, both visitor and 

bear numbers had risen to a point where Brooks 

Camp and its entire raison d’etre seemed to be at 

risk. Th e Brooks River Developmental Concept Plan (DCP) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) were prepared to identify 

alternative strategies for the operation and location of development in the Brooks River area. 

Th e DCP/EIS Record of Decision (ROD) 

directed the park to move Brooks Camp away 

from the river, solving multiple problems, 

including negative bear and human encounters 

and disturbance of cultural resources. Chapter 

eight examines the DCP process, and the ensuing political, economic and emotional fallout 

that occurred in its aft ermath.

Political and economic factors prevented 

immediate implementation of the DCP decision and the challenges facing Brooks Camp 

remained. Chapter nine discusses those 

post-DCP issues and how NPS management 

dealt with them. Compounding the situation 

was the emboldened behavior some visitors 

exhibited towards bears, infl uenced by media 

Before the fl oating bridge was 

installed, people crossed the Brooks 

River in boats. Here seasonal ranger 

Bonnie Koploy heads out of the 

boat dock area in 1969. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
Study Description, History and Acknowledgements xi

reports in the 1990s that Brooks Camp was 

not only a place to see bears, but to see them 

up close. Chapter ten discusses how Brooks 

Camp’s management in recent years has made 

a concerted eff ort to balance the visitor’s desire 

to see bears with more realistic and pragmatic 

strategies for dealing with the area’s natural and 

cultural resources.

Finally, the report concludes with a summary of how people’s perceptions of bears 

changed over sixty years, and how those varying perceptions aff ected the management of 

the Brooks River area.

Project History

Previous work on the topic began in 1988 

when William S. Hanable completed three 

chapters relevant to Katmai bear policy for 

a general administrative history of the park. 

Frank Norris included much of Hanable’s 

research regarding bears while writing Isolated 

Paradise: an Administrative History of the 

Katmai and Aniakchak National Park Units

(1996). Because Norris’ discussion of bear 

management at Katmai ended in 1989, one of 

the goals for the current project was to update 

the park’s bear management history.

Katmai entered into a cooperative agreement with National History Day in Alaska 

(NHDA) to hire historian Chris Allan to begin the project under Norris’ direction. Allan 

conducted archival research and interviewed 

past and present park staff and researchers, 

including Troy Hamon, Imes Vaughn, Terry 

DeBruyn, Kathy Jope, Richard Sherman, Peter 

Hamel, Mark Wagner, and Joan (Beattie) 

Darnell. He submitted a working narrative 

and compiled research that included primary 

and secondary sources before resigning to accept a permanent historian position at YukonCharley and Gates of the Arctic National Parks 

and Preserves. 

Professor Timothy Rawson of Alaska 

Pacifi c University was enlisted to continue the 

work in 2007 aft er Allan’s departure through 

the same cooperative agreement with NHDA. 

Rawson’s in-depth familiarity with NPS wildlife management policies in Alaska was demonstrated in his book, Changing Tracks: Predators 

and Politics in Mt. McKinley National Park. 

Rawson’s analysis of the controversy over wolf 

control in Denali National Park and Preserve 

in the context of changing perceptions about 

wolves in the twentieth century, and the emergence of ecological science was a good fi t for 

the Brooks River area administrative history. 

Rawson visited Brooks Camp that summer 

and was able to observe and experience a bit 

of its bear management fi rst-hand. Th ere, he 

conducted interviews relating to the administrative history of Brooks Camp, including 

several follow-up interviews, as well as with 

Katmailand, Inc. CEO Sonny Petersen, former 

chief of concessions Becky Brock, district 

ranger Kathy Spengler, Brooks Camp manager 

Roy Wood, interpretive ranger Michael Glore, 

former park superintendent Deborah Liggett, 

and Katmai’s key cultural resource personnel, 

Jeanne Schaaf and Dale Vinson. As a fl yfi shing expert in terms of both his knowledge 

of the subject as well as the execution of the 

craft on the river, Rawson provided particularly 

insightful analysis on angling history, which is 

included in Chapter fi ve. 

Katherine Ringsmuth was hired by 

NHDA through the same cooperative agreement with NPS in September 2009 to complete the administrative history. Ringsmuth 

worked as a seasonal ranger on the interpretive 

staff at Brooks Camp between 1997 and 1999. 

Over the last decade, she has been writing park 

histories and national register nominations for 

Katmai’s cultural resource program, as well as 

working with the cultural resource team at the 

Anchorage Regional Offi ce.

At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative 

History of the Brooks River Area, with Special 

Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, 1912-2006 is 

a composite of the accumulative research, 

interviews and writings contributed by the 

above-mentioned historians. Much of the 

earlier work was retained and the author had 

the delicate task of weaving together the previous work with her own. Th e combined eff orts 

of these historians off er a broad narrative of 

the transformative history of the Brooks River 

area, extending to the beginning of superintendent Ralph Moore’s administration in 2006. 

Th ese researchers are acknowledged for their 

signifi cant contributions to this project. 

Many thanks must go to the numerous 

NPS employees—past and present—who served 

as sounding boards and reviewers of previous 

draft s. Tamara Olson, who left her position as 

the park’s wildlife biologist in 2009, transferred 

to the park archives her bear management fi les, 

representing nine years of service to the park. 

Th e collection is a plethora of primary source 

materials and scientifi c reports, prepared over 
xii At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

several decades by numerous independent and 

park biologists and researchers. Th e insights and 

detailed comments provided by Olson on early 

draft s were invaluable, fi lling in much information missing from the park archives, as well as 

ensuring that the natural resource documents 

were interpreted correctly. Katmai’s chief of 

natural resources Troy Hamon, chief of concessions Lisa Fox, former Brooks Camp interpreter 

Jeanne Roy, chief ranger Neal Labrie and superintendent Ralph Moore (2006-2012), reviewed 

an earlier draft and helped to explain decisions 

made by recent Brooks Camp management, staff 

and scientists within the context of their respective expertise. Without their contribution this 

report would not have been possible. Th at said, 

the historical conclusions and interpretations 

represented in this report were developed solely 

by the author. Th e responsibility for errors or 

misrepresentations should not be attributed to 

Katmai National Park and Preserve or its park 

staff , past or present.

Numerous perspectives are entwined 

in the Brooks Camp story: the cultural, the 

political, and the natural. Writing accurately 

on interdisciplinary topics is always diffi cult. 

Grant Hilderbrand, a former wildlife biologist 

at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game 

and now with the NPS Regional Offi ce in 

Anchorage, is recognized for his thoughtful 

reading and review of the report. Former chief 

of natural resources for Lake Clark National 

Park and Preserve, Page Spencer, was employed 

to edit the manuscript aft er it had been revised 

following two rounds of park review. Th eir 

attention made sure that the science and the 

intent of natural resource management documents were not lost in translation.

Th anks also go to Katmailand, Inc., CEO, 

Ray “Sonny” Petersen and his Brooks Camp 

Manager, Jim Albert, for providing many of 

the document’s historic photographs, many of 

which have never been published prior to this 

report. Katmai’s collections manager, Kathryn 

Myers assisted in the acquisition of Katmailand’s photos as well as those images provided by the park’s collections. Alaska Region’s 

historical landscape architects Samson Ferreira 

and Corinna Welzenbach spent hours sift ing 

through various photo collections, identifying 

unknown images and placing them in historic 

context. Th is report benefi ted from their 

substantial work in the archives. Archeologist 

Dan Trepal draft ed the series of Brooks Camp 

development maps. Biologist Will Troyer 

generously provided his personal photographs 

and insights of the Brooks River area, spanning 

a twenty year period. Th e late Richard “Dick” 

Straty, who worked as a fi sheries biologist for 

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at Brooks Lake, 

donated photographs from his personal collection and Th eodore Merrell, who supervised 

the Brooks Lake fi sheries fi eld operations, was 

also interviewed. Sharon Prien with the Alaska 

Resources Library & Information Service 

found numerous newspaper articles on Brooks 

Camp that provided essential background and 

historic context. Alaska Region science advisor 

Robert Winfree provided photographs from 

his recent visit to Brooks Camp. Collectively, 

the photographs included in this report bring 

the Brooks Camp story to life. 

Archeologist Don Dumond, who was 

originally enlisted by Merrell in 1960 to study 

the Brooks River’s prehistoric salmon runs and 

continues to be involved with Katmai’s cultural 

resource program, reviewed an early draft . His 

insights and a historical perspective of the 

Brooks River area reaching back fi ft y years 

were invaluable. Former NPS historian Logan 

Hovis and Katmai’s compliance archeologist 

Dale Vinson also reviewed early versions and 

provided thoughtful comments which added 

greatly to the current writing. 

Frank Norris provided essential guidance 

for this project, from the solid platform of 

research relevant to this study that he established in the Katmai Administrative History 

to his detailed reading and editing of early 

draft s, guiding the content and tone of the 

present work. Th e author and Katmai National Park and Preserve recognize a great debt 

to him. 

Jeanne Schaaf, who conceived the original 

project, has remained steadfast in her determination to produce this study of the Brooks 

River area’s complicated history. Schaaf served 

as the history’s primary director, and oversaw 

the work from its onset in 2005 through to 

its conclusion. It would not have happened 

without her dedication and persistence.

Finally, At the Heart of Katmai: An 

Administrative History of the Brooks River Area 

with an Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1912-2006 

was written with the NPS report, “Imperiled 

Promise the State of History in the National 

Park Service,” in mind. Th e 2011 report urged 

the agency to recommit to history, recommending the following key actions1

:
 A Note about Numbers xiii

• Expand interpretive frames beyond existing physical resources.

• Emphasize connections of parks with the 

larger histories beyond their boundaries.

• Highlight the eff ects of human activity on 

“natural” areas.

• Acknowledge that history is dynamic and 

always unfi nished.

• Recognize the NPS’s own role in shaping 

every park’s history.

• Attend to the roles of memory and memorialization at historic sites.

A Note about Numbers

Th e increasing number of visitors to 

Brooks Camp between 1950 and 2000 is 

central to understanding the administrative 

history of the area. Th e numbers cited in this 

report (Appendix D) come primarily from the 

Superintendent’s Annual Reports, which were 

determined through a variety of sources such 

as concessioner reports, commercial operator 

reports, campground use, evening program 

attendance, Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes 

tours bus numbers, viewing platform counts, 

and daily visitor counts by roving rangers. Th is 

creates a problem where the various counting 

methods may greatly exaggerate the actual 

visitation numbers.

Unlike traditional national parks in the 

Lower-48 where the average visitor drives to 

the park and enters through an established 

park gateway, Katmai, because of its access 

methods—aircraft and boat—the park has 

practically unlimited points of entry. Th is has 

made it extremely diffi cult for park managers 

to provide a precise visitor count throughout 

the years. 

Th at said, the decisions and policies developed by Katmai management during those 

years were based on numbers believed, at the 

time, to be fairly accurate. Even though visitor 

• Highlight the open-endedness of the past.

• Forthrightly address confl ict and controversy both in and about the past.

• Welcome contested and evolving understandings of American civic heritage.

• Envision “doing history” as a means of 

skills development for civic participation.

• Share authority with and take knowledge 

from the public.

• Better connect with the rest of the history 

profession and embrace interdisciplinary 

collaboration.

numbers are still diffi cult to quantify, historical 

evidence supports the narrative that the number of people visiting Brooks Camp increased 

steadily aft er 1963, and continued to rise until 

visitor numbers peaked in the late 1990s. Th at 

number appeared to have plateaued in the 

2000s. For now, the reason(s) for the plateau 

have yet to be determined. 
xiv At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Katmai Region map showing the location of Brooks Camp (#1) in roughly the center of the map. Courtesy of Alaska Region, National Park Service.

B
Inroduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xv

Introduction: 

Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise

Katmai is the Alaska that people dream of...

 ~Katmailand, Inc., 2010

Strong, unbridled, and nomadic, bears are perhaps the ultimate symbol of the 

Alaskan wild. And seeing a bear, if even for a fl eeting moment, is a rare and magical 

experience. You may see bears in Denali National Park or elsewhere. But going bear 

viewing at Brooks River Falls...is an entirely diff erent experience.

 ~Bearviewing.org, 2010

Brooks Camp, the visitor hub of Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, is a quintessential 

success story in terms of visitor satisfaction 

and safety. Today’s visitors can fi sh for trophy 

trout on a world-class river, witness one of the 

greatest salmon runs in Alaska, and experience a truly spectacular display: one of the 

largest gatherings of the Alaska brown bear 

anywhere. Not only do visitors experience 

these bears from platforms, but they are free 

to travel through bear habitat at ground level. 

Even when bears are absent, evidence of the 

animals permeates the entire Brooks River area. 

While strolling along a lake front beach of fi ne 

grained pumice visitors might walk in a brown 

bear’s recently made footprints or, as they make 

their way down the footpath to the famous 

Brooks Falls, visitors pass by long-established 

bear trails threading through the boreal forest 

like superhighways. Just to feel the presence 

of bears is a profound experience. But when a 

person catches a glimpse of a massive animal 

gracefully and silently making its way through 

the woods, it is exhilarating. As one observer 

described, “seeing a bear in the wild is the 

climax of a thousand dreams and ten years of 

hoping.”2

 To put it mildly, for most visitors a 

trip to Brooks Camp is a dream come true.

The Brooks River Area Today

Brooks Camp is within the Brooks River 

area and also within the boundaries of the 

Brooks River Archeological District National 

Historic Landmark, located in the heart of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve in Southwest Alaska. Th e camp is situated in the center 

of a bouquet of deep, glacially-carved, freshwater lakes that make up the Naknek Lake 

complex, consisting of Grosvenor, Colville, 

Brooks, and Naknek lakes (the latter being the 

fourth largest lake in Alaska). 

Providing the camp’s northern backdrop is 

Dumpling Mountain. From its rounded summit, one quickly gains a sense of the Brooks 

River area’s remote setting. Commanding the 

view is the one-and-a-half mile Brooks River 

that connects Naknek Lake with Brooks Lake.3

 

Looking north Katmai’s northern terrain is a 

great expanse of lake and mountain country 

heavily covered with the boreal forest. To the 

east lies the broad ash-fi lled valley of the Savonoski River, that gives passage into the coastal 

range, and eventually, the shores of the Pacifi c 

Ocean. To the south stand the glacier-covered 

volcanoes of the Aleutian Range. From Mount 

Mageik to Mount Peulik, the peaks are plainly 

visible for 120 miles. Beyond Brooks Lake 

the western terrain becomes relatively fl at as 

the boreal forest reaches its western limit and 

fi nally gives way to the tundra-covered Bristol 

Bay coastal plain that fronts the Bering Sea. 

Th e only road within the 4.2 million acre park 

and preserve is the twenty-three-mile dirt road 

that connects Brooks Camp with the Valley of 

Ten Th ousand Smokes. 

Today, Brooks Camp is perhaps one of the 

greatest concentrations of salmon and bears 

in Alaska and, for the last three decades, that 

combination has attracted thousands of people 

from around the globe to the Brooks River 

area. Visitors are attracted to Brooks Camp 

because it off ers them easy access to spectacular wildlife, while also providing the park’s 

primary visitor services. Th ese include the 

National Park Service (NPS) operated visitor 

center, campground, and Brooks Lodge, which 

has been owned and operated by Katmailand, 

Inc. since the 1950s. 
xvi At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

 Upon arrival to Brooks Camp, the NPS 

requires all visitors to attend a fi ft een-minute 

bear safety orientation and watch a brief bear 

education video. During their orientation, 

park rangers ask visitors to maintain a distance 

of 50 yards between themselves and a single 

bear. In addition to the “50 yard rule,” rangers tutor visitors in food storage policies, bear 

behavior, and ways to avoid dangerous encounters. Th ey give anglers detailed information 

about the risks of fi shing around bears and instruct them as to what to do with a caught fi sh 

so it does not become food for a bear. Aft er 

completing their orientation, visitors receive 

a pin showing rangers and other visitors that 

they have been schooled as to how to conduct 

themselves in bear country and are then free to 

wander the area independently. 

Aft er exploring the camp, visitors typically 

make their way to the bear-viewing locations on 

the south side of Brooks River. A path extending from the main route through camp leads 

visitors to the fl oating bridge that provides 

access to the fi rst of the three elevated viewing 

platforms. Aft er the fi rst platform (known as 

the Lower Platform because of its location near 

the river’s mouth), visitors then follow a threequarter-mile route that begins as a dirt road 

and then continues as a footpath through dense 

woods. When making this trek from camp to 

the viewing areas, visitors are encouraged to 

walk in groups of three or more and to make 

enough noise to alert bears to their presence; 

this is because people can and do encounter 

bears at every point along the way, including 

within the camp itself. Th e bears that people 

see between the camp and the river are going 

about their daily routines – chasing each other, 

taking naps, eating, fi ghting, nursing cubs, mating, and looking for their next meal. 

“Naknek Lake near Brooks River.” A visitor 

soaks in view from Dumpling Mountain 

in 1968. Photo taken by Ward W. Wells. 

Courtesy of the Anchorage Museum and 

History and Art. AMRC-wws-4677-4.
Inroduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xvii

When visitors reach the end of the footpath, they find themselves at the beginning 

of a long, elevated boardwalk equipped with 

metal gates designed to keep curious bears 

out. Once on the boardwalk, visitors soon 

become aware that the ground beneath them 

is crisscrossed with well-trodden bear trails 

and punctuated by beds of flattened grass 

where bears take naps after gorging themselves on salmon. The boardwalk leads first 

to a covered pavilion (commonly known 

as “the Tree House”) where the boardwalk 

splits; to the right of the boardwalk leads to 

the Riffles Platform, named for the shallow 

rapids in that section of the river, and continuing straight ahead from the Tree House, 

the boardwalk leads to the Falls Platform 

where as many as fifteen large bears gather 

to catch jumping salmon above the falls or 

to dive for disoriented salmon in the turbulent water below. 

Park staff—including law enforcement 

rangers, interpreters, and bear management 

technicians—continually move throughout 

the human travel corridor to assist visitors, 

manage visitor traffic and provide interpretation. And behind the scenes, the maintenance staff provides essential support for 

the entire operation. Bear management is 

primarily handled by a staff of two seasonal employees supervised by the wildlife 

biologists. The law enforcement and bear 

management employees are each trained 

to appropriately haze bears. Interpreters, 

who make up the majority of Brooks Camp 

NPS staff, are trained to engage certain bear 

management related actions, such as discouraging bears from chewing on or climbing up on the lower platform stairs. Some 

interpreters have also received training to 

haze bears using specific devices, including 

deterrent rounds from a 12 gauge shotgun. 

Mainly, however, seasonal interpreters are 

trained only to provide necessary information to visitors regarding bears and to serve 

in the capacity of crowd control.4

Brooks River brown bears gather at 

the Brooks River falls during the July 

salmon run in 2006. Photographed by 

Robert Winfree, National Park Service.
xviii At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Why Brooks Camp Works

In Real Alaska: Finding Our Way in the 

Wild Country, author and wildlife expert Paul 

Schullery wrote that before he came to visit 

Brooks Camp in the mid-1990s, a biologist 

friend remarked, “Th at’s a diff erent bear up 

there. It’s much more mellow and easygoing.” 

He explained his friend’s rationale, “Katmai 

bears were so fat and happy from the ever-fl owing larder of the river, and had spent so many 

hundreds of generations living this good life, 

that they were a lot harder to alarm.”5

Popular belief suggests that Katmai’s 

seemingly docile and tolerant bears are 

A brown bear lingers near the bridge 

at the mouth of the Brooks River 

in 2006. Photographed by Robert 

Winfree, National Park Service.
Inroduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xix

somehow biologically, socially—even psychologically—diff erent from the less-visible and 

seemingly more dangerous grizzlies of Alaska’s 

Interior.6

 Th e simple answer is that grizzlies 

inhabiting the Lower 48 and central Alaska are 

the same species as the brown bears at Brooks. 

From Alaska’s interior to the coastal areas, 

visitors who spot either a “grizzly” in Denali or 

a “brown bear” at Brooks are, at least biologically speaking, seeing the same bear. Biologists classify “brown bears” and “grizzles” as 

the same species, Ursus arctos. But wildlife enthusiasts, anglers, and scientists have observed 

in recent years notable social and behavioral 

diff erences within brown bear populations 

that inhabit distinct Alaskan ecosystems, and 

it is these diff erences that make the type of 

bear-visitor interactions experienced at Brooks 

Camp possible.7

 

Two obvious factors that produce the 

physical and nuanced behavioral and social 

diff erences within Ursus arctos populations 

are geography and food. Brown bears, unlike 

grizzlies, typically live along the southern coast 

of the state where they have access to seasonally abundant spawning salmon and other food 

sources such as shellfi sh. Th e coastal areas and 

milder climate provide brown bears with a rich 

array of vegetation, which they can also use as 

food from early spring until late fall. It is the 

prime geography and a stable food supply that 

drives what biologists call aggregation, when 

normally solitary bears collect together from 

diff erent places, at which they are considered 

for that period of feeding as a whole group. 

Th e coastal environment and ample fi sh also 

allow Brooks bears to grow larger and live in 

higher densities than their grizzly cousins at 

places like the relatively salmon-poor Denali 

National Park and Preserve.8

 

 This also explains why brown bears 

act differently around each other, as well 

as around humans, at distinct geographical 

locations.9

 Researchers hypothesize that, 

depending on the amount of available and 

stable food sources, brown bears that aggregate at a single locale will develop distinct 

and sophisticated social relationships with 

each other. Those relationships may also 

shape how the animals will respond to and 

behave around people. Such relationships 

or what the researchers call habituation, 

occur in three forms: bear-to-bear, bear-tohuman, and human-to-bear. 

Rangers instruct all visitors to the 

platform to ensure the safety for 

both people and bears in 2006. 

Photographed by Robert Winfree, 

National Park Service. 
xx At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

In bear-to-bear habituation, the researchers cite bear density as an important factor 

that infl uences the distance that individual 

bears regard as a comfortable space between 

themselves and other bears. At places like 

the Brooks River or another famous river 

known for its bears, the McNeil River State 

Game Sanctuary, bear density is high. Th us, 

the distance needed to satisfy a bear’s requirement for personal space decreases. On the 

other hand, at places like Denali where bear 

density is much lower, a bear’s personal space 

spans a considerably larger area. Bear-human 

habituation results from repeated innocuous exposure of bears to people. Researchers 

postulate that as a bear’s tolerance for other 

bears increases, so does the likelihood that 

bears may tolerate non-threatening humans at 

closer distances as well.10 

Th e relationship that experts fi nd troublesome is people-to-bear habituation. Th e close 

association of people and non-aggressive bears 

at viewing locations such as Brooks may cause 

visitors to behave in a manner that is unconcerned for their own safety. Researchers have 

observed over the years at places like Brooks 

River that as repeated exposures to bears occur 

without negative consequences, the visitors’ 

fear of the animals will wane. Former Katmai biologist, Tom Smith points out that the 

relationship of human-to-bear habituation has 

far-reaching implications for agencies charged 

with managing bears and people in those situations. Success, in terms of visitor enjoyment 

and safety, lies in management’s ability to 

control people’s behavior around bears. Smith 

explains that, “Th e shorter the ORD (overt 

reaction distance), the less likely a person will 

violate a bear’s personal space and prompt an 

aggressive response.” But scientists like Smith 

insist that this does not mean that brown bears 

at locales such as Brooks or McNeil, where 

the ORD is extremely short, are somehow less 

capable of infl icting serious injury on a person. 

Rather, Smith and his collogues stress that “it 

is less likely a person will unintentionally trigger an aggressive response at aggregations”—

not that visitors are immune from dangerous 

situations.11

 Th e various ways in which brown bears 

react to people, therefore, have shaped the way 

in which visitors are managed at the diff erent 

locales. At Denali, most visitors are transported into the park in buses, and therefore, there 

is little interaction between bears and most of 

1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

LODGE 1860 1808 2010 3100 2408 2487 2721 2952 3127 2778 2561 3774 2495 3442 3809 3312 3658 3439 4458 4355 4140 4128 4171 3626 3467 3106 3535 3446 3571 3830 3749C.GROUND 1340 1801 2072 2746 2401 2396 2781 2742 2768 2360 2368 2253 3149 3227 3133 3564 3659 3653 3705 2600 3609 2724 2270 3025 2873DAY USE 137 258 313 496 471 503 806 702 1535 1274 2079 2374 4698 3223 3289 3915 6603 6300 6131 6204 6391 5703 6436 11727 9741 9766 9823 9223 8164 9833 8582TOTAL 3337 3867 4395 6342 5280 5386 6308 6396 7430 6412 7008 8401 10342 9892 10231 10791 13920 13392 14294 13159 14140 12555 12877 18378 13208 12872 13358 12669 11735 13663 15204

0

8000600040002000

200001800016000140001200010000

BROOKS CAMP AREA VISITOR USE

Total Annual Visitor Days (Overnight Stays plus Day Use)

LODGEC.GROUNDDAY USETOTAL
Inroduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xxi

the park’s visitors. Also, to mitigate backcountry bear-human encounters, both permanent 

and temporary wildlife closures occur every 

year in Denali. Th ese areas are closed to all human entry and exist for the mutual protection 

of people and wildlife. 

People tend to encounter bears at close 

distances at sites such as Brooks and McNeil, but a major difference between these 

sites is the amount of people allowed to visit 

the bear viewing areas at any given time. At 

McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and 

Refuge, there are no more than ten people 

a day allowed in the sanctuary, whereas at 

Brooks there is no limit as to the number 

of day visitors and visitation can reach over 

200 people a day. 

Th e spike in visitor numbers to Alaska’s 

more famous bear viewing sites has caused 

a rapid growth of the bear viewing industry 

generally, especially at places where visitation is neither supervised nor regulated. Th e 

rising popularity of ecotourism in recent 

decades has brought an increased number of 

visitors to Alaska willing to pay more to view 

brown bears than any other Alaskan wildlife 

species.12 What’s good for Alaska’s economy 

however, has not always been good for these 

places, for expansion of the bear viewing market has generated more bear-human confl icts, 

overcrowding, unsafe people-to-bear habituation, displacement of bears from important 

habitats, and degradation of cultural and 

natural resources. 

An ample fi sh supply allows Brooks 

bears to grow large as well as to 

tolerate each other at close range. 

This also means that bears tend to 

tolerate people at relatively closer 

distances. Pictured are large boars 

competing for the best fi shing 

position at Brooks Falls in July 1998. 

Courtesy of Katherine Ringsmuth.
xxii At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Because people who are generally unaccustomed to wilderness are coming to Alaska 

to see (and get close to) wild bears, wildlife 

experts recognized that given Alaska’s diverse 

bear country, managers and policy-makers at 

Alaska’s most popular viewing areas had to 

“develop site-specifi c plans that identify the 

extent to which bear-to-human habituation 

and tolerance will be permitted.”13 Brooks 

Camp management practices over the decades 

developed in a manner that was as distinct as 

the brown bears themselves and the ecosystems 

they inhabit.

A History of Bears and People

Like all national park units, Katmai National Park and Preserve has gone through an 

evolution in refi ning its purposes and priorities. In recent years, its public face has become 

synonymous with opportunities for park 

visitors to see and encounter Alaska’s brown 

bears along the Brooks River. But that has not 

always been the case as human interest, and 

subsequently human activity, in the Brooks 

River area has changed over time. 

People have lived along the Brooks River 

for millennia. In the last moments of the 

Pleistocene epoch, the glaciers that formed 

the Naknek Lake complex began to retreat. As 

new travel corridors opened, humans may have 

made their way through the coastal mountain 

passes, and some believe they fi rst entered 

the Brooks area to hunt caribou. When the 

Brooks River formed and salmon started to 

return to the lakes to spawn, people remained 

for longer periods of time, eventually forming substantial villages. Th e establishment of 

salmon runs in the Brooks River also brought 

bears, eventually supporting a large population 

for that species, too.

With the exception of possibly Aniakchak 

Volcano that erupted catastrophically 3,500 

years ago,14 it took the largest eruption in the 

twentieth century, the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, to force the current local inhabitants 

to fl ee the region aft er nearly 4,500 years of ocThis photograph was originally 

printed in Wilbur Davis’s report from 

1954. Scribed on the back of the 

photo were the researcher notes: 

“Mrs. Pegalia [Pelagia] Malkoknok 

[Melgenak], oldest survivor of the 

group who fl ed old Savonoski when 

Katmai erupted. Village leader on 

right.” On left of Mrs. Pelagia is 

Nick Holstrom from South Naknek, 

1910-1974. On her right is Trefon 

Angasan, Sr. from old Savonaki, 

1910-1988. Photograph taken in New 

Savonski outisde Pelagia Melgenak’s 

home. Information courtesy Mary Jane 

Nielsen, daughter of Trefon Angasan. 

Image credited to James W. Leach. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
Inroduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xxiii

cupation. But as the fi sh and animals, including bears, returned to the ash-laden lands, so 

did Native people, who recommenced fi shing 

for salmon at Brooks River while also eating 

the occasional brown bear. In 1940, when 

NPS fi rst investigated the Brooks River area, 

McKinley National Park superintendent Frank 

Been and wildlife biologist Victor Cahalane 

witnessed such activities fi rst-hand. Th ey did 

not, however, witness any bears. Undoubtedly, 

Native fi shers guarded their food well and it is 

likely that any bear that tried to compete was 

chased off from fi shcamp or killed.15

By 1950, a new group of people had 

moved into the Brooks River area, and they 

considered the river an angler’s paradise. Th us, 

the fame of Brooks River, and the reason for 

the lodge, derived from the sport fi shing opportunities for rainbow trout and red salmon, 

which for several decades defi ned the purpose 

of Brooks Camp for most visitors. By 1963, 

the lodge began to provide access to the park’s 

earliest attraction: the Valley of Ten Th ousand 

Smokes, the nearby geological wonder of a volcanic landscape created by the 1912 eruption, 

and the impetus for establishment of Katmai 

National Monument. Visitors, concession 

employees, and NPS personnel stationed at 

Brooks reported seeing very few bears during 

this time. Bears were likely still wary of humans. Nevertheless, with the road to the Valley 

of Ten Th ousand Smokes providing access to 

areas beyond Brooks Camp, people’s interests 

began to expand from angling alone to include 

the natural scenery. Americans everywhere 

began to seek what they called a “wilderness experience,” and many visitors saw Brooks Camp 

as a gateway to it.16

Although the number of bears seen on the 

river was still relatively low in the early 1960s, 

the area’s other resources began to attract management attention. Th e U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, which had been conducting 

red salmon studies at Brooks Lake since 1940,17

initiated the fi rst archeological investigation of 

the Brooks River area. Over the course of fi ve 

years, researchers for the Bureau uncovered, on 

both sides of the river, evidence of past human 

activity. Th e concentration of large prehistoric 

settlements discovered by archeologists represented a succession of distinct groups that occupied the Brooks River area over the centuries. 

A park ranger welcomes a visiting 

family to Brooks Camp in September 

1973. KATM Slide Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska..
xxiv At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Whether traveling through or remaining for 

a lifetime, people left behind small pieces of 

their lives—pieces that allowed archeologists to 

bridge gaps in not only the area’s cultural past, 

but much of Alaska’s prehistory as well.18 

Th e U.S. Congress, meanwhile, had passed 

the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, 

which directed federal agencies to consider the 

eff ect of their actions on historic and cultural 

properties. Th e law was initially passed to 

prevent federal agencies, in the act of carrying 

out their individual missions, from damaging or 

destroying property and places that local people 

valued because it represented their history. 

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) gave agencies a planning tool 

designed to reduce or avoid adversely eff ecting cultural resources. Section 110 of the Act 

required them to inventory, evaluate, determine National Register eligibility, and protect 

cultural resources under their jurisdiction. At 

Katmai, several properties were listed on the 

National Register of Historic Places in the 

1970s; the Savonoski Archeological District, 

Kaguyak Site, Kukak Site, Takli Island Archeological District and in 1978 the Brooks River 

Archeological District (designated as a National 

Historic Landmark in 1993). Th us, management responsibilities at Brooks Camp moved 

beyond scenic and recreational activities in the 

1950s and 1960s, to include the protection and 

interpretation of the area’s historic and nationally signifi cant cultural resources by the 1970s 

and 1980s.

By the early 1980s, the number of bears 

observed at the Brooks River began to rise. 

Coinciding with the increase of bears sighted at 

Brooks was the passage of the Alaska National 

Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) 

in 1980. Although to residents brown bears 

were, as historian Morgan Sherwood described, 

“Alaskan in the same way that kangaroos are 

Australian, giraff es are African, camels are Muslim, and bulldogs are English,”19 nature enthusiasts from outside Alaska also began to embrace 

the brown bear as a symbol for nationally 

signifi cant wilderness, wilderness that was, from 

their perspective, being lost to urbanization 

and development throughout the Lower 48. 

Consequently, the desire to see bears in their 

natural habitat, just as bears began to appear 

in more numbers on the Brooks River, greatly 

contributed to Brooks Camp’s transformation 

into a paramount bear-viewing area by the end 

of the decade. 

In the last two decades, NPS met the challenges of managing visitors and bears together 

at Brooks through increased staffi ng, education programs and construction of boardwalks 

designed to improve visitor safety and enhance 

visitors’ enjoyment of the park. Th ese are areas 

in which Katmai has been resoundingly successful, at a cost. Management of the Brooks 

River area has commanded the lion’s share of 

the park’s funding and staff . Little is left for 

the management of other resources and other 

areas of Katmai, the Alagnak Wild River and 

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve. 

Further, by concentrating most of the park’s 

resources to facilitate the visitors’ desire to see 

bears, the park branded the Brooks River as 

bear country in the mind of the public, and 

perhaps unintentionally, eclipsed the area’s 

much older history, namely the story in which 

people inhabited the river space, too. 

Th e diffi culty for Katmai’s management 

to overcome these challenges is rooted in the 

Organic Act, which presents the agency with a 

contradictory mandate. Th e act states that the 

NPS purpose is “to conserve the scenery and 

the natural and historic objects and the wild 

life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of 

the same in such manner and by such means as 

will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment 

of future generations.”20 But for those who 

have been in the position of managing Brooks 

Camp, the mandate has been more than an 

abstract, if not paradoxical, philosophy. Th e 

primary goal for park management over the 

years, as well as today, is to keep both people 

and bears safe.

Since Katmai’s fi rst superintendent, the 

park’s eff ort to reduce risk has evolved, shift ing 

from the premise that the problems at Brooks 

Camp are caused by bad bear behavior to the 

current thinking that most management problems are due to too many people (and bears) 

and bad people behavior. According to bear 

biologist Barrie Gilbert, people’s actions are 

most likely to infl uence bears, for “bears have 

lived here with people 4000 plus years and have 

a large capacity to adjust.”21 Aft er fi ve years as 

Katmai’s superintendent, Deb Liggett, who 

managed the park between 1998 and 2003, understood that risk management of visitors was 

not unusual for Alaska’s park superintendents. 

Denali National Park, for example, is almost 

certain to have a fatality or two a year on 

Mount McKinley. For Liggett it boiled down 

to a simple management rationale: Because a 
Inroduction: Brooks Camp: A Visitor’s Paradise xxv

superintendent can’t manage the peak (Mount 

McKinley) then he or she must manage the 

people who go up there. Similarly, the humanbear situation at Katmai is equally fraught with 

danger. As Liggett came to realize about bear 

management at Brooks Camp, “Bears are bears; 

bears are going to do what bears do. [What] 

we’re really doing [is] people management.”22 

Th is too has been challenging, for like park 

management’s shift from managing bad bear 

behavior to bad human behavior, peoples’ perceptions of bears have also changed over time.
xxvi At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1 Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Marla R. Miller, Gary B. Nash. David Thelen, “Imperiled Promise: The 

State of History in the National Park Service,” (Organization of American Historians and the 

National Park Service: 2011), 6. 

2 Jeff Rennicke, Treasure of Alaska: Last Great American Wilderness (Washington D.C. 

National Geographic Society, 2001), 186-187.

3

 According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the offi cial place name for this large body of fresh 

water is “Lake Brooks.” But its common name (used most often by local people, surrounding 

communities, anglers and long-time NPS staff), as well as the name used most regularly 

throughout the historic record, is “Brooks Lake.” 

4

 Robert Winfree, et al. “Brooks Camp Developed Area Bear Management Administrative 

Review,” Natural Resource Report NPS/R/NRTR-2007-60, (2007): 18; Tamera Olson, personal 

communication, May 2012.

5

 Paul Schullery, Real Alaska; Finding our Way in the Wild Country (Mechanicburg PA: 

Stackpole Books, 2001), 48.

6

 See Bo Bennett on the “Cooperation Theory,” in Rods & Wings: A History of the Fishing 

Lodge Business in Bristol Bay, Alaska. (Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000), 305. 7

 Kodiak bears (brown bears from the Kodiak Archipelago) are classifi ed as a distinct 

subspecies (U. a. middendorffi) from those on the mainland (U. a. horribilis) because they 

have been isolated from other bears since the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago.

8

 “Wildlife Notebook Series, Brown Bear,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game, (2009).

9

 Tom Smith, Stephen Herrero and Terry DeBruyn, “Alaskan Brown Bears, Humans, and 

Habitation,” Ursus 16, (2005): 1-10. 10 Smith, et al., 1-10.

11 Ibid.

12 Terry DeBruyn, et, al. “Brown Bear Response to Elevated Viewing Structures at Brooks River 

Alaska.” Wildlife Society Bulletin, 32 (4) (2004): 1132-1140. 13 Stephen Herrero, et.al. “From the Field: Brown Bear Habituation to People—Safety, Risks, 

and Benefi ts,” Wildlife Society Bulletin, 33 1, (2005): 362-373. 14 Volcanic eruptions occurring on the Alaska Peninsula in the last 5,000 years have covered 

most of the region, including the Brooks River area, with distinct layers of ash, which help 

archeologists place specifi c sites in a chronological sequence. 15 Ted Birkedal, “Ancient Hunters in the Alaskan Wilderness: Human Predators and their 

Role and Effect on Wildlife Population and the Implications for Resource Management.” 

Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Research and Resource Management in Parks and 

Public Lands, The George Wright Society, Hancock Michigan, (1993): 228-234. 

16 Dave Bohn, Rambles Through an Alaskan Wild: Katmai and the Valley of the Smokes

(Capra Press, 1979).

17 The Bureau of Fisheries operated under the newly created U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

in 1940. In 1956, with the passage of the Fish & Wildlife Act, the Bureau was split in two 

agencies. Consequently, management of the fi sheries program at Brooks Lake was 

transferred to the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. 

18 For a complete discussion of Brooks River archeology see Don E. Dumond, A Naknek 

Chronicle: Ten Thousand Years in a Land of Lakes and Rivers and Mountains of Fire

(Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, 2005) and Don E. 

Dumond’s Story of a House (Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Interior, National Park 

Service, 2008). 

19 Morgan Sherwood, Big Game in Alaska: A History of Wildlife and People (New Haven: Yale 

University Press, 1981), 24.

20 “Robin Winks on the Evolution and Meaning of the Organic Act,” (December 2007). 

21 Gilbert’s written comments to Robert Winfree. 9-24-2009.

22 Deborah Liggett, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 6-22-2008.
 Brooks Camp Development Maps xxvii All Brooks Camp development maps by Dan Trepal. 
xxviii At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

All Brooks Camp development maps by Dan Trepal. 
 Brooks Camp Development Maps xxix
xxx At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
 Brooks Camp Development Maps xxxi
xxxii At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

“Lake Walker Alaska Peninsula Mt. 

Kakhtolinat.” Federal census taker Ivan 

Petroff described the area surrounding the 

Brooks River in 1880. He also named the 

glacially-carved lake fronting Brooks Camp 

“Lake Walker.” Today the large body of 

water is called Lake Naknek. From Petroff’s 

Population and Resources of Alaska, 1881. 

“Lake Walker Alaska Peninsula Mt. 

Kakhtolinat.” Federal census taker Ivan 

Petroff described the area surrounding the 

Brooks River in 1880. He also named the 

glacially-carved lake fronting Brooks Camp 

“Lake Walker.” Today the large body of 

water is called Lake Naknek. From Petroff’s 

Population and Resources of Alaska, 1881. 

“LakeWalker Alaska P eninsulaMt.

Kakhtolinat.”Federal census taker I van

Petroff described the area surrounding the

Brooks River in 1880. He a lso named the

glacially-carved l ake fronting Brooks Camp

“Lake Walker.” Today the large body of

water iscalled LakeNaknek. From Petroff’s

Population a nd Resources of Alaska, 1881.

“Lake Walker Alaska Peninsula Mt. 

Kakhtolinat.” Federal census taker Ivan 

Petroff described the area surrounding the 

Brooks River in 1880. He also named the 

glacially-carved lake fronting Brooks Camp 

“Lake Walker.” Today the large body of 

water is called Lake Naknek. From Petroff’s 

Population and Resources of Alaska, 1881. 
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 1

Katmai Volcano Makes History, 1912-1918

Th e early national parks created by Congress primarily protected two types of resources: scenic wonders and wildlife. Many of 

the scenic wonders were geological, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Mount Rainier; some 

were botanical, such as the sequoias of General 

Grant. Th e 1906 Antiquities Act allowed the 

president to reserve to the public domain sites 

of cultural or scientifi c value, which Th eodore 

Roosevelt promptly stretched to include places 

such as the Grand Canyon and Washington’s 

Mount Olympus. Th e precedent for national 

parks in Alaska came in 1917 when Congress 

created Mt. McKinley National Park to protect 

wildlife rather than to highlight the peak.1

Th e Katmai region gained the public’s attention aft er scientists with the National Geographic Society began to study the eff ects of 

the 1912 Mount Katmai eruption.2

 Publicized 

in the society’s infl uential monthly magazine, 

the expeditions captured the imaginations of 

readers as they read of daring scientists’ enduring hardships in traveling to a remote corner 

of the continent to chronicle devastation and 

rebirth. Th e Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes, 

named by expedition leader and botanist 

Robert Griggs, was like a primordial Yellowstone. Th e infl uence of the dramatic photos in 

these articles (and later, a 1922 book authored 

by Griggs) was the fi rst instance in which 

visual media would serve to create interest in 

Katmai. As a classic geological wonder, and 

because of its potential as a living laboratory, 

in 1918 President Wilson reserved the ashcovered area surrounding Mount Katmai as a 

national monument.3

While this brought few changes to the 

area initially, it did presage certain management priorities in a region that was long 

inhabited by people making a living from the 

Chapter One:

The Early Monument 

and the Brooks River Area

I recognized at once that the Katmai district must be made a great national park 

accessible to all the people, like Yellowstone. 

 ~Robert F. Griggs

 National Geographic Society, 1916

available resources. Aft er the 1912 eruption, 

a scattering of non-Native fur trappers resided in the surrounding area north and west 

of the new national monument, living subsistence lifestyles and trading furs for commodities. Bristol Bay salmon fi sheries off ered 

seasonal employment for some, with the fi rst 

canneries established in the 1880s. With the 

exception of a few mineral claims, furs and 

fi sh were the only commercial resources that 

existed in the region. 

Commerce, however, was a latecomer in 

Katmai’s cultural past. Although archeologists understand Katmai’s prehistory to be at 

least 8,000 years old 4

, the earliest evidence of 

human presence found in the Brooks River 

area, about forty miles west of Mount Katmai, 

is about 4,400 years old. Th e fi rst people who 

made their imprint at the Brooks River were 

probably just passing through. Th ey placed 

their temporary campsites on the former beach 

ridges on both sides of what was then the 

mouth of the Brooks River, marking a much 

older shoreline of Naknek Lake–about twenty 

feet above the modern level.5

 Th ey likely came 

to hunt caribou, but stayed to fi sh, trap, and 

to conduct other subsistence activities, such as 

berry picking and taking the occasional bear. 

As fi sh runs formed and grew in size, some of 

the temporary campsites became permanent 

homes, eventually forming villages. Th roughout the centuries, new villages replaced old 

ones, as receding waters altered the river’s path 

and the occasional volcanic eruption covered 

homes with ash and made the area temporarily uninhabitable.6

 People returned, however, 

to fi sh the Brooks River within a few years, 

although they were not always the same people 

who fl ed. Th ey raised families, built villages, 

fi shed and lived and died along the Brooks 

River throughout the centuries. 

PART I: ESTABLISHMENT, 1912-1967
2 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

During the Russian colonial period, trade 

goods and the conversion to the Russian 

Orthodox faith altered the lives of the hunterfi sher-gatherers who lived in villages scattered 

throughout the Katmai area.7

 But as people 

from villages such as Douglas and Savonoski 

acquired trade items and built Orthodox chapels, they continued to use the Brooks River 

and the surrounding area to fi sh and trap as a 

necessary and customary component of their 

seasonal subsistence cycle up to the time of the 

1912 eruption, resuming use shortly aft er. Th e 

Central Yup’ik speaking (Aglurmiut) village 

of Paugvik was established along the Naknek 

River in the early nineteenth century8

 and 

Naknek was similarly occupied by “migrants 

from the North” since around 1840.9

 Th e 1912 

eruption and the fl u epidemic of 1918/19 reduced the Native population dramatically and 

according to oral history, only the family of 

Paul Chukan (born 1901 in Naknek) survives 

today from the 1900-era village of Naknek.10 It 

National Geographic expedition 

members fi shing at Brooks Falls in 

1919. National Geographic Society. 

Katmai Expeditions. Photographs, 

1913-1919. Achives and Special 

Collections, Consortium Library, 

University of Alaska Anchorage, UAA 

HMC 0186-vol 7-6475. 
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 3

is thought that the invasion of the Alurgmiut 

from the north into the lower Naknek River 

drainage area around 1810 AD forced the 

prior occupants to move to the upper drainage area (and south along the coast to Ugashik).11 Th is cultural or ethnic distinctiveness 

is remembered today and led to the eff orts of 

King Salmon villagers (who see themselves as 

Katmai Descendants) to seek Federal IRA status, to separate them from the Paugvik Village 

Corporation (originating from the Aglurmiut 

invasion).12 Research for the IRA tribal status 

application led to discovery of the Native 

toponym, Anaqchiak (“A Place of Excrement”) 

for King Salmon- the place where King Salmon 

Creek enters the Naknek River.13

While little attention was given to Alaska 

Native people at the time of Katmai National Monument’s creation, the archeological resources in the Brooks River Area were 

eventually recognized with the Brooks River 

Archeological District listing in 1978 in the 

National Register of Historic Places. When 

the archeological district was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1993, it 

meant that the area was considered important 

not only to local people, but was signifi cant for 

understanding and refl ecting the heritage of 

the nation. 

***

Aft er Russia sold its North American 

holdings to the United States, the federal 

government, hoping to learn more about its 

recent acquisition, sent scientists and other 

researchers to investigate Alaska’s resources. 

Ivan Petroff passed through the Katmai area 

in 1880, in an attempt to numerate the area’s 

population. Besides counting people, Petroff 

provided a description of the Naknek Lake 

system, known to outsiders as Lake Walker.14 

Aft er crossing Katmai Pass during a rare span 

of clear weather, Petroff left a Native settlement 

located at the head of Iliuk Arm of Naknek 

Lake that he called Servenovsky [Sevonoski] 

Village. From there he traveled past the mouth 

of the Brooks River, to the headwaters of the 

Naknek River, down to the river’s mouth, 

where he and his fellow travelers came upon 

the village of Paugvik, inhabited by Yupik 

speaking people.15 Th e ethnic rivalries between 

the two villages oft en led to confl ict when 

groups encountered each other. Th is might 

explain why the Brooks River, centrally located 

between the two groups, was, at the time of 

Petroff ’s visit, uninhabited.16 

Petroff wrote of the scenic vistas and bountiful resources he had witnessed during his trip:

[Crossing Katmai Pass] will give to 

the traveler a lasting impression and a 

correct idea of the Alaskan Peninsula, 

seeing as he travels from Katmai to 

the bay [Bristol Bay] all the phases 

of the country. Th e numerous and 

strikingly beautiful land-locked lakes 

may typify in Lake Walker, where 
4 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

abrupt mountains reach themselves 

to Alpine heights, falling in steep 

succession to the lake shores, wherein 

the clear waters mirror them back 

again. Grassy slopes reach out on 

which thickets and clumps of graceful 

birch and popular nod and waive 

their tremulous foliage as the wild 

gusts sweep ever and anon over them 

from the funnel-like passes of the 

mountains.17

Other travelers made their way past the 

Brooks River area in subsequent decades. In 

1889, the Earl of Lonsdale visited the area as 

part of a fourteen-month exploring expedition. 

A member of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper expedition also crossed the peninsula in 

1890, and in 1891, other members of the newspaper party followed. Th e most signifi cant of 

the federal scientists to visit the area was Josiah 

Spurr, an explorer with the U.S. Geological 

Survey. Following Petroff ’s route in reverse, 

Spurr traveled up the Naknek River, passing by 

several salmon canneries recently constructed 

near the shores of Bristol Bay. Spurr paddled 

to what was by then called Lake Naknek to the 

village of Savonoski. It was there that one of 

Savonoski’s inhabitants warned the explorers 

preparing to cross the chain of volcanoes that 

“one of them occasionally smokes.”18 Spurr was 

not only the fi rst American explorer to map the 

area, but he also took the only known photo of 

the Katmai pass before the 1912 eruption.19

 Like cultural and historic resources, Katmai’s 

wildlife was not the foremost reason suggested for 

federal protection, but the region’s most charismatic occupant, the brown bear, did not go unnoticed. It was not until the third Griggs expedition 

in 1917 that the explorers caught sight of a bear, 

but from the time they fi rst landed in Katmai 

Bay two years earlier the ubiquity of bear trails 

worn into the earth had impressed them. As they 

traveled the country they found “the bears had 

selected the easiest going to be had.” Faced with 

traveling on those trails, these scientists, like many 

succeeding visitors, found that “we gradually became as indiff erent to danger from an encounter 

with them as at fi rst we had been apprehensive.”20 

Th e relative scarcity of bear encounters continued 

during their 1919 visit to Brooks River. Th ey 

mentioned that one bear had made off at their 

approach to the falls, yet otherwise “for hours” 

they enjoyed undisturbed the spectacle of leaping 

red salmon.21

A New Purpose: Monument Expansion and 

Protecting Alaska’s Brown Bears, 1918-1931

Although it appears that the area’s wildlife 

outside the immediate blast zone rebounded 

quickly aft er the 1912 eruption, no mention was made in the monument’s founding 

documents of bears or of wildlife protection. Katmai National Monument’s function 

as a bear refuge was kept quiet deliberately, 

for early park advocates had good reason for 

keeping bears out of the legislation. In 1918, 

territorial politicians were launching bitter 

attacks against the grizzles. Wildlife advocate 

Charles Sheldon, who had played a key role in 

establishing Mount McKinley National Park 

just years earlier, understood that bears were 

a source of political hyperbole and advised 

George Bird Grinnell that the word “bear” 

should not be mentioned in connection with 

establishing the monument. Th e animal was, 

therefore, omitted from Katmai’s original 

purpose, but nevertheless, the monument’s 

boundaries were intentionally drawn to protect 

brown bear habitat, and hunting was prohibited in the monument.22 

By 1922 Robert Griggs was advocating a 

purpose for Katmai National Monument that 

included sanctuary for bears.23 Cattle ranchers on Kodiak Island had taken a toll on bear 

numbers, and the territory barely regulated 

sport hunters, either there or on the Alaska 

Peninsula. Th en there were reports of commercial salmon fi shermen killing bears “in 

vindictive retaliation for their feeding on 

salmon.”24 Eight years later, aft er his fi ft h visit, 

Griggs penned a broad argument in favor of 

an enlargement of the monument’s boundaries, largely to protect bears and even more 

to protect their habitat. Griggs argued that 

poaching was likely taking place within the 

existing monument boundaries—the NPS having put no eff orts into staffi ng or managing the 

area—and that Alaskans, who mostly opposed 

the monument, believed that bears were not 

endangered. As early as 1919, Territorial Governor Th omas Riggs, Jr. stated that “practically 

all the reservations should be eliminated and 

the laws of the United States made to apply,” 

adding later that “Katmai Monument serves 

no purpose and should be abolished.”25 But 

Griggs urged action on behalf of future generations, which would presumably appreciate a 

bear reserve in Alaska.

Griggs’ 1930 proposal came at a time 

when journalists and politicians in the con-
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 5

tinental United States were already debating 

how best to preserve the Alaska brown bear as 

a representative of the species.26 Many wildlife 

advocates urged the NPS to establish a new 

monument along Alaska’s Inside Passage, either 

on Admiralty Island or Chichagof Island, specifi cally for the protection of bears. In 1930, 

Stewart E. White, a journalist who favored the 

Chichagof Island plan, stirred national interest on the issue with a series of articles in the 

Saturday Evening Post.

27 

In the end, NPS officials found that the 

political and logistical costs of creating new 

parks would be considerably greater than 

merely expanding existing national monuments. Specifically, NPS feared that establishing a new national monument might 

encourage anti-federal attitudes among 

Alaskans, and it was easier for the agency, at 

least in an administrative sense, to deal with 

larger existing monuments than a series of 

smaller monuments.28

Consequently, President Herbert Hoover 

used a presidential proclamation on April 24, 

1931 to add approximately 1,609,600 acres 

(4,214 square miles) to Katmai National 

Monument, more than doubling the size of 

the park “for the purpose of including within 

the said monument additional lands for the 

protection of the brown bear, moose, and other 

wild animals.”29 Th e 1931 expansion included 

the Brooks River area.30

Although Alaskan politicians, developers, 

resident hunters, and trappers protested what 

they saw as the “locking up” of public lands in 

federal ownership and spoke out against the 

Katmai expansion, Hoover’s action appears 

to have garnered considerable support in the 

contiguous Lower 48 states. In 1931 a news 

service story from the newspaper Enterprise 

Association waxed eloquently on the merits of 

enlarging the monument:

With a stroke of his pen, President 

Hoover has given a reprieve to untold 

hundreds of wilderness aristocrats, 

who had been condemned to death 

by the guns of sportsmen.... In the 

future, Ursus Middendorfi i [Ursus 

arctos] and his family can spend their 

summers at the various bear seashore 

resorts without interference from the 

two-legged creatures who kill them at 

a great distance.31

Genesis of the Park: Katmai National 

Monument Boundaries and 1931 

Expansion. Alaska Regional Offi ce, 

Anchorage Alaska.
6 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

The “Period of Neglect”: 

Managing Katmai from Afar, 1931-1950

Expansion was a mixed blessing for NPS 

offi cials charged with protecting Katmai’s 

resources. Although those responsible for 

creating the monument foresaw its possibilities, from the perspective of NPS offi cials in 

the eastern United States, the Alaskan monument was too remote, it saw few visitors, and 

they believed that such isolated resources 

were hardly at risk. Moreover, as NPS historian Frank Norris points out, “NPS offi cials 

did not single out Katmai as a place to be 

overlooked, because virtually all national 

monuments were similarly ignored. Th ey were 

either overlooked completely or were “managed” by local offi cials who were paid $1 per 

month to monitor the monuments, handle 

visitors as best they could, and write an annual 

report to Washington.”32 Needless to say, little 

attention was paid or money allocated to the 

management of the monument.33 

Because staff was not available to protect 

it, NPS offi cially closed Katmai National 

Monument to the public and chose to manage its 2,475,618 acres as an adjunct of Mount 

McKinley National Park.34 Despite reports 

of illegal hunting, trapping, and fi shing in the 

“closed” monument, funding and personnel 

were absent. Th e challenges presented by a 

remote, inaccessible setting made any actual 

planning during these early years practically 

impossible. “NPS offi cials,” writes Norris, 

“knew virtually nothing about the park except 

for what had been explained in the National 

Geographic Magazine.”35 Management of 

Katmai was by all defi nitions nonexistent, 

prompting Norris to characterize the period of 

monument administration before 1950 as an 

“Era of Neglect.”36

Critics, particularly wildlife agents, accused NPS of abandoning its management 

responsibilities, and as a result, the agency 

came under fi re for its inability to protect 

Katmai’s resources from illegal hunters and 

trappers. On the other side of the spectrum, 

criticism also came from territorial leaders and 

Naknek residents who regularly used the newly 

absorbed lake country for commercial trapping 

and other subsistence purposes. Although the 

1931 boundary expansion turned trappers into 

outlaws in the eyes of federal agents, it did very 

A photograph of Packer Scotty’s Cabin 

near Brooks Lake was taken by Victor 

Cahalane and Frank Been during their 

investigation of illegal trapping in 

Katmai National Monument in 1940. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 7

little to prevent residents from trapping in the 

Brooks River area.37 Tensions remained high 

among all groups throughout the 1930s and 

1940s, when trapping was most profi table. 

NPS responded to this growing disapproval with several attempts to establish a 

presence at Katmai in hopes that it would 

curb illegal activities. Several times during 

the 1940s, managing offi cials from Mount 

McKinley submitted proposals to fund a part 

time ranger. Offi cials had set into motion 

plans for a tourist lodge, boat docks, trails, patrol cabins and administrative sites, but none 

of the plans came close to being implemented, 

because as one high offi cial in the Interior 

Department explained, “there has not been 

suffi cient tourist travel in Alaska to justify 

the appropriation of Federal funds to provide 

facilities in this location.”38 

It was not until wildlife biologist Victor 

Cahalane and Mount McKinley superintendent 

Frank T. Been visited in September, 1940 

that NPS offi cially attempted to investigate 

Katmai’s resources.39 It appeared to Been that 

local trappers were harvesting beaver and other 

profi table fur-bearing mammals, including 

some bears in the Brooks River area. With 

evidence of ongoing illegal activity, Been was 

able to acquire the cooperation of Alaska Game 

Commission offi cers to continue patrols within 

monument boundaries to discourage local 

hunting and trapping.40

During their investigation, the men 

made a stop at the mouth of what Been called 

“Brooks Creek,” a one-and-a-half-mile stream, 

which ran from “Lake Brooks,” named in 1919 

by Robert Griggs for Alfred Hulse Brooks, 

chief geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey 

in Alaska. Although it was late summer, Been 

made no mention of bears in his report. What 

the superintendent did, in fact, observe were 

Alaska Natives harvesting red salmon at the 

Harry Featherstone (left) trapped 

in the monument during the 1930s. 

Photograph taken in 1923 by Alyce C. 

Anderson, a Naknek teacher. Courtesy 

of Theodore W. Anderson. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. #447, PH01), 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
8 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

mouth of the Brooks River, a place known to 

them as “Ketivik.”41 Been correctly surmised 

this was an activity that had gone on for 

generations. “Each Autumn,” wrote Been, “the 

Indians assembled here to gill net salmon at the 

mouth of Brooks Creek....

...Apparently, they have done so for 

generations as several sites nearby 

show signs of occupancy years ago. 

Th e nature of the stream and the fi ne 

beach on the lake makes the place 

ideal for salmon fi shing. Scattered 

along the stream bank are a number 

of fi sh drying racks that are used 

each season... Today three families 

arrived in addition to the one who 

had been here several days. One of 

the Indians commented that there 

will probably be about 40 people 

here quite soon. Th e increased 

activity is already quite evident and 

points toward the preparation of 

several thousand salmon.42

 

While admiring the autumn tinted slopes 

of Mount La Gorce and Dumpling Mountain 

that framed Naknek Lake and the mouth of 

the Brooks River, an impressed Been described 

the “large and abundant trout and salmon” 

and the decidedly high tourist potential for 

the area. Th e superintendent felt that “its 

remoteness precludes it becoming a tourist 

center for many years,” but predicted that 

“when the beauty of the Naknek, Brooks, 

Grosvenor and Coville Lakes becomes known, 

and the splendid trout fi shing becomes 

recognized, sportsmen may go to the lakes.”43

Five years later, NPS Landscape 

Architect, Alfred C. Kuehl, and acting 

Mount McKinley superintendent Grant 

Pearson made an investigation of the Valley 

of Ten Th ousand Smokes, “for the purpose 

of becoming familiar with the area and to 

determine as far as possible development 

potentialities,” from a basecamp on the 

shoreline of Iliuk Arm of Naknek Lake. 

Following the old National Geographic 

route, Kuehl reported observing beaver, 

Mount McKinley Superintendnet 

Frank Been made the fi rst offi cial 

investigation of Katmai in 1940. Here 

he poses with his sled dog “Wags.” 

KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #447, 

PH37), Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 9

otter, moose, and a “Kodiak bear,” but little 

evidence of poaching. Th e men witnessed 

steam pouring from Mageik Volcano, forded 

the Ukak river and followed the banks of the 

Lethe River deep into the Valley, and fl ew over 

the Old Savonoski Village, noting that “the 

overgrown Barabara evidence might indicate 

an earlier village development.” Countering 

critics’ accusations of resource neglect, Kuehl 

argued that “the importance of the monument 

as a scientifi c spectacle is by no means overrated and that retention of the area under 

Service administration is sound.”44

Commercial Salmon Management 

brings Biologists to Brooks Lake

Although Been and Cahalane’s visit in 

1940 represented the fi rst investigation of 

Katmai’s resources conducted by the NPS, they 

were by no means the fi rst federal employees 

to observe the monument’s salmon fi shery. 

Beginning in 1940, the newly created United 

States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) 

launched the Bristol Bay Investigation (BBI), 

a fi sheries research and management program 

implemented to study salmon resources of the 

region’s fi ve major rivers: Ugashik, Egegik, Kvichak, Nushagak, and Naknek.45 Th e Bureau of 

Fisheries, an arm of the USFWS, was conducting the majority of studies pertaining to 

Bristol Bay fi sheries.46 Th e Bureau’s biologists 

responsible for carrying out the investigation 

were headquartered in the heart of the Naknek River watershed, on the eastern shore of 

Brooks Lake, near its outlet into Brooks River 

in Katmai National Monument.47

Federal interest in Katmai’s salmon resource began in the early 1900s as demand for 

canned salmon rose nationwide, resulting in an 

increase of salmon canneries throughout Bristol Bay. Th ese facilities, which relied heavily on 

machines, migrant labor, and outside capital, 

refl ected the spread of American industrialization in Alaska. Mechanization cut costs, alienNPS Landscape Architect Alfred C. 

Kuehl investigated the Valley of 

Ten Thousand Smoke with MOMC 

Superintendent Grant Pearson in 

1945. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #447, 

PH37), Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
10 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ated local workers, and increased the amount 

of fi sh the canneries processed. Moreover, 

constant demand for fi sh put tremendous stress 

on Bristol Bay’s sockeye population.48

In order to curb the type of unregulated, 

exploitive industrial practices that consumed 

the great fi sheries of the Pacifi c Coast in the 

nineteenth century, the federal government 

gave the agency in charge of overseeing the 

nation’s marine resources, the U.S. Fish Commission, more authority. Th e government then 

renamed the independent agency, the Bureau 

of Fisheries, and placed it in the newly-established Department of Commerce and Labor 

in 1903. In January 1904, President Th eodore 

Roosevelt directed the Bureau to “make a 

thorough investigation of the salmon fi sheries 

of Alaska” for the purpose of determining “the 

extent and causes of decline, if any; the eff ects 

of regulations, and the extent to which the laws 

are violated.”49

Roosevelt’s interest in Alaska’s salmon 

fi sheries coincided with a sense of crisis among 

America’s political leadership concerning the 

nation’s natural resources, which, according to 

the president, were “in danger of exhaustion if 

we permit the old wasteful methods of exploiting them longer to continue.”50 Roosevelt’s support of stronger federal conservation measures 

refl ected a national movement which rejected 

laissez-faire development in favor of federal 

stewardship of natural resources. By World 

War I, the U.S. Government was the primary 

buyer of Alaska’s canned salmon. Between 

1914 and 1918, the annual catch of salmon 

in Alaska increased from 54.6 million fi sh to 

over 101 million fi sh annually. A full third of 

the total catch came from Bristol Bay. Additionally, the number of canneries operating in 

Alaska had increased from 81 in 1914 to 135 

by 1918.51 Th e federal government purchased 

as much salmon as the canneries could pack. 

A fl oat plane fl ies over the Bureau 

of Fisheries campsite in 1940. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. # 399), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 11

Consequently, the canneries multiplied and 

over-harvested the resource with little thought 

to the potential environmental, economic, or 

social consequences.52 By 1919, salmon runs 

throughout Bristol Bay were in severe decline.

In order to enhance salmon runs for the 

commercial harvest, the Bureau of Fisheries, in 

cooperation with regional Bristol Bay salmon 

packers, began a program targeting predator 

species in 1920. Th e objective of the Bureau’s 

program was to destroy predators of commercially coveted fi shes in certain waters of the 

Bristol Bay district, even though those predators were important locally for subsistence 

Biologists drove a Cleveland Tractor 

or “Cletrac” to haul construction 

supplies between Lake Camp and 

the Brooks River for the fi sheries 

lab and weir in early summer 1941. 

Photographed by Robert Hill. “Brooks 

Lake File,” KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

Brooks Lake weir pickets—carrying 

them from mouth of Brooks Creek, 

1940.” Biologist George Eicher later 

called this “back-breaking work.” 

Photographed by A. Collier. “Brooks 

Lake File,” KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
12 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

and other personal-use consumption.53 On 

the Naknek River, one of Bristol Bay’s most 

signifi cant salmon-producing watersheds, Bureau agents trolled for steelhead, pike, grayling 

and lake trout, noting that, “It is safe to say 

that this species [lake trout] is detrimental to 

the salmon industry as is the Dolly Varden, if 

not more so.”54 At a location biologists called 

“Kidawik Creek,” the same location where 

Been would later observe Alaska Natives fi shing for “large and abundant trout and salmon,” 

Bureau agents set up a camp, from which they 

seined for lake trout and Dolly Vardens, killing 

over 16,000 pounds of fi sh.55

Besides killing fi sh that preyed on salmon 

smolt and fry, Bureau agents modifi ed the 

river landscape with the aim of aiding adult 

salmon migrating between Naknek and Brooks 

lakes. “Kidawik Creek” (renamed Brooks 

River in 1921) connects Naknek Lake with 

Brooks Lake, which in 1920 was called Toms 

Lake. Bureau agents described the creek as 

“an ideal salmon stream with fi ne spawning 

bottom [for] its entire length of about 2 miles.” 

However, about half-way up “Kidawik Creek” 

there is a waterfall “from 5 to 8 feet high,” over 

which agents reasoned “It would be impossible 

for fi sh to ascend during low-water stage.” Usand other personal use consumption 53 On Besides killing fish that preyed on salmon

Blueprint of the weir and fi eld 

laboratory at Brooks Lake, ca. 

1941. KATM_127_9001 [id754]. 

Technical Information Center, 

Denver Service Center, National 

Park Service. 
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 13

ing steel bars, stone-cutting implements, and 

hammers and picks, Bureau agents cut a ten 

foot gap in the rock, diverting the fl ow of water 

over the falls on the left side of the stream. Th e 

following year, agents returned to the Brooks 

River and blasted what they considered “a satisfactory passage 15 feet in width, sloping back 

25 feet from the base [of the river]...over which 

the fi sh can now pass without diffi culty.”56 

Although salmon had been leaping the Brooks 

River Falls successfully for centuries, according 

to one agent, such action was necessary due to 

injuries caused to migrating salmon attempting 

to navigate the falls:

A good run entered July 15, which 

was the date the cut was complete. 

Th ere were fair numbers that found 

and passed through the cut, but the 

majority worked continuously at the 

center of the fall[s], many were injured 

and fl oated downstream. As the water 

rose, some of the fi sh were noticed 

passing over the top of the dam, and 

with high water they had no trouble 

in passing over. Th e cut makes it possible for them to ascend at any time. 

Fishing at this point was conducted in 

conjunction with the work of making 

a passageway through the dam. Th e 

trout taken were chopped fi ne and 

used to bait certain suitable seining points, where the fi sh gathered 

in numbers, and a seine was slipped 

around them.57

Predator control of trout and other species 

continued in summer 1921, as the Naknek 

operations expanded to include set nets, drift 

nets, fyke nets, set lines, and hand lines. By 

implementing more effi cient tools and methods, agents caught and killed nearly 41,232 

pounds of trout, Dolly Varden, steelhead, and 

pike, as well as several of what they called “fi sh 

ducks,” most likely mergansers, taken incidentally in the nets each night. In 1922, agents 

made several trips to islands in Naknek Lake 

for the purpose of destroying Arctic tern eggs.58

Th ey even paid bounties for eagle claws.59 Th e 

Bureau’s eff orts to destroy predators continued throughout the 1920s. By the end of the 

decade, trout drew a fi ve-cent bounty.60

Not surprisingly, the government’s predator 

control operation showed eff ective results. As 

one agent reported in 1923, “trout are becoming more diffi cult of capture each year.”61 By 

1924, agents at their “Kidawik Camp” noted 

that, “Trout appeared very scarce at every point 

in comparison with previous years, and natives 

reported extremely poor catches last winter and 

early spring in their traps around the lake.”62

When work at “Kidawik Camp” ended in late 

fall, Bureau employees were transferred to the 

Alaska Portland Packers Association cannery 

for the return trip southward, while their equipment was stored at the cannery, and the launch 

placed on the cannery’s ways for the winter.63

Rather than protecting the natural fi sh 

stocks and existing habitat, by the 1920s, 

predator destruction and so-called “stream 

improvements” had become favored methods 

of management for federal fi sheries managers. Instead of limiting the salmon numbers 

fi shermen caught, the government encouraged 

artifi cial propagation and hatcheries to ‘make 

salmon.’64 Th ese methods were appealing for 

two reasons. First, technology and other activities that seemingly encouraged amplifi cation 

of commercial fi shes convinced canners and 

government bureaucrats alike, that declining 

fi sh stocks could be resuscitated without the 

politically unpopular acts of protecting habitat 

or reducing fi shing intensity. Second, it played 

into the progressive belief that humans could 

apply technological and scientifi c solutions to 

complex ecological problems.65 But in spite of 

the Bureau’s rationalized eff orts, salmon runs 

continued to decline throughout the territory.

Seeking a solution, Secretary of Commerce 

Herbert Hoover responded by persuading 

President Warren G. Harding to establish two 

limited-entry salmon reserves in Alaska. On 

February 17, 1922, Harding obliged Hoover 

and created the two reserves: one near Kodiak 

Island and another in Bristol Bay. Th e reserves 

limited the number of boats that fi shed within 

each reserve, thereby providing much needed 

relief for the salmon populations in those areas.66 Th e policy, which allowed “no individual 

or concern” to “engage in the business of catching, canning, or preparing salmon...without 

fi rst securing a permit from the Secretary of 

Commerce,” was meant to foster conservation 

and economic rationality in an industry that 

had rapidly expanded during World War I and 

was suff ering from overcapitalization, falling 

prices, and resource depletion in the postwar 

period. Alaska politicians, however, attacked 

the policy for creating a “private monopoly in 

the Alaska salmon-packing industry for a few 
14 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

individuals or corporations from San Francisco 

and Seattle who were not in any sense residents 

of the territory.”67 

As Alaskans saw it, the federal government’s reserves, instead of conserving salmon, 

created a corporate “Fish Trust” in the same 

vein as Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Th e highly 

publicized charges of monopoly and special 

privilege ultimately doomed the Alaska fi shery 

reservations, much to the disappointment of 

both conservation managers and fi sh canners, 

who believed them to be a rational solution to 

resource depletion and economic competition. 

On June 6, 1924, Congress responded with 

its most active piece of fi sheries management 

legislation to date, the White Act. Th e White 

Act dramatically expanded the powers of the 

secretary of commerce to limit and prohibit 

fi shing throughout Alaska and extended police 

power to fi sheries agents. Th e law guaranteed 

open entry fi shing in Alaska waters, set times of 

the day when it was legal to fi sh, authorized the 

Bureau of Fisheries to monitor salmon harvests, and eliminated the two fi shery reserves.68 

From the perspective of fi shers and territorial 

politicians the 1924 law simply increased the 

power that the corporate Fish Trust and distant 

bureaucrats wielded over their lives.69 

More signifi cantly, fi ve years aft er the 

White Act passed, politicians had failed to 

bring back the salmon.70 Bristol Bay’s sockeye population still had not recovered from 

wartime overcapitalization and over-fi shing. 

Recognizing the dilemma, Bureau mangers 

began to advocate for more eff ective, rational 

government policy guided by the rigors of science. Th is meant shaping fi sheries laws according to the scientifi c and utilitarian doctrine of 

maximum sustainable yield (MSY). Although 

the science supporting MSY data was imperfect and unreliable at the time, in the summer 

of 1929, Bureau biologists began to conduct 

fi sh counts on the Naknek drainage, a system 

that supported one of the Bristol Bay’s largest 

sockeye runs and provided access to a series of 

sockeye-rich lakes that were located on federal 

land, including Brooks Lake. Th e agency 

installed its fi rst counting weir twenty-six miles 

upstream from the mouth of Naknek River, 

just below an area known as “the rapids.”71 Th e 

counting activities at this weir allowed the 

Bureau to estimate how many fi sh made it up 

the river to spawn, thereby reducing the threat 

of future over-harvests. Th ey used statistical 

analysis of MSY to formulate the number of 

fi sh that needed to spawn (the escapement); 

they then counted the fi sh as the run returned 

to the spawning grounds. Aft er a predetermined number of salmon reached the grounds, 

the remaining salmon could then be harvested 

by the commercial fi shery. 

Th e same year that the Bureau of Fisheries 

biologists began counting fi sh on the Naknek 

River, the United States economy spiraled into 

crisis on account of the unprecedented Wall 

Street crash and the ensuing Great Depression. Despite the challenges posed by an inert 

economy, the agency continued its annual fi sh 

counts in Bristol Bay, while low profi ts and 

rising costs forced many of Alaska’s canneries 

to close.72 Between 1929 and 1932, the total 

number of canneries in operation fell from 156 

to eighty-seven and employment within the 

industry (fi shers included) dropped by thirtyfi ve percent. Additionally, the average price of 

a forty-eight pound case of sockeye fell from 

$12.57 in 1930 to $5.62 by 1932.73 But at such 

low prices, Americans continued to eat canned 

salmon, thus saving the industry from fi nancial 

ruin. High protein content and relative aff ordability made canned salmon an attractive staple 

for many depression-struck diets.74

By the mid-1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 

New Deal had begun to increase the federal 

government eff orts towards managing the 

salmon upon which Alaska’s economy hinged. 

Th e newly appointed Commissioner of Fisheries, Frank T. Bell, believed that it was not only 

the Bureau’s responsibility to regulate salmon 

harvest, but to also consider all of the social 

and economic implications produced by regulation. Shortly aft er taking offi ce, Bell surveyed 

the major salmon districts in Alaska, including 

Bristol Bay. Sympathetic to the plight of local 

fi shers, Bell encouraged their participation in 

the fi shery, rather than perpetuating cannerydominance which excluded local fi shers. Bell, 

therefore, reduced the number of fl oating traps 

and relaxed regulations on net-type gear to 

promote private fi shing.75 

During the New Deal, Bristol Bay experienced some of the best and the worst sockeye 

runs in the history of the fi shery. In 1933, 

Bristol Bay put up its largest pack of sockeye 

since 1918—24,266,200 fi sh. A year later the 

region’s total catch dropped to 22,692,911. 

Th e catch continued to drop until it reached 

3,634,856 in 1935. However, in 1936 fi shing 

improved and packers harvested 23,295,010 

fi sh. In 1937, that number dropped to 
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 15

22,053,165 fi sh, but still remained better than 

average. A year later Bristol Bay packers experienced their best commercial harvest of the 

decade, harvesting 25,469,437 fi sh. By 1939, 

conditions once again worsened and the bay’s 

total catch dropped to 14,609,889 fi sh.76

All the while the federal government 

continued to use predator destruction and 

stream improvements as methods designed to 

aid the declining sockeye. In 1935, the same 

year that the federal government established 

the Works Progress Administration (WPA), 

the agency set aside $55,996 for projects like 

these and others intended to improve Alaskan 

salmon returns. Th e Bureau used over $19,000 

of the sum to pay bounties for predatory fi sh 

destruction in the Bristol Bay region. Th e 

remainder of the funds was allocated for other 

fi sheries related projects throughout the territory, including additional improvements such 

as reinforcing the falls fi sh passage on Brooks 

River. But the threat of World War II interrupted plans and reinforcement of the passage 

did not occur until a decade later. 

At the end of the 1930s, the Bureau of 

Fisheries and the U.S. Biological Survey in the 

Department of Agriculture were moved to the 

Department of the Interior, and in 1940 they 

combined to create a new agency: the U.S. 

Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). But in the 

midst of reorganization, the Bureau became 

ensnared in an international aff air taking place 

off Alaska’s southwestern coast. In 1937, a 

Japanese ship, Taiyo Maru, and its three auxiliary ships were observed fi shing for sockeye just 

twenty miles west of the mouths of the Ugashik and Naknek Rivers in Bristol Bay. Not 

only were the Japanese fi shing in the bay, they 

were using gill nets nearly nine times the legal 

length of two hundred fathoms.77 Although 

the Japanese government claimed that the 

boats were fi shing for crab, the United States 

was otherwise convinced and felt that the alien 

fl eet threatened the fi shing industry by using 

aggressive fi shing methods and competing with 

United States fi shers. 

National concern over the Japanese off -

shore fi shing in Bristol Bay prompted Congress 

to direct a new series of studies of the salmon 

fi sheries of Bristol Bay to determine the impact 

of Japanese and domestic fi shing on Bristol 

Bay’s sockeye population. George B. Kelez, the 

fi rst director of the Bristol Bay salmon research 

group, and fellow biologist Th omas Barnaby, 

made preliminary reconnaissance surveys of 

the Bristol Bay spawning areas in 1938. Congress charged the new Fish & Wildlife Service 

with the task of implementing the Bristol Bay 

Investigation (BBI), thus bringing active, longterm fi sheries research and management to the 

region. Although the initial operation aimed 

to focus on all fi ve of the major rivers, Congressional appropriations were greatly reduced 

for the following season.78 Based on Kelez 

and Barnaby’s 1938 area reports, the agency 

therefore decided to build a fi eld laboratory for 

BBI, locating its headquarters at Brook Lake in 

Katmai National Monument.79

Bureau of Fisheries Establishes 

the Brooks Lake Field Station, 1940-1941

Beginning in 1940, USF&WS focused 

the Bristol Bay Investigation on the mile-anda-half-long Brooks River, due to its central 

location and relatively small but rich sockeye 

run.80 In the surrounding lakes of Katmai 

National Monument, biologists planned to 

conduct sockeye salmon egg and smolt survival 

studies that would be applied to the entire 

Bristol Bay region. Ironically, the agency chose 

Brooks River as an example of a typical Bristol 

Bay spawning ground, yet long-time fi sheries 

biologist George Eicher later admitted that the 

Brooks River was one of the “least typical” of 

any Bristol Bay spawning stream.81

At that time, salmon canning companies 

operated a private fl eet of steamships to and 

from Bristol Bay, and besides bringing workers 

and materials north in the spring and canned 

salmon south in the fall, these ships also 

transported the government biologists to their 

destination at Naknek. Th e nucleus of Brooks 

Lake biologists in 1940 consisted of George 

Kelez, Robert Hacker, Albert Collier, Fred 

Cleaver, George Eicher, Paul Ferrier, Gomer 

Hilsinger, and one other unnamed in reports.82 

On arrival, their priority was to freight research 

materials up the Naknek River from the old 

Bureau of Fisheries ways near New Savonoski 

(near the village of South Naknek and the PAF 

cannery) to a landing area below the Naknek 

rapids. From there the materials were transported overland for fi ft een miles by a Cletrac 

tractor to the corner of Naknek Lake. A small 

power dory then towed the raft ed materials to 

the mouth of the Brooks River. 

Th e goal for that fi rst season was to build 

a seasonal weir on the outlet of Brooks Lake. 

Th e weir was constructed with twenty footlong four by fours and large quantities of 
16 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

wooden pickets, recycled from the old Naknek 

weir. Biologists fl oated the material in small, 

one-person raft s from the mouth of the Brooks 

River to the outlet of Brooks Lake or they 

dragged the four by fours with ropes thrown 

over their shoulders. As Eicher described, “it 

was back-breaking work.”83 When these procedures became too time-consuming, Woodley 

“Brooks Lake weir. Building tripods 

out of spruce logs. Cleaver sawing, 

1940” Bureau of Fisheries biologists 

built the Brooks River fi sh weir to 

study the region’s commercially 

lucrative red salmon. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 17

Airways was used to fl y materials from Naknek 

to Brooks Lake. With nearly “frantic eff orts,” 

the weir was in place when the fi rst red salmon 

arrived in 1940. According to Eicher, “Th e 

greatest eff ort in 1941 was directed toward 

starting construction of the laboratory and 

headquarters building at Brooks Lake.”84 

In 1941, George Eicher and a crew of 

seasonal workers, including local Robert Hill, 

reinstituted the cat trail haul, initiated by the 

biologists the previous year. Using a tractor 

and sled, they hauled construction materials 

across the bare ground from their stockpile at 

Naknek Lake, but instead of using a dory, they 

continued over Brooks Mountain (known 

at the time as Eicher Peak) and descended to 

Brooks Lake. Th ey followed the same trail 

route that local Natives and later Euroamerican 

trappers had used for centuries. Aft er hauling 

the supplies across the muskeg-bound trail, 

while enduring constant harassment from 

black fl ies and mosquitoes, Eicher and his crew 

reinstalled the fi sh weir from the previous year 

and conducted their second season of counting. 

Aft er the salmon run, they broke ground for the 

fi eld laboratory, located on the eastern shore 

of Brooks Lake, situated among spruce, willow 

and other vegetation, approximately sixty feet 

from the Brooks River. Th at year Eicher and his 

men completed the laboratory’s stone/concrete 

foundation and installed some of the wall logs 

before leaving for the winter.85 A typical log 

entry for the 1941 season reads as follows:

Left Brooks Camp at 4:10 am; left the 

mouth of Brooks River 5 am with the 

scow; arrived at Naknek Lake freight 

terminal 10:00 am; loaded the scow and 

left 12:00 noon; reached Brooks River 

6:00 pm; loaded the scow and sled; left 

the mouth of the river 7:00pm; reached 

the weir camp 7:20 pm.86

By 1941, Bureau biologists were still the 

only personnel in Katmai National Monument 

representing the federal government. When 

the Bureau of Fisheries fi rst requested permission from NPS to establish a fi eld station and 

counting weir “in the vicinity of Naknek Lake, 

Katmai National Monument,” the NPS had 

no employees administering the monument 

and knew very little about the area. In making 

its case for a fi eld station, the Bureau pointed 

out to NPS that trappers had long-established 

fairly elaborate structures near the outlet at 

Brooks Lake and hoped that NPS would allow 

its biologists to construct a permanent building 

there as well.87 Hillory Tolson, the NPS acting 

director in 1940, responded to F.A. Davidson, 

the Bureau of Fisheries director for USFWS, 

with his agency’s appreciation. “Due to lack of 

appropriations and personnel,” wrote Tolson, 

Biologists begin to construct a 

laboratory and living quarters at 

Brooks Lake in 1941. KATM Photo 

Archive (Acc. #399), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska. 
18 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

“this Service has never been able to apply to 

Katmai the usual regulations applicable to 

other national monuments.” Tolson added that 

investigation of illegal trapping was in fact the 

purpose of a planned visit to the monument by 

Mount McKinley National Park Superintendent Frank Been and NPS biologist Victor Cahalane later that September. As to the building 

request, Tolson expected the Bureau’s footprint 

to be minimal. “It is understood that the 

structures contemplated will be restricted to 

the weir and to a small frame building or tent 

frame for shelter for the men who would be 

temporarily stationed there during the salmon 

run.”88 Because NPS would not establish a permanent presence in the monument for another 

ten years, monument offi cials appealed to their 

sister agency on numerous occasions for assistance in managing the Brooks River area.

Fisheries Research, the Fish Ladder, 

and the End of the Eicher Era, 1941-1957

As fi sheries investigations continued at 

Brooks Lake in summer 1942, foreign relations between the United States and Japan 

had worsened, as international confl ict moved 

Fisheries biologists pose in front 

of the Fisheries Research Station 

sometime in the early 1940s. Note 

that the building’s wings has not 

yet been constructed. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 19

far beyond fi shing. Six months earlier, the 

Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, and by 

the time the USFWS biologists arrived for 

the fi eld season, the United States had entered 

World War II. Eicher and his men continued 

to collect data on the Brooks River despite 

the fact that that most of their permanent 

staff had joined the war eff ort. Brooks Lake 

temporary workforce in 1943 consisted of 

Gomer Hilsigner, Willard Hilsinger, Bob 

Parker, William Peck, Jud Nelson, Dick Mullineaux, Arva Joule, Larry Witt, Ray Reed, 

Art Zyllstra, and Gene Maltzeff . Th ough they 

did not construct the weir that year, the men 

completed the fi eld laboratory’s central section, and likely built the corrugated metal-clad 

tool and maintenance shed nearby sometime 

during the 1943 fi eld season. Th roughout the 

remainder of the war years, Eicher and others 

conducted minimal work on Brooks Lake due 

to scarcities in personnel, aircraft , materials, 

and funding.89 In spite of a reduced staff , a 

water tower was erected near the lab at Brooks 

Lake in 1944.90

For Bristol Bay the arrival of World War II 

meant the opening of new markets for sockeye. 

Many of the bay’s canneries adopted the advertising slogan, “food fi t for MacArthur’s men.” 

As in the past, fi sheries management and regulation took a back seat to wartime production. 

Between 1940 and 1942, the price for canned 

sockeye increased from $9.57 to $15.33 a case, 

which once again instigated higher production 

and harvests. Following the war, canned-salmon prices jumped to $23.38 a case by 1947.91 

Due to aggressive wartime over-harvests and 

high postwar market values, not surprisingly, 

Bristol Bay’s annual catch plummeted, reaching 

less than seven million by 1949.92

With the Allied victory in 1946, the USFWS biologists turned their attention to Bristol Bay’s damaged sockeye fi shery. Th e crew 

that year consisted of George Kelez, recently 

returned from the war, Eugene Bridge, Les 

Ensign, William Peck, Bob Lander, Chester 

Mattson, Larry Knapp, and Warren Nystrom. 

With new directives focused on Bristol Bay, 

the biologists expanded their fi sh counting 

Blueprint for the Bureau of Fisheries 

Laboratory at Brooks Lake, 1941. 

KATM_127_9001 [id754].Technical 

Information Center, Denver Service 

Center, National Park Service. 
20 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

The Bureau of Fisheries biologists 

make a large cut at the south bank 

of the Brooks Falls. Construction 

for the fi sh ladder started in 1949. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

Biologists complete the fi sh ladder 

at the Brooks River Falls in 1950. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 21

and research eff orts using new technologies: 

tagging and aerial photography. Th ese enabled 

the agency to track salmon from the Naknek 

drainage and monitor their return. 

In 1947, George Eicher, who had worked 

as a temporary during the prewar investigations, took charge of the Bristol Bay Investigation. Eicher, along with Willis Rich, developed 

a system of counting fi sh moving upstream 

in the lower rivers from towers placed along 

riverbanks. Th e University of Washington’s 

Fisheries Research Institute would adopt this 

system of salmon run monitoring in 1952. 

In 1948 the crew included Eicher, Bill Peck, 

Merrill Spence, Bill Rees, Al Pruter, Howard 

Sanders, Bob Heg, John Luft , and Dick Smith. 

Tagging and photography continued throughout 1947 and 1948. 

Because of its small size, biologists chose 

the Brooks Lake tributary Hidden Creek for 

further tagging experiments, and installed a 

small weir at its mouth in 1949. Increased 

The Bureau consulted a landscape 

architect in order to maintain a more 

natural scene at the falls. “Brooks 

Falls Fish Ladder,” circa 1951. Brooks 

Camp Interpretive Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

Since the fi sh ladder was constructed 

in 1949, the structure has been a 

point of contention and management 

headache for NPS. The diagram 

illustrates one of many planning 

options for the Brooks River 

Fish Ladder. From Carl Burger, et 

al, “Biological and Hydrological 

Evaluations of the Fish Ladder at 

Brooks Falls, Alaska,” draft report 

(Anchorage, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, National Fishery Research 

Center), June 1, 1985.
22 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

funds translated into an expanded fi eld crew 

that year, consisting of Eicher, Pruter, Merrill 

Spence, Bill Rees, Larry Knapp, Dick Weaver, 

George Kaydas, Dick Smith, Gene Deschamps, 

Vernon Hacker, William Saltzman, John 

Hurst, Mike Michel, Mike Wold, and Jerry 

O’Neil. Research at Hidden Creek convinced 

the scientists that tagging had little eff ect on 

the lifespan of salmon. Th is meant that tagging 

could be used to accurately determine Bristol 

Bay’s sockeye population and help prevent 

future overharvest. In addition to research on 

Hidden Creek, Eicher and his men took aerial 

photographs of the major salmon streams on 

the Naknek drainage and counted the fi sh in 

the photographs. As a result, biologists were 

able to establish “index areas” that they photographed annually for population statistics.93

Also that summer the USFWS perpetuated earlier Bureau of Fisheries activities that focused on so-called “landscape improvements.” 

John Hurst, Mike Michel, Mike Wold, and 

Jerry O’Neil were detailed almost exclusively 

to the construction of a fi sh ladder over the 

falls in Brooks River. Th e Bureau of Fisheries “fi sh passage” cut at the falls in 1920 was 

unusable due to overgrown vegetation. And 

although the Bureau had conceived plans for 

a fi sh ladder at Brooks Falls in 1936, limited 

funding and the pending crisis of World War 

II delayed construction until aft er the war. In 

1949, construction materials were fl own into 

Brooks Lake, and then moved by tractor and 

sled to the building site. Later that summer, 

the four biologists constructed a concrete 

ladder and the agency put it into operation the 

following year.94

By 1950, “improving” migration routes 

for spawning salmon with technologies such 

as fi sh ladders remained the agency’s approach 

to managing the Brooks River salmon run. 

Construction of the ladder, however, led to disagreement between USFWS and NPS. George 

Eicher later explained that when George Kelez 

had made exploratory inspections of Bristol 

Bay spawning areas in 1938, the “Brooks Falls 

problem” was pointed out to him by Fred 

Lucas, the game warden at the time. In 1939, 

Kelez held preliminary discussions with the 

Regional Director of the Park Service in San 

Francisco on the subject of laddering the falls. 

Th en, according to Eicher, NPS biologist Victor Cahalane and superintendent Frank Been 

accompanied Lucas and Kelez to the Brooks 

Falls in 1940, where the men saw the location of the intended ladder. In 1941, Alfred 

C. Kuehl, NPS regional landscape architect, 

visited the area on behalf of NPS. Although 

NPS offi cially disapproved of the ladder’s 

construction, Kuehl made at least two trips to 

Brooks Lake to assist the Bureau in making its 

properties more compatible with Park Service 

views. Kuehl also made a number of suggestions for making the laboratory architecturally 

compatible with the surroundings. Eicher 

recalled that Kuehl examined the fi shway site 

with George Kelez before it was built, and 

recommended that, in order to make the ladder 

as unobtrusive as possible, the Bureau bury the 

spoil in an existing hole on the right bank and 

key the ladder weirs into the excavated trough 

as much as possible so that, when fi lled with 

water, they would be hidden. According to 

Eicher, the Bureau complied.95

According to NPS, however, it never authorized the project. Kuehl wrote “No written 

report was prepared on the operations of the 

Bureau of Fisheries, Fish and Wildlife Service 

biological station installations. ...To my knowledge, this Offi ce has never been advised as to 

the existence of an agreement be it written or 

oral.”96 Yet, because NPS was under pressure 

from Alaska politicians and local media to 

reduce the size of Katmai Monument in 1947, 

and that USFWS employees had worked with 

monument offi cials for the last ten years in 

reducing illegal hunting and fi shing activities, 

Kuehl chose not to make the ladder an issue at 

the time:

Th is possibility [reducing Katmai’s 

boundaries] plus the fact that the 

scientifi c station operation has been 

going on for years, plus a desire to 

maintain amiable relations in view of 

the splendid protective services rendered by the Fish and Wildlife Service 

in the Monument of many years have 

prompted me to refrain from making 

an issue of the point in question.97

Disagreement aside, the ladder itself 

consisted of seven concrete steps and a retaining wall that was set directly into the rock face 

of the waterfall. Th e ladder was unique in 

that salmon ascended the structure by swimming through holes (weirs) in its steps rather 

than jumping from step to step. However, the 

ladder proved problematic. Either sockeye 

were unable to locate it or the water volume 
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 23

that poured through it rendered it useless as 

an alternate route, because, according to fi sh 

counts taken before and aft er the ladder’s 

construction, the sockeye run in Brooks River 

actually declined aft er the USFWS installed 

it.98 According to Eicher, the USFWS counted 

an average of 197,000 sockeye annually in the 

nine years preceding the ladder. During the 

ladder’s fi rst six years of operation, the average 

count dropped to 56,000. It is not clear if these 

numbers refl ect the depressed post-war sockeye 

population or the ladder’s functionality.99 

By 1950, the hierarchy of the USFWS in 

Washington D.C. had decided that all funds 

and eff ort in Alaska investigation would shift 

to pink salmon in Southeast. Eicher later 

recalled, “It was revealed that our studies 

were mainly to provide data for the [North 

Pacifi c Fisheries] treaty base and show eff ects 

of Japanese fi shing.”100 Continuity, however, 

in Bristol Bay was maintained on the weir 

counts at Brooks Lake. Th at year, a young pilot 

named Jay Hammond assisted Eicher with 

visual surveys in a Cessna 170. Although focus 

on Southeast pinks siphoned funding from the 

Bristol Bay Investigations, a permanent weir, 

utilizing aluminum pickets in bipods fi tted on 

jackhammer bits sunk into the rock at the bottom of the river, was installed at Brooks Lake 

in 1952. Eicher was assisted that year by Dick 

Weaver, Bob Stokes, Dale Becker, Steve Lee, Al 

Roppel, and Hal Boles. 

A year later, Eicher’s crew dwindled to only 

one permanent man, Charles Hunter, and one 

temporary, Robert Eckwall. Th ey nevertheless 

completed the impressive stone fi replace and 

chimney in the middle of the laboratory’s central section, which previous crews had cobbled 

together as time permitted since 1943. Th ey 

also were able to make use of a four-wheeled 

rubber-tired trailer, which was used for the fi rst 

time that summer at Brooks Lake. About this 

time, the biologists constructed a second outbuilding in order to provide shop space and/or 

storage for equipment vital to their research at 

Brooks Lake such as nets, tools, and an old Jeep 

used for ground transportation to the fi sh weir 

and ladder, and which according to Eicher was 

later buried somewhere in the park.101 

Th e year 1954 brought the arrival of two 

permanent employees, Richard Straty and Dick 

Weaver. Operation of the weir continued that 

year and the collection of meteorological data 

commenced. Also, Straty oversaw the completion of the lab’s third, and fi nal wing in 1957. 

Th ey also conducted studies elsewhere in the 

Katmai area, particularly the spawning grounds 

surveys on Coville Creek and the Savonoski 

River. Meanwhile, in 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Act created two new bureaus: Bureau of 

Commercial Fisheries and the Bureau of Sport 

Fisheries and Wildlife. Operations at Brooks 

Lake fell under the auspices of Bureau of Commercial Fisheries.

By the mid-1950s, interest at the Washington level had returned to Bristol Bay which 

led to a signifi cant increase in funds. Besides 

Eicher, Straty and Weaver, temporaries in 

1955 included Wendell Peterson, Pat McGunnigle, Dick Rowland, Craig Magnuson, Dick 

Anderson, Howard Westfi eld, Otto Florschutz, 

Bert Ewing, Dick Hansen, John Winher, 

Bjorson, Jean Dunn, Bob Lewis, Dick Allen, 

and Bernard Simonsma. But with the BBI’s 

transfer into the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF), a signifi cant turnover of personnel, objectives, fi eld operations at the Brooks 

Lake headquarters had occurred. As Eicher 

explained, “Th ose who had participated in 

the area in the previous 10 year period left the 

scene, and a new era began.” 102

Military Sportsmen “Discover” 

Katmai and the Brooks River

It took only one year for Superintendent 

Been’s prediction in 1940 that sportsmen 

would eventually ‘discover’ the Brooks River to 

become reality, despite the fact that the NPS 

monument remained closed to the public. In 

1941, the year Japan bombed Pearl Harbor 

catapulting the United States into World War 

II, the U.S. Army Air Corps established the 

Naknek Air Base as part of the Alaska war 

preparation eff orts. Th e outbreak of World 

War II, besides bringing thousands of servicemen to the Alaska Peninsula, further complicated NPS eff orts to protect the monument’s 

wildlife.103 Th e war opened the Katmai region 

to outsiders, specifi cally, military and construction workers with air access.104 Military and 

construction personnel seeking trophy rainbow 

trout began to use small aircraft to gain access 

to fi shing areas throughout the upper Alaska 

Peninsula, including Brooks River and other 

parts of the upper Naknek drainage, where, 

according to fi sh biologists stationed at Brooks 

Lake, they pulled “thousands upon thousands 

of trout” from the water.105 

Two rest and recreation camps were established in 1943 by the U.S. Army Air Corps to 
24 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

serve military anglers; both were located at the 

west end of Naknek Lake. Enlisted men used 

the Naknek Recreation Annex No. 1, known 

locally as Rapids Camp, and offi cers used Annex No. 2, known locally as Lake Camp.106 Th e 

Navy considered building a camp “one-half 

mile east of Brooks Falls,” a plan that never 

materialized, but revealed the military’s strong 

interest in Katmai as a recreational destination.107 Th e Brooks River area was considered 

such a popular destination for the U.S. military 

that General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a fl yfi shing enthusiast, along with Generals Alfred 

Gruenther and Howard Craig, on an offi cial 

inspection of the USFWS fi sheries station at 

Brooks Lake, took some well-deserved time 

to fi sh the Brooks River in 1947.108 Because 

the NPS remained an “absentee agency,” it ha

little say in or knowledge of fi shing activities 

conducted by military personnel in Katmai.10

Th e increased popularity of the Brooks 

River had dire eff ects on its fi sh, for many of 

the lesser ranked military anglers attracted by 

the river’s easy access seemed to show little 

While inspecting the USGWS fi sheries 

laboratory at Brooks Lake in 1947, 

General Dwight Eisenhower took 

some well-deserved R&R to fi sh for 

Brook River’s famous trout. Pictured 

are General Eisenhower and his staff 

posing with the Nystorm family 

at Brooks Lake. USF&WS’s orange 

and black Waco 47 is parked in the 

background. Photographed by George 

Eicher, August 1947. Alaska Heritage 

Aviation Museum, Anchorage, Alaska.

The U.S. Air Force Recreational Camp 

at the outlet of Naknek Lake in 1963. 

KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #399, 

PH16), Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 25

concern for conservation.110 USFWS personnel recorded that as many as twenty anglers per 

week were rainbow fi shing on the Books River 

and accumulating “so many of the huge fi sh 

they were scarcely able to carry the weight to 

their plane.”111 NPS offi cials could do nothing to prevent the onslaught or protect the 

resource. Lacking funds for a ranger, NPS had 

to rely on the cooperation of the USFWS to 

patrol the Brooks River.112

With the end of the war and the ability to 

refocus on domestic concerns, NPS offi cials began to take seriously reports of over-fi shing and 

littering along the Brooks River by personnel 

fl ying in from the King Salmon Air Base. By 

the summer of 1948, USFWS representatives 

stationed at Brooks Lake insisted “quite defi -

nitely that the rainbow trout have decreased 

as the result of the popularity to air borne 

sportsmen.”113 NPS needed to fi nd some way 

to protect Katmai National Monument and 

regulate the public’s use of it.
26 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 For general histories of the Park Service, see Alfred Runte, National Parks: The American 

Experience, 2d ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), especially Ch. 2 and 

his discussion of the concept of monumentalism; Barry Macintosh, The National Parks: 

Shaping the System (Washington, D.C.: GPO, Department of the Interior, 1991), and John 

Ise, Our National Park Policy: A Critical History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1961). On 

national monuments, see Hal Rothman, Preserving Different Pasts: The American National 

Monuments (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), and Ronald F. Lee, The Antiquities Act 

of 1906 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, National Park Service, 1970). 2

 Or what was thought to be Mt. Katmai. Only much later, in 1956, did scientists discover that 

the primary volcanic vent was actually Novarupta, located perhaps 6 miles northwest of Mt. 

Katmai. 

3

 See Robert F. Griggs, “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes,” National Geographic 31 

(January 1917): 13-68; Griggs, “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes,” National Geographic

33 (February 1918): 115-70; Griggs, “Our Greatest National Monument, National Geographic

40 (September 1921: 219-92; Griggs, The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (Washington, D.C.: 

National Geographic Society, 1922). The monument proclamation is reprinted in this, 331-32. 

Also Ch. 2 in Frank B. Norris, Isolated Paradise: An Administrative History of the Katmai and 

Aniakchak National Park Units (Anchorage: National Park Service, 1996). 4

 Don E. Dumond, A Naknek Chronicle: Ten Thousand Years in a Land of Lakes and Rivers 

and Mountains of Fire (Anchorage: National Park Service, 2005), 1-5. 5

 Dumond, A Naknek Chronicle, 5. 6

 Archeologists have mapped more than nine hundred house depressions along the Brooks 

River, making the area surrounding Brooks Camp one of the largest archeological sites in 

Alaska. NPS, Brooks River Area National Historic Landmark Nomination, 1993.

7

 For a good description of Russian and Alaska Native relations see Lydia T Black, Russians in 

Alaska: 1732-1867 (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2004). 8

 See Don E. Dumond and James W. VanStone, Paugvik : a Nineteenth-Century Native 

Village on Bristol Bay, Alaska (Chicago : Field Museum of Natural History, 1995), 2. 9

 Kerry D. Feldman, Native Use of Seagull Lake and Surrounding Environs Naknek, Alaska

(Unpublished Report, February 27, 1979), 4.

10 Ibid,14.

11 Harritt, Roger K. “Problems in Protohistoric Ethnogenesis in Alaska: the Naknek Drainage 

and the Pacifi c Eskimo Area.” Arctic Anthropology 34(2), (1997) :45-73. 12 Kerry D. Feldman, Evidence of Alaska Native Settlement In and Use of the King Salmon 

Area prior to May 1936 (Unpublished Report for the King Salmon Village Council, August 

1998), 36.

13 Kerry D. Feldman, “Ethnohistory and the IRA Tribal Status Application of King Salmon 

Natives, Alaska” (Alaska Journal of Anthropology 2001), 108. 14 Ivan Petroff, Population and Resources of Alaska (Washington D.C.: Department of Interior, 

1881), 44-45.

15 Petroff, 45.

16 Patricia Partnow, Making History: Alutiiq Sugpiaq Life on the Alaska Peninsula (Fairbanks: 

University of Alaska Press, 2001), 44-45; Linda J. Ellanna and Andrew Balluta, Nuvendaltin 

Quht’ana: The People of Nondalton (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), 

47-48

17 Petroff, 45.

18 Josiah Edward Spurr, A Reconnaissance in Southwestern Alaska in 1998 (Washington D.C.: 

United States Geological Survey, 1898-9), 90-91.

19 Spurr, 60-61.

20 Griggs, Valley (1917), 27, 29; Griggs, Valley, 317, 84, 319. 21 Griggs, “Our Greatest Monument,” 290; Griggs, Valley, 310; photos of the falls without 

bears at 310, 311, 316.

22 Morgan Sherwood, Big Game in Alaska: A History of Wildlife and People (New Haven: Yale 

University Press, 1981), 42.

23 Griggs, Valley, 317. 24 Victor H. Cahalane, A Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument (Baltimore: Lord 

Baltimore Press, for the Smithsonian Institution, 1959), 5.

25 John A. Hussey, Embattled Katmai, (San Francisco: National Park Service, 1971), 420.

26 John M. Kauffman, Katmai National Monument, Alaska: A History of Its Establishment and 

Revision of Its Boundaries (Washington D.C.: National Park Service, 1954), 8, 18. 27 Jay Williams, “There Ain’t No Privacy,” Alaska Life 1 (August 1938), 6. 28 Frank Norris, personal communication, 2-14-2010.

29 Kauffman, 18-19; see also Hussey, 422-423. 

30 See Norris, Isolated Paradise, 45-51, and Kauffman, 8-12.
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 27

31 Kauffman, 19. 

32 Frank Norris, personal communication, 2-14-2010.

33 “Katmai Aniakchak Budgets” Appendix C, in Isolated Paradise: an Administrative History of 

the Katmai and Aniakchak National Park Units (Anchorage: Alaska Regional Support Offi ce, 

1996).

34 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 42-44. 35 Ibid, 44.

36 Ibid, 37-79.

37 During their investigation of Katmai in 1940, Been and Cahalane discovered several 

active trapping cabins along Naknek and Brooks lakes. Frank T. Been, “Field Notes of Katmai 

National Monument Inspection on Katmai, August 28-October 6, 1940,” (McKinley Park, 

unpub.mss.), 17-18.

38 Charles L. Peterson [Acting Supt. Mount McKinley National Park] to Alfred Andree 

[Koggiung, Alaska], February 26, 1946; Secretary of the Interior to E.L. Bartlett, undated 

(1950). Frank B. Norris, Tourism in Katmai Country, (Anchorage: National Park Service, 1992), 

5.

39 Norris, Tourism, 4. 40 Hussey, Embattled Katmai, 30. 41 Donald Orth, Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 

567, (1967): 161. Note that the spelling of “Ketivik” fl uctuates from “Kettivik” to “Kidawik”, 

depending on the historical source.

42 Been, “Field Notes of Katmai National Monument Inspection on Katmai, August 

28-October 6, 1940,” 16.

43 Ibid, 30.

44 Alfred C. Kuehl, “Report on Katmai National Monument Alaska, Based on Field 

Investigation Made During the Period August 19 to August 30, 1945,” National Park Service, 

Denver, Colorado.

45 George J. Eicher, “History of the Bristol Bay Investigation, 1938-1956,” Bureau of 

Commercial Fisheries, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: 1.

46 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 created two bureaus within USF&WS: The Bureau of 

Sport Fisheries and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. After 1956, all the fi sheries related 

research conducted at Brooks Lake was by the BCF. 

47 President Woodrow Wilson created Katmai National Monument on September 24, 1918. 

Seventy-two years later, when President Jimmy Carter signed ANLICA into law on December 

2, 1980, he expanded Katmai into a National Park and Preserve. 

48 Chris Friday, Organizing Asian American Labor (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), 

8, 85.

49 U.S. House of Representatives, “Alaska Salmon Commission: Message from the President 

of the United States, Transmitting a Communication from the Secretary of Commerce and 

Labor Submitting a preliminary Report of the Alaska Salmon Commission, 58th Cong., 2d sess., 

H. Doc., No. 477. (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Offi ce, 1904), 2. 50 “Proceedings of a Conference of Governors in the White House, Washington, D.C., May 

13-15, 1908,” (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Offi ce, 1909), 3. 51 Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1914 (Washington: United States 

Government Printing Offi ce, 1915), 33-34; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal 

Industries in 1918 (Washington: United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1919), 42, 45. 52 Richard A. Cooley, Politics and Conservation: The Decline of the Alaskan Salmon (New 

York: Harper and Row, 1963), 84.

53 Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920 (Washington: United States 

Government Printing Offi ce, 1921), 93. 54 Bower, 1920, 94. 55 Ibid.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid, 110.

59 Ibid, 31-32; Frank Norris, personal communication, 6-26- 2006.

60 Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1929 (Washington: United States 

Government Printing Offi ce, 1930), 259. 61 Ibid, 125.

62 Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1924 (Washington: United States 

Government Printing Offi ce, 1925), 133. 63 Ibid.

64 Joseph E. Taylor, Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fishers Crisis

(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001). 65 David Arnold, Fishermen’s Frontier: People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska (Seattle: 

University of Washington Press, 2008), 84.
28 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

66 Stephen Haycox, Alaska: An American Colony (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 

2002), 242.

67 Arnold, 100.

68 Arnold 243; Ward T. Bower, 1924, 68-74. Willis H. Rich and Edward M. Ball, Statistical Review 

Of the Alaska Salmon Fisheries, Part 1: Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula (Washington: 

United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1928), 44. 69 Arnold, 101.

70 Cooley argues that the welfare of people and not fi sh was the larger intent of the White 

Act.

71 Bower, 1929, 269. 72 Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1932 (Washington: United States 

Government Printing Offi ce, 1933), 28. 73 Stephen Haycox, Colony, 246; Bower, 1929, 282, 287; Bower, 1932, 38, 41, 44. 74 Homer E. Gregory and Kathleen Barnes, North Pacifi c Fisheries (New York: American 

Council Institute of Pacifi c Relations, 1939), 128. 75 Cooley, 136-137; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1933 (Washington: 

United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1934), 241. 76 Bower, 1933, 269; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1934 (Washington: 

United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1935), 30; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and FurSeal Industries in 1935 (Washington: United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1936), 24; 

Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1936 (Washington: United States 

Government Printing Offi ce, 1937), 303; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries 

in 1937 (Washington: United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1938), 100; Ward T. Bower, 

Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1938 (Washington: United States Government Printing 

Offi ce, 1940), 121; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1939 (Washington: 

United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1941), 131. 77 Bower, 1937, 75; Bower, 1924, 75. 78 Eicher, “History of the Bristol Bay Investigation, 1938-1956,” 2.

79 George Eicher to Dean Paddock, March 21, 1987. 

80 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 267; Janet Clemens and Frank Norris, Building in an Ashen Land: 

Historic Resource Study of Katmai National Park and Preserve (Anchorage: National Park 

Service, 1999), 164-165.

81 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 267; “F.A. Davidson to the National Park Service,” April 16, 1940; 

George J. Eicher, History of the Bristol Bay Investigation, 1-3; “National Park Service to the 

Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Fisheries,” May 14, 1940. 

82 Eicher, 3.

83 Ibid., 3.

84 Ibid, 4.

85 Ibid., 4-5.

86 Ibid., 5.

87 To F.A. Davidson Acting Commissioner, Bureau of Fisheries, from Hillory A. Tolson, Acting 

Associate Director, NPS, April 25, 1940. 

88 Ibid.

89 Eicher, 5-6.

90 Eicher, 6.

91 Cooley, 157; Ward T. Bower, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1942 (Washington: 

United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1944), 28; Seton H. Thompson, Alaska Fishery and 

Fur-Seal Industries in 1949 (Washington: United States Government Printing Offi ce, 1952), 32. 92 Seton H. Thompson, Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1947 (Washington: United 

States Government Printing Offi ce, 1950), 37. 93 George Eicher, Effects of Tagging on Red Salmon, (Washington: Government Printing 

Offi ce, 1951), 1-3; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 269. 94 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 270; Thompson, 1949, 27; George J. Eicher, History of the Bristol 

Bay Investigation, 9; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 270. 95 George Eicher in a letter to Dean Paddock, dated Mach 21, 1987, recounts the story of 

the fi sh ladder and the ensuing confl ict between the two agencies. 96 To Assistant Regional Director, from Alfred C. Kuehl, Regional Landscape Architect, August 

21, 1951. 

97 Ibid.

98 Larry E. Riley, interview by Josh Riley, Homer, AK, 7-9-2006.

99 Eicher, “The Effects of Laddering a Falls in a Salmon Stream” (1956?), 2. 

100 George Eicher, Interviewed by Bill Hanable, Sept./1989, Katmai Files. 101 John O. Furuness to Edward J. Kurtz, “Transfer of Property,” June 22, 1978. 102 Eicher, History of the Bristol Bay Investigation, 13. 103 Morgan Sherwood argues that demographic, technologic, and economic growth 

triggered by the military buildup prior to World War II endangered the more fragile part of 
 Chapter One: The Early Monument and the Brooks Camp River Area 29

Alaska’s wilderness—the big game animals, particularly the Alaskan brown bear. Morgan 

Sherwood, Big Game in Alaska: A History of Wildlife and People (New Haven: Yale University 

Press, 1981) 1.

104 Naknek Air Base was renamed King Salmon Air Station in the 1950s. 105 Frank Norris, Tourism in Katmai Country: A History of Concessions Activity in Katmai 

National Park and Preserve (National Park Service, Alaska Regional Offi ce, Anchorage, 

Alaska, 1992), 4. 106 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 273. 107 R.R. Lyons (Captain, US Navy, Commanding Offi cer, Kodiak Naval Operating Base) to 

Sup. Grant Pearson, Mount McKinley National Park, October 16, 1945, File 901, Box 313, RG 

79, NARA, SB. Copy on fi le in KATM/ANIA Administrative History Files, Box 4, Alaska Regional 

Offi ce, Anchorage, AK. 108 A photograph showing Generals Gruenther, Eisenhower, and Craig disembarking a fl oat 

plane at Brooks Lake in 1947. Photograph courtesy of Frank Hill. Alaska Regional Support 

Offi ce, Anchorage, AK. 109 The U.S.F&W researchers were in charge of researching salmon stocks returning to the 

Naknek River drainage for the Bristol Bay commercial fi shery. The agency was not required 

to monitor the subsistence or sports fi shery. 110 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 275. 111 Hillory A. Tolson (assistant Director NPS ) to RD/R4 April 23, 1948, in File 208, KNM Box 311, 

RG 79, Entry 7 NARA SB; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 275. 112 The task to patrol Katmai was granted to lone wildlife agent, Carlos .M. Carson, who 

worked with the Alaska Game Commission in Dillingham. After numerous letters of concern 

and even some arrests made due to illegal trapping, Carson was fi nally appointed “deputy 

park ranger” (without compensation) for Katmai National Monument. Memo to the 

Regional Director, from Huge Miller, March 14, 1948, in KATM FILES 1936-1952, in KATM/ANIA 

Administrative History Files, Box 4, Alaska Regional Offi ce, Anchorage, AK.; Norris, Isolated 

Paradise, 77. 113 Frank T. Been to Regional Director, Region 4, December 13, 1948.
30 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Ray Petersen with freshly 

caught trout around 1945. 

Courtesy of Sonny Petersen 

and Katmailand, Inc.
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 31

The Area’s First Tourists: Anglers

While local Katmai residents had long appreciated eating any fi sh that could be caught, 

Robert Griggs was likely the fi rst area visitor 

to bring that urbane sportsman’s sensibility, 

noting “Th e fi shing in these lakes and rivers 

makes the region an angler’s paradise.”1

 What 

he meant by this was that, for the person wielding rod and reel, the area off ered fi sh that were 

plentiful, large, and easily caught using sporting techniques. He also referred to rainbow 

trout rather than salmon, a preference that had 

emerged due to its diff erence from the salmon 

species. Salmon stopped feeding upon entering freshwater, while trout feed avidly and 

would ‘rise to the fl y,’ making them available 

to anglers wielding lightweight—hence more 

sporting—tackle. 

Aviation development in the 1920s and 

1930s helped Alaskans conquer the transportation challenges of distance and seasons, making possible relatively easy—if not cheap—

visitation to southwest Alaska. In 1937, Fred 

Hollander and Ray E. McDonald were the 

fi rst recorded visitors to travel to Bristol Bay 

specifi cally for rainbow trout angling. Th e 

Alaska Sportsman proudly proclaimed that 

they were “the fi rst SPORTSMEN ever to 

come here solely for the purpose of catching 

these huge trout.”2

 

But by the end of World War II, Katmai 

was still offi cially closed to the public. Opponents were growing increasingly frustrated with 

the government’s inability to do anything at all 

with the “locked up” land. In 1947, Governor 

Ernest Gruening suggested that the monument 

be abolished. Delegate Bob Bartlett did, too. 

In 1948, an editorial appeared in the wellrespected Fairbanks newspaper, Jessen’s Weekly, 

urging that the monument be returned to the 

public domain because “absolutely nothing 

Chapter Two:

From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: 

The Era of Early Tourism

Th ose bears weren’t dumb. Once old Petersen moved into his fi shing camp along the 

Brooks River, the bears moved back in. Ray’s fi shermen didn’t shoot bears.

 ~George Tibbits 

 Naknek pilot since 1948

has been done to make its beautiful lakes and 

mountain scenery available to the public.”3

By the end of the decade, NPS was faced 

with mounting pressures to reduce illegal 

activities, while at the same time, justify park 

values. Making matters worse, it lacked support from bureaucrats high in the Interior 

Department, who claimed Katmai was too 

inaccessible to justify the cost of opening and 

managing it. NPS was aware of the growing interest in sport-fi shing on the Brooks River and 

the handful of pilots, who were actively fl ying 

anglers into the closed monument.

 Th e Park Service, however, was quick to 

recognize that travelers to the park were dependent upon planes for access and safety, especially aft er Mount McKinley park superintendent 

Frank Been was stranded along Naknek Lake 

during his visit to Katmai in 1940. Originally, 

Been and Cahalane had made arrangements to 

fl y to Katmai with one of the area’s commercial 

pilots, John Woodley. For the sake of convenience, they instead fl ew with John Walatka, 

Woodley’s competitor. Unaware of the bitter 

rivalry among local pilots, Been and his party 

paid a price for their ignorance. Woodley refused to allow the NPS offi cials on his plane 

during a scheduled pick up, leaving the superintendent’s group stranded on Naknek Lake 

for several days. In his 1940 report, a much 

wiser Been emphasized that, “the incident illustrates the importance for maintaining good 

will [with independent pilots].” Been reasoned: 

...the traveler dependent upon plane 

service is therefore subject to the time 

or disposition of the company—and 

the weather. As parties in our position 

will be there whenever the plane arrives, it may be expected that the company will do that work which is closest 
32 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

at hand as we [NPS] are like a bird in 

the bush that can’t get away.4

Evidence that NPS had begun to prudently amend regulations to favor commercial 

pilots came in 1949. NPS recognized that 

most illegal activities related to trapping occurred during the winter months. Mount 

McKinley superintendent Grant Pearson, 

therefore, decided to relax aviation regulations at Katmai to allow legal aircraft landings 

between May 15 and September 15, and he 

opened the monument to summertime visitation for the fi rst time since 1931.5

 Been’s 

experience, coupled with a change in NPS 

policy to tentatively open the monument, suggests that the critical, yet uncertain relationship between local pilots and the Park Service 

began to chip away at Katmai’s image as an 

“isolated paradise.”

Flying Fisherman: Ray Petersen

Developing a visitor industry in Katmai 

that ultimately was responsible for opening 

the park to the public was largely the work of 

pilot and entrepreneur Ray Petersen, who was 

memorialized by the Alaska State Legislature 

in 1999 as the “Father of Alaska’s Sportfi shing Lodges.”6

 Ray Petersen had moved to 

Anchorage in 1934, and before long got a job 

fl ying packed fi sh out from the Bristol Bay 

canneries. As tales of extraordinary fi shing 

on Katmai’s rivers began to spread, the Ray 

Petersen Flying Service started fl ying can-

 New York artist Muriel Hannah’s 

mural displayed at the Interior 

Department in Washington D.C. in 

1950. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 33

nery superintendents and their colleagues 

to the Brooks River on recreational fi shing 

trips at the end of the canning season. Both 

pilots and clients passed the word along, and 

by 1945 even more fi shermen throughout the 

Territory had heard of Katmai’s large, plentiful rainbow trout. As air transport grew in 

importance and capital needs increased, aft er 

WWII Petersen created the Northern Consolidated Airlines (NCA), and then merged 

with Wien Air Alaska in 1968. In addition, 

he recognized the potential for a sportfi shing industry in Katmai, and in 1950, using 

Griggs’ phrase, founded the visitor services 

company known as Angler’s Paradise Lodges.7

Although NPS had continued to keep 

Katmai closed to the public, NCA began fl ying 

anglers to “Naknek and vicinity” in 1947, with 

“vicinity” being code for the Brooks River.8

 Besides being a bush pilot, Petersen was a fervent 

fl y-fi sherman and enjoyed a circle of personal 

and professional friends that were among the 

nation’s elite and powerful and they all enjoyed 

fi shing on the bountiful rivers within Katmai. 

Petersen’s business activities brought him 

into increasing contact with U.S. military and 

Washington D.C. political fi gures, and several 

suggested that he attempt to develop fi shing 

camps in Katmai. 

His passion for fl y-fi shing made Petersen 

an early advocate for regulating fi shing methods that he perceived as destructive to the fi sh 

resource. During his trips into the area, Petersen encountered two distinct fi shing groups that 

were fl ying into the Brooks River area on a regular basis: the “hardware and bait” fi shers, 

mainly the military personnel, whom he 

believed lacked conservation ethics, 

and fl y-fi shing enthusiasts like himself and his clients, who practiced 

“catch and release.” Th us, to increase fi sh numbers and decrease 

competition, Petersen advocated 

that Brooks River be limited to 

fl y fi shing only.9

 Th is position 

gained Petersen a powerful ally: 

the National Park Service. 

Bush pilot and president of 

newly formed Northern Consolidated 

Airlines, Ray Petersen approached NPS 

offi cials in 1949 with what seemed at the 

time a logical proposal. He proposed to develop two fi shing camps in Katmai National 

Monument, the most signifi cant being Brooks 

Camp at the mouth of the Brooks River. NCA 

would supply two necessary services the agency 

could not: the airline would promote Katmai 

to potential national and Alaskan visitors,10

and provide access so that the unit could be 

offi cially opened to the public. 

Petersen, who had fl own over and fi shed 

most of Katmai country, had identifi ed several 

areas he thought would make for good base 

camp locations, all on streams connecting 

lakes: the streams for angling interests, the 

lakes for fl oatplane access. Th e two camps 

Petersen sought within Katmai National 

Monument were Coville Camp, located on 

the short channel between Lakes Coville and 

Grosvenor, and Brooks Camp, located at the 

mouth of the Brooks River on Naknek Lake. 

With three more camps located outside of 

the monument, Petersen collectively called 

them Angler’s Paradise Lodges. Signifi cantly, 

Petersen promised to protect Katmai’s fi shery 

resources by stressing conservation ideas and 

practices to his guests. 

To NPS personnel, Petersen’s proposal 

had great appeal. Th e agency was aware of its 

reliance on independent pilots running private 

businesses for access into the monument, as 

well as Petersen’s support for protection of 

Katmai’s trout and salmon. Underpinning 

Petersen’s proposal to the NPS was a surge in 

interest about Alaska coming from Washington D.C. In November 1950, federal agencies 

interested in Alaska and its campaign for statehood, gathered at the Department of Interior 

en encountered

were flying into

ular basis: the

mainly th

believe

and fl

self 

“ca

cre

com

tha

fl y 

gain

the N

B

newly f

Airlines, R

offi cials in 19

time a logical pr

velop two fi shin

M h Northern Consolidated promotional 

sticker for Anglers Paradise tour. 

Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.
34 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Building in Washington for an Alaska Science 

Conference in an eff ort to learn more about 

the territory. Assistant Secretary of Interior 

William E. Warne presided over a symposium, 

which included representatives from the Territory of Alaska, the Department of Agriculture, 

the Department of Commerce, the Federal 

Security Agency, the Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, the Smithsonian Institute, 

the University of Alaska, and the National 

Academy of Science. Th eir objective was “to 

stimulate wider interest in Alaska research, to 

explore ways and means by which those who 

are actively engaged in fi eld research in Alaska 

can be of greater assistance to each other, and 

by which the results of their investigations 

may become more widely known and available 

to those who are planning future research in 

Alaska.”11 Delegates to the Alaska conference 

were treated to a special exhibit installed temporarily in the main foyer and corridor of the 

Interior Department Building—a mural map 

of Alaska by New York artist Muriel Hannah—

commissioned by Northern Consolidated Airlines President Ray Petersen.12

Petersen, therefore, not only met a receptive East Coast audience interested in Alaska, 

but one who recognized that a concession13

operation associated with a sporting conservation legacy off ered one of the most eff ective 

ways to combine increased visitation and 

park resource protection.14 Accordingly, Assistant Secretary of Interior Charles A. Richey 

expressed that he was “very enthusiastic,” and 

. . . “intend[ed] to do everything possible, 

within the Department’s limitations, to help 

[the proposal] along.” Th e Assistant Secretary 

assured Petersen that the NPS would “regard 

the proposal sympathetically.” His reasoning 

suggested a quid pro quo: “As we have no facilities there to care for legitimate visitors, I am 

inclined to think that this type of permit may 

be helpful to us in Katmai.”15

Although it was clear that Petersen’s 

business would be the sole service off ering 

overnight lodging on park land, Katmai’s fi sh 

would not be harmed and the monument 

would offi cially be opened for public use. 

Clearly, NPS attitudes toward sportspeople 

generally, and NCA particularly, stemmed 

from a long-standing, well-defi ned code of 

conduct and thinking personifi ed by the clientele and journalists with whom Petersen 

had begun to associate in 1950. NPS believed 

that Petersen and his clientele would serve 

as stewards of conservation principles, who 

would act to protect—rather than exploit—

Katmai’s resources. Th e Department of Interior, therefore, readily accepted his proposal. 

In March 1951, the two parties signed a fi veyear concession permit. 

Th e concession permit gave Petersen exclusive rights to construct camps at Brooks 

River and on Colville Lake, while the Park 

Service gained a partner that would supply 

visitor transportation and lodging, enforce 

state fi shing regulations, and keep an aerial eye 

on other activities in the monument in the absence of an eff ective NPS presence.16 For the 

next decade, almost all visitors to Brooks came 

to fi sh, and by 1959 visitation had increased 

to over one thousand.17 Bears, by all accounts, 

were rarely noticed.18 

Early Development of Brooks Camp, 

1950-1967

Within two months, NCA had constructed its two camps inside the monument 

boundaries and was open for business: Coville 

Camp, which featured a sixteen-square-foot 

cookhouse, guest quarters, a pump house, and 

a root cellar to store food and supplies, and 

Brooks Camp, which featured a 32 foot by 16 

foot cookhouse and nine army surplus, canvas 

tents located near the mouth of the river that 

could accommodate a total of thirty guests. 

Th e camp buildings were simple in design and 

refl ected the practical limits of building in an 

extremely remote area. Restricted transportation to the sites limited, and therefore, helped 

determine the types of materials used for 

construction. All the tent-cabins had wooden 

fl oors, windows, doors with screens, and were 

covered with an olive-colored, roofi ng material.19 To maintain his camps’ “rustic charm” few 

changes were made during the remainder of the 

decade. Th e only real improvement was covering the original tents with plywood boards and 

asphalt shingling.20 Th e other three Anglers’ 

Paradise Lodges were located beyond the monument’s boundaries—Battle Lake Camp, Kulik 

Lake Camp, and Nonvianuk Camp—were also 

constructed in 1950. Th ese camps were later 

encompassed by Katmai National Park and 

Preserve when the Alaska National Interest 

Lands Conservation Act became law in 1980 

and today remain on private property within 

park boundaries.

Th e opportunity to offi cially open the 

monument to the public brought Katmai new 
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 35

attention. Th e regional situation still demanded the protection of the natural resources from 

poachers, irresponsible fi shers and other lawbreakers, but with the opening of the monument by the Angler’s Paradise camps, NPS was 

in a better position to justify a presence. As a 

result, NPS assigned its fi rst seasonal ranger, 

William Nancarrow from Mount McKinley 

National Park, to patrol Katmai in 1950. Th e 

decision to supply the monument with a ranger 

probably had less to do with NCA activities 

than it did with the desire to counteract the 

perceptions, particularly on the part of local 

residents, that the NPS had no interest in the 

area and that Katmai National Monument 

should be abolished.21

To accommodate his housing needs and to 

help establish a NPS presence, Nancarrow built 

a two-room wall tent, a log cache, and a well at 

the present Brooks Camp campground, purposely separated from the concessions activities.22 Th e following summer, ranger Morton S. 

“Woody” Wood and his wife Ginny patrolled 

the Brooks Camp area to enforce fi shing regulations and photograph the fl ora, fauna, and 

scenery.23 One of their patrols took Mort and 

Ginny to the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes, 

with the goal of fi nding a better route than that 

traveled by Person and Kuehl in 1945. Along 

the way, they saw one bear, “about a quarter of 

a mile away,” as Wood described it, but at night 

called their campsite on the gravel delta of the 

Savonoski River “bear highway No. 1”. “We 

slept rather poorly that night...,” wrote Wood, 

“...due to the continual splashing sounds they 

[the bears] made while fi shing in the lake.”24 

During the next few years, the Katmai assignment was fi lled by a broad spectrum of rangers 

from Mount McKinley.

In the summer of 1954, NPS began to implement plans for a more permanent presence 

at Brooks Camp, a name that would be appropriated by the park service to refer to all the 

developed areas surrounding the mouth of the 

Brooks River. William Nancarrow returned 

to cut, peel, and season logs from Mortuary 

Bay for the construction of a permanent ranger 

station. Th is was the fi rst building erected by 

the agency in Katmai. Th at summer Nancarrow also built a log cache for ranger use at a site 

near the Naknek Lake beach, but much closer 

to the mouth of the Brooks River. Th e following summer, NPS ranger Richard Ward and 

seasonal hire Russell Todd used the logs cut 

NCA constructed the fi rst tent frames 

near the mouth of the Brooks River 

in 1950. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen 

and Katmailand, Inc.
36 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

by Nancarrow to construct the ranger station, 

which replaced the wall tent as park headquarters. Th ree or four summers later, park rangers 

built a boat storage house about 200 feet away. 

A foot trail linked the two buildings.25 Both 

buildings were eventually stained a dark brown 

color. Rangers lived and worked in these 

buildings throughout the summer. 

Th e primary mission for Nancarrow in 

1950, and each subsequent ranger, was to contact planes and inform the fl y-in anglers about 

Katmai’s fi shing regulations. Noticeably absent 

from the rangers’ reports were bears or any type 

of bear management activity.26 According to 

Russell Todd, he never saw a bear while on foot 

the whole summer he spent at the monument 

in 1954. He saw evidence of bears having been 

there—fl attened grass along one of the bear 

trails that followed the riverbank, and various 

bear tracks—but the only bears he saw were 

from boat or plane.27 Th us, bears inhabited the 

area, but tended to avoid people, coming to the 

river at night.

In those initial years, the agency was eager 

to learn more about the monument and the 

area’s natural phenomena. Working then as 

the NPS chief biologist, Victor Cahalane was 

again called upon to visit Katmai to conduct a 

seven-month biological study in 1953-1954 as 

part of the Katmai Project, a multi-disciplinary 

survey that also included geological, archeological, botanical, and meteorological studies.28 

Th e assembled data, according to historian 

Frank Norris, “provided ammunition” for defending the park.29 It was during the biological 

aspect of the collaborative study that Cahalane estimated that approximately 200 bears 

roamed lands near the monument, noting that 

the number of bears seemed to have dipped 

dramatically since his fi rst visit in 1940.30 

In the forefront of Alaska life at the time 

was the territory’s struggle to become the nation’s 49th state. At fi rst, Petersen did not support Alaska’s campaign for statehood. But by 

linking the independent-minded pioneers of 

the last frontier to a forward-thinking generation who forged Alaska’s constitution, it’s not 

surprising that an entrepreneur like Petersen 

would join the choir of Alaskan boosters and 

eventually support the statehood movement. 

According to his son, Raymond (Sonny) Petersen, Ray disapproved of “more government,” but 

supported statehood primarily for economic 

reasons. In his role as a statehood advocate, 

Petersen argued that for the State of Alaska to 

pay for itself, it would have to develop its most 

lucrative resource, which he believed was Alaska 

itself. In looking forward to the tourism opportunities of the future, Petersen stated: “tourists 

are the biggest thing that Alaska can develop,” 

and he further observed that “we are counting 

on them as our long-range, steady customers.”31

Petersen noted: “the Katmai region is one of 

the greatest attractions the North has to off er. 

We [Alaskans] feel it is our economic duty to 

share it with the rest of the world.”32 

As early as October 1952, airline offi cials 

realized that these tourists came for reasons 

other than fi shing. NCA announced that it 

hoped to attract the sightseeing tourist—the 

kind of visitor “who goes places just to be 

amazed.” And, as one travel promoter put it, 

“that visitor expected more than tents and oil 

heat.”33 To accommodate such visitors, the 

camp required certain upgrades. First and 

foremost, the airline found it necessary to 

make it easier for the average person to access 

the camps. In 1954, Petersen notifi ed NPS 

offi cials that he wanted an airstrip in order to 

justify the construction of an expanded lodge 

John Walatka on the radio at Brooks 

Camp around 1954. Walatka was 

the general manager for the Angler’s 

Paradise camps from 1950 to his 

death in 1970. Courtesy of Sonny 

Petersen and Katmailand, Inc. 
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 37

The original ranger station and cache 

was located at the present site of 

the NPS Brooks River Campground. 

Photographed by Lowell Sumner 

in July 1952. Negative no. 1223. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

Below: Ranger Nancarrow and an 

unidentifi ed ranger at the Ranger 

Station around 1960. The rangers’ 

task at the time was to contact 

anglers about fi shing regulations. 

Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.
38 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

complex, but NPS Director Conrad Wirth declined his request. Th e Bureau of Land Management, however, granted Petersen permission 

to build an airstrip at Kulik, which was 2,000 

feet long by 1955.34

Th e second aspect of NCA’s improvement plan included the addition of new 

permanent wood buildings for more effi cient 

maintenance and increased comfort. In 1956, 

NCA constructed a 20 foot by 24 foot precut, panabode-style building at Brooks Camp 

that functioned as a combination store, offi ce, 

and manager’s quarters. Kits for the cedar 

plank dwellings were purchased from a Pacifi c 

Northwest manufacturer, fl own into Katmai, 

and assembled quickly and easily. Th ese new 

buildings at the Brooks and Grosvenor Lodge 

sites, erected on park land with NPS approval, 

added comfort for visitors while retaining 

a last frontier feel and rustic camp setting.35 

With improved access and accommodation at 

the camps, Petersen then launched an extremely successful tourism campaign to attract nonfi shing visitors seeking adventure in America’s 

Last Frontier. In 1956 his company inaugurated a campaign that marketed “the mysterious beauties and volcanic wonders of Katmai 

and the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes, and 

the world-renowned angling to be had in that 

area.” And by emphasizing both great fi shing 

and scenic wilderness, Petersen increased visitation to his camps from 134 in 1950 to 1083 

by 1959.36

Use of the Brooks River Area: From the 

Sole Angler to the Sightseeing Tourist 

In 1952, an NCA offi cial noted that “99 

percent of the present clientele were fi shermen,” and as late as 1957, a guide noted that 

“almost everyone who visits the Monument is 

there to catch salmon and trout.”37 Although 

aviation made getting to southwest Alaska 

relatively easy, the cost of a Katmai trip, (particularly for those who lived outside Alaska,) 

remained prohibitive and only a select few 

were able to visit the camps in the early years. 

Many of the fi rst guests at Brooks were wealthy 

business leaders and politicians able to aff ord 

the trip of a lifetime.38

Camp photographs from the 1950s, as 

well as the reminiscences of Katmai visitors, 

confirm that the camps contained many 

aspects of a wealthy, rustic fraternity, stemming particularly from the eastern region 

of the United States. For example, a few 

of the well-known guests whom Petersen 

catered to during the 1950s included Adlai Stevenson, members of the Rockefeller 

family, Sargent Shriver (President Kennedy’s brother-in-law and first director of 

the Peace Corps), and expert angler and 

fishing promoter Chief Needahbeh of the 

Maine Penobscot Indians.39 Petersen also 

befriended National Geographic’s longtime 

editor and national parks advocate Gilbert 

Grosvenor, for whom Lake Grosvenor and 

Grosvenor Camp were later re-named. 

Tents served as housing for Brooks 

Camp employees until new housing 

was constructed in the mid-1980s. 

Note the recently constructed lodge 

in the background. KATM_127_P5 

[id73247] Technical Information 

Center, Denver Service Center, 

National Park Service.
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 39

Through his relationship with the famed 

editor, Petersen was not only able to gain 

substantial publicity, but was also able to 

associate his Angler’s Paradise Lodges with 

the conservation philosophy represented by 

the magazine itself.40 

Between 1950 and 1960, NPS and NCA 

seemed to operate in tandem in planning for 

the future. By the early 1960s, NCA was attracting more Americans to Katmai, thereby 

silencing outside criticism and justifying increased park administration.

Moreover, the designation of Katmai 

as a national monument helped underscore 

the value of the fishing and other natural 

resources that attracted both the conservation sportspeople as well as the sightseeing 

visitor to NCA’s camps. The benefits of the 

symbiotic relationship for both the NPS 

and the NCA resulted in generally good 

relations between the concessioner and the 

NPS throughout the 1950s. The more Petersen pushed to develop recreational and 

commercial facilities at Brooks Camp that 

strayed from his original intent to build a 

minimalist, rustic sporting haven, the more 

strain was put on the relationship.41 

By the end of the 1960s, a broad range of 

visitors were coming to Brooks Camp seeking experiences that extended beyond fi shing. 

Simultaneously, tourists began to spot brown 

bears, icons of “lost wilderness” in the Lower-48, returning to the Brooks River, as they 

become habituated to the people currently 

fi shing Brooks River—people who were not 

as threatening to bears as their predecessors. 

Th ese fi shermen, although they competed for 

river space, would not harm the river’s bears; 

they even yielded their fi sh from time to 

time. Encounters between anglers and bears 

became more frequent. Because anglers had 

already established a presence on the river, 

as the numbers of bears increased, NPS fi shing regulations concerning bears evolved in 

piecemeal fashion, responding to incidents as 

they occurred. 

Adlai Stevenson and his son John Fell 

Stevenson fi sh for trout at Brooks in 

1954. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.
40 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

NPS and NCA: 

Visions for Brooks Camp Diverge

Relations between NCA and the NPS 

remained generally aff able, even reciprocal, 

during the fi rst several years of camp operation. NPS valued the concession operations 

for bringing visitors into the region and NCA 

valued the national monument because the 

designation helped underscore the value of fi sh 

and other natural resources. Th is situation attracted both the conservation sportsperson as 

well as sightseeing visitors to the camp. To the 

concessioner, preparing for the future meant 

concentrating and developing visitor services at 

his fi shing camps; to NPS it meant spreading 

facilities throughout the monument for “restrained” visitor use.42

By 1960, both the agency and the airline 

had begun to implement their diverging development visions. Th at year, NCA erected 

Brooks Camp’s red cedar panabode lodge, 

seven panabode cabins, and a bathhouse. Th ey 

installed a Witte diesel power plant, a cesspool, and a new water pressure system, as well 

as building improvements such as the wiring, 

plumbing and furnishings, with the intent of 

increasing visitor comfort and capacity of the 

camp. 

It was also clear that, by the early 1960s, 

Katmai’s management and development needs 

was growing less and less dependent upon 

the monument’s exclusive concessioner.43 Th e 

agency’s Mission 66 program, which proposed 

to upgrade the condition of park facilities 

across the country, was underway. At Katmai, a $1.2 million broad-based program was 

proposed to provide benefi ts to visitors. Th is 

was the fi rst time that the government stated a 

willingness to develop facilities and services for 

visitor use and not rely on the concessioner to 

The National Park Service mirrored 

the panabode-style construction 

introduced by Ray Petersen in 

1960. The cedar kits were relatively 

inexpensive and quick to assemble. 

The maintenance building was the 

fi rst panabode structure constructed 

by NPS in 1961. Panabodes were 

constructed for NPS housing in 1962. 

Brooks Camp Interpretive Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 41

provide such needs. And, according to Katmai 

Mission 66 prospectus, the monument had 

several needs:

Th ere are no means at present to appease his [the visitor’s] desires for a 

long hike with prospects of seeing a 

moose, marten or wolverine. To strike 

out across country is of course possible, 

but not considered advisable for reasons of safety. We see therefore, that 

much must be done within limits, to 

make certain areas of the monument 

accessible to the average inquisitive 

visitor. If he travels by boat, he will 

in several instances require a docking 

facility. Once on the trail, and several 

are proposed, he must be directed 

safely to his destination. Presuming he 

visits the Valley he will get little from 

his trip unless someone is available 

who can accurately describe the volcanism that occurred and the present 

forces at work recarving the area.44

Th e Mission 66 prospectus included an airstrip, several campgrounds and docks, a visitor 

center, 25 miles of trails, employee quarters, and 

interpretive programs, and other administrative 

facilities. Th e plan envisioned a ten-mile road 

that would provide access to the Valley of Ten 

Th ousand Smokes, beginning at the Old Savonoski Village on Naknek Lake—not Brooks 

Camp—and traveling toward the Valley via the 

Ukak River. Neither the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes road nor any other Mission 66 priority was considered a top priority in 1961.45 To 

Petersen, on the other hand, the greatest unmet 

need in the monument was access to the Valley 

of Ten Th ousand Smokes. Petersen was certain 

that a road connecting the valley from Brooks 

Camp would be the most profi table and benefi cial to the visitor. But NPS gave lukewarm 

support to the development of a jeep trail to the 

valley from Brooks Camp.46

Aft er an aide to U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening informed Petersen of the status of the road 

project, the concessioner was admittedly very 

unhappy. Petersen recalled that Gruening arranged for a meeting with Director Wirth, the 

“Father of Mission 66,” when Petersen was in 

Washington D.C. At the meeting, Gruening 

convinced Wirth to commence road construction to the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes 

from Brooks Camp.47 As Petersen put it, “[Th e 

road] should be rightfully named the ‘Senator 

Gruening Freeway’ because he got it in there.”48

Th e congressional pressure threw the Mission 66 

program for the monument into disarray, for the 

funds spent on the road relegated all other park 

functions to an even lower priority, and many of 

those projects never materialized.49 Despite NPS 

unfavorable view of the decision to construct 

the road from Brooks Camp, the following summer a party, led by Katmai’s chief ranger Robert 

Peterson, surveyed the route. Construction of 

a jeep trail began in 1962. It was completed by 

the end of the season, and the fi rst Valley tours 

began in 1963.50

Th e new road, as Petersen expected, lured 

general tourists to Brooks Camp, and the airline began to tailor tour packages to cater to 

the new market. Vacations that had attracted 

anglers in the 1950s were dropped, and threeday vacations that included Valley tours were 

promoted almost exclusively. Th e new class of 

tourists fi shed less than those that came before, 

and many did not fi sh at all. Excursions to the 

Valley of Ten Th ousands Smokes combined 

with scenery viewing in the Brooks Camp area 

were more important to them. 

Th e desire to view the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes brought the fi rst signifi cant number of independent travelers to the monument, 

but ironically, these visitors usually stayed at 

the Brooks River campground rather than at 

the concessioner’s lodge. Some of the threeday packages were purchased by anglers, but 

by 1965, an observer remarked that “already 

enough tourists get to Brooks that the diehard 

fi shermen are going to Grosvenor.”51 Others intent on fi shing went to Kulik. With improved 

runway access and over twenty-six buildings, 

Kulik Camp soon rivaled Brooks Camp in size, 

and by the 1960s was considered by fi shermen 

as the gem of the Angler’s Paradise system.52 

Not all of NCA’s camps were commercially 

successful. By 1965, the concessioner had 

mothballed, at least for a time, Battle Lake and 

Nonvianuk camps.53 

Construction of the Valley Road spawned 

numerous NPS auxiliary developments around 

Brooks Camp to accommodate the growing 

number of visitors.54 In 1962, agency work 

crews extended the Dumpling Mountain trail 

to the summit, cut a trail to Brooks Falls on 

the south side of the river, and added the spur 

trail to Margo Falls. By early 1963, park rangers fi nished a fourth foot-trail that extended 

one-and-one-half-miles from the Windy 
42 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Creek Overlook at the end of the Valley Road 

to the Ukak River at the valley fl oor. At the 

same time, rangers constructed the Windy 

Creek Overlook cabin at the Ukak River 

trailhead. Other construction development 

included two panabode style cabins and three 

framed tents used for employee housing at 

Brooks Camp.

Managing Katmai Year-round 

from King Salmon, 1964-1967

While the Valley Road and other construction projects were underway at Brooks Camp, 

the monument’s managers began seeking a location for its headquarters. Even before the era 

of early tourism had commenced, NPS recognized the need to engage year-round management of the monument. When Katmai’s fi rst 

master plan was written in 1942, Been favored 

Geographic Harbor as the location for the 

monument’s permanent headquarters “because 

of its proximity to travel from the states.” Still, 

the McKinley superintendent understood that 

a location on the Bristol Bay side of the monument near Naknek also made sense. According 

to Been, Naknek was accessible to the part of 

the monument in which most of the hunting 

and trapping violations were occurring and, 

perhaps most signifi cantly, “from Naknek, the 

development at Brooks Lake and Brooks River 

can be prepared and many of the proposed 

shelter cabins constructed.”55 Been’s reasoning 

prevailed, and in 1956 the Mission 66 program 

called for “a headquarters area at King Salmon, 

where the necessary administrative, utility, and 

residential building would be located.” 56 In addition, a heated shop, garages and docks would 

also be constructed.57 

In 1959, the Mount McKinley superintendent, Duane Jacobs, had notifi ed regional 

offi cials that water access into Katmai National Monument would necessitate docking 

facilities at the west end of Naknek Lake, so 

he urged improvements of the existing truck 

trail that connected King Salmon with Lake 

Camp. Both projects, however, were delayed 

due to the cost of building the Valley Road in 

1962. Plans for the facilities construction were 

fi nally approved in 1964; and by November 

14, the King Salmon facility included a duplex 

residence, which also served as offi ce space and 

maintenance building. Th e following year, 

Darrell Coe, the supervisory park ranger at 

Katmai, began using the facilities for both winter and summer use.58

For the remainder of the decade, Katmai’s 

budgets and staff grew exponentially.59 Th e 

monument budget, which had been slightly 

over $20,000 in fi scal year 1964, increased 

sixfold in just fi ve years. From 1966-1967 

it more than doubled.60 Increased funding 

and staff certainly helped to better manage 

monument resources, but expanding visitation numbers,61 coinciding with increasing 

bear numbers around Brooks Camp, limited 

law enforcement rangers’ ability to reach 

other areas of the monument. Although NPS 

obtained assistance from deputized USFWS 

rangers, Brooks Camp’s growing need for attention would overshadow many of Katmai’s 

other management needs, particularly in the 

more remote parts of park.

In 1964, NCA erected the Skytel, a nine 

unit guest building, and began to phase out use 

of the old tent cabins. Th e Skytel was built on 

the site of a large prehistoric village and burial 

area, about 1000 years old. By 1965, only 

seven tents remained in use at Brooks Camp, 

all of which were located near the mouth of 

the river and used for employee housing. NPS 

began reconstruction of a semi-subterranean 

prehistoric house enclosed within an exhibit 

building in 1967. Most of the current structures associated with tourism and early park 

administration were completed that year. Th e 

only NPS buildings constructed during the 

1970s were the auditorium (which was initially 

used as housing for contractors putting in a 

sewer system, and a year later a visitor center) 

and the generator building. Senator Gruening 

noted that, by the mid-1960s visitor activities 

in Katmai had come full circle: 

Katmai National Monument, in my 

judgment, needs very little further 

[development]. Th e lodgings and sustenance are adequately provided...and 

with the...jeep trail...all visitors have 

access to that Valley which ...was the 

basic reason for creating the Monument [in the fi rst place].62 

By 1967, the monument’s annual visitation 

had reached more than 1,000 people, marking 

Katmai’s successful lure of the general tourist, as well as the fi shing enthusiast. But 1968 

brought a major change in the agency’s relationship with its concessioner. Th at year NCA 

merged with Wien Airlines, making the new 

airline, Wien Consolidated, Katmai’s primary 
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 43

Alaska’s Territorial Governor and fi rst U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening was no stranger to Katmai. He authored the National Geographic magazine article, “The Lonely 

Wonders of Katmai,” in 1963, and was instrumental in helping Petersen convince the head of the National Park Service, Conrad Wirth, to construct the road to 

the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes from Brooks Camp that year. Construction of the Valley Road marked a profound shift in visitor use at Brooks Camp, as more 

people interested in scenic beauty and wildlife began to arrive. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and Katmailand, Inc.
44 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

“Rangerette Pat” leads a tour into the Valley of 

Ten Thousand Smokes in 1968. By the end of 

the decade, visitors were coming to Katmai for 

its scenic wonders as much as its sport fi shing. 

The Chabot Family Collection, KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Rangerette Pat” leads a tour into the Valley of 

Ten Thousand Smokes in 1968. By the end of 

the decade, visitors were coming to Katmai for 

its scenic wonders as much as its sport fi shing. 

The Chabot Family Collection, KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

“RangerettePat” leads a tour i tno t he Valley of

Ten Thousand Smokes in 1968. By theend of

the decade, visitors were coming to Katmai for

its scenic wonders as much asits sport fishing.

The Chabot Family Collection, KATM P hoto

Archive,Records of Katmai National Park a nd

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Rangerette Pat” leads a tour into the Valley of 

Ten Thousand Smokes in 1968. By the end of 

the decade, visitors were coming to Katmai for 

its scenic wonders as much as its sport fi shing. 

The Chabot Family Collection, KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 45

concessioner. Ray Petersen advanced to chairman of the board and Sigurd Wien was named 

president. In 1969, the two offi cers switched 

positions, but the immediate result for Brooks 

Camp was that Petersen became less active in 

the management of the camps. And when Petersen fi nally stepped down as Wien’s president 

in 1976, the airline invested even less money 

and time in the camps. Lack of interest by the 

corporation led to a period of stagnation at 

Brooks Camp that lasted until the early 1980s. 

Moreover, Wien’s neglect of the camps created 

safety concerns that would instigate a struggle 

between Wien and NPS that ultimately led to 

a divergence in what was previously characterized as a symbiotic partnership.63

Despite the growing schism between the 

agency and its concessioner, it is important to 

remember that Katmai’s early tourism refl ected 

something new in the annals of the NPS. 

Never before had NPS leased a concession 

operation to an airline company whose primary business was the transport of passengers 

and freight. It also was the fi rst time that the 

NPS depended upon an airline as a primary 

means of access to one of its units. As Norris 

explained, “Th e arrangement worked because 

the camps were some of the least accessible facilities in the national park system.”64 Furthermore, it was the construction of the Valley road 

in 1962 that lured sight-seeing visitors, who, by 

the end of the decade, began to displace many 

of the guests there to fi sh. In the end, it was 

Ray Petersen’s vision to increase guest numbers 

and diversify recreational activities that made 

possible the transformation of Brooks Camp 

from an angler’s paradise to a paramount bear 

watching location. 

Brooks Camp Development Concept 

Plan, 1970. Technical Information 

Center, Denver Service Center, 

National Park Service.
46 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 Robert Griggs, Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, (Washington D.C.: National Geographic 

Society, 1922), 309.

2

 Bennett, Rods & Wings, 83-84. A fi ne pre-aviation account of visiting sportsmen hunters 

is in John Branson, ed., Lake Clark-Iliamna, Alaska, 1921: The Travel Diary of Colonel A. J. 

Macnab (Anchorage: Alaska Natural History Association, 1996). 3 Jessen’s Weekly, October 29, 1948; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 76. 4

 Been, 43.

5

 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 77. 6

 The certifi cate is reproduced in Bennett, Rods & Wings, 35. “Pioneer Alaska Aviator dies at 

home at 96,” Anchorage Daily News, 14 August 2008, A-4. 7

 On Petersen’s life, see Bennett, Rods & Wings, 98-116; Norris, Tourism, Ch 2; interview by A.J. 

McClanahan, Sept. 16 & Oct. 15, 1998; or talk with his son, Sonny Petersen, who now runs the 

business, online at www.katmailand.com.

8

 Norris, Tourism, 13. 9

 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 275. 10 In a letter to Assistant Secretary of the Interior William Warne, Petersen boasted that, 

“To date we have completed a fi lm featuring sports fi shing in the Valley of Ten Thousand 

Smokes area, primarily Brooks, Colville and Grosvenor Lake area.” A fi lm was distributed 

by Northwest Airlines and used to highlight tour packages targeting elite sportsmen from 

around the country. Raymond I. Petersen to Assistant Sec. of the Interior William Warne, 

January 21, 1950.

11 “Alaskan Science Conference Schedule,” Washington D.C., November 9-11, 1950. 

12 “Mural Map of Alaska Features Exhibit in Interior Building,” The Evening Star, Washington 

D.C., November 10, 1950.

13 A concession is a private enterprise operated with NPS boundary under contract. Permits 

in the old days were called Limited Concession Permits.

14 Norris, Tourism, 15. 15 Letter, To Conrad Wirth, from Charles A. Richey, December 19, 1949. 

16 Norris, Tourism, 13-19; Bennett, Rods & Wings, 90-91. 17 Norris, Tourism, 37. 18 A review of popular magazine articles about Brooks Camp between 1950 and 1960 

highlight great angling on the Brooks River, but any mention of bears is rare. A famous 

photo of anglers cooking salmon at the Brooks Falls in July underscores the absence of 

bears at the falls in the 1950s.

19 Janet Clemens, “Grosvenor Camp Historic District,” NRHP Registration Form, 2002. 

20 Norris, Tourism, 31. 21 Ibid.

22 William Nancarrow, interviewed by Frank Norris, 8-1-1988; Janet Clemens, Determination 

of Eligibility for the “Brooks River Ranger Station and Boat Storage House,” Park Files; Norris, 

Tourism, 21. 23 Ginny Wood and her friend Celia Hunter founded Alaska’s fi rst statewide environmental 

organization, the Alaskan Conservation Society (ACS) in 1960, which lobbied Congress 

for the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and fought such 

environmental battles as Project Chariot and the Rampart Dam Project.; Norris, Isolated 

Paradise, 84. 24 Morton S Wood, “Patrol Report for Katmai National Monument, 1951,” National Park 

Service, Denver, Colorado.

25 Clemens, “Brooks River Ranger Station and Boat Storage House,” Determination of 

Eligibility Nomination. 

26 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 84-85. 27 Russell Todd, interviewed by Frank Norris, 9-11-2000.

28 The Katmai Project was jointly sponsored by the Offi ce of Naval Research, NPS, the USGS, 

the Public Health Service, and the Quartermaster General, but most of the funding came 

from ONR. Robert Luntey, Interim Report on Katmai Project, Katmai National Monument, 

Alaska. (Washington D.C.: National Park Service, 1954), 9; see also, “Park Service Study of 

Katmai Told,” Alaska Weekly, October 1, 1954, n.p. 29 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 95. 30 Victor Cahalane, A Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument, Publication 4376 

(Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1959), 164.

31 Louis R. Huber, “Flight to Katmai,” Alaska Sportsman (April, 1951): 9; Norris, Tourism, 20. 32 Louis R. Huber, “Flight to Katmai,” Alaska Sportsman, (May, 1951): 20. 33 Norris, Tourism, 36. 34 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 99.
 Chapter Two: From Isolated Paradise to an Angler’s Paradise: The Era of Early Tourism 47

35 Memorandum, To Regional Director, Region four, from Mount McKinley Superintendent 

Duane D. Jacobs, August 27, 1957.

36 Norris, Tourism, 37. 37 Norris, Tourism, 31. 38 Norris writes that “Brooks Camp received many well-known guests over the years.” See 

Tourism, Ch. 3. 39 Ray Petersen interviewed by Bill Hanable, 11- 23-1988; Louis R. Huber, “Cataclysm: The 

Second of Two Chapters of “The New Dawn,” The Alaska Sportsman (May, 1951): 22; See 

Norris’s Tourism. 40 In addition to the establishment of Mount McKinley National Park, Grosvenor lobbied for 

the creation of Katmai National Monument in 1918. Ray Petersen discusses this visit during 

an interview with Bill Hanable on 11-23-1988.

41 Memorandum, to Regional Director, Region Four, from Mount McKinley Superintendent 

Duane D. Jacobs, August 27, 1957; Norris, Tourism, 35. 42 “Mission 66 Prospectus for Katmai National Monument,” National Park Service (April 1956): 

4.

43 In the early 1960s NPS park units were administrated from Region Four, which covered 

the Western States and Alaska. In December 1969, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, 

and Lava Beds NM were removed from the region and the Pacifi c Northwest Region was 

established. The Alaska State offi ce was also established as a liaison for the Alaska NPS units. 

An Alaska Area Offi ce was created in 1975 and formally became Alaska’s regional offi ce 

in 1980. A fi nal change occurred on October 1, 1995 when it was consolidated with the 

Pacifi c Northwest Region as the Pacifi c-Western Region. 44 “Mission 66 Prospectus for Katmai National Monument,” 3. 

45 Ibid.

46 “Mission 66 for Katmai National Monument,” National Park Service (March, 1959). 

47 Ray Petersen interview by Bill Hanable, 11-23-1988.

48 Ibid.

49 Norris, Tourism, 43. 50 Ibid., 44.

51 Ibid.

52 Frank B. Norris and Janet Clemens, Building in an Ashen Land: historic Resource Study of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve (Anchorage: National Park Service, 1999), 177-178. 53 Clemens, “Grosvenor Camp Historic District,” NRHP Registration Form, 2002. 

54 See Appendix D.

55 To Regional Director, Region Four, from Frank Been, January 14, 1942. Park fi les. 56 USDI Information Service press release, April 21, 1956, in NPS/Box 1 Bartlett Collection.

57 “Master Plan Development Outline,” National Park Service, (November 1957): 2.

58 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 119. 59 See Appendix B

60 Ibid, 127.

61 See Appendix C

62 Letter, To Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior, from Ernest Gruening July 7, 1965.

63 Norris, Tourism, 23. 64 Ibid, 16.
48 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

A bear looking for food in the Brooks 

Lake garbage pit, circa 1953. When a bear 

associates people with food it is called a 

“food conditioned” bear. A food conditioned 

bear may become aggressive, in which such 

behavior can lead to human injury or death of 

the bear. Photographed by Dick Stratey. KATM 

Slides Archive, Records of Katmai National Park 

and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

A bear looking for food in the Brooks 

Lake garbage pit, circa 1953. When a bear 

associates people with food it is called a 

“food conditioned” bear. A food conditioned 

bear may become aggressive, in which such 

behavior can lead to human injury or death of 

the bear. Photographed by Dick Stratey. KATM 

Slides Archive, Records of Katmai National Park 

and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

A bear lookingfor foodin the Brooks

Lake garbage pit, circa 1953. When a bear

associates people with f ood it is called a

“foodconditioned” bear. A foodconditioned

bear maybecome aggressive, in which such

behavior can lead tohuman injury or death of

the bear. PhotographedbyDick S tratey. KATM

Slides Archive, Records ofKatmai National Park

and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.

A bear looking for food in the Brooks 

Lake garbage pit, circa 1953. When a bear 

associates people with food it is called a 

“food conditioned” bear. A food conditioned 

bear may become aggressive, in which such 

behavior can lead to human injury or death of 

the bear. Photographed by Dick Stratey. KATM 

Slides Archive, Records of Katmai National Park 

and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 49

Food-Conditioning: 

A “Bear Problem” or “People Problem”?

Archeologists have long appreciated 

that humans generate garbage. For most of 

history, our garbage was organic, from the 

gut piles of butchered fauna to agricultural 

chaff . Wherever our species coexist, bears 

will fi nd garbage, and people will fi nd bears. 

Brooks bears, like all brown bears, are smart 

and strong, and once they smell or observe a 

potential meal, it is nearly impossible to keep 

them away from it. 

If a hungry bear fi nds that it is easier to 

get its daily provisions from people than from 

fi shing, then it will quickly learn to associate 

people with food. A bear that makes this 

association is called a food-conditioned bear. 

Th e problem is that food-conditioned bears 

can become aggressive when seeking food from 

people. Such behavior can lead to human 

injury, but the more likely outcome is the death 

of the bear, proving true the adage: “a fed bear 

is a dead bear.”1

Th e frequent encounters between bears 

and people have provided opportunities for 

bears to acquire unsecured human food and 

garbage at Brooks Camp. Yet, serious bear 

incidents have been relatively rare, as there 

has only been one recorded injury of a visitor 

as a result of food. Th e large number of 

salmon that return to Katmai each summer 

account at least in part for this record. Th e 

availability of these fi sh is far more attractive 

to bears than anything that they could obtain 

from people. Another signifi cant reason for 

the lack of lethal encounters is that the NPS 

(at the national level) and Katmai National 

Park (at a local level) have each implemented 

rules that regulate and restrict the storage 

and handling of human food, garbage, and 

fi sh caught by anglers. 

Chapter Three:

“A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: 

Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks

Th e worst thing that people can teach bears is that people may mean a meal.

 ~Ronald Squibb and Tamara Olson 

 Brown Bears of Brooks River

Today NPS staff and lodge employees 

go to great lengths to ensure that Brooks’ 

bears do not get food from people. But 

this was not always the case. Mistakes and 

misunderstandings occurred in the past and 

bears ultimately got food from people. Bears 

became food-conditioned, and as a result, 

property was damaged, bears died, and 

people, as ranger Darrell Coe described, felt 

“terrorized.” As the number of visitors grew 

over the decades, food-conditioning became 

the park’s primary bear management concern.

An Opportunistic Eater

Bears spend most of their time looking 

for something to eat. As one early researcher 

noted, the animals move throughout 

Katmai’s countryside on a seasonal pursuit 

of food.2

 Bears come to the Brooks River 

for a few months each summer to gorge on 

the thousands of migrating sockeye salmon 

that arrive from the ocean to spawn. During 

a successful fi shing season, adult bears can 

consume dozens of fi sh a day, putting on some 

200 pounds of fat reserves before reentering 

their dens for the winter.3

 

Bureau of Commercial Fisheries biologists 

studying the red salmon fi shery at Brooks 

Lake in 1957 reported that a number of bears 

would fi sh at night near their work station 

throughout the month of July. By August, 

the biologists reported that the bears vacated 

the river to forage for ripening berries in the 

mountains surrounding camp: 

At the outset of the program bears 

were believed to be but a minor 

environmental factor in the spawning 

picture, but experience soon modifi ed 

this belief. Bears were found to be 

very numerous and active on all 
50 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

spawning tributaries, particularly 

during the early and height-ofspawning periods. Toward the end of 

spawning they apparently tired of the 

salmon diet and moved to the berry 

fi elds on high ground, as evidence 

by their lesser activity despite an 

abundance of available fi sh...4

Th e biologists postulated that under the 

safety of darkened skies, bears were taking 

advantage of an easy food source provided by 

the weir stretched across the Brooks River:

Bears were loudly evident in Brooks 

River just below the weir almost every 

night during September but this was 

an atypical situation resulting from 

the concentration of fi sh and presence 

of the weir preventing upstream 

eacape of the fi sh. It is belived that in 

the large streams such as Headwater 

and Brooks, bears have very little 

eff ect on red salmon under natural 

conditions.5

In spring, bears graze on protein-rich 

sedges and augment their diet with new-born 

moose calves, ground squirrels, beavers, otters, 

other bears and occasionally, porcupines. 

During the sockeye run in summer, and 

again in late fall they load up on fat salmon. 

Between salmon, they will move into the 

mountains to feed on many varieties of tundra 

berries, including blueberries, crowberries and 

lowbush cranberries. Th ey also round out their 

fall diets with “pushki” (cow parsnip) seed 

heads, and other berries.

Damage caused by a bear seeking 

food from the lodge in December 

1965. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #300, 

PH20), Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 51

Th e last weeks of the summer season 

trigger a change in the bears’ metabolism 

known as hyperphagia, which drives the 

animals to pursue calorie-rich foods with even 

greater urgency.6

 In late August, bears return 

to the river to consume dying salmon. Lasting 

until late October, this “second season” is the 

last chance before freeze-up for the Brooks 

River bears to eat the rotting carcasses that 

wash up on the riverbanks and lake shore near 

the river’s mouth. Hunger eventually dictates 

how aggressively bears will pursue available 

food sources.

For thousands of years, the Brooks 

River area has off ered bears relatively secure 

food prospects. As Katmai’s chief of natural 

resources Troy Hamon explains, “Th e July 

[salmon] run is an obvious and very substantial 

feeding opportunity not readily available 

elsewhere because of a feature that challenges 

migration of salmon [the Brooks River Falls].”7 

Th e six foot falls creates a signifi cant obstacle 

for migrating salmon, making them more 

accessible to bears during an otherwise limited 

time period for feeding. Katmai’s geography is 

also a factor, as there are few large, stable rivers 

connecting lakes with relatively late sockeye 

runs, that provide bears feeding opportunities 

aft er all small stream spawning runs have 

been exhausted. According to Hamon, only 

Savonoski, Kulik, and Brooks Rivers off er 

this quantity of food in Katmai so late in 

the season.8

 Th us, Brooks River is unique 

within the park in having salmon available to 

bears both early in the season during salmon 

migration, and later in the season during 

salmon spawning times.

Because of its easy access to fi sh, the 

Brooks River area has also been occupied 

by humans for centuries. Bears were 

traditionally hunted or killed for getting too 

close to human sources of food. In spite of 

the substantial supply of food, bears tended 

to avoid the Brooks River. Two important 

changes occurred in 1950 when Ray Petersen 

established an angler’s retreat at Brooks Camp: 

1) human behavior changed—anglers did not 

hunt bears; and 2), the garbage accumulated 

during the summer by the lodge created a 

smell that attracted bears to the area. Bears 

are opportunistic eaters, so the kitchen scraps, 

discarded fi sh entrails, unattended packs, dirty 

campsites, landfi ll garbage and malfunctioning 

sewage system that people brought into the 

Brooks River area over the years represented 

novel sources of food to bears. 

Enticing Bears Back to the Brooks River

Major issues concerning garbage and 

feeding bears started in 1950, when Petersen 

built the fi rst structures that would develop 

into Brooks Lodge, and NPS built the fi rst 

structures—a tent frame and cache—that 

would house Katmai’s fi rst park rangers.9

In spring 1950, when the NPS issued 

Petersen a draft concession permit in the form 

of a Special Use Permit, the permit required 

the concessioner to “burn all garbage daily 

and dispose of all ashes and other refuse to the 

satisfaction of the [NPS] Superintendent.”10 

Such language refl ected the agency’s growing 

discomfort and changing philosophy towards 

visitors feeding bears at its parks. NPS 

reasoning was based on a series of wildlife 

management reports called “A Preliminary 

Survey of Faunal Relations in the National 

Parks,” produced by three forward-thinking 

NPS biologists in 1932. Th e fi rst report, 

which thereaft er became known as “Fauna No. 

1,” soon became an important reference for 

park managers.

Fauna No. 1 asserted that the unique 

charm of national parks was the opportunity 

Fisheries biologists made numerous 

observations about the impact of 

bears on spawning salmon at Brooks. 

The photograph shows a fi sheries 

biologist collecting data on red 

salmon partially eaten by bears at 

Hidden Creek in 1957. NARA AK RG 

370, Box 2.
52 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

they off ered to view wildlife in a natural 

setting. It further stated that managers 

were obliged “to restore and perpetuate the 

fauna in its pristine state by combating the 

harmful eff ects of human infl uence.”11 Fauna 

No. 1 specifi cally addressed the bear shows 

in Yellowstone and described the ways in 

which the shows undermined the public’s 

appreciation for the natural world, endangered 

the health of the bears, and ultimately 

disrupted the ecosystem.12 

By the 1950s, Yellowstone’s biologists and 

administrators recognized the need for policy 

enforcement, garbage management, and a 

redirection of bear and visitor behaviors. At 

Katmai, on the other hand, bear sightings near 

camp were rare, and bears that did appear seemed 

shy of people. Katmai’s bear-human situation 

was considered primitive, and therefore it was 

believed that “it should be less diffi cult at Katmai 

to avoid the spoiling of additional bears through 

contact with human food supplies.”13 Both 

the agency and concessioner believed that any 

potential food-related problem was, and would 

be, adequately addressed.

With a permit in hand, NCA spent the 

summer of 1950 assembling its camps.14 In two 

months, Brooks Camp was open for business 

and, as promised, constructed primarily for 

sport anglers. Anecdotal evidence suggests 

that the bear population at Brooks River was 

low in the early 1950s. But in order to comply 

with NPS national bear policies, the camp’s 

fi rst NPS ranger to be stationed there, William 

Nancarrow, constructed an elevated food cache 

adjacent to his tent “just to be safe.”15 

Petersen’s fi rst guest, a Texan named J. C. 

Hill, arrived in late May. Shortly aft erwards, 

Ray Petersen hosted four Anchorage reporters 

at Brooks Camp for a weekend of rainbow 

fi shing. Th e fi shing journalists proclaimed the 

opening of the new “sportsmen’s heaven,” where 

one guest found himself “tossing back 16-inch 

rainbow trout because they were too small.”16 

Petersen eventually invited a host of outdoor 

writers to the camps, and the New York Times, 

Th e Christian Science Monitor, and Th e Seattle 

Times responded with extensive glowing reports 

and a good deal of publicity. Field and Stream, 

Outdoor Life, and Alaska Sportsman echoed 

support for the camps. Petersen even invited a 

fi lmmaker to make a travel documentary which 

presented superb descriptions of Katmai’s 

fi shing possibilities.17 Th e Park Service in 1955 

concurred with the outside media, considering 

the Brooks River to be “the most important 

fi shing water in the monument.”18 

With glowing reviews targeting the 

national audience, visitation to Brooks Camp 

grew throughout the 1950s. By 1959, the 

John Walatka, Anglers Paradise’s 

long-time manager, cleans fi sh at 

Brooks Camp, circa 1950. Courtesy of 

Sonny Petersen and Katmailand, Inc. 
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 53

lodge accommodated those guests with twentytwo frame tents, a kitchen and dining hall, 

and a bathhouse.19 Meanwhile, the NPS had 

built a ranger station, boathouse, and cache 

about a quarter-mile from the river’s mouth to 

house a seasonal ranger whose primary task was 

to regulate fi shing. At the beginning, foodconditioned bears were not a problem to either 

NCA or NPS. Nevertheless, the increase of 

people translated into more organic waste—a 

problem that would affl ict Brooks Camp not 

long aft er its establishment.

Garbage Disposal Methods—Sinking, 

Burning, and Dumping—Attract Bears 

and People

When NPS Chief Biologist Victor 

Cahalane returned to Katmai in 1953 and 

1954 to conduct a seven-month biological 

study, as part of the multi-disciplinary Katmai 

Project, he observed visitors routinely using 

dead salmon to attract bears at Brooks Camp.20 

Although few bears were sighted at Brooks 

Camp in the 1950s, evidence that bears were 

visiting the Katmai camps more frequently 

began to mount. Cahalane observed that some 

care was taken to safeguard food and remove 

food wastes at both the concessioner’s camps, 

Brooks and Coville, but these precautions were 

not suffi cient to keep bears from wandering 

into camp looking for food. In his report, 

A Biological Survey of Katmai National 

Monument, Cahalane wrote:

Practicable measures can be taken at 

established camps which will greatly 

reduce their attractiveness to bears, 

with corresponding increase of 

safety for persons and food or other 

property. Th ese measures, which 

include the erection of food caches 

and disposal of garbage and discarded 

food containers, are well known in 

the Alaskan wilderness and need no 

description here. Th ey are, however, 

oft en disregarded.21

 In those early years Brooks Camp got rid 

of its garbage by sinking cans and bottles in 

Naknek Lake or burying them at the edge of 

camp (at or near the site of the auditorium, 

which was built in 1974). Most other 

materials, as required by the permit, were 

burned.22 Such activity, however, began to 

attract hungry bears. According to Cahalane, 

concession employees complained that bears 

had severely damaged Grosvenor Camp earlier 

that spring. Seeking food, bears destroyed food 

storage cabinets, mattresses, sleeping bags, a 

heating stove, a radio transmitter, and a radio 

receiver. Th e bears smashed windows in the 

camp’s cabin, tore off a door, and ripped the 

walls of several canvas tents.23 

When John Walatka, Petersen’s manager 

for the Angler’s Paradise camps, asked what he 

should do about the raiding bears, Lawrence 

C. Merriam, the director of NPS Region Four 

replied that “a key factor in preventing bear 

“Garbage barrels,” Brooks River lodge 

in June 1968. The Chabot Family 

Collection, KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
54 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

depredations lies in making sure that food, 

garbage, and odors do not reach the animals.”24 

Th e NPS reiterated the requirement for 

prompt disposal of garbage by burning, not 

burying, and suggested that the concessioner 

use elevated food caches, particularly when 

supplies were left in the park during the 

winter.25 NPS offi cials also directed staff and 

employees to barge material waste and garbage 

to one of several open dumps on the opposite 

shore of Naknek Lake. Bears soon discovered 

the dump locations and began to visit the 

dumps on a regular basis. 

By the mid-1960s, concession employees 

who were assigned to haul the garbage began 

to fear for their safety because the bears learned 

to anticipate the arrival of the barge and were 

waiting on the shore when it landed. If bears 

became too insistent for food, they were 

shot.26 Paul J.F. Schumacher, the Region Four 

archeologist who visited Brooks Camp in 1965, 

suggested to the concessions employees that they 

vary the times of their garbage runs so that the 

bears would not wait for the boat. Th e situation 

became so serious that one NPS planner 

concluded that “the brown bear problem is all 

but insolvable.”27 

Curious visitors attracted to the bears 

concentrated at the Naknek Lake dump sites 

added to NPS problems. Because bears were 

relatively uncommon at Brooks Camp, the NCA 

camp manager began boating guests across the 

lake to watch the bears feed. Seeing the dumps 

as safety hazards to both bears and people, 

Victor Cahalane recognized that the challenge 

of successful bear management in Katmai lay not 

simply in separating bears from human food, but 

in balancing the visitor’s desire to view bears with 

the need to protect bears from the disruptive 

infl uence of humans. Cahalane wrote: 

A weighty obligation rests on the 

Park Service because of the presence 

of these creatures. Th ey must be 

allowed to pursue their normal mode 

of existence, as far as possible despite 

use of the area by visitors... Means for 

insuring the latter’s safety must avoid 

disruption of the bear population, for 

these animals constitute a major asset 

and attraction.28 

Katmai’s bears had indeed become an 

attraction, but due to the awkward issue 

surrounding garbage disposal, their lure evoked 

a controversial comparison to the highly 

popular bear shows at Yellowstone’s dumps. 

Darrell Coe, the Katmai ranger-in-charge 

in 1965, spoke to Walatka about the situation 

and tried to discourage the concession staff from 

bringing visitors to view bears at the dump. Coe 

also tried to prevent the bears from feeding at 

the dump by surrounding it with an electric 

fence. Neither remedy was entirely successful. 

Th e underlying problem—how to keep the bears 

away from the garbage—remained unresolved. 

NPS employees dump garbage at the 

landfi ll located along the Valley Road 

in July 1974. KATM Slides Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 55

29 In the meantime, Coe attempted to solve 

the problem as best he could. Th at summer 

he closed and covered the dump adjacent to 

Naknek Lake and opened a new dump two 

miles south of Brooks Camp, along the road 

to the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes.32 Th e 

new dump was diffi cult to reach, forcing NCA 

and NPS personnel to ferry the garbage across 

Brooks River before trucking it out to the dump. 

In an eff ort to keep the bears away at the 

new dump, NPS personnel used a bulldozer to 

cover the garbage with earth once each week, 

and an electrifi ed fence was later installed to 

surround the landfi ll. When the original dump 

was too full to be useful, the garbage crews 

took advantage of gravel excavation holes left 

over from the construction of the road to create 

new dumps.31 Th is strategy began to backfi re 

in 1966 when the NPS also installed several 

burn barrels in camp in an eff ort to lighten the 

load taken out to the Valley Road dumps. Th e 

smell of burning garbage drew bears from the 

surrounding area, and not long aft er the burn 

barrels were put into use, Brooks Camp began 

to attract its fi rst signifi cant bear numbers.32 

Th e smell from garbage most likely 

attracted the bears back to the area, but more 

importantly, human behavior had changed, 

which also encouraged their return. In the 

decades aft er hunting was prohibited in 

Katmai, the bear population began to increase. 

Th is time, however, humans did not chase away 

the bears, and even encouraged them to stay 

by feeding them. It is safe to say that people 

and their garbage weren’t the sole reasons bears 

returned to the Brooks River in visibly higher 

numbers aft er 1950. As Hamon points out, 

“People [and their behavior] were the only 

reason bears weren’t already here.”33

Brooks River Campground: “The Most 

Dangerous Place in Brooks Camp”

With the presence of bears increasingly 

more noticeable in the Brooks area, especially 

to anglers on the river, bear behavior around 

people changed from shy to curious and, 

at times, even aggressive. In 1967, Robert 

Eckdale, who was visiting the Brooks River to 

install an evaporation station for the National 

Weather Service reported that Darrell Coe was 

A camper at the Brooks River 

Campground stores food in the 

cache in 1965. KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
56 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

so busy with “bear problems” that much of his 

time discussing project details with the ranger 

occurred at mealtimes. Eckdale went on to 

explain Coe’s preoccupation: “a garbage dump 

bear was developing into a cabin bear, and an 

eff ort was being made to live trap him.”33

Signs that bears were coming to the 

river to catch fish, particular at night, were 

evident to Coe. Moreover, the largest 

and most aggressive bears required more 

individual space and garnered the best 

locations along the river. This meant that 

the more vulnerable bears—subadults and 

females with young—intermittingly coming 

to the river to fish had the fewest choices. 

As the urge to add body fat increased with 

the season, less assertive or inexperienced 

bears, tended to take advantage of the new 

food sources—particularly garbage and 

waste—made available by people. Their 

great need for food and their inability to 

compete on the river forced these bears into 

places where they encountered not only 

people’s garbage, but people themselves. 

Th e Brooks River Campground, located 

approximately 100 feet from the Naknek 

Lake beach and about one-half mile from 

the mouth of the Brooks River, became a 

place where bears and people frequently 

encountered each other. Tucked into the 

woods at the edge of Naknek Lake, the 

campground provided campers with picnic 

tables, fi re rings, outhouses, a communal food 

cache, and a supply of fi rewood. Campers 

were required to camp only in one of the 

ten “offi cial” campsites, but because limits 

on campers did not exist, several camping 

parties sometimes doubled, tripled, and even 

quadrupled up in a single campsite during the 

busiest times of the season.34 Th e bunching 

of tents presented a barricade to bears moving 

between Naknek Lake and the Brooks, usually 

Map of Brooks River Campground. 

From “Survey of Campground Users 

at Katmai National Monument, 

Alaska: A Report for Management,” 

National Park Service, July 1979. 
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 57

at night. Bear trails, food, and sleeping people 

were closely juxtaposed, while campground 

housing and food storage facilities were 

temporary and fl imsy. Encounters between 

bears and people were so common that one 

researcher named the campground the most 

dangerous place in Brooks Camp, saying that 

it was just a matter of time that a camper 

would sustain serious injury or death.35 One 

bear incident report during this period 

describes raids on garbage cans throughout 

Brooks Camp and an instance when a bear 

pushed its way past a sleeping camper in an 

attempt to steal the man’s backpack.36 While 

it appeared to NPS staff that the bears at 

Brooks Camp did not regard humans as prey, 

and even “went out of their way to avoid 

confrontation with humans,”38 an obvious risk 

existed when people came between food and 

a curious and hungry bear—a risk that was 

becoming more common as bears on the river 

and the number of people increased. 

“Barbecued Trout,” June 24, 1968. 

Because fi sh could be prepared in the 

campground, one bear researcher 

called the Brooks River Campground 

“the most dangerous place at Brooks 

Camp.” The Chabot Family Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

A typical visitor’s tent at the 

campground in 1968. The Chabot 

Family Collection, KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
58 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

The 1966 Campground 

Incident and Repercussions 

Th e fi rst known bear-related injury at 

Katmai occurred on July 21, 1966 in the 

campground. Th at night a bear assaulted a 

camper from Texas named John W. Huckabee 

while he slept near his tent. Huckabee later 

admitted that he had prepared a meal of fried 

fi sh outside his tent and then neglected to 

clean up aft erwards, leaving the unwashed 

frying pan lying nearby. Th e bear, attracted 

by the odors, ransacked the site, bit Huckabee 

in the buttocks and thigh, and dragged him, 

yelling and thrashing, about ten feet before 

another camper arrived to scare the bear away. 

An Air Force helicopter was called to evacuate 

the victim to the Dillingham hospital.39 In 

1987, Huckabee sent Dave Gerber, Katmai’s 

resource specialist at the time, his account of 

the 1966 incident:

Before dark, I caught a lake trout 

for dinner. It was too large for one, 

so quite a bit was left over. I simply 

placed the remains on a rock. I did 

not wash the skillet, but left it by the 

fi re, ready for breakfast. All food was 

left on the ground in the vicinity.

I then went to sleep about 10 meters 

from the fi re place. I was awakened, 

during complete darkness, by the 

sounds of the bear rummaging about, 

knocking over dishes and equipment. 

I looked at it for a moment, and it 

did not appear to see me. I decided 

it was too close to run, so I elected to 

lay low. Aft er a few minutes, it walked 

over towards where I lay. I remember 

the audible soft thud of its footsteps. 

I was on my abdomen, and the bear 

began to sniff my sleeping bag. It 

rather delicately hooked under my hip 

with fore claws and rolled me over. I 

decided that a bite on the backside 

was better than a bite in the abdomen, 

so I rolled back over and forthwith 

received a bite on the backside. I 

yelled as loud as I could, and my 

impression was that the animal was 

startled. I do not recall – never did – 

any details while I was in the thing’s 

teeth. It dropped me about 3-4 

meters away. I remained motionless 

and quiet, and it did not bother me 

anymore, but continued ransacking 

my camp. Sometime later the other 

camper walked up, properly making 

lots of racket. Th e bear left like a 

shadow, without a sound.40

Huckabee’s wounds required that he 

remain in Anchorage for fi ve weeks before he 

was able to return home to Texas. Although 

Responding to an increase of bearshuman interactions in the late 1960s, 

NPS implemented new policies 

concerning food and garbage, which 

included the construction of a new 

food cache for the campground and 

a bulletin board providing campers 

information about bears. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. #399), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 59

the wounds from four canine teeth eventually 

healed with no long-term physical impairment, 

the attack left Huckabee psychologically 

damaged. “By far the worst post-attack 

phenomenon,” wrote Huckabee years later, 

“was the nightmares, which deprived me of 

sleep for two to three weeks, but which did not 

disappear entirely for almost ten years.”41

Later that summer, Coe reported that a bear 

had been making repeated raids on the Bureau of 

Commercial Fisheries camp at Brooks Lake. NPS 

offi cials suspected that the bear may have been 

the same one who had injured Huckabee. By the 

end of October, Coe had found it necessary to 

“remove” the off ending bear by shooting it.42 Th e 

Huckabee incident made food-conditioning an 

immediate and crucial concern for NPS.

Th roughout the summer of the of the 

campground incident, Coe worried endlessly 

about the increasing presence of bears, as well 

as their emboldened behavior. He advised his 

boss, the superintendent of Mount McKinley 

Yearly Naknek Drainage Sockeye Salmon Escapements and Estimated Numbers of Bears 

Frequenting Brooks River, 1988-2008

 

 Bear Numbersb,c,d

Year Escapement (thousands)a Summer; Fall

1988 1,038 17; 29

1989 1,162 22; 22

1990 2,093 21; 29

1991 3,579 (Bristol Bay Strike) 26; 23

1992 1,607 xx; 32

1993 1,536 25; xx

1994 991 23; xx

1995 1,111 45; xx

1996 1,078 53; xx

1997 1,202 31; xx

1999 1,625 39; xx

2000 1,375 xx; xx

2001 1,830 (OEG in river) 37; 38

2002 1,263 45; 39

2003 1,831 50; 34

2004 1,939 43; 51

2005 2,744 70; 59

2006 2,000 63; 57

2007 2,950 70; 45

2008 2,416 70; 52

a2000-2008 Fisheries Data from Bristol Bay Historical Information, Season Summary, Alaska 

Department of Fish and Game;. bData from 1988–1992 and 2001–2006 were collected using similar sampling methods 

each year, and were summarized in Olson 2009. Totals are for the number of independent bears 

observed regularly using Brooks River (i.e., individuals seen in >2 separate sampling sessions. cData from 1993–1999 (from DeBruyn 1999) were collected opportunistically or using 

various less intensive sampling methods than in the other years. dSeasons without counts available are indicated by xx.

National Park, that it was time for a consistent 

policy on bear-human relations at Katmai.43 

Uncommonly seen on Brooks River, bears 

were, for a while, a visitor attraction at the 

dumps, much as they had been in Yellowstone. 

And similar to other parks, aggressive foodconditioned bears ended up dead. Not until 

the late 1960s, aft er bears, lured by garbage, 

killed two Glacier National Park campers in 

one night during the summer of 1967, did 

the NPS decide, on a servicewide basis, that 

garbage-conditioning of bears was unnatural 

and dangerous to people.44 Although the 

relocation of the Brooks Camp dumpsites had 

helped, the food problem remained, as well as 

the essential question: Was the campground 

incident a bear problem or a people problem? 

At fi rst the agency blamed “problem” or 

“off ending bears.” But aft er research on bear 

and human interactions commenced in 1967, 

and continued well into the 1980s, the answer 

seemed obvious—the problem was people. 
60 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 Ronald Squibb and Tamara Olson, Brown Bears of the Brooks River (Anchorage: Todd 

Publications, 1993), 19.

2

 Frederick C. Dean, “Brown Bear-Human Interrelationship Study” NPS PO 126-301 (1968): 

9-10.

3

 For information on the Brooks River bears, see Squibb and Olson, Brown Bears of Brooks 

River. Photography by James Gavin. 4

 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, “Salmon Survival Investigations, Field Operations Report, Red 

Salmon Studies, Brooks Lake, 1957,” (Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Juneau Alaska): 23.

5

 Ibid.

6

 Tamara L. Olson, Barrie K. Gilbert, and Scott H. Fitkin, “Brown Bear Behavior and Human 

Activity at Salmon Streams in Katmai National Park, Alaska,” National Park Service and Utah 

State University, 1990): 20, 106. 

7

 Troy Hamon, personal communications, May 2010.

8

 Ibid.

9

 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 83-85 10 Norris, Tourism, 18. 11 George M. Wright, Joseph S. Dixon and Ben H. Thompson, “Fauna of the National Parks of 

the United States: A Preliminary Survey of Faunal Relations in National Parks” (Washington 

D.C.: Government Printing Offi ce, 1933), 4. 12 Ibid., 75-77.

13 Letter, To Regional Director of Region Four, from Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National 

Park, May 1, 1953; and, Letter, To Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Park, from Regional 

Director of Region Four, May 21, 1953. 

14 Concessions Permit No. I-34np-299, March 10, 1950; Norris, Tourism, 18-19. 15 Letter, To Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Park, from William J. Nancarrow, “Monthly 

Narrative Report for Katmai, July 1950, Brooks River Ranger Station,” July 27, 1950. Park fi les. 16 Anchorage Daily Times, June 7, 1950, Louis R. Huber, “Flight to Katmai,” Alaska Sportsman

(April 1951): 9.

17 Christian Science Monitor, September 22, 1950; Frank Dufresne, “Katmai Adventure,” Field 

and Stream 46 (May 1952); Enos Bradner, “Anglers’ Eldorado,” Alaska Sportsman 18 (April 

1952), 18; Norris, Tourism, 19. 18 John Greenbank, Fishery Mgt. Biologist, “Sport Fish Survey, Katmai National Monument, 

Alaska” July 1955.

19 Tourism, 38 20 Victor H. Cahalane, “A Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument.” Smithsonian 

Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 138, No. 5. (Washington, D.C., 1959).182.

21 Cahalane, 185.

22 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 313 23 Elsie May Bell Grosvenor, “Alaska’s Warmer Side,” National Geographic Magazine 109 (June 

1956):761.

24 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 310. 25 Ibid. 

26 Norris, 313. 27 Letter, To Superintendent of Katmai National Monument, from Frank Singer, Wildlife Biologist,. 

“Subject: Review of Case Incident Reports – Bear Incidents,” March 19, 1982; see also Letter, 

Darrell L. Coe to Oscar Dick, “Subject: Supplement to Monthly Narrative Report,” July 1, 1965. 

See Norris, Isolated Paradise, 313. 28 Cahalane 185.

29 Letter, To Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Monument, from Paul J. F. Schumacher, 

Regional Archeologist Region Four, July 30, 1965. 

30 “Monthly Narrative Report,” Mt. McKinley National Monument,” National Park Service, June 

1966. 

31 Dean, “Brown Bear Interrelationship Study,” 5.

32 Letter, To Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Monument from Darrell L. Coe, June 1, 

1966; see also Norris, Isolated Paradise, 314. 33 Troy Hamon, personal communication, May 2010.

34 Robert Eckdale, National Weather Service Historic Station Records, Brooks Camp Station, 

July 5, 1967. 

35 Stacy Studebaker and Peter Womble, “Survey of Campground Users at Katmai National 

Monument Alaska: A Report for Management,” (National Park Service, and University of 

Washington, July 1979), 9-11.

36 Dean, 32-33.
 Chapter Three: “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”: Food Conditioned Bears at Brooks 61

37 Letter, To Darrell Coe, Management Assistant, from Gary Lillie, Park Ranger-General, 

“Subject: Bear Observation,” July 17, 1967. 

38 Studebaker and Womble, 11.

39 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 315. 40 Letter, To Dave Graber, Katmai Resource Specialist, from John Huckabee, “Brown Bear 

Incident Katmai National Monument, July 21, 1966,” July 23, 1987. 

41 Ibid.

42 Letter, to NPS Superintendent, from Darrell L. Coe, Katmai Management Assistant, January 6, 

1967. 

43 Norris, Isolated, 314. 44 Ibid., 311.
62 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

During the summers of 1953 and 1954, 

several agencies collaborated on the Katmai 

Project, which brought a diverse group of 

scientists to the monument. Robert Luntey, 

a recreation planner in the NPS Region 

Four (San Francisco) offi ce was the agency’s 

coordinator of the Katmai Project. Pictured 

is the project’s biologist Victor Cahalane 

in Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes August 

9, 1954. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #399, 

PH15), Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.

During the summers of 1953 and 1954, 

several agencies collaborated on the Katmai 

Project, which brought a diverse group of 

scientists to the monument. Robert Luntey, 

a recreation planner in the NPS Region 

Four (San Francisco) offi ce was the agency’s 

coordinator of the Katmai Project. Pictured 

is the project’s biologist Victor Cahalane 

in Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes August 

9, 1954. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #399, 

PH15), Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.

f 4,

l ll b d h i

f

h b

l h

ffi

f d

h b l h l

f st

(

f and

h l k .

During the s ummers of 1953and 1954,

several agencies collaborated on the Katmai

Project, whichbrought a diversegroup of

scientists t o the monument. Robert L untey,

a recreation planner inthe NPS Region

Four (San Francisco)office was theagency’s

coordinator ofthe Katmai Project. Pictured

is the project’s biologist Victor Cahalane

inValley of Ten T housand S mokes August

9, 1954.KATM Photo A rchive (Acc. #399,

PH15), RecordsofKatmai National Parkand

Preserve, Anchorage A laska.

During the summers of 1953 and 1954, 

several agencies collaborated on the Katmai 

Project, which brought a diverse group of 

scientists to the monument. Robert Luntey, 

a recreation planner in the NPS Region 

Four (San Francisco) offi ce was the agency’s 

coordinator of the Katmai Project. Pictured 

is the project’s biologist Victor Cahalane 

in Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes August 

9, 1954. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #399, 

PH15), Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 63

Pioneers of a “Scientifi c Wilderness”

When NPS landscape architect Alfred 

Kuehl visited Katmai in 1945, it was his 

opinion that only the “curious wealthy sportsman” and the “scientifi cally inclined able to 

stand the expeditionary expense,” would visit 

the area. “Any and all developments beyond 

necessary protective measures,” he advised the 

Park Service, “should be held in abeyance for 

a number of years to come, at least until such 

time as the infl ux of suffi cient visitor demands 

justify consideration of development.” Because 

of its remoteness and lingering unknowns, the 

landscape architect classifi ed the monument as 

a “Scientifi c Wilderness.”1

 

Within a decade, however, the collaborative and interdisciplinary Katmai Project, led 

by Robert Luntey and representing researchers from fi ve diff erent federal agencies, supported ten diff erent studies during the 1953 

fi eld season. Th irteen individual researchers 

investigated everything from geology and volcanology, biology and entomology, to archeology and history. Although Griggs, Spurr, and 

Father Bernard Hubbard visited the region in 

the name of science, they primarily sequestered 

their interests to the Valley of Ten Th ousand 

Smokes. Th e Katmai Project researchers aimed 

to broaden their geographic scope, hoping to 

better understand the monument as a whole. 

In so doing, they became Katmai’s modern scientifi c pioneers.

Th e sweeping objectives of the Katmai 

Project were to appraise the monument’s 1) 

geographic and climatic conditions; 2) changes 

in shore morphology; 3) volcanic activity and 

general geology of the area, including determination of what actually happened in the 1912 

Chapter Four:

The Scientifi c Era Begins

I would like to separate the area around Brooks Camp into what we will call “bear 

country” and “human country.” Bear country is by our defi nition the region which is 

inhabited by bears and in which they are the dominant vertebrate...Human country, 

on the other hand, is defi ned as the area [where] man is continually and more or less 

abundantly present.

~Frederick Dean

 Brown Bear/Human Interrelationship Study, 1968

eruption, the nature and extent of mineralogy, 

and studies of glacial action; 4) post eruption recovery and nature of plant and animal 

life; 5) animal diseases communicable to man; 

and 6) extent and kinds of human use of the 

area prior to the 1912 eruption.2

 Th e studies 

were conducted in both the interest of science 

and, in the age of Cold War realities, to obtain 

information of possible military importance. 

Results of the reports were also intended for 

NPS to prepare a master development plan 

that would aid in the administration, protection, and interpretation of the monument.3

Although Victor Cahalane authored “A Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument,” 

which included information on bears, a majority of the scientifi c reports refl ected the monument’s original purpose, volcanoes.

Archeologists and Fish Biologists: 

First to Study Brooks River 

Th e Katmai Project did, however, launch 

the fi rst archeological research into Katmai’s 

prehistory in 1953, when the only recorded 

cultural site in the monument was located on 

Takli Island. Under the auspices of the Katmai 

Project, NPS contracted William Laughlin and 

his two University of Oregon students to shed 

light on the Katmai’s human past. Th at year, 

Wilbur A. Davis and James W. Leach surveyed 

three abandoned Native villages: Kaguyak and 

Katmai Village on the Pacifi c coast, and Old 

Savonoski on Iliuk Arm of Lake Naknek. In 

the midst of their Katmai investigations, lodge 

workers at Brooks Camp, while digging a cellar 

for storage near the north edge of the present 

lodge offi ce and store, uncovered various artiPART II: TRANSFORMATION, 1968 TO 1980

facts of an earlier Alaska Native village. Th e 
64 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Oregon crew examined the items of pottery, 

stone, and bone, and decided to excavate a 

trench into a nearby terrace face, now occupied 

by a row of cabins that face Brooks River. Th e 

trench produced more artifacts, prompting 

the formal recording of the fi rst prehistoric 

site discovered at Brooks Camp.4

 Th e following year, NPS invited anthropologist Wendell 

Oswalt to carry on survey work on Katmai’s 

coast, where he located several important sites 

at Cape Douglas, Devils Cove, and Kafl ia Bay.5

 

But at Brooks River, despite the discovery of 

four additional sites, archeological work ceased 

for seven years.

Resurrecting archeological investigations 

near Brooks River was the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife 

Service (USFWS), whose new Bristol Bay 

Investigation (BBI) supervisor at Brooks Lake, 

Th eodore Merrell, funded an archeological 

team from the University of Oregon in 1960. 

Merrell had hoped the forthcoming archeology 

would help his biologists gain a more comprehensive understanding of prehistoric salmon 

runs in Alaska. Professor Luther Cressman, 

Merrell’s friend and colleague, recruited graduate student, Don E. Dumond to be the fi eld 

supervisor for the Brooks Camp excavations.6 

Th at fi rst summer Dumond and one 

student assistant confi ned their work at two 

untested sites reported in 1953. Th ey also recovered artifacts displaced by lodge personnel 

while digging a second cellar for a new lodge 

and dining hall. Th e following year Dumond’s 

crew expanded to three. Th ey excavated a 

second trench near the one excavated by Davis 

and Leach overlooking the lower river. Due to 

its size and extent, they determined the site to 

be one of the major ancient settlements on the 

river, dating it at around AD 1200. Further 

excavations near the site were impossible however, because of the presence of the lodge and 

the increasing number of visitors.7

Returning as a junior professor of the University of Oregon in 1963, Dumond and his 

crew of six began a three-year exploration of 

the immediate Brooks River area and Katmai’s 

Pacifi c coast in an eff ort to better understand 

the prehistoric relationship between people 

from the two sides of the Aleutian Range. Pre-

“Brooks Camp, 1965.” KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 65

vious researchers believed they were culturally 

the same; Dumond however, found the artifacts 

collected in 1960 and 1961 to be strikingly 

diff erent, especially those dated before AD 

1000. About that time, it appeared to Dumond 

the distinct sequences of artifacts began to 

converge. In their investigations, the Oregon 

archeologists mapped Brooks River, identifying 

about a thousand surface depressions, which 

indicated potentially ancient habitations. Testing at these sites revealed that some were created by bears, falling trees, or wind erosion, but 

approximately sixty percent hid the remains of 

nearly 5,000 years of human occupation.8

By 1965, Dumond had determined that 

the oldest sites, dated at about 3000 BC, were 

made by roving parties of caribou hunters 

from various parts of the Alaska interior and 

other places on the Alaska Peninsula. Curiously, these sites appear before the formation of 

Brooks Falls, and they were found at a narrows 

in Naknek Lake where caribou could be ambushed while crossing the narrows. Dumond’s 

research ultimately provided insight into the 

development of the Brooks River and Naknek 

Lake system. He determined that with the 

melting glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene 

Ice Age, a single great lake had covered what 

are now Naknek, Brooks, Coville and Grosvenor lakes. Sometime between 20,000 and 

15,000 years ago, the level of the lake began a 

steady drop as its outlet stream, forming the 

present-day Naknek River, eroded downwards 

as it fl owed to Bristol Bay. As the rocky ridge 

at the northeast corner of Brooks Lake was 

exposed, Brooks and Naknek lakes were separated—fi rst by a narrows, then, as the level of 

Naknek Lake continued to fall, by a short river. 

The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

biologists hired University of Oregon 

graduate student Don E. Dumond 

to investigate the Brooks River’s 

prehistoric fi sh runs. Pictured is 

Dumond’s archaeology crew at Brooks 

River in 1963. (Don Dumond is on 

the far right.) KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park 

and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska. 

Courtesy of Don E. Dumond. 
66 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Th e caribou hunters who left occasional thin 

and ephemeral campsites 500 years before the 

salmon arrived were camping along an ancient 

and much higher beach ridge.9

Over the course of fi ve years, Dumond and 

his fellow researchers conducted interviews 

with several local elders, including Mike McCarlo and Palakia Melgenak,10 and uncovered 

even more of the extensive cultural complex 

on both sides of the Brooks River. Th eir excavations revealed a local chronology of ten 

volcanic ash deposits, including the Novarupta 

eruption in 1912; evidence of volcanism that 

intermittently forced the humans living along 

the river to abandon their settlements. Using 

certain volcanic ash deposits as chronostratigraphic markers and other evidence, Dumond 

was able to establish a chronology of human 

The archeological team excavates a 

site near the Brook Camp in 1963. 

NARA AK RG 370 Box 2. 
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 67

occupation at Brooks River. In 1967, NPS 

asked Dumond to excavate two prehistoric 

houses; one which was reconstructed as an exhibit to help visitors appreciate the rich prehistory of Brooks River. 

Bristol Bay Investigation 

of Sockeye Salmon at Brooks Lake

While Dumond and his associates at the 

University of Oregon were deep in the process of unraveling the area’s cultural past, the 

USFWS biologists at Brooks Lake continued 

to conduct research on the well-established 

salmon runs for Bristol Bay’s commercial fi shery regulation. Th e original purpose of the 

BBI was kept quiet for decades. Th e studies, 

according to Eicher, were primarily used to 

provide data for North Pacifi c Fisheries Treaty, 

signed by Canada, Japan, and the United 

States in 1953. In 1952, the three nations had 

entered into negotiations during an International Convention for the High Seas Fisheries 

of the North Pacifi c Ocean, and ultimately, 

joined together to establish cooperative measures for the conservation of the fi shery stock 

of the North Pacifi c. Once this objective was 

achieved, the BBI at Brooks Lake shift ed its 

focus from international high seas fi shing to 

one that aimed to “determine the physical, 

chemical and biological factors aff ecting the 

abundance and survival of red salmon in fresh 

water.” Specifi cally, the sockeye salmon of 

Bristol Bay: “the most valuable single commercial fi sheries in the entire world.” 11

Underpinning the red salmon studies at 

Brooks Lake was the previous generation’s call 

for a rational, and scientifi cally managed commercial fi shery for its maximum sustainable 

yield: “If the factors which control the magnitude of this red salmon run were understood,” 

Fingerling tattooing at the outlet of 

Brooks Lake in 1955. NARA AK RG 

370 Box 2.
68 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

wrote the new supervisor of fi sheries research, 

Th eodore Merrell, “the knowledge would be of 

incalculable value as a basis for increasing production and for regulating the commercial fi shery to obtain an optimum annual yield.”12 Th at 

spring, Merrell took over supervisory management of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

(BCF) operation at Brooks Lake. Besides Merrell, staff in 1957 included J.A. Harbour, W.H. 

Pogue, R.E. Painter, C.R. Goldman, F.P. Meyer 

and R.A. Th orson, and G.Y. Wong. Graduate 

student W.L. Hartman spent six weeks on the 

Brooks Lake project that year. Aft er completion of his PhD degree, he became a permanent 

member of the staff in 1958.13

Field work for the Brooks Lake crew usually began in late May. According to operational 

plans, each member was assigned responsibility 

for one or more phases of the research program, for which the researcher saw to it that 

schedules were followed, data recorded, and 

equipment properly used and cared for.14 Other duties included weir installation, maintenance and counting; tagging and tag recovery; 

sampling adults at the weir for lengths, fecundity, and age; spawning surveys; measurement 

of physical characteristics of spawning areas; 

observations of spawning behavior; sampling 

fi ngerling outmigration; sampling juvenile reds 

with gill nets in lake; food studies of juvenile 

reds; upstream migration of fry or fi ngerlings 

into Brooks Lake from Brooks River; operation of fathometer and preparation of contour 

map of Brooks Lake; plankton sampling; 

Counting red salmon at Brooks Weir 

in November 1958. NARA AK RG 370 

Box 2.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 69

chemical analyses of Brooks Lake water; bottom sampling; operations and maintenance of 

thermographs; weather station operations; lake 

water gauge; safety program; government mess 

( ordering, planning, and preparation of food); 

primarily productivity program; inventory of 

property; and logging and construction.15

Th e BCF sockeye survival investigations 

found that female sockeye in Brooks Lake 

were more fertile than those from Karluk Lake 

on Kodiak Island and most of the spawning 

grounds in British Columbia. Th e investigators hypothesized that Bristol Bay had a higher 

potential for greater return than other salmon 

streams around the north Pacifi c. Th e BCF 

also conducted studies that focused on the migratory behavior of young salmon. Biologists 

captured and counted salmon fry as they left 

Hidden Creek to determine salmon egg survival rate. Th e end results showed that Hidden 

Creek salmon developed specifi c migratory 

behaviors that increased their ability to avoid 

predation, such as the tendency to migrate 

into Brooks Lake individually and then gather 

into schools to confuse predators.16 Another 

groundbreaking study concluded that the real 

threats to Bristol Bay’s sockeye were caused not 

by predators, but rather by humans. 

Although the research and management 

program was not originally planned to obtain 

data on bears, BCF biologists did observe the 

eff ects of what they termed “bear predation” on 

salmon. In 1957, a fi sheries biologist reported:

Hidden Creek, the most heavily fi shed 

by bears, was surveyed on September 

3 to get some estimate of bear damage. 

Th e creek is similar in size and terrain 

to Up-a-Tree and One-Shot Creeks...

Starting at the mouth the creek was 

surveyed upstream for 4.5 hours to 

beyond the limit of spawning. Most 

of the banks were covered with brush 

and high grass. Every 10 to 15 feet all 

the way up the creek a bear fi shing station was evident where the vegetation 

was fl attened. It could not be determined if there fl attened areas were the 

result of many bears fi shing or if it was 

a result of great activity by a few bears. 

One bear was seen in the underbrush 

on the bank at a distance of about 30 

A biologist pulls up the line from the 

frozen lake in 1958. NARA AK RG 370 

Box 2.
70 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

feet but ran off when a “bear whistle” 

was blown. Fresh bear scat was abundant, and it was noted that red berries 

were about equally numerous as fi sh 

bones. Apparently they were on a 

mixed diet of fi sh and berries.17

Specifi cally, biologists found that most of the 

sockeye the bears consumed were already spawned 

and concluded that natural predation by bears had 

little eff ect on the overall fi sh production.18 

By the early 1960s, the relationship between the fi sheries biologists at Brooks Lake 

and NPS employees was positive, cooperative, 

and friendly. When NPS stationed its fi rst 

ranger at Brooks Camp in 1950, USFWS biologists helped to build the cabin on Naknek 

Lake, as their demanding activities allowed. 

George Eicher remembered that “when the 

Northern Consolidated Airlines announced 

establishment of a fi shing camp at the mouth 

of the Brooks River...[it] prompted the Park 

Service to establish a base nearby for its personnel to observe the commercial operation and 

control it.19 Th is allowed even more interaction between BCF and the Park Service.20

In 1961, the BCF expanded its coordinating activities at the Brooks Lake Laboratory. 

Fisheries research expanded to cover the entire 

Naknek drainage system, while red salmon 

survival research was to be conducted yearround. To accommodate more personnel, it 

was decided that the BCF would erect two, 

four-room panabode cottages just south of the 

laboratory. BCF chose this type building construction in order to maintain uniformity with 

other buildings, which, as F. W. Stokes, BCF 

Administrative Offi cer noted, “is preferred by 

the U.S. National Park Service.” Th e purpose 

for the cottages was to house not only biologists, but their families as well. 

Ted Merrell, Supervisory Research Biologist, thought that the new construction 

designed to house families would boost the 

amount of research conducted at Brooks.21 He 

reasoned that “because of the absence of family 

quarters and the remoteness of the location, 

married permanent personnel are forced to be 

absent from their families for several months of 

the year. Th is situation makes it very diffi cult 

to recruit and retain a competent permanent 

staff .” 22 Merrell decided that the most inexAn interpretive ranger takes visitors 

on a tour of the weir site in 1968. 

Brooks Camp Interpretive Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 71

pensive and satisfactory solution was the erection of two prefabricated minimum standard 

family units at Brooks Lake. Th e buildings, according to Merrell, would be constructed with 

“all wood materials and may be considered as 

temporary portable structures for administrative purposes.”23 Construction was approved 

and the buildings constructed in 1961.

 W.H. Hartman’s family was the fi rst to 

live in the cottages. Th e biologist constructed 

a designated play area, between the cabins 

equipped with a swing-set, and surrounded by 

a chain-link-fence in order to keep out bears. 

Although only two years old at the time, Peter 

Hartman remembered that bears visited the 

area on occasion:

When we would hike as a family 

(to the falls or other places) my dad 

would carry a rifl e which I think was 

not allowed. He would hide it behind 

a tree when people passed by in order 

not to get in trouble with the park 

service. I do remember one incident 

of my mother and sister being chased 

back from the laundry shack by a bear, 

and one time when one of the men 

spent a long time in the outhouse as 

a bear walked around and pressed on 

the door.” 24

By 1963, scientifi c research conducted at 

Brooks Lake allowed BCF biologists to understand more about the lives of sockeye salmon 

at sea and their natural population fl uctuations. In a report infl uenced by his research at 

Brooks Lake, Eicher documented the eff ects of 

water temperature on sockeye out-migration 

in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers of Bristol 

Bay. According to Eicher’s fi ndings, higher 

water temperatures meant faster growth and 

earlier migration. Additionally, Eicher asserted 

NASA also had a scientifi c interest in 

the Katmai area. During the summers 

of 1965 and 1966, the Valley of Ten 

Thousand Smokes served as a unique 

training ground for U.S. astronauts 

preparing to land on the moon. This 

photo shows the NASA helicopters on 

the beach in front of Brooks Camp. 

Courtesy of Sonny Peterson and 

Katmailand, Inc. 
72 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

that temperature had a similar eff ect on how 

many years sockeye spent at sea, and ultimately 

how quickly they matured to spawning age.25 

Th ese fi ndings were signifi cant because they 

showed that environmental factors infl uenced 

salmon runs and that harvests had to be closely 

monitored and adjusted to the circumstances 

of each run. In addition to such groundbreaking research, the BCF began conducting more 

invasive on-the-ground projects. From 1960 

to 1965 they dammed West Creek, a Brooks 

Lake tributary, to see if salmon migrating to 

the stream would spawn elsewhere. Th ey also 

used chemical manipulation on Hidden Creek 

salmon to get them to spawn in West Creek. 

Ultimately, these experiments threatened the 

salmon populations in the area and resulted in 

the loss of at least one genetic stock of salmon 

in Brooks Lake.26 

By 1967, the BCF was helping NPS to 

develop the fi sh ladder at Brooks Falls as an 

interpretive feature and had all but ceased its 

yearly counts on Brooks River.27 Th is in part 

had to do with the fact that the new State of 

Alaska was poised to take over management of 

the Bristol Bay Fishery with the establishment 

of the Department of Fish & Game in 1960. 

In spite of dwindling research activity, NPS 

extended a Memorandum of Agreement with 

USFWS in 1970 to allow research in Katmai 

National Monument for at least ten more 

years.28 For the next four years research activities at Brooks Lake dwindled amidst another 

bureaucratic reorganization. On October 3, 

1970, the BCF was transferred to the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA) in the Commerce Department and 

renamed National Marine Fisheries Service 

(NMFS). NMFS conducted nominal research 

on the Naknek drainage, but funding for the 

fi sheries project ended in 1974, and with it, 

“Brooks Lake’s role in understanding the nation’s most prolifi c sockeye fi shery.”29 

Nevertheless, during the thirty years period in which fi sheries-related studies were 

conducted at Brooks Lake, research objective 

changed, biologists gained fresh interpretations 

from new data, and ultimately, shift s in management philosophy resulted in overall changes 

to the management of the Bristol Bay fi shery. 

Aft er 1956, Brooks Lake studies supported 

management of salmon based on natural preservation rather than artifi cial propagation, 

predator control and stream improvements. In 

addition, the BBI’s interdisciplinary approach 

to fi sheries science prompted archeological investigations which resulted in some of the most 

signifi cant archeological research in Alaska. 

And fi nally, the BBI furthered the scientifi c understanding of sockeye salmon, which helped 

to develop the foundation for modern-day fi sheries management throughout the state. 

The Call for a Bear-Human Interaction 

Study for Katmai: Frederick Dean’s Report

Brooks Camp, as previously mentioned, 

was established for sport-fi shers in 1950. Anglers did not hunt bears—although some did 

try to attract the elusive bruins to camp with 

food and garbage to photograph them. Not 

surprisingly, by the mid-1960s, bears, at least 

at night, began to make appearances in areas 

where people tended to congregate, eat, and 

dispose of trash. As one of only two of Katmai’s full-time rangers in 1966, Darrell Coe 

had his hands full at Brooks Camp. Aft er the 

1966 campground incident in which a bear 

had injured a camper, bear management took 

on a new air of seriousness in Katmai. Th at 

bear was shot; others would be trapped and 

transported.30 Katmai’s fi rst independent superintendent, Gilbert Blinn, directed rangers 

to begin providing orientation talks to visitors 

about bear safety and working with the sometimes recalcitrant lodge staff to improve waste 

disposal practices. In light of the increasing 

numbers of both bears and visitors, the National Park Service regional offi ce in San Francisco recommended the formulation of a bear 

management plan. 

By 1967, the increasingly visible bruin 

was added to fi sh and archeology as a focus of 

scientifi c study for NPS, rather than simply 

a curious sidebar. Th e campground incident 

prompted NPS research biologist Richard 

Prasil to organize a study to determine “what 

causes wild, and normally ‘human-fearing’ 

bears, to attack humans not interfering with 

normal bear activities.”31 Obviously on Prasil’s 

mind when he wrote those words were the recent fatal grizzly attacks on two young women 

in remote parts of Glacier National Park. Prasil 

and his staff selected Dr. Frederick Dean, head 

of the University of Alaska’s Department of 

Wildlife Management to conduct these studies. Dean arrived at Katmai in June and visited 

Brooks Camp over the course of two seasons 

making his observations.32 Th e result was the 

fi rst comprehensive study of the relationship 

between bears and people at Katmai.33
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 73

Th e management principles supporting 

Dean’s Brown Bear-Human Interrelationship 

Study set the stage for bear management policy 

in Katmai through the 1970s, culminating 

with the park’s fi rst bear management plan in 

1983. Th e study correctly predicted a major 

shift in Katmai’s visitor demographics from 

anglers to wildlife enthusiasts and recognized a 

need for education, particularly for short-time 

visitors. Dean even articulated for the fi rst 

time, ‘the Brooks Camp experience,’ which he 

described as a visual, auditory, an olfactory, and 

psychological experience that far exceeds simply observing bears: “Seeing a bear is one thing, 

wrote Dean. “One can stand on a hill and look 

across a valley, particularly with some aid to vision such as a binocular or spotting scope, and 

watch a bear. ... However, “this is a very passive situation and does not involve much real 

experience,” explained Dean. “It certainly is 

nothing compared to the experience of walking 

along what one knows is a bear trail in country 

that one knows is inhabited by good numbers 

of bears and knowing that they may be around 

the next bend or even in the bush off of the 

trail just behind you.”34 

Dean’s report refl ected concepts that were 

being raised within bear management circles 

and were being discussed in other wildlife 

parks. Dean emphasized preventive management, particularly the management of food and 

garbage, and providing the proper information 

about their negative impact on bears to visitors. Dean, like Cahalane in 1953, was most 

alarmed by the concessioner’s practice of luring bears with garbage for photographers, and 

made some of the fi rst arguments against the 

transportation of food conditioned bears.35 He 

reported that bears’ keen noses can detect what 

people consider weak odors. Dean concluded 

that any smell of food will draw bears from a 

considerable distance. Th is meant that when a 

In 1968 Gilbert Blinn (center) became 

Katmai’s fi rst superintendent based in 

King Salmon. He was hired primarily 

to solve Brooks Camp’s growing “bear 

problems.” Gil Blinn, ca. 1970. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. #283, PH37), 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
74 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

bear established itself in the Brooks River area, 

most damage to human property occurred in 

the course of the bear’s search for food. Dean 

saw that the best way to solve the bear problem was to keep them away from human food 

sources. “I think that it is extremely important,” wrote Dean, “to prevent bears from ever 

experiencing garbage as a source of food.”36

Dean’s report also pointed out that rather 

than supporting the NPS in curbing bears’ 

attraction to camp, the concessioner tended 

to undermine NPS policies, especially when 

it came to food. Dean wrote that during his 

time in the monument, “the concessionaire appeared to have the upper hand and was doing a 

great deal of whatever he desired” and warned 

that this imbalance of power would guide the 

manner and degree of development in Katmai 

to the detriment of the wildlife.”37 One of his 

most contentious points described the garbage 

disposal practices at Brooks Lodge. Dean observed that in spite of its agreement with NPS, 

the concessioner neglected to surround burn 

barrels with working electric fences and, as a result, bears freely gained access to garbage. Garbage may not have been a brown bear’s food of 

choice, but for those who couldn’t get enough 

salmon on the river, garbage was the next best 

thing. With people directly and indirectly 

feeding bears, it didn’t take long for garbage to 

become the impetus of Brooks Camps’ initial 

issues with what the agency referred to at the 

time as “problem bears.”38

Dean’s approach, rather than focusing 

exclusively on bear behavior, looked at human 

actions and set out to determine “the basic 

behavior of man when he is faced with brown 

bears at close quarters under varying circumstances.”39 Dean warned both NPS and the 

concessioner that if the camp expanded, and 

people continued to move into bear habitat, 

then visitors interested in seeing bears would 

eventually have less and less opportunities. 

“Th e result,” wrote Dean, “will be a steady encroachment of human country on bear country 

and a gradual pushing back of one of the main 

attractions of the area, the bears themselves.”40 

Although Dean made a clear distinction between “bear country” and “human country,” 

establishing a defi nitive line between bear and 

human environments was not the report’s intent, for Dean saw a need for a “philosophical 

distinction in the relationships that develop 

between bears and people,” rather than a physical one.”41 “It seems to me,” wrote Dean,

 ...that one of the basic steps in the 

management program is the recognition of the concept involving bear 

county and human country. Once the 

concept is accepted, the boundary had 

to be determined and made known 

to all of the people in the area and, if 

possible, to the bears.42

Dean acknowledged that the potential 

hazards arising from bear encounters at Brooks 

Camp needed to be reduced, but nevertheless 

conceded that when people enter bear country, human risk “cannot be reduced to zero.”43 

Although he wasn’t a huge fan, Dean presented the suggestion of raised catwalks, but 

considered the “catwalk solution” to be “less 

desirable than a fence around human country.” Dean explained that psychologically, 

catwalks would prohibit a visitor from “really 

experiencing” bear country.44 Moreover, Dean 

scolded the national media for instigating 

unfounded fears of bears resulting from the 

gruesome coverage of the Glacier bear attacks, 

calling the hyperbole, “ill-considered diatribes,” which were “inconsistent with a society 

that hopes to develop mature, capable and 

responsible individuals who are living a real 

life.” “Th e decisions and attitudes expressed 

in the magazine article mentioned,” he added, 

“refl ect the point of view of a society that is 

becoming more and more insulated from the 

realities of life and simultaneously as a result 

more and more immature and incapable in 

many respects.”45 In other words, Dean’s use of 

human country and bear country were meant 

as constructs, predicated upon human perceptions, attitudes and behaviors around bears. 

“Either philosophy changes,” warned Dean, 

“or the bears go.”46 

To park superintendents and the concessioner, both desiring to keep their inexperienced visiting guests safe and comfortable 

and still able to view the occasional bear, a 

physical separation seemed the appropriate solution. With repercussions from the 

1966 Brooks Camp campground attack 

combined with the highly publicized 1967 

multiple bear attacks still resonating within 

the agency, to both the Regional Office and 

the Lodge staff, Dean’s recommendation 

to separate “Bear Country” from “Human 

Country,” even if it was originally meant 

to be a conceptual separation rather than a 

physical one, simply made sense.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 75

Dealing with the “Problem Bear”: Relocation

NPS released Dean’s study results in 1968. 

Th e year also marked Katmai National Monument’s fi ft ieth anniversary. For the majority of 

those fi ft y years, the monument had lacked any 

real on-site administration. Since 1950, the 

level of administration had slowly increased. 

In 1964 the fi rst full-time staff position was 

based in King Salmon and in 1966, Darrell 

Coe, Katmai’s ranger-in-charge, was elevated to 

the management assistant level. 

Even though Dean distinctly wrote that 

“brown bears do not continually look for trouble” and argued that transporting “problem 

bears” is too expensive, that regulating bears to 

remote areas is silly because people are already 

in the “remote” areas, and suggested that the 

whole operation of bear relocation could be 

avoided with stricter policies aimed at prohibiting bears from acquired garbage, nevertheless, 

Coe’s major focus during his tenure at Katmai 

was searching for ways to capture and transport 

food-conditioned problem bears out of the 

area.47 Th e fi rst live trapping and transporting 

of bears took place in 1967 when Coe and the 

Katmai maintenance foreman designed a bear 

trap on skids with a door powered by a small 

electric motor that closed aft er the bear entered 

the trap. Once a bear was safely inside, Coe 

barged the trapped bear across Naknek Lake 

where the animal was released at a point several 

days overland travel from Brooks Camp. 

Later this process was refi ned when NPS 

personnel began anesthetizing bears and removing them from the trap before transporting 

the drugged animal. Th e Air Force at King 

Salmon also occasionally volunteered its helicopters to transport problem bears to more 

distant locations.48 Although the relocation 

of bears was the principal management tool 

for the next decade and a half, the practice 

ultimately proved to be both costly and largely 

ineff ective because bears showed a remarkable 

ability to fi nd their way—oft en fairly quickly—

back to Brooks River. NPS offi cials found that 

one bear returned to the camp aft er swimming 

twelve miles over open water while another 

managed to return aft er being airlift ed 100 

miles from Brooks Camp.49 

Meanwhile, the bear-related problems 

around Brooks Camp worsened. In July 1968 

a troublesome three-year-old “campground 

bear” was killed and partially eaten at Brooks 

Falls by a much larger adult male bear. Because 

a large number of visitors were in the area and 

the adult bear was very protective of his kill, 

NPS employees decided they had no choice 

but to shoot it and remove both carcasses from 

A bear trap, designed by Katmai 

ranger Darrell Coe, to transport 

“problem bears” away from Brooks 

Camp, July 1968. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
76 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

the area.50 Tom Atwood, who replaced Coe as 

ranger-in-charge in 1968, requested advice from 

the director of the Western Regional Offi ce. 

Th e regional director responded by saying “it 

is diffi cult to imagine that we could not expect 

bear troubles there since the National Park Service and concessionaire buildings as well as the 

campground have been placed within the bears’ 

natural fi shing grounds at Brooks River.”51

Although it was clear that NPS offi cials 

understood the fundamental cause of Brooks 

Camp’s concerns about bears, novel solutions 

were not forthcoming. Atwood was advised 

to shoot bears only when human safety was 

obviously threatened, and he was encouraged 

to continue relocating troublesome bears. Th e 

regional offi ce sent bear-proof garbage cans to 

prevent bears in Brooks Camp from gaining access to human garbage, and arrangements were 

made for Brooks Camp residents to keep their 

garbage indoors until it could be removed to 

the dumps along the road to the Valley of Ten 

Th ousand Smokes.52

Th e Regional Director told Atwood to 

contact the Alaska Department of Fish and 

Game about transplanting the bears to another part of the state. Following the Regional 

Director’s advice, Atwood anesthetized four 

young bears that frequently wandered through 

Brooks Camp. Th ree were relocated, most 

likely by barge, but the fourth drugged bear 

wandered off before it could be captured and it 

drowned in Brooks River.53 

Moreover, the increased bear-related problems around camp strained NPS’s relations 

with the concessioner. By the end of the 1960s, 

NPS maintained that the way to avoid “bear 

problems” was to keep all food indoors until it 

could be hauled to the dump along the valley 

road. Th e concession employees, however, paid 

scant attention to the plan. Guests balked at 

the idea of keeping garbage inside their small 

accommodations, and perhaps more to the 

point, concession managers took the attitude 

that it was the NPS’s responsibility to keep the 

bears away from the buildings and out of camp, 

if necessary by relocating them.54 

Independent Administration 

of Katmai Begins, 1971

During NPS Director George Hartzog’s 

administration, Katmai received more funding 

to create additional staff positions. In 1969 

Gilbert Blinn, a district ranger from Death 

Valley National Monument replaced Tom Atwood, and in 1971, he became Katmai’s fi rst 

superintendent based in King Salmon.55 When 

Blinn arrived at Katmai, he found that the bear 

safety measures implemented in 1968 had not 

lasted. Concession employees were throwing 

garbage out the back door of the kitchen into 

a garbage can and leaving it there overnight. 

Th e fi sh cleaning shed, a frame structure with 

window screening around it, was cleaned only 

twice a week, and between cleanings, fi sh entrails sat in a wooden bucket on the fl oor of the 

building. Although the shed was surrounded 

by an electric fence, the bears had apparently 

learned to break down the fence by felling a 

tree across it.56 Th e concession manager asserted that it was the fault of the NPS and did 

not rebuild the shed.57

Blinn was hired in large part to solve the 

increasing bear problems at Brooks Camp. 

Blinn’s fi rst priority was to examine Dean’s recommendations. He found them to be valid, but 

he chose to implement only the ideas that mirrored existing NPS management policy. Blinn 

rejected Dean’s recommendation to erect fences 

or elevated boardwalks to enhance visitor safety 

(policies that would be implemented 30 years 

later) because he believed these measures would 

create an artifi cial viewing environment and 

diminish the visitor experience. Moreover, Katmai’s 1967 master plan refl ected the sentiment 

that Brooks Camp should be de-emphasized 

as a development site and that visitor services 

should be spread more evenly throughout the 

monument.58 Instead, Blinn focused on Dean’s 

suggestions for improving visitor education and 

garbage disposal to better deal with what he saw 

as “problem bears.” Th e following spring, Blinn 

began working to educate NPS employees, 

concession employees, and visitors about the 

importance of keeping bears away from food 

sources created by people.58 

At the same time that Blinn was dealing with bears increasingly receiving human 

food and garbage in Katmai, the agency was 

issuing guidance for bear management on a 

national level. An advisory committee dealing with Yellowstone National Park developed three management objectives aimed at 

solving that park’s bear troubles. Th e NPS 

Northwest Region headquarters, in turn, 

forwarded its recommendations to all the 

park units with bear populations. Parks were 

advised to: 1) maintain populations of grizzly 

and black bears at levels that were sustainable 

under natural conditions as part of the native 
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 77

fauna of the park, 2) plan the development 

and use of the park so as to minimize confl icts and unpleasant or dangerous incidents 

with bears; and 3) encourage bears to lead 

their natural lives with minimum interference by humans.59 

Each park with a signifi cant bear population 

was directed to review its management plans and 

revise them to “fully achieve” these system-wide 

bear management objectives.60 In response, the 

general superintendent for Alaska, Ernest J. Borgman, based at the newly created Alaska Field 

Offi ce in Anchorage, reexamined some of the 

measures recommended by Dean and Blinn.61 He 

endorsed Blinn’s opposition to the use of fences 

to separate bears from humans and reasserted the 

need for better education. 

In 1971 NPS planners, infl uenced greatly 

by Dean’s 1968 recommendations, developed 

a “Master Plan for Katmai National Monument, Alaska.”62 Blinn implemented the plan 

by directing rangers to start giving on-thebeach briefi ngs to each new arrival disembarking from an airplane. Th is early bear orientation came to be known as “the beach speech,” 

and although its content has been modifi ed 

over the decades, the speech continues to 

welcome visitors to Brooks Camp. Rangers 

also began distributing to visitors a newly-designed bear safety brochure.63 Both the brochure and the beach talks provided specifi c 

guidelines for personal safety and advice for 

the park’s various visitor groups. In addition, 

anglers were informed that they should not 

yield fi sh to bears, and campers were asked to 

keep their camps clean and to store food in 

an elevated cache. Campers were also advised 

that they needed to place their trash in plastic bags which they could then turn in at the 

ranger station for disposal. Th e concessioner, 

however, was begrudging in its response to 

Blinn’s rules, and the NPS had to prod the 

company into compliance. 

Keeping Camp Clean 

and the Mauling of Richard Jensen

In 1971, Borgman reasserted the need 

to relocate “offending bears,” but he acA seasonal park ranger poses in front 

of the new park sign in August 1968. 

“Brooks River Station.” KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
78 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

knowledged that the practice was not without serious flaws.64 Borgman concluded that 

only a more aggressive approach to garbage 

disposal and to problem bears was effective:

Once a totally clean camp and campground are established, should a bear 

continually enter it [Brooks Camp] 

and become a nuisance, it is suggested 

that no attempt at transport to another area be made unless it is a transport 

of a bear carcass.65

Despite these precautions, the camp was 

invaded on a nightly basis by fi ft een to twenty 

hungry and determined bears in autumn 1972. 

Th e bears caused over $21,000 in property 

damage, and they even dug up and damaged 

the camp’s sewer pipes in their search for 

food.66 Th e same bears caused costly destruction over a period of at least three months at 

the USFWS fi eld camp at Brooks Lake.67 In 

a letter sent to the Alaska Support Offi ce in 

Anchorage, NPS ranger Steve Buskirk described the inhabitants of Brooks Camp as 

“terror-struck” and reported that aft er a period 

of “constant fear” and “sleepless nights,” concession employees urged NPS employees to kill 

the off ending bears.68

Rangers responded to the intrusion by 

laying down “bear mats,” consisting of spikes 

driven through plywood panels, in front of the 

doors and windows of the two cottages which 

received repeated bear attacks. Th e mats appeared to work, for a ranger report noted that 

“the cottages were intact,” and the only evidence of bear activity was “bloody foot prints 

near some of the bear mats.”69 Observers later 

attributed the problem, in part, to a poor salmon run, and the event served to remind NPS 

offi cials that the actions of the bears in 1973 

were only perceived to be aggressive. Katmai’s 

bears base their very survival on their ability to 

eat calorie-rich foods in large quantities during 

the short summer months, a situation that did 

not occur with the low fi sh returns.

Nevertheless, employee concerns increased 

when, one year aft er the so-called camp invasion: a brown bear attacked a husband and 

wife along the road between the communities 

of Naknek and King Salmon, several miles 

west of the monument boundaries. Th e bear 

was a sow with a cub, and both animals were 

rummaging through a garbage can when the 

couple approached. For reasons unknown, the 

mother bear abandoned the garbage can and 

attacked Richard Jensen while his wife ran for 

help.70 Jensen’s wounds required 200 stitches, 

and he remained in critical condition for some 

time.71 Th e mauling alarmed park offi cials 

and focused attention on the possibility that 

park visitors might also fi nd themselves face to 

face with an aggressive bear. Local residents, 

meanwhile, had “screamed for blood” since the 

mauling. Aft er the incident, many residents of 

the communities of Naknek, South Naknek, 

Egegik and Igiugig demanded that the Alaska 

Department of Fish and Game kill some of the 

thirty to forty bears that were frequently seen in 

the vicinity.72 One resident in particular saw no 

diff erence between “a bear charging a fi sherman 

for his fi sh and an Indian tiger developing maneating habits.”73 Whether or not the science 

supported such claims didn’t seem to matter. 

What had become quite clear to all involved: 

Katmai’s bears had a public image problem. 

The Plane Crash at Geographic Harbor 

and Katmai’s “Bear Policy for Developed 

Areas”

Despite its obvious shortcomings, it 

seemed the only solution for dealing with 

what NPS perceived as food-conditioned 

problem bears was to continue anesthetizing 

and transporting them. With the assistance 

of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 

two “rogue bear cubs” were removed in 1972 

from Brooks Camp to an area outside the 

monument. Th e so-called transport solution 

was fi nally ended when, the following year, a 

chartered fl oat plane carrying a sedated bear to 

Geographic Harbor crash landed and sank in 

Geographic Harbor, in Amalik Bay on the Katmai Coast. Th e human passengers were able to 

climb out of the plane’s fuselage, but the bear 

was trapped inside and drowned.74

After the Geographic Harbor incident, 

NPS managers began to focus more heavily on education and prevention to solve 

the problem of food-conditioned bears. In 

1973, Katmai officials issued a memorandum entitled “Bear Policy for Developed 

Areas,” and for the first time articulated 

the park’s philosophy regarding bears and 

protocols for dealing with bear-human interactions. Specifically, food and garbage 

were identified as a major problem source, 

but also underscored was Dean’s guidelines 

for separating bears from areas inhabited 

by people.75 The document expressed the 
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 79

view that bears were a necessary and desirable part of the Katmai ecosystem and that 

visitors to the monument should be able 

to view bears in their natural environment. 

The bulk of the document outlined six 

guidelines designed to minimize conflicts 

between the two species:

1. All employees and visitors will be 

met on arrival and warned of the presence of bears. Specifi c instructions on 

avoiding bear encounters will be given, 

and people will be cautioned against 

providing food or fi sh for bears. ...

2. No human food or garbage will be 

available to bears in developed areas, 

campgrounds, or landfi lls ...

3. Bears will [be] kept out of developed areas to the extent possible 

through harassment, yelling, throwing 

rocks and other means in order to establish ‘people territory’...

4. Bears disturbing burn barrels, 

buildings, tents or sewer systems 

will be forcefully and immediately 

harassed by the use of shotguns, fi recrackers, slingshots or other means as 

appropriate to the situation....

5. Bears showing no fear or respect 

for people will be tranquilized and 

removed to other areas....

6. Bears showing unprovoked aggression towards people will be destroyed...76

Th e six-point plan appears to be the fi rst 

comprehensive attempt made by Katmai offi cials to manage both human behavior and 

bear behavior while emphasizing education as 

an essential element of bear safety. Th is plan, 

combined with the guidelines established in 

the 1971 Master Plan, refl ected Blinn’s views 

towards bears and infl uenced the way NPS 

attempted to manage the animals throughout the decade. Blinn’s message was simple, 

but serious—rangers were instructed to tell 

visitors that their safety and the well-being 

of the bears depended on following these 

guidelines—and if they did not, then specifi c 

actions would be taken.77 

Hazing Techniques Developed

To keep bears out of the places inhabited 

by people, “Bear Policy for Developed Areas” 

described “hazing” tactics designed to push 

bears out of developed or “human” areas. Th e 

practice of hazing bears, in its simplest form, 

traditionally involved little more than hand 

clapping or whistling or perhaps tossing a rock 

in the direction of a bear that was reluctant to 

retreat from an encounter with a person. Th e 

fi rst record of aversively conditioning bears 

with birdshot occurred in 1973.78 As bears 

adapted, NPS personnel at Brooks River began 

to develop more advanced tools for driving 

away bears.79

In an eff ort to deal with food-conditioned 

bears, supervisory park ranger Steve Buskirk 

began experimenting with what would become 

a new and powerful form of hazing. Buskirk 

replaced the lead shot in 12-gauge shotgun 

shells with rock salt and used the salt-loaded 

shells to “pepper” a sow and its one-year-old 

cub aft er they had visited Brooks Camp trash 

cans on a regular basis. Bears were hazed 

for acquiring trash and entering camp.80 In 

Buskirk’s opinion, peppering bears that were 

exhibiting bad behavior (getting into trash) 

was successful but, peppering bears for entering 

camp was not successful because, to the bear, 

the adverse conditioning was not obviously 

linked to a specifi c act.81 

Nevertheless, to ensure that rangers could 

respond quickly and safely to a bear in camp, 

one rifl e, one shotgun, and one tranquilizer 

gun were kept in a locked cabinet at the Brooks 

Camp Ranger Station, and both the permanent 

park ranger and the seasonal park ranger could 

store a shotgun in their sleeping quarters for 

“peppering” and for emergency purposes.82 

Wildlife Science Resumes: 1974-1979

Aft er a fi ve year lull, bear research at 

Brooks Camp resumed in the spring of 1974. 

Th at summer, USFWS biologist Will Troyer 

conducted an aerial survey of bear denning sites 

and aerial monitoring of bear activities along 

salmon streams in southwest Alaska. Troyer’s 

surveys confi rmed that an increasing number 

of bears were returning to the Brooks River, 

especially in the fall.83 Troyer’s aerial counts 

in 1974, and his ground counts from 1976 to 

1978, estimated bear numbers along the Brooks 

River corridor at only six to eight in the summer 

and between eight and twenty-four in the fall. 

By the early 1980s, those numbers increased to 
80 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

twenty to twenty-one bears in the summer and 

eighteen to twenty-four in the fall.84

John and Frank Craighead, who had pioneered the fi eld of radio telemetry between 

1958 and 1971, were also associated with scientifi c endeavors in Katmai. Over the years, 

the Craighead brothers had identifi ed individual bears and tracked their numbers, movements, and lifeways in Yellowstone National 

Park, and in 1979, the biologists visited Brooks 

Camp in order to observe and off er advice to 

staff about bear management there.85 NPS 

hired Troyer to study the distribution of Katmai’s bear population between 1975 and 1979 

using similar research techniques. Central to 

that eff ort was the capturing, tranquilizing, 

and radio-collaring of several Brooks Camp 

bears. According to Troyer, “Processing a 

bear involved measuring and weighing, taking 

blood and hair samples, extracting a residual 

premolar tooth for purposes of determining 

the animal’s age, inserting ear tags, and applying a radio collar.”86

During the mid-1970s, which saw the 

death of several bears from drug overdoses, 

politically infl uential environmentalists started 

to question what they perceived to be disturbing research methods conducted on bears by 

NPS. One witness to the tranquilizing and 

tagging of four bears at Brooks Camp in the 

1970s described the scene as a “carnival” and 

called Troyer’s research an “arrogant scientifi c 

ritual.”87 Although aerial surveys and collaring came to an end at Brooks Camp by the late 

1970s, Troyer defended the science. He pointed out in his book, Into Brown Bear Country,

that “By tracking the animals with radio collars 

we were able to glean much more information 

on movements and other life history data.”88 

“Science versus Scenery”

Th e easily visible tranquilizing and tagging process at Brooks Camp highlighted the 

more vexing issue of “science versus scenery,” 

in which wilderness enthusiasts argued that 

“something was lost” when viewing tagged or 

collared grizzly bears in the wild.89 Th at “something” was what nature enthusiasts described 

as a wilderness experience. In 1968, Adolph 

Murie had expressed negative views on what he 

called “gadgetry” in national parks and wilderness areas. Reiterating tenets of the infl uential 

fi ve-year-old Leopold Report, environmentalists, and even some rangers, felt that collared 

bears contradicted the mandate to preserve 

primitive America. 

In 1963, just as Mission 66—the apex of 

a half-century of recreation tourism management—was approaching conclusion, experts 

from outside the agency published a landmark 

document called the Leopold Report, which 

stressed the preservation of ecological integrity 

in parks.90 In the heated climate of activist 

environmentalism, outside groups with enormous political clout directly infl uenced a shift 

in the NPS management philosophy. Th e new 

NPS Biologist Will Troyer sits near a 

typical bear den discovered during 

a survey of the Katmai area. Troyer 

later recalled that most of bear dens 

were located on Dumpling Mountain. 

Alaska Task Force, KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 81

philosophy, which was based upon the broadranging conclusions of the Leopold Report, 

emphasized that the purpose of NPS management should be to make each national park 

“represent a vignette of primitive America.”91 

Th e goal, then, was to manage a natural area 

like Brooks Camp so that it could “be maintained ... as nearly as possible in the condition 

that prevailed when the area was fi rst visited by 

the white men.”92

In Katmai, management practices were 

increasingly moving towards the policy of “natural regulation”—a policy that also spoke more 

to environmentalists’ concerns. Underscoring 

such policies was the publication of a second 

infl uential report conducted by the National 

Academy of Sciences in 1963, known as the 

Robbins Report, which argued that instead of 

just “looking natural,” park wildlife management should be natural.93 Th e Robbins Report 

recommended that park research should not 

focus on single species management, but rather 

on the preservation of the “total environment.” 

It also suggested a “hands-off ” approach to 

wildlife management, thus, establishing the 

NPS policy of allowing wildlife populations to 

regulate themselves. 

Following the Robbins Report recommendations, Katmai’s Final General Management 

Plan and Environmental Statement, published 

in 1974 to comply with on-going park development, defi ned several purposes of the proposed 

national park, the second of which was: “To 

provide visitors with opportunities for wilderness-related experiences and to assure that 

developments and visitor use of the area do not 

interfere with the major objective of the park—

the preservation of a naturally perpetuated 

Alaska brown bear population.”94 It was within 

this climate that park management decided to 

end the practice of relocating “problem bears” 

out of Brooks Camp and what environmentalists perceived as invasively studying them. 

Archeologists Study the Brooks River’s 

Cultural Past and Clash with Brooks Camp’s 

Vision for the Future, 1974-1975

While the University of Oregon archeologists continued to pursue knowledge of the 

river’s ancient past, Brooks Camp’s modern 

footprint continued to grow in order to serve 

contemporary visitors. Unlike the early sport 

fi shermen who enjoyed the rustic nature of the 

camp, this new category of visitor—the wildlife 

seeker—wanted to see nature, but also wanted 

modern conveniences such as running water 

and indoor plumbing.95 To meet such visitor 

needs, NPS had a utility system installed at 

Brooks Camp in 1974 and 1975. Th e contract 

called for underground fuel tanks, water lines, 

An interpretive ranger leads a group 

of well-dressed visitors down the 

Brooks Falls Trail in August 1972. 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
82 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

and sewer lines across much of the camp. 

At the same time, Don Dumond, who was 

working in Naknek in 1974, strongly criticized 

regional NPS offi cials for neglecting the monument’s cultural resources. In order to mitigate 

some of the construction impacts, the agency 

began to employ archeologists for compliance purposes. Th e fi eld offi ce in Anchorage, 

therefore, responded by agreeing to hire one 

of Dumond’s crew members, Harvey Shields, 

for the utility installation. While at Brooks, 

Shields discovered a subterranean house site 

located on the site for the new dining room at 

the lodge. While working on the house site, he 

also unearthed a number of artifacts and three 

graves. Although two NPS employees were 

sent to Brooks Camp to help him, ultimately, 

Shields found it impossible to keep up with 

the pace of development. As a result, Dumond 

reported to NPS that “at least eight aboriginal 

houses and at least two burials were seriously 

disrupted.” 96 Th e acting director explained 

to Dumond that the agency was still in the 

process of creating a construction proposal 

monitoring system and hoped that the newlyestablished system would prevent a recurrence 

of the Brooks Camp diffi culties.97 But as 

Dumond stressed in his letter, the irreparable 

damage to the resource had already been done. 

Still, the incident made NPS offi cials realize 

the signifi cance of cultural resources along the 

Brooks River. 

A Clear Need for a Bear Management Plan

By the mid-1970s NPS had taken major 

steps to eliminate food-related problems at 

Brooks Camp. To keep up with the 100 visitors per day who were passing through camp 

by 1976, NPS built a new sewage system and 

installed garbage disposals in the lodge kitchen 

and in all NPS quarters. NPS built a new fi sh 

cleaning shed in 1974, which, unlike the pre1970s shed, did not serve as a bear attractant 

or food source.98 To avoid having to transport 

fi sh entrails to the dump, anglers were asked 

to fl ush their fi sh scraps from the fi sh cleaning 

building into the new sewage system. 

By 1979 the garbage burn barrels were 

abandoned and NPS began using a trash 

compactor to crush trash so it could be stored 

in sacks inside the double-walled compactor 

building before being transported by barge 

to Lake Camp and by truck to a landfi ll near 

Naknek.99 In 1982, NPS constructed a second 

food cache at the campground for gear and 

food.100

Although NPS was making signifi cant 

steps to control the waste problem at Brooks 

Camp, fi shing camps nearby continued to suffer property damage from bears attracted by 

food and garbage. Confl icts between humans 

and bears in 1980 resulted in one bear being 

killed by a camper in a location that had only 

recently been placed under NPS administration, and a second by a private property inholder near Lake Camp at the western end of 

Naknek Lake.101 Visitation to Brooks Camp 

continued to rise aft er the passage of the 

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation 

Act (ANILCA) in 1980. In 1981, the park’s 

concessioner reported 5,694 overnight stays at 

Brooks Camp alone, and the park recorded a 

tenfold increase in backcountry use from 166 

visitors in 1973 to 1700 in 1982.102 Use of the 

campground at Brooks Camp had increased 

from 168 campers during the 1970 season to 

847 in 1981.103 Moreover, the 1980s saw an expansion of the fi shing lodge industry, sparked 

by resurgence in the popularity of fl y-fi shing. 

But as more people and bears began to interact 

along the Brooks River than ever before, the new 

Katmai National Park and Preserve still lacked a 

comprehensive bear management plan.104

A maintenance worker on exposed 

underground tank. KATM Photo 

Archive (Acc. #399), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 83

ENDNOTES

1

 Kuehl, “Report, 1945.”

2

 Robert S. Luntey, “Katmai Project, Interim Report, Katmai National Monument Alaska,” 

National Park Service, (March, 1954): 9.

3

 Luntey, 9.

4

 Don E. Dumond, Story of a House, (National Park Service, 2008), 6. 5

 Wilbur Davis and James W. Leach, “Archeological Investigations of Inland and Coastal 

Sites of the Katmai National Monument, Alaska,” march 4, 1954, in AKSO-RCR fi les; Wendell 

Oswalt, “Prehistoric Sea Mammals Hunters at Kafl ia, Alaska,” Anthropological Papers of the 

University of Alaska 4 (December, 1955); Frank B. Norris, Isolated Paradise, 333-334. 6

 Theodore Merrill, interviewed by Katherine Ringsmuth, March 2010.

7

 Dumond, Story of a House, 8. 8

 Ibid., 11.

9

 Ibid., 13-15.

10 Legal documents spell the fi rst name of the matriarch of the Melgenak’s family as 

“Palakia,” however, family member Mary Jane Nielsen, who wrote The Pelagia Melgenak 

Story for her MA thesis, uses a different spelling, “Pelagia”. 11 “Salmon Survival Investigations, Red Salmon Studies at Brooks Lake, Operation Plan May 

1- Sept 30 1957,” Fish and Wildlife Service, Administration of Alaska Commercial Fisheries. 

(1957). 

12 Ibid.

13 T. Merrell, “Salmon Survival Investigations, Field Operations Report, 1957,” Bureau of 

Commercial Fisheries, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, (1957): 1.

14 Merrell, 2-3

15 Ibid.

16 “Brooks Lake Red Salmon Reports,” Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, (April 1962): 133, 137-

139. 

17 “Salmon Survival Investigations, Field Operations Report, Red Salmon Studies, Brooks Lake, 

1957,” Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (1957): 23.

18 “Salmon Survival Investigations,” (1957): 14, 24, 25.

19 Letter to National Park Service, from George Eicher, September 1, 1989. 

20 George Eicher, interviewed by Bill Hanable, September 1989.

21 Theodore R. Merrell, “Proposal and Justifi cation for Construction of Family Housing at 

Brooks and A Laboratory at Karluk Lake” July 1958. 

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Peter Hartman, correspondence with Dale Vinson, 4-6-2010.

25 George Eicher, “Factors Infl uencing the Return of Red Salmon to the Naknek-Kvichak and 

Other Fisheries of Bristol Bay, Alaska” (U.S. F&WS, 1963): 87-88.

26 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 285. 27 Ibid; Gil Blinn, interview by William S. Hanable, 8-26-1988. 

28 Letter, to George A. Hall, MMNP Superintendent, from Harry Rietze, BCF Regional Director, 

November 15, 1967; Letter, To Harry L. Rietze, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, from John 

Ritter, NPS Regional Director, Northwest Region, March 9, 1970. 

29 “Naknek System Sockeye Salmon Studies, Annual Project Progress Report, 1971,” National 

Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA (1972).

30 Ron Squibb in “Bear Use of the Brooks River” cites that from 1965-81 four bears were 

destroyed and eighteen relocated; Terry DeBruyn, however, reports in 1999 that seven bears 

were destroyed and eighteen relocated. (see Bear/Human Interactions Over Time and the 

Overall Implications to Management of the Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, (1999.) 31 Letter, To NPS Director and NPS Regional Director, Western Region, from Richard G. Prasil, 

Research Biologist Alaska Field Offi ce, August 16, 1967. 32 Dean, 1.

33 Letter, To NPS Director and NPS Regional Director, Western Region, from Prasil, August 16, 

1967.

34 Dean, 25.

35 Dean, 11-14.

36 Ibid., 32.

37 Ibid., 22.

38 Dean, 2.

39 Ibid., 22.

40 Ibid., 14.

41 Ibid., 29.
84 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

42 Ibid., 31.

43 Dean, 31.

44 Dean was referring to an article that appeared in Sports Illustrated on October 30, 1967 

by Emmett Watson entitled, “Menace In Our Northern Parks,” which began: “One night last 

August two girls, camped 10 miles apart, were killed by grizzles. Can it happen again? The 

answer is a nervous ‘yes.’” Dean, 27.

45 Dean, 29.

46 Dean, 8, 29, 32-33.

47 “Flying Bear is Moved to Big Mountain,” Anchorage Daily Times, August 29, 1968, 21. 48 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 320-321. 49 Richard Prasil, “Report on Bear Activity,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, summer 1968, 1.

50 Quoted in Norris, Isolated, 316. 51 Letter, To Regional Director, Western Regional Offi ce, from Superintendent of Mt. McKinley 

National Monument and Katmai National Monument, September 27, 1968; see also, Norris, 

Isolated Paradise, 317. 52 Letter, To Regional Director of Western Regional Offi ce, from Superintendent of Mt. McKinley 

National Monument and Katmai National Monument, “Annual Bear Report,” January 17, 1969; 

see also Norris, Isolated Paradise, 317. 53 Ibid.

54 From 1921-1971 Katmai was administered by outside units, primarily Mount McKinley 

National Park.

55 Letter, To Superintendent, Anchorage Field Offi ce from Katmai National Monument 

Management Assistant, October 30, 1969.

56 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 320. NPS later built a hard-walled fi sh-cleaning shed to replace 

the open, screened version destroyed by bears. 

57 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 145. 58 Letter, To District Director, Northwest Region General, from Superintendent, Alaska Cluster 

Offi ce, November 7, 1969. 59 Ibid.

60 Letter, To Regional Directors, from NPS Assistant Director, January 7, 1970.

61 Anchorage (or Alaska) Field Offi ce, established July 1965, changed July 1, 1969 to Alaska 

Group Offi ce. In anticipation of enlargement of Alaska park areas, the name changed to 

Alaska State Offi ce on 5/28/1972 and to Alaska Area Offi ce on 11/9/1975. The Area Offi ce 

was abolished when the Alaska Region was authorized 12/2/1980 along with passage of the 

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. 

62 “A Master Plan: Katmai National Monument, Alaska,” Alaska Planning Group, National 

Park Service, 1971, 14.

63 Letter, To Dick Prasil from Gilbert Blinn, September 9, 1971; see also Norris, Isolated Paradise, 

322.

64 Letter, To Mrs. Paul V. Shell, from Ernest J. Borgman, General Superintendent of Alaska Areas 

Group, June 30, 1971. 

65 Letter, To Regional Director, Northwest Regional Offi ce, from General Superintendent, Alaska 

Cluster Offi ce, January 29, 1970; see also Borgman to Shell, June 30, 1971. 66 Letter, Park Ranger, Mt. McKinley National Monument, to State Director, Alaska, November 

11, 1972; see also Superintendent’s Annual Report, Alaska Regional Offi ce, 1972, 2. 67 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Report of Depredation of Property of the National Marine 

Fisheries Service by Bears in Katmai National Monument, Alaska,” 1973, n.p.

68 Letter, To Dick Prasil, Resource Management Specialist/Biologist, from Steve Buskirk, Park 

Ranger, Katmai, Alaska State Offi ce, August 1, 1973. 69 Ibid.

70 “Grizzly Bears: Human Injuries and Aggressive Encounters,” National Park Service, July 21, 

1973. 

71 Ibid.

72 Letter, To Dick Prasil Resource Management Specialist/Biologist, from Steve Buskirk, Park 

Ranger, Katmai, Alaska State Offi ce, August 1, 1973. 73 Ibid.

74 Letter, To Superintendent, from Katmai Park Ranger, “Subject: Airplane Accident, July 27, 

1973, Geographic Harbor,” August 8, 1973; see also, Letter, To Superintendent, from Katmai 

Park Ranger, “Subject: Bear Relocation,” August 9, 1973.

75 “Katmai National Monument Bear Policy for Developed Areas,” Katmai National 

Monument, 1973. 

76 Ibid.

77 Letter, To Robert Riggs, from Bruce Kaye, February 12, 1980.

78 R. Squibb, “Historic Summary of Bear Management at Brooks Camp,” n.d.
 Chapter Four: The Scientifi c Era Begins 85

79 Kellie N. Pierce and Terry D. DeBruyn, “A Summary of Bear/Human Interactions during 1999 

and Recommendations for Future Management of the Brooks River Area, Katmai National 

Park and Preserve,” Bear Management and Monitoring Technical Report NPS/KATM/99-002, 

(1999): 8-9. 

80 “Bear Management at Brooks Camp,” Katmai National Monument, November 29, 1976. 

81 Letter, To Dick Prasil, Alaska State Offi ce, from Ranger Steve Buskirk, Katmai, September 18, 

1973.

82 Letter, To Area Director, from Gilbert E. Glinn, Katmai Superintendent, Alaska, December 6, 

1976. 

82 See Troyer’s studies. “Movement and Dispersal of brown Bear at Brooks River, AK, March 

1980; Memorandum from Troyer: “Brown Bear Population Brooks River –fall 1980.”

84 Terry D. DeBruyn “A Review of Bear/Human Interactions over Time and the Overall 

Implications to Management of the Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park and Preserve,” 

Katmai National Park and Preserve Bear Management and Monitoring Technical Report 

NPS/KATM/99-004, (1999): 5.

85 David Morris, “Superintendent Annual Report, 1980”, 5. For more on the Craigheads see 

Do (Not) Feed the Bears, Chapter 4 Science Versus Scenery: The Wilderness Bear, 86-112. 86 William Troyer, Into Brown Bear Country, (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2005), 97. 87 Dave Bohn, Rambles Through an Alaskan Wild: Katmai and the Valley of the Smokes

(Capra Press; 1979), 59.

88 Troyer, 97.

89 Ibid, 59.

90 Richard West Sellers, Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven: Yale 

University Press, 1997), 207.

91 Offi cially called “Wildlife Management in the National Parks,” the Leopold Report was 

authored by A. Starker Leopold, and was meant as a collection of recommendations for 

Secretary Udall’s Advisory Board on Wildlife Management. March 4, 1963. 

92 Wildlife Management in the National Parks: The Leopold Report Advisory Board on Wildlife 

Management appointed by Secretary of the Interior Udall A.S. Leopold (Chairman), S.A. 

Cain, C.M. Cottam, I.N. Gabrielson, T.L. Kimball. March 4, 1963.

93 National Academy of Sciences, “A Report by the Advisory Committee,” Department of 

Interior, 1963. 

94 NPS, General Management Plan and Final Environmental Statement, 1974, 2. 95 Norris makes this point in Chapter 3 of Tourism in Katmai Country. 96 To John Ritter, from Don Dumond, August 12, 1974, in KNM Box 1; To John Ritter from Don 

Dumond, June 9, 1975; To Don Dumond, from Edward J Kurtz, July 16, 1975; both in KNM, 

1975-present” both in WASO History Division. 

97 Ibid.

98 Norris, Tourism, 69 99 Letter, To Robert A. Riggs, from Bruce M. Kaye, Park Ranger, Redwoods National Park 

Wildlife Biologist, February 12, 1980.

100 “Superintendent’s Annual Report, 1982.” 101 “Resources Management Plan [Draft],” Katmai National Park and Preserve, April 15, 1982, 26. 102 “Resources Management Plan [Draft],” 25. (It should be noted that these numbers are 

very diffi cult to determine, as Katmai has no primary park entry. This means that the park 

must rely on commercial operators and other less exact means to gather visitor numbers).

103 NPS, “Statement for Management [Draft],” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1982, 5. 

See Appendix D.

104 William Troyer, “Movements, Behavior and Population Characteristics of Brown Bear at 

Brooks River,” n.d., 1; Letter, To Robert A. Riggs, from Bruce M. Kaye, Park Ranger, Redwoods 

National Park Wildlife Biologist, February 12, 1980.
86 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

An angler follows the old trail back 

to Brooks Camp with the catch of the 

day. The National Park Service would 

later require that fi shers place fi sh in a 

plastic bag in order to diminish odors 

that might attract bears. Photo by Frank 

Whaley. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.

An angler follows the old trail back 

to Brooks Camp with the catch of the 

day. The National Park Service would 

later require that fi shers place fi sh in a 

plastic bag in order to diminish odors 

that might attract bears. Photo by Frank 

Whaley. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.

An angler followsthe old trail back

to Brooks Camp with thecatch ofthe

day. The National ParkService would

later require t hat fishersplace fish in a

plastic bag inorder to diminish odors

that m ight attract bears.PhotobyFrank

Whaley. Courtesy ofSonnyPetersen and

Katmailand, Inc.

An angler follows the old trail back 

to Brooks Camp with the catch of the 

day. The National Park Service would 

later require that fi shers place fi sh in a 

plastic bag in order to diminish odors 

that might attract bears. Photo by Frank 

Whaley. Courtesy of Sonny Petersen and 

Katmailand, Inc.
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 87

Brooks River—short, narrow, and 

shallow—connects Brooks and Naknek Lake. 

Although it is a relatively small stream, through 

it fl ows a mighty migration of salmon en route 

to their spawning grounds. Historically, two 

species of mammals, bears and humans, have 

found the natural features of the Brooks River 

highly attractive. Th e nature of the stream 

creates vulnerability of the fi sh to harvest by 

claw and tooth or by the various tools humans 

have contrived over thousands of years. 

In the past, the two groups of harvesters 

had a similar utilitarian purpose: to eat 

and be nourished. In the latter half of the 

twentieth century, however, people found 

other justifi cations for fi shing in the Brooks 

River. In ecological terms the anglers were 

removed from competition for the fi sh while 

maintaining competition for space on the 

river.1

 Angling was the impetus for the creation 

of Brooks Camp in 1950 and for decades 

provided the motive attracting most visitors. 

As Enos Bradner of the Seattle Times wrote in 

1952, “Th e wildlife is here—hundreds of big 

brown bears and moose in every grass-fi lled 

fl at. ... But the lure that sets this district above 

all others is the fi shing.”2

 Yet today, anglers tend to see themselves 

outnumbered not only by bear viewers but 

oft en by the bears themselves. Th ose who 

remember the trouble-free days fi shing the 

Brooks River in the 1950s and 1960s know 

that far fewer bears roamed the area. Th ey take 

exception to park researchers who have warned 

against the invasion of Brooks River area by 

too many people, anglers and other specialinterest groups. Th ey cite increasing bear 

numbers at Brooks Camp in the last half of 

the twentieth century and pose the question: 

how is it possible that people are threatening 

Chapter Five:

Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers

Because I am a fi sherman and have spent many years fi shing the bear-infested streams 

of Alaska and northern Canada, I don’t think that fi shermen are perceived to be 

much of a threat by bears.

 ~Bo Bennett, Katmailand, Inc. Fishing Guide

 Rod and Wings: 

 A History of the Fishing Lodge Business in Bristol Bay, Alaska

bears on the Brooks River?3 But since the 

hiring of Kathy Jope, Katmai’s fi rst natural 

resource specialist, researchers and managers 

have shown over the decades that angling is a 

problematic issue for Brooks Camp in at least 

three ways: bear-human competition, visitor 

safety, and bear habituation.

Inherent Problems

 Th e wealth of archaeological and historical 

evidence at Brooks Camp makes it clear that 

humans found the site useful for fi sh harvesting, 

making people direct competitors with bears 

for the resource. Alaska’s Regional cultural 

resource team leader Ted Birkedal has argued 

persuasively that in the past, people would have 

ensured a hostile reception for any bears who 

ventured to act as competitors. “Viewed as 

sources of food and other subsistence products, 

potential competitors for fi sh, and as dangerous 

nuisances,” writes Birkedal, “bears would 

probably have been unwelcomed visitors during 

the long span of Native use and settlement of the 

Brooks River locality.” 4

By the mid-1960s, bear use of the Brooks 

River area appeared to be increasing, perhaps 

due in part to the lack of hunting in this area, 

coupled with lax storage of garbage and food. 

Bears and anglers were sharing the same parts 

of the river by the early 1970s. And although 

they target diff erent prey—anglers tend to 

catch trout and bears salmon—both fi shers 

arrived at Brooks Camp in early summer and 

continued to increase their numbers by late 

fall. Encounters between these two groups 

have since become common. 

Th e inherent danger of anglers sharing 

the river corridor with bears was underscored 

by an event that occurred on July 11, 1970. 

A concessioner fi shing guide named Craig 
88 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 89

“Spearing our supper,” shows Robert Griggs and his party spearing a fi sh at the Brooks Falls in 1919. After a day 

of fi shing, Robert Griggs declared the river an “angler’s paradise.” Ray Petersen would later take the name for his 

collection of fi ve sport fi shing camps in Katmai National Park. National Geographic Society. Katmai Expeditions. 

Photographs, 1913-1919. University of Alaska Anchorage. Consortium Library. Archives & Special Collections UAAHMC-0186-volume 8-6697.
90 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Otto and several fi shermen witnessed a fi ght 

between two brown bears at the Brooks Falls. 

Otto reported that “a large bear pounced upon 

a small bear, ripped its stomach open and killed 

it.” Apparently, the large bear was not provoked, 

and the violent nature of the attack sent shock 

waves throughout Brooks Camp. According to 

Otto, “people on the river feared for their lives.”5

 

Th e incident resulted in a river closure, two dead 

bears, and the idea that a “maverick” bear—a 

bear that visited the river corridor infrequently 

and, therefore, had not developed a high level 

of toleration for another in its personal space—

could be a danger to people. 

Although the visitor safety record at 

Brooks River is good, angling represents a 

more risky activity by visitors because anglers 

take for granted that an encroaching bear 

will tolerate their presence. If anglers risk 

an encounter with a bear unaccustomed to 

people, then a chance exists that the bear 

will be less predictable. Conversely, in only a 

couple of weeks of interacting with people, a 

bear can learn that people are nonthreatening 

and can become too comfortable, even bold 

or intimidating around anglers. Th us, the 

precariousness of angling is due in large part to 

spatial proximity, among other factors. 

One factor is the all-absorbing nature of 

fi shing and the ease with which concentration 

on the activity inhibits personal wariness. If 

a fi sh is hooked, the angler’s attention is even 

more focused, with the potential for a bear in 

motion to approach within critical distance 

without the angler being aware of it. Th en 

the splashing of the hooked fi sh and the 

accompanying sound of the reel are known to 

be attractors to nearby bears who have learned 

to correlate those sounds with the likelihood of 

a beached or wearied fi sh.6

 For angling veterans 

of the area, the frequency of encounters and 

the virtual absence of bear attacks on anglers 

can lead to cavalier attitudes toward them. 

Nevertheless, logic leads to the conclusion that 

anglers in unrestricted numbers on Brooks River 

must increase the likelihood of visitor harm. 

Visitors arrive at Brooks Camp on 

NCA’s amphibious plane in 1966. 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 91

Another inherent aspect of angling is 

bear habituation. When people and other 

mammals share space, especially if competing 

over a signifi cant food resource, the two species 

learn one another’s habits and tendencies. 

Angling at Brooks River may be a safe activity 

because the bears have learned some lessons 

about humans: that people won’t harm them, 

and that people will likely yield if challenged. 

Some people even claim that a result of the 

long interactions between humans and bears in 

Katmai country has resulted in tolerant bears 

living while aggressive ones have been killed, 

ensuring that tolerance to humans, insofar 

as that might be genetic, has been a factor in 

natural selection.7

Perhaps a better explanation for the 

coexistence between the two species is that 

bears tolerate anglers because they have, 

generally speaking, learned to tolerate each 

other.8

 Bears at Brooks, as with other places 

where a food source is concentrated, develop a 

hierarchal fi shing order, in which they compete 

with each other for prime fi shing locations 

on the river. Th e larger dominant males hold 

the best fi shing spots until they are satiated; 

subadults and sows with cubs tend to fi sh 

where (and when) there are fewer older bears, 

which is typically less productive feeding 

habitat and can oft en be near people. When 

food is scarce or environmental factors make 

fi shing diffi cult, tension among the bears can 

run high. But with an abundance of salmon 

attracting crowds, individual bears at Brooks 

have to share space in order to gain access to 

the fi sh in the river. Likewise, bears that share 

space with people gain an advantage too—

because they gain access to more fi sh than if 

they remained averse to people.9

 Bears that 

have learned to share space with people are 

considered habituated. Bears habituating to 

their proximity with other bears is not in itself 

the sole reason bears tolerate anglers, but some 

bears that are exposed to innocuous activity of 

anglers may in fact habituate to their presence.

Th e issue here pertains to national park 

goals: what should Katmai managers be 

encouraging on the river to both preserve its 

natural resources and provide the enjoyment of 

outdoor recreation for future generations? 

The Lure of the Trophy Rainbow: Angling as a 

Deep-rooted Visitor Activity in National Parks

Angling has been part of the national 

park experience from the beginning, yet NPS 

system-wide policies are not static. Policies 

change with knowledge gained through 

experience and research, with social mores, 

Journalist and photographer Enos 

Bradner visited Brooks Camp in 1951. 

Alaska Sportsman published his 

photos and article entitled, “Anglers’ 

Eldorado.” Courtesy of Sonny 

Petersen and Katmailand, Inc. 
92 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

By the mid 1950s, newspapers, such as the Seattle Times, printed advertisements featuring Brooks Camp and its ideal sport fi shing.
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 93

with visitor expectations, with changes in 

administration and overall understandings 

of the purposes of national parks. Angling 

is historically and culturally entrenched 

as an outdoor recreation activity. Good 

historical evidence for sport fi shing goes back 

4000 years and was present in the earliest 

American colonies.10

Insofar as angling is not work, nor 

obligatory, and because it provides pleasure, 

it counts as a form of play.11 Catching fi sh, 

though, can also be seen as fundamentally 

distinct from chasing a ball in that it involves 

killing or at least hurting other animals. 

Th us angling is also viewed as an activity 

demonstrating a human dominance over 

nature; perhaps an explanation that would 

also apply to hunting, gardening, horseback 

riding, and sailing—which is to say that 

many leisure activities involve an intersection 

between culture and nature. Th at said, 

many anglers regard the sport as a form of 

nature appreciation. In much the same way 

birdwatchers fi nd satisfaction in learning how 

to fi nd and identify other animals, anglers 

deepen their knowledge of the aquatic world. 

An important aspect of angling culture 

and history which is relevant to understanding 

the role of anglers at Brooks River is the 

codifi cation of self-imposed restraints that 

comes under the rubric of conservation. It 

is diffi cult for some to regard the hook-andbullet sports as anything but destructive.12

Nevertheless, the American conservation 

movement—including, importantly, the 

creation of national parks—was founded, 

fi nanced, and philosophically formulated 

by hunters and anglers in the nineteenth 

century.13 Central to that history was the 

acceptance of harvest limits and self-imposed 

conservation values. Convincing Americans 

to accept those limits was a major campaign 

in the nineteenth century and involved the 

creation of the ‘sportsman’s code,’ which was all 

about moral conduct and self-restraint.14

In order to ensure the sport’s perpetuation, 

therefore, anglers were to take the lead not 

only in the passage of game laws, which 

formalized the code of the sportsman and 

the “contract” between fi sher and fi sh, but 

in seeing to it that fi shermen who broke the 

code and contract were condemned by the 

sport fi shing fraternity. Manifestations of the 

“sportsman’s code” were sportsmen’s clubs and 

associations that championed the guardianship 

and conservation of wildlife throughout North 

America. One of the most important and 

infl uential of these groups was the Boone and 

Anglers look for trout from the 

Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

weir, circa 1960. Courtesy of Sonny 

Petersen and Katmailand, Inc.
94 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Crockett Club, an association of sportsmenconservationists founded by Th eodore 

Roosevelt, and whose well-known member, 

Charles Sheldon, led the campaign for the 

establishment of Mount McKinley National 

Park, in 1917.

Th us, by the turn of the twentieth 

century, American sportsmen had initiated 

a conservation movement composed of 

thousands of devotees across the country. 

Communication of conservation ideology 

spread by publications such as American 

Sportsman (founded 1871), Forest and Stream

(1873), Field and Stream (1874), and American 

Angler (1881), and one of their most popular 

topics concerned stories of fi sh and fi shing. 

Th ese periodicals kept readers informed on 

the most current fi ndings on “natural history” 

and, according to historian John F. Reiger, 

“illustrated a remarkable understanding of 

ecological principles.”15 Increasingly, readers of 

Izaak Walton, George Bird Grinnell, Robert 

Barnwell Roosevelt, and Th addeus Norris 

began to look upon themselves as members of a 

fraternity, in which the words “gentlemen” and 

“sportsmen” had virtually the same meaning.16

To obtain membership in this order of 

true sportsmen, one had to practice proper 

etiquette on the river; to give game fi sh, such 

as salmon and trout, a sporting chance; and 

to possess an aesthetic appreciation of the 

whole environmental context of fi sh and 

fi shing.17 Moreover, true sportsmen upheld 

the philosophy of “fair chase,” which, in terms 

of fi shing, instructed real fi shermen to use 

“frail tackle” to catch game fi sh. Only then, 

according to the code, can a “true sportsman” 

know “superior fi shing.”18

Anglers could insulate themselves from 

criticism of their sports by invoking the many 

successes of the conservation movement. Th e 

most well-known principle in angling arising 

from the conservationists was the development 

of the catch-and-release ethic. No-kill angling 

was touted as the paragon of regard for the 

resource and, like with the earlier concept of 

harvest limits, had to be inculcated amongst 

the angling community, spread by the media 

and, importantly, by the guiding business. Th is 

gathered momentum in Alaska in the 1950s, 

largely led by angling enthusiasts like Ray 

Petersen, who guided anglers to the Katmai 

A wooden bridge used by fi shermen 

spanned upper Brooks River, ca. 1954. 

NPS removed it when the new trail 

to the falls was established on the 

south side of the river. Brooks Camp 

Interpretive Collection, KATM Slide 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 95

region. It was within this context that those 

catch and release anglers who fi shed the Brooks 

River believed that they maintained a diff erent 

set of values towards the resource than those 

fi shermen who used “hardware and bait,” or 

even more egregiously, nets, to catch fi sh.19

When Brooks Camp was established in 

1950, not only was Katmai being managed 

by Mount McKinley National Park personnel 

who understood and upheld Sheldon’s 

sportsman ideal, but many of the anglers using 

the Brooks River were associated with the 

sportsmen culture that inspired McKinley 

National Park.20 With a conservation 

philosophy that not only mirrored, but was 

historically entwined with its own mission 

for Alaska parks, it is understandable that 

NPS offi cials assumed that Ray Petersen and 

his elite angling clientele would aspire to the 

same sportsman code, and thus were willing 

to provide Northern Consolidated Airlines 

a concessions permit for Katmai National 

Monument. 

Expansion of the Lodge Industry 

Sparked by the Popularity of Angling

Aft er centuries of subsistence activity 

and, by the late nineteenth century, industrial 

fi shing and canning, fi shing for sport in the 

1960s had become a major factor driving 

the economy in the Bristol Bay region. By 

the early 1970s it was clear that Ray Petersen 

with his Angler’s Paradise Lodges had 

established a foundation which grew into a 

fl ourishing commercial fi shing lodge business 

operating inside and outside of the park. 

Although Petersen targeted a more diverse 

tourist to Brooks Camp, a new generation of 

entrepreneurial fi shing lodge owners, many 

of whom were trained by Petersen, began to 

provide services that guided individuals and 

hosted guests to a variety of fi shing needs. Th e 

challenge of catching rainbow trout made it 

the fi sh of choice and, based on sport-fi shing 

advertisements from the decade, rainbow 

fi shermen once again were the industry’s target 

audience. Because the Brooks River was one of 

the premier rainbow streams in Alaska, by the 

1980s most Alaska Peninsula lodges were fl ying 

their guests to Brooks River to wet their lines.

Ray Petersen welcomed the competition, 

for he believed that more lodges would 

provide economic stability to the emerging 

new industry and region. To jumpstart the 

industry, Petersen included advertising for two 

new rival fi shing camps in a NCA brochure 

from 1960. “Well, you have to understand 

that I knew these men and their families very 

well...,” explained Petersen, “...I encouraged 

everyone who wanted to try to get into the 

Tourists arrive at King Salmon on 

a Con Air fl ight from Anchorage in 

1968. The Chabot Family Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
96 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

lodge business because I thought my airline 

would benefi t.” Petersen viewed his old 

employees and their new business clients not as 

competitors but as “customers.”21 

Between 1964 and 1968, a record 

32,221 sport fi shermen traveled to Alaska, 

most aspiring to hook rainbows north of 

Nonvianuk Lake. Th e popularity of the 

sport provided a market for the promising 

industry. By 1965, one-time NCA employee 

and King Salmon pilot Edwin Seiler had 

built Enchanted Lake Lodge for anglers, and 

by 1969, another one-time NCA employee, 

Bob Curtis, was running two lodges: Tikchik 

Narrows Lodge and Wood River Lodge, both 

of which were just north of Dillingham. 

John Walatka, one of the great pioneers 

of the fi shing lodge business, mentored the 

next generation of lodge owners in southwest 

Alaska. During the 1970s, Ron Hays started 

the Iliamna River Lodge. Bob Cusack 

transformed an old Tally-scow owned by the 

Alaska Packers Association into a fl oating lodge 

operation on the Alagnak (Branch) River in 

1972. Bill Martin started the Royal Coachman 

Lodge in 1974 and school teacher Jack Holman 

started No See Um Lodge in 1975. 

Like Petersen, the new generation of 

lodge owners advertised their businesses 

in newspapers and a variety of national 

magazines, but they also attracted clients 

enamored by Orvis and Norman Maclean 

at international sporting expositions. Th ese 

expos featured the world’s best outdoor-related 

businesses and touted the Bristol Bay lodges 

with their expert fi shing guides as providing 

access to the some of the world’s best fi shing. 

Such claims attracted 74,699 sport-fi shers 

to Alaska in 1980, and by 1989, 168,098 

sportsmen were coming north to fi sh.22 

Th e decade of the 1980s witnessed the 

establishment of even more fi shing lodges in 

the Katmai area. A consortium of twenty-one 

shareholders who felt that starting a lodge was 

a good investment built the Alaska Wilderness 

Lodge in 1980. Long-time lodge owners Ron 

and Sharon Hays started the Alaska Rainbow 

Lodge 1983. Tony Sarp established Katmai 

Lodge on the Alagnak River in the in the mid1980s and created the opportunity for long-time 

guide and lodge employee, George Van Hartley, 

to start Branch River Air Service in 1983. 

Ancillary to the lodge business was the airtaxi service, which was started by Ray (Sonny) 

Petersen, Jr. with Katmai Air in 1974. Sonny’s 

Cessna 206 was the fi rst fl oat plane used in 

the fi shing lodge business in Bristol Bay, and 

it dominated the charter business out of King 

Salmon for nearly a decade.23 Like Sonny 

Petersen’s Katmai Air, Inc., which primarily 

served Katmai’s lake country, Branch River Air 

Service shuttled supplies and guests to lodges 

located on the Alagnak River. 

Aft er selling the barge on the Alagnak 

River, Mike Cusack started his King Salmon 

Lodge in 1985, which has since hosted some 

An angler fi shes from the boat dock 

at Brooks Camp, circa 1970s. From the 

Brooks Camp Interpretive Collection, 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 97

of the nation’s most famous personalities, from 

Bob Hope to the 1991 Gulf War General 

Norman Schwarzkopf. As a result, Cusack, 

as well as the other Bristol Bay lodge owners, 

continued the tradition of sport-fi shing lodges 

catering to celebrities and the politically elite. 

Th e rapid expansion of the lodge business 

peaked at the end of the 1980s.

Petersen’s desire to diversify activities at 

Brooks Camp in the early 1960s to attract nonfi shing clientele marked an important turning 

point. By 1989, only about a quarter of those 

who visited Brooks Camp reported fi shing for 

trout or salmon, while half of all visitors listed 

bear viewing as the primary motive for their 

visit.24 But in spite of the added activities off ered 

to visitors, angling continues to play a key 

economic role in attracting visitors to Katmai.25 

Anglers as an Interest Group

Since Ray Petersen established Angler’s 

Paradise Lodges in 1950, anglers and the 

guiding industry that serves them have 

commanded the ear of some of the most 

powerful politicians and policy makers in the 

nation’s capital. Ray Petersen recalled, “In 

those days I didn’t deal with some clerk down 

in King Salmon. I dealt with the head of 

the Park Service in Washington D.C.”26 As a 

special interest group, anglers and lodge owners 

have used their political muscle to infl uence 

the highest levels of NPS administration, 

establish conservationist fi shing trends, and 

sway Alaska’s Congressional delegation to take 

their side on a variety of matters.

Th e fi rst eff ective use of political lobbying 

by Petersen had very little to do with angling, 

but rather, his desire for building a road from 

Brooks Camp to the Valley of Ten Th ousand 

Smokes to diversify his commercial interests. 

Petersen used his political connections to get 

a meeting in 1961 with Alaska’s U.S. Senator 

Ernest Gruening and the director of the NPS 

Conrad Wirth, at which Gruening persuaded 

Wirth to build the Valley Road the following 

summer (See chapter two).

 Th en in 1976, Grosvenor fi shing guide 

Van Hartley grounded a jet-boat while guiding 

a party of fi shermen at Hardscrabble Creek. 

Th e incident was witnessed by superintendent 

Gil Blinn, who, while canoeing in the vicinity, 

off ered to help.27 Th e incident, though minor 

From left to right are E.L. “Bob” 

Bartlett, Adlai Stevenson, and Ray 

Petersen at Brooks Camp in 1954. Like 

Ernest Greuning, Alaska Delegate E.L. 

“Bob” Bartlett showed great interest in 

Katmai, writing in 1947 that: “Katmai 

Monument is a principality in itself. It 

is substantially unknown even to the 

federal service which theoretically 

administers it, but every time an effort 

is made to do something constructive, 

the reminder is given that we must 

keep on thinking of the generations 

yet unborn and must give no thought 

to those now living. Of course, any 

sensible person will agree that if 

Katmai possesses scenic resource such 

as we are told it does (although no one 

knows very much about them), then 

perhaps a good argument can be made 

for saving scenic values unspoiled for 

those who are to come, but I submit 

this still can be done without applying 

such a heavy brush in the withdrawal 

orders.” Courtesy of Sonny Petersen 

and Katmailand, Inc.
98 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

in terms of injuries, brought a much larger 

problem to light: the legality of motorboat 

access at the east end of Lake Grosvenor. 

Previously, in 1974, NPS had proposed to ban 

motorized boats on all but the western end of 

Lake Grosvenor. Th at suggestion remained 

in the ‘proposal stage’ until ten days aft er the 

1976 incident, when Blinn began to enforce 

the regulation for the fi rst time. Meanwhile, 

Ray Petersen had stepped down as president of 

Wien Air Alaska and was replaced by James J. 

Flood in 1971.28 Th is move resulted in a seven 

year absence of a Petersen as the concessioner, 

but Ray’s son, Chuck Petersen had taken over 

as director of the Angler’s Paradise operation in 

1971 and had remained directly involved with 

happenings at Brooks Camp. 

Acting on behalf of Angler’s Paradise, 

Chuck Petersen decried Blinn’s decision. He 

notifi ed Grosvenor Camp’s long-time (and 

most powerful) guests of the incident, and 

organized an informal lobbying eff ort to 

overrule Blinn’s administrative regulation 

restricting motorboat use. Petersen’s eff orts 

worked, for Director Gary Everhardt overruled 

Blinn. Everhardt’s decision permitted the 

continued use of motorized boat service on all 

waters of the lake, pending action by Congress 

on wilderness recommendations. Eventual 

designation of wilderness in Alaska, including 

Katmai, authorized use of motorized boats in 

wilderness, so motor boat usage has continued 

to the present day.29

By the 1970s, as noted above, the number 

of non-fi shing clients attracted to Brooks 

Camp to visit the Valley of Ten Th ousand 

Smokes or watch bears was steadily surpassing 

those there to fi sh. Most Brooks Camp anglers 

upheld the conservationist practice of “catch 

and release.” In order to reduce the number 

of rainbows harvested in the Katmai area and 

the need to keep up facilities for the cleaning 

and icing of fi sh, Chuck Petersen spearheaded 

a “catch and release” policy at Brooks Camp 

in 1976. Within the same tradition of the 

“sportsman’s code” espoused by Ray Petersen 

Ray Petersen and the “Bamboo 

Bomber.” Courtesy of Sonny Petersen 

and Katmailand, Inc. 
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 99

in 1950, Angler’s Paradise brochures, fi lms and 

other publicity related media during the early 

1970s emphasized barbless hooks and releasing 

fi sh. Petersen hired guides and camp mangers 

that supported “catch and release” practices 

and by the 1976 season, it was mandatory in all 

Angler’s Paradise camps. 

NPS and the state of Alaska had longestablished regulations in place to protect 

trout. Fishing regulations closed Brooks 

River to fi shing from April 10 through June 

7, limited the use of fi shing tackle to singlehook fl ies, and prohibited fi shing within 100 

yards of Brooks Falls.30 Yet Petersen’s support 

of “catch and release” helped to further 

popularize conservation among fi shers, and 

therefore, positively infl uenced most anglers, 

ensuring that the park resource would be that 

much more protected.31 When NPS revised its 

regulations to fl y fi shing only on the Brooks 

River in 1973, fi shing groups supported the 

agency. Besides “catch and release,” angling 

groups such as Trout Unlimited have since 

supported other conservation eff orts, such as 

discouraging dam construction on the Naknek 

in the 1970s.32

Under the Alaska National Interest 

Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980, 

permanent concession rights would be granted 

to operators in business continually since 1979. 

Generally, this would not have been a problem 

for Petersen, whose family had run the Brooks 

Lodge since 1950, but in 1982, Wien sold 

its Katmai concessions to Sonny, breaking 

the concessioner’s continuous operation and 

historical status. Arguably the most eff ective 

use of political string-pulling at Brooks Camp 

since Petersen’s meeting with Senator Ernest 

Gruening to get the Valley Road built in 1961 

was conducted by Petersen’s son, Sonny, when 

he asked U.S. Senator Ted Stevens to grant 

his company KatmaiLand, Inc.33 historical 

status in 1998. When it came time to renew 

the concessions contract, NPS noted the lost 

status and decided to send the contract out 

for competition. At the time, the Bristol Bay 

Native Corporation was preparing to compete 

for the concession rights, and under ANILCA, 

it would have been entitled to preferential 

treatment.34 Petersen’s attorney, Washington 

lawyer Bill Horn, lobbied former Senator 

Ted Stevens, arguing that even though the 

concession ownership was under a diff erent 

name the Petersen family had run the lodge 

continuously. Stevens agreed with Horn, 

and, in 1999, the Senator added a rider to a 

spending bill that granted Petersen permanent 

and historic rights to the National Park Service 

concession.35 To cement historic status in the 

public’s view, Stevens convinced the Alaska 

State Legislature, also in February 1999, to 

honor Ray Petersen as “the Father of the Fly-in 

Fishing Lodge.”36 

Becky Brock, who was Katmai’s 

concessions chief from 1998 to 2009, explains 

that the concessioner and other commercial 

operators that use the Brooks River have and 

will continue to pull political stings, if it serves 

to help position their individual business in 

Bristol Bay’s highly competitive fl y-in lodge 

industry. “It was political, it was no secret, 

the language is there,” said Brock. “Th ey 

[commercial operators] all have the same 

connections. Trust me; they all have senators, 

congressmen, as guests at their lodge, every one 

of them. And they let me know that.”37

Fall Fishing, Angler Competition, and Aggressive Food-Conditioned Bears 

Th e soaring number of guided and 

unguided fi shers by the 1980s, coupled by a 

spike in the bear population, had forced NPS 

to respond to the increasing bear versus human, 

as well as human versus human confl icts, on the 

Brooks River. Too many competing anglers on 

the river had created increased safety problem 

for NPS managers, but heightening their alarm 

was a large bear population also competing 

for space on the river, especially during the fall 

season. In 1977, Wien’s concession manager 

Bruce Jones notifi ed Superintendent Blinn 

that the company was planning to host fi shing 

guests for a month aft er the camp’s offi cial 

closing date in September. Blinn, taken aback 

by the concessioner’s request, did not hesitate 

to express his concerns: 

By inviting guests to stay at Brooks 

through September and into October 

you are assuming the responsibility 

of their safety. Even though you have 

told them of the bear situation, it is 

diffi cult for visitors to understand 

without seeing it fi rsthand. In the 

event that injuries do occur, the 

burden will be on Wien for keeping 

the lodge open when you know 

that any guests would be placing 

themselves in jeopardy at that time 

of year. From the standpoint of the 
100 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

company, you should decide whether 

that is a responsibility you really want 

to assume.

Because reservations were made before Wien 

sought consent from NPS, Blinn reluctantly 

granted permission for a fall fi shing program. 

Th at program, however, did not take place aft er 

that fall.38

By 1980, the fi shing ethics espoused 

by Chuck Petersen four years earlier were 

considered old-fashioned, and the Brooks 

River had developed a reputation among 

southwest Alaska fi shing guides as a place 

where lodge guests could be assured of catching 

and keeping four or fi ve fi sh.39 Th e eff ort to 

create a positive spirit of competition among 

commercial operators by Ray Petersen had 

disappeared, as the expanding guiding business 

began to turn Brooks Camp into a so-called 

“meat fi shery.”40 Brooks Lodge manager 

Warren Cole Smith complained to NPS that 

other lodges were fl ying their guests to Brooks 

River aft er September 10 when Brooks Lodge 

had already been forced to close its doors; 

he even urged NPS to close the river entirely 

during the late season rather than allow other 

commercial operators to profi t unfairly.41 

Competition among guides, which 

continued into the mid-1980s, prompted 

superintendent David Morris to write that 

“increasing use and confl ict among fi shing 

guides and prime fi shing sites in the Park 

& Preserve are becoming more evident 

each year.”42 Th is went beyond Brooks, as 

guides sought new, less-visited park rivers, 

such as American Creek, to achieve client 

satisfaction. Discussions ensued between 

guides and NPS, but, more importantly, the 

park began assigning rangers to monitor 

the situation. Limitations on jet boat usage 

on the American River were implemented. 

Morris also instituted a rule limiting catch 

to two fi sh per person per day to confront 

crowd problems and to preserve fi sh stocks 

on the Brooks River. Ray Bane, his successor 

in 1987, further reduced that limit to one 

fi sh to reduce bear-related confrontations, 

but immediately brought resistance from the 

state of Alaska.43 Worry over visitor safety—

An angler watches a bear go by in 

1983. Photographed by Dale Vinson, 

National Park Service.
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 101

particularly anglers—convinced NPS offi cials 

that developing a bear management plan for 

the new park needed to be their top priority. 
102 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 The angler harvest, even in the early days of no limits, would have been a small fraction of 

the usual aboriginal harvest. 

2

 Enos Bradner, “Anglers’ Eldorado” The Alaska Sportsman, (April 1952). 3

 Bo Bennett, Rods & Wings: A History of the Fishing Lodge Business in Bristol Bay Alaska

(Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000), 333.

4

 Ted Birkedal, “Ancient Hunters in the Alaskan Wilderness: Human Predators and Their Role 

and Effect on Wildlife Population and the Implications for Resource Management,” 230.

5

 “Bear Incident report,” Recorded incident information: 10-343, July 11, 1970.

6

 “Bear Management Plan,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1983; Kathy Jope, “Use of 

Interpretation to Prevent Bear Incidents in Katmai National Park,” Courier, February 1987. 7

 Bo Bennett, Rods & Wings, 302-05, citing his conclusions, those of Sonny Petersen, and Dr. 

Tom Smith, a USGS wildlife biologist. Superintendent of Mount McKinley and Katmai, George 

Hall, also presents a similar theory about Brooks bears in a letter to the Regional Director of 

the Western Region on September 27, 1968.

8

 Tom Smith, Stephen Herrero and Terry DeBruyn, “Alaskan Brown Bears, Humans, and 

Habitation,” Ursus 16, (2005), 1-10; Stephen Herrero, et.al. “From the Field: Brown Bear 

Habituation to People—Safety, Risks, and Benefi ts,” Wildlife Society Bulletin, 33 1, (2005), 362-

373.

9

 Olson and Squibb, Brown Bears, 13. 10 William Radcliffe, Fishing From the Earliest Times (London: John Murray, 1921), 302. Two 

books provide good entries into American angling history: Charles F. Waterman, Fishing in 

America (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975); and Paul Schullery, American Fly 

Fishing: A History (New York: Nick Lyons Books, 1987). 11 The classic exposition of this is Johan Huizinga, Homo ludens: A Study of the Play Element in 

Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1950). 12 Summary perspectives are available at www.PETA.org and www.fi shinghurts.com. 13 See John F. Reiger, American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation, 3rd ed. 

(Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2001). First published in 1975, his argument has 

not been refuted. One of his contentions is that scholars have been reluctant to grant this 

recognition to hunters because of the generalized antipathy toward hunting within the 

academe.

14 Good insight into the ensuing class confl icts is found in Louis S. Warren, The Hunter’s Game: 

Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America (New Haven: Yale University 

Press, 1997). 

15 John F. Reiger, American Sportsmen, 111. 16 Ibid., 48.

17 Ibid., 72-76.

18 Norris, Tourism, 74. 19 In his unpublished dissertation, In Common With All Citizens: Sportsmen, Indians, Fish, 

and Conservation in Oregon and Washington (University of Oregon, 2002), historian 

Timothy Rawson looks at the history of angling culture as it emerged in Europe and was 

later transplanted in America. His study discusses the social demography of anglers and 

describes ways anglers differentiated between fi sh and fi shermen in order to understand 

how these combined to eventually place at odds the interests of Anglo-American anglers in 

the Pacifi c Northwest against those of the Native American treaty tribes. This approach can 

also be used to understand how sport anglers at Brooks Camps perceived and valued the 

local and indigenous fi shers in Katmai Country. 20 For examples, see “Katmai New Sportsmen’s ‘Haven,’ “Anchorage Daily Times, June 7, 

1950, pg. 1.; Louis R Huber, “Cataclysm” The Alaska Sportsman, May, 1951, pg. 22-25.; Frank 

Dufresne and Don Horter, “Katmai Adventure Exploring and Photographic the Fabulous 

Fishing Country of the Alaska Peninsula” Field & Stream vol. 56. February (1952), 42-45; Enos 

Bradner, “Anglers’ Eldorado,” Alaska Sportsman 18 (April 1952), 18. 21 Bennett, Rod & Wings, 153-155. 22 “Nonresident license sales in 1980 and 1989,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game; also 

see Bennett, 253.

23 Ibid., 226.

24 Barton and Johnson, 1989 Brooks Visitor Survey, 70, 73. 25 A study of the CUA’s economic impact on the park is currently being conducted and will 

provide a more concrete understanding of the economics of angling when published.

26 Ray Petersen, interviewed by Alexandra J. McClanahan, 9-16-1989 and 10-15-1998. 27 Ibid., 75.

28 Norris, Tourism, 73. 29 Ibid., 76. Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 also authorizes use of 
 Chapter Five: Brooks River Fishing—Bears and Anglers 103

motor boats in designated wilderness areas.

30 NPS, “1979 Fishing Regulations,” Katmai National Monument, 1979 [?]. Strictly speaking, 

anglers were prohibited from fi shing within 100 yards of the concrete fi sh ladder that runs up 

the south side of Brooks Falls.

31 Bennett, 236

32 “Fishing Organizations Unite to Oppose Pebble Mine” Alaska Journal of Commerce, 

December 3, 2006; “Sport Fishing Industry Leaders Blast Pebble Mine Proposal,” 11/23/2006 

In an unprecedented move, 37 sport fi shing industry leaders, including Scott Fly Rods, 

Orvis, and the American Fly Fishing Trade Association today urged Alaska Governor-elect 

Sarah Palin, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and the federal Bureau of Land 

Management to reject the Pebble mine and permanently protect the Bristol Bay watershed 

from industrial mineral development. The fi shing equipment manufacturers and suppliers’ 

message, delivered in an open letter to Governor-elect Palin and agency offi cials, will be 

featured in full-page, four-color ads in the December, January, and February issues of Fish 

Alaska and the February issue of Fly Fisherman Magazine. The combined paid circulation 

of these two popular fi shing magazines is more than 155,000. Trout Unlimited is paying for 

the ads, which prominently feature the logos of the 37 retailers and the industry’s trade 

association. (For a copy of the letter and the ad, go to: www.renewableresourcescoalition.

org/troutunlimited.pdf ).

33 Known as Katmailand after 1983.

34 David Whitney, “Lodge’s Future Assured,” Anchorage Daily News, October 21, 1998, B1. 35 Ibid.

36 Twenty-First Alaska State Legislature, February 24, 1999.

37 Becky Brock, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 6-17-2008.

38 Letter, To Bruce Jones from Gilbert E. Blinn, August 10, 1977.

39 Norris, Tourism, 111. 40 Ibid., 154.

41 Letter, To Dave Morris, from Warren Smith, September 1, 1982; Letter, To Dave Morris, from 

Warren Smith, July 16, 1983.

42 To Regional Director, 4, from Dave Morris, Superintendent, November 1985.

43 Norris, Tourism, 154
104 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

A bear discovers an unattended backpack and 

fi sh on an exposed island near the Brooks Falls 

while an angler keeps his distance. Katmai’s 

fi rst Bear Management Plan recognized that 

bears used angler as a potential food source 

by stealing their fi sh. Courtesy of Will Troyer.

A bear discovers an unattended backpack and 

fi sh on an exposed island near the Brooks Falls 

while an angler keeps his distance. Katmai’s 

fi rst Bear Management Plan recognized that 

bears used angler as a potential food source 

by stealing their fi sh. Courtesy of Will Troyer.

A bear discovers an u nattend de backpack and

fish on an exposed island n ear the Brooks Falls

whilean angler keeps his distance.Katmai’s

firstBear Management Plan recognized t hat

bears used a ngler asa potential food source

bystealing their fish. Courtesy ofWill Troyer.

A bear discovers an unattended backpack and 

fi sh on an exposed island near the Brooks Falls 

while an angler keeps his distance. Katmai’s 

fi rst Bear Management Plan recognized that 

bears used angler as a potential food source 

by stealing their fi sh. Courtesy of Will Troyer.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 105

To a large extent, protection of people and, ultimately, preservation of a natural bear 

population depends on well-informed and conscientious behavior by people.

 ~ Kathy Jope, Natural Resource Specialist

 Bear Management Plan, 1983

On December 2, 1980, President Jimmy 

Carter signed the Alaska National Interest 

Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) into law. 

In doing so, the federal government achieved 

what historian Roderick Nash described as 

“Th e greatest single act of wilderness preservation in world history.”1

 Th e landmark piece of 

legislation derived from the “d(2)” clause of 

Section 17 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which created the opportunity for Congress to designate about 32.4 million acres of Alaska park lands as wilderness in 

the “national interest.” According to historian 

Richard Sellers, ANLICA meant that designated areas would be protected not only from 

“excessive use by the public, but also from the 

managerial and developmental impulses of the 

Park Service itself.”2

Although President Woodrow Wilson 

established Katmai National Monument in 

1918 to protect the Valley of Ten Th ousand 

Smokes, the passage of ANILCA impacted the 

ashen lands enormously. First and foremost, 

ANILCA re-designated the monument as Katmai National Park and Preserve and added more 

than 1.4 million acres to the existing park unit. 

Section 202(2) of ANILCA addressed Katmai 

specifi cally, indicating that the augmented park 

lands were intended “to protect habitats for, and 

populations of, fi sh and wildlife including, but 

not limited to, high concentrations of brown/

grizzly bears and their denning areas.”3

 However, ANLICA presented Katmai with new 

issues that went beyond fi sh and bears. Facing 

park managers aft er 1980 were concerns about 

increasing aviation access, Alaska Native land 

rights, increasing media attention, and the public’s varying perceptions of wilderness itself. 

Th ose tasks loomed large for the three 

permanent staff running the monument from 

the King Salmon headquarters—superintendent Dave Morris,4

 chief ranger Bruce Kaye, 

Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve:

Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics

and Carl Yost, the maintenance foreman.5 Even 

though management now had more land to 

consider, the logic fi rst step focused on improving and expanding public facilities at the park’s 

main access point, Brooks Camp.6

 Brooks 

Camp was not only the primary public destination in Katmai, but it served as the agency’s 

main station for a majority of its staff . Not 

surprisingly then, by 1983, much of the park’s 

construction and maintenance funds were 

spent in and around Brooks Camp. 7

 

Th us, in the years immediately following 

Congressional passage of the historic legislation, NPS and the concessioner improved 

their facilities. Consequently, the camp—the 

Brooks River area’s so-called “human country” 

expanded deeper into what Frederick Dean 

defi ned as “bear country.” And as the bear 

population and camp visitation rose simultaneously, management at Brooks continued to be 

constrained by the dual and sometimes opposing NPS objectives to protect resources and 

provide for visitor enjoyment. 

The Morris Administration Improves 

and Expands Brooks Camp’s Facilities

By the early 1980s, Morris had recognized 

that the visibility of the new park, coupled 

with the rising number and increasing popularity of the Brooks bears, was attracting a higher 

number of visitors with more diverse interests 

and needs. Instead of only fi shing, many 

visitors were also there to watch the wildlife 

and they tended to venture outside the river 

corridor. Th e rise in visitation, especially the 

category of visitors, convinced Morris and the 

Alaska Regional Offi ce8

 in Anchorage that 

Brooks Camp required improvements to better serve these visitors, for there had been little 

new construction since 1968. 

One problem NPS hoped to solve by expansion was the shortage in employee housing, 

PART III: IMPLEMENTATION 1980-1995
106 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ironically caused, in part, by the agency’s improvement and expansion needs. Although records are sketchy, there were approximately 14 

seasonal employees assigned to Katmai in 1979. 

By 1984, that number had jumped to 23. With 

its growing budget, Katmai had hired three 

new permanent staff —a district ranger, administrative technician, and resource management 

specialist. 9

 Katmai’s high profi le involvement 

in ANILCA also added to the housing shortage: “Generally there was enough housing for 

employees,” recalled chief of maintenance Ed 

Stondall, “but then there was a considerable 

number of individuals with the Park Service, all 

the way from the Washington level and other 

regions and so forth, that came up for various 

purposes and impacted housing.”10

Th e lack of housing at Brooks Camp even 

before the passage of ANILCA forced overfl ow seasonals to occupy the National Marine 

Fisheries Service (NMFS) cottages at Brooks 

Lake. NMFS Alaska Region Director Harry 

Rietze granted NPS permission to use its facilities in 1977.11 Th en, in 1978, NMFS transferred its real property facilities to NPS. Th e 

properties, which were inhabited and utilized 

primarily by park maintenance staff , included 

the log-constructed laboratory, a wood-framed 

net shed, a panabode generator shed, a woodframed pump house, a tin-sided tool shed/

maintenance shop, a garage, tin sided storage 

shed, a water heater/laundry room, and the 

two panabode residence buildings. Other 

items listed under real property records included over one hundred feet of chain link fence, 

the fi sh weir, and the aircraft landing mat. 

Utilities included generators, a light plant, and 

an 800-gallon water tower.12 Law enforcement 

rangers even inherited NMFS Boston Whaler 

skiff to patrol the lakes.13

Additional buildings at Brooks Lake 

helped but did not solve the housing shortage. 

Maintenance ordered three buildings from 

Cedar Forest Products Company in Polo, 

Illinois to replace the old wall tents. “Th e 

stipulation by the Deputy Director, back in 

those days Doug Warnock, was that those wall 

tents must be removed once these other buildings were put in. So,” explained Stondall, “we 

had to make those disappear.”14 But as more 

seasonals bolstered NPS Brooks Camp staff , 

more wall tents were used for staff housing. 

Finding appropriate places for employees to 

live and work would become a constant headache for management throughout the 1980s to 

the present.

KATM Staff, 1983. Top Row: Hal 

Grovert, Rick Gold, Jody Carter, 

George Stroud, Marianne Mills, 

Daniel Tandy, Lynn Fuller, Frank Star. 

First Row: Loren Casebeer, Greg 

Moss, Penny Starr, Karen Jerger, 

Chuck Harris, and Paul Ewers. KATM 

Photo Archive (B02), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska. 
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 107

Th e concessioner’s old tent frame camp 

was another visible concern. By the late 

1970s the structures were still located at the 

mouth of the river on Naknek Lake. Th e 

camp was occupied by lodge employees instead of paying guests who had stopped using 

the tent frame camp in the mid-1960s. For 

safety and environmental reasons, NPS wanted the tents moved. With the aim of moving 

the tent camp to a less ecologically sensitive 

area, NPS urged the concessioner to construct 

a new employee camp in 1974, in exchange 

for the adoption of a ten-year contract extension. Th e concessioner put off the new 

construction, even though the Brooks River 

fl ooded in 1977 (which led to the removal of 

the old boat dock on the south side of Brooks 

River in 1978) and numerous dangerous bear 

encounters revealed the vulnerability of the 

tent camp site. 

Dave Morris became Katmai’s 

fi rst superintendent after ANLICA 

designated it a national park and 

preserve in 1980. Pictured on 

patrol in August 1985. KATM Photo 

Archive (Acc. #578, PH43), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
108 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

NPS ferried visitors across the river 

before the bridge was constructed in 

the 1980s. Pictured is a skiff leaving 

the boat dock for the south side of 

the river in 1966. Lloyd Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

A 1976 aerial view reveals an increase 

of human development at the mouth 

of the river. KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 109

By September 1980, the situation had 

grown so serious that the Alaska Regional Offi ce began preparing a Development Concept 

Plan (DCP) that tied the renewal of the concessions contract to the construction of new 

concessions facilities.15 Meanwhile, the agency 

was busily upgrading its own facilities. NPS 

added a utility system, three new panabodestyle seasonal ranger cabins to replace the old 

tent frames, and a viewing platform. Due to 

signifi cant fl ooding in the 1970s, the agency rerouted the trail to the falls. Th e two signature 

construction projects included the fi rst viewing 

platform at the Brooks Falls, and a temporary 

foot bridge at the mouth of the river, both 

constructed in 1981-1982. Likely considering 

Brooks Camp construction a positive change, 

the concessioner fi nally agreed to NPS terms 

regarding the removal of the old tent camp in 

June 1981. Th at year, the two parties signed 

a new fi ft een-year contract which called for 

the construction of new Brooks Camp facilities. Using the 1982 NPS DCP as the primary 

document guiding growth at Brooks Camp, 

the concessioner, now Katmailand, Inc,16 expanded the Brooks Lodge and dining room 

in 1984 and demolished the original Brooks 

Camp tent frames near the river mouth in 

1985 and 1986.17 

Representing nearly half of Brooks Camp’s 

seasonal workforce was the maintenance crew, for 

which its increasing numbers alone underscored 

Sketch plan for Brooks River Bridge, 

September 1966. KATM-127_3030 

[id82316], Technical Information 

Center, Denver Service Center, 

National Park Service.
110 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

the park’s facilities improvement goals. Under Morris’ watch, the maintenance division 

added ten seasonal positions in 1984, including 

longtime Katmai employee James Gavin, who 

came to the park from the Regional Offi ce as 

an engineer technician. Other longtime maintenance workers who got their start at Brooks 

Camp that year were Mike Fedorko and Tom 

Ferguson. Richard Sherman was seasonal laborer 1981-86, then permanent in 1986. Th e 

following year, Yost retired and Ed Stondall, 

who originally came to Alaska as part of the 

Alaska Task Force, was hired as Chief of Maintenance of the Alaska Region. Th e position 

had Stondall involved with the physical facilities at Katmai throughout the early 1980s.18

Th e park also made Richard Sherman a permanent maintenance employee in 1985. Seven 

seasonal employees returned to work that summer on construction projects throughout the 

Brooks Camp area.19 

Park Headquarters 

Established at King Salmon

Th e passage of ANILCA transformed Katmai from a national monument to a national 

park and preserve, and before long Katmai 

began to enjoy signifi cant budget increases. 

Th ose budget increases supported more 

permanent and seasonal staff , more equipment purchases, and as Norris notes, “more 

paperwork.”20 Th is created a need for an improved work space for permanent employees. 

Th e existing building improvements at King 

Salmon were completely inadequate for the six 

permanent staff and increasing seasonal staff , 

so the agency wrote a plan for the headquarters 

area in 1982 that called for a fairly expensive 

expansion. Despite the severe overcrowding, 

almost nothing was done to implement the 

plan; instead, one of the trailers was replaced 

by a modular duplex in 1983. Two years later, 

park offi cials agreed to new structures at King 

Salmon, but they ignored the remainder of the 

plan’s recommendations due to cost factors. 

As an alternative, they leased space in the King 

Salmon Mall, a two story business building 

which was erected in 1985. Th e superintendent, chief ranger and administrative technician moved into offi ces on the second fl oor. 

Th is freed up offi ce space in the headquarters 

area for the maintenance staff .21 In addition, 

NPS sponsored several student 

studies at Brooks Camp in 1983. One 

in particular recommended that NPS 

widen the trail to the falls to avoid 

close encounters with bears fi shing 

along the river banks. Photographed 

by Will Troyer in 1981. 
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 111

one of the old FAA buildings was improved 

and served as a carpenter shop and a temporary 

storage area for the meager park library and 

artifact collections.22 

In spite of the agency’s inability to keep 

pace with employee numbers (a problem 

that would increasingly plague both King 

Salmon and Brooks Camp in later decades), 

staff continued to implement the park’s 

management programs.

Students Study Bears 

and Tourists at Brooks Camp

In response to what researchers, park 

employees and visitors reported as an increasing bear population at Brooks Camp, Morris 

developed a four-step bear policy, with the prevention of bear-human encounters as its primary goal. If avoidance didn’t work and bears became habituated to camp areas, peppering took 

place. If peppering was unsuccessful and the 

bear continued to display signs of unacceptable behavior, relocation was attempted. Th e 

fi nal step was destruction—but only if the bear 

returned aft er relocation and all other measures 

had failed. If a bear threatened human life it 

would be destroyed without further measures. 

Between 1965 and 1981, there were three incidents where bears made contact with people; 

eighteen bears were relocated from Brooks, and 

seven bears were ultimately destroyed.23

Concerns over swift ly rising visitation 

numbers, coupled with an enlarged bear population at Brooks, prompted NPS offi cials to 

identify a new bear management plan as their 

top priority in the park’s 1982 Draft Resource 

Management Plan (RMP). Th e document 

stated that “the possibility of a disastrous bearhuman incident is abundantly evident” and 

suggested that limiting visitation would keep 

bear-human confl icts to a minimum.24 Th e 

authors of the RMP conceded that a move to 

limit visitation would stretch the organization’s 

personnel and would ultimately be “hard to enforce.”25 Th e 1982 RMP, therefore, addressed 

the need to protect bears from dramatic changes brought into the park by people, but admitted that “the long-term eff ects upon bears by 

humans in the Brooks Camp area is unknown” 

and suggested further research.26

Despite the expanding development, 

visitors inspired by the passage of ANILCA 

Part of Katmai’s fi rst bear 

management plan was cutting 

back vegetation and overgrowth 

around camp and trails. KATM Photo 

Archive (Acc. #399), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
112 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

traveled to destinations like Brooks Camp to 

escape the hustle and bustle of urban life in 

exchange for the solitude of wilderness (chapter 

seven). But their increasingly large presence at 

these places diminished their wilderness character and, for four months out of the year, fi lled 

Katmai’s solitude with crowds of fl ashing cameras and fl oat planes buzzing overhead. NPS 

hired four undergraduate students to conduct 

the “further research” into bears and the complexity of the growing tourism dynamics in Katmai. Th e fi rst of these studies was a combined 

eff ort by three students to provide park offi cials 

with additional information and planning alternatives for an upcoming park General Management Plan (GMP).27 

Under the direction of Kenneth S. Norris, University of California Santa Cruz, Joan 

Beattie concluded in her senior thesis, “Brown 

Bear/Human Interactions at Katmai National 

Park and Preserve: Implications for Planning 

and Management,” that as visitor use increased, 

bear-human interactions would too. Her study, 

completed in 1983, made several recommendations that the park later adopted. For example, 

Beattie suggested that NPS print a multilingual 

bear brochure, move the bear platform farther 

away from Brooks Falls, widen the hiking trails, 

and redesign the new fl oating bridge to allow 

bears to move underneath it.28

Th e second portion of the study conducted 

by Beattie’s two student colleagues, Dave and 

Sheridith Robison, focused on planning and public policy that off ered a broad vision of daily life 

and trends at Brooks Camp, such as the increasing 

number of airplanes disrupting the “wilderness 

experience.”29 Th e authors concluded that the 

complete removal of Brooks Camp would be the 

best solution, adding however, that “political realities make this alternative unlikely.”30 

Th e fi nal student study was concluded in 

1986, just a few months prior to the completion of the park’s general management plan. 

Th e report, entitled “Brown Bear-Visitor 

Confl icts at Katmai National Park: Some Suggestions for Management,” was written by 

seasonal park ranger and Washington State 

University graduate Christopher Ryan, who 

based his study on the 1985-1986 Brooks 

Camp bear incident reports that highlighted 

problems with several users groups, particularly 

anglers and photographers getting too close to 

bears on the river. 

Katmai’s First Bear Management Plan 

Developed and Implemented

Meanwhile, NPS management still needed 

a tool to prevent and respond to immediate 

bear-human confl icts, which were growing 

more common with the increasing popularity of 

Brooks Camp. Th e Morris administration hired 

biologist Kathy Jope as the park’s fi rst resource 

management specialist to write and implement 

a bear management program. Jope was familiar with bear management concerns at other 

NPS units aft er working at Glacier and Denali 

national parks.31 In cooperation with the new 

chief ranger, Hal Grovert, Jope wrote Katmai’s 

1983 bear management plan that emphasized 

the prevention of confl ict between bears and 

humans. Signifi cantly, Jope recognized that 

instead of “problem bears,” human behavior was 

the major source of bear-related issues, and rather than engaging in activities such as relocation 

and adverse hazing, park management needed 

to focus on people. Th e 1983 bear management 

plan, therefore, was the fi rst offi cial policy to 

outline “operational guidelines” for preventing 

and responding to bear-related incidents. 

Th e plan adopted Frederick Dean’s recommendations that barriers be erected at strategic 

locations to try and reroute bears away from 

the camp perimeter and focused on preventive 

management. It distinguished three primary 

causes of confrontation—food-related confrontations, surprise close-range encounters, and 

dominance interactions (when a bear challenges 

a person for the right-of-way). Th e plan noted 

that some bears had repeatedly obtained fi sh 

Katmai’s fi rst resource specialist, 

Kathy Jope in 1986. KATM Photo 

Archive (Acc. #399), Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 113

from anglers along Brooks River and therefore 

could learn to associate people as a food source. 

Aft er observing numerous bears attempting to 

acquire food from people, Jope acknowledged 

that bears acted badly, but like Dean, noted that 

bad human behavior should be blamed: 

A bear that has in the past learned to 

associate people or their equipment 

with food may persistently approach 

people or damage equipment even 

when no food is present. Bears’ attempts to obtain people’s food have 

resulted in thousands of dollars’ worth 

of property damage in Katmai, generally camping gear and buildings.32

Th e plan also pointed out that bears used 

anglers as a potential food source by stealing 

their fi sh. Jope’s solution was to provide anglers 

Besides bears, resource management 

also included the restoration of 

the historic Fure’s cabin in the Bay 

of Islands. Pictured is maintenance 

employee Jim Gavin working on the 

cabin in 1988. KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
114 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

with plastic bags. Anglers were required to 

“bag” any fi sh they caught and immediately 

carry it to the fi sh-cleaning building for storage until the end of the day. If a bear confronted an angler with a fi sh, the angler was 

supposed to release the fi sh—dead or alive—

into the river rather than yielding it to the 

bear. In this way, managers hoped that the 

bear would not be rewarded for seeking food 

from people and would not challenge other 

anglers in the future.33 As Jope explained, 

“Acquisition of people’s food (including fi sh) 

by bears in Katmai is considered a very serious matter.”34 Finally, the management plan 

articulated for the fi rst time the “50/100 

yard rule,” which held that people needed to 

maintain a minimum distance of fi ft y yards 

from any bear and 100 yards from a mother 

bear with cubs.35 

Serving as the park’s only permanent 

resource management employee, Jope’s attention focused on fi sh and wildlife concerns that 

went beyond bears. In the early-1980s she was 

given the task of determining the impact of the 

Brooks Falls fi sh ladder on salmon.36 In the 

1940s, Brooks Falls was thought to be an impediment to migrating sockeye salmon during 

years of low river fl ow (see chapter one).37 So 

in the summers of 1949 and 1950 the Bureau 

of Fisheries blasted a ten foot wide, seven step 

fi sh ladder on the south side of the Brooks Falls 

to allow salmon to more easily reach spawning 

grounds at Brooks Lake. When the USFWS 

fi sheries studies concluded in 1974, the NPS 

closed the structure to migrating salmon and 

began to voice concerns regarding the fi sh ladder. Th e fi rst major concern was the ecological 

and genetic consequences of permitting fi sh, 

including species other than salmon, to bypass 

the falls. Th e second included the impact of 

erosion that was occurring at the upper end of 

the ladder, which could eventually divert water 

from the falls.38 

Th e NPS sponsored and funded a study 

conducted by USFWS biologists in 1984 to 

assess the hydrological and biological impacts 

of the fi sh ladder. In mid-June biologists removed the planks blocking fi sh access to the 

ladder. Although the study was conducted to 

determine if the ladder could be modifi ed or 

removed without causing substantial changes 

in the hydrology or fi shery of the Brooks River, the USFW researchers, like the BCF biologists, observed bears activity fi shing around 

the ladder:

On July 3, we noticed a substantial 

number of sockeye salmon within 

the fi sh ladder...Subsequent counts 

over adjacent 15-minute intervals at 

midday showed that sockeye salmon 

continued to use both the ladder and 

Brooks Falls through mid-July—and 

exception was July 12 when no fi sh 

were observed in the ladder, probably 

because a brown bear (observed at the 

falls) had fi shed in the ladder prior 

to our arrival. We observed bears 

actually in the fi sh ladder on several 

occasions through the fi eld season and 

not surprisingly, there were no fi sh 

observed in the ladder immediately 

following bear activity....On at least 

two occasions a bear was observed 

running the bank along the fi sh ladder in an apparent attempt to frighten 

away any potential competitors within 

the ladder.39

In 1986, NPS decided to use sandbags 

to block salmon from using the fi sh ladder at 

Brooks Falls. Later that year, it formally proposed to dismantle the fi sh ladder and restore 

the stream bank to a near natural condition. 

Th is decision led to a 1987 draft of an environmental assessment evaluating the impacts 

of the ladder, in which NPS argued for its removal because the structure “provides no clear 

benefi t to fi sh resources of the Brooks River 

systems.”40 Th e agency, furthermore, determined that “the ladder is incompatible with 

the legal requirements of the national park 

management and with the purposes for which 

Katmai was established.”41 

Alaska Department of Fish & Game 

(ADF&G) disagreed with this decision. It 

conceded that the structure may not provide 

clear benefi t to fi sh resources, but argued that 

the ladder served no harm either.42 Th e state 

was so adamant about its jurisdictional control 

over the structure that the department even 

threatened to take NPS to court. William 

Heard, program manager at the National 

Marine Fisheries Service, in his review of the 

NPS environmental assessment noted that 

the issue “boils down to one of policy diff erences between NPS and ADF&G,” pointing 

out that the Park Service had off ered “no 

compelling evidence that the ladder has had 

a signifi cant impact on any fi sh populations 

upstream or downstream from the falls since 
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 115

it was installed.”43 Heard stated his opinion on 

the matter bluntly, describing the dispute as 

mostly an “emotional policy issue.”44 Likewise, 

in another review of the NPS environmental 

study, one-time BBI managing biologist, Ted 

Merrell expressed his doubts about NPS plans 

for removal. Although Merrell never agreed 

with the Bureau’s decision to construct the fi sh 

ladder in the fi rst place, he agreed that taking 

it out was unnecessary. “It seems like a waste of 

money to even consider removing the fi sh ladder...” wrote Merrell, “...when its only off ense 

is that it wasn’t put there by Mother Nature.”45

By the mid-1980s, natural resource personnel, instead of focusing on one species, 

began to look at signifi cant animal populations like bears within the larger context of the 

Katmai ecosystem. As Jope pointed out, “my 

job at Brooks was not focused solely on bears. 

I was working on the stewardship of all the 

park’s resources.” Without a cultural resource 

program in place, Jope was also required to 

oversee the park historic properties. “We did 

a rehabilitation of a historic cabin [Fure’s 

Cabin] on the other side of Naknek Lake from 

Brooks Camp. We worked on archeological 

surveys and getting baseline water quality information and things like that, so it wasn’t by 

any means solely bears.”46 

But as the park’s resource specialist, Jope 

had to deal with the increasing encounters 

between bears and people. To accomplish this, 

Jope not only focused on bears through her 

previous research, but looked at research conducted by others in other locations, and how it 

applied to Katmai. Moreover, Jope was tasked 

with addressing area’s growing problem of fi shing on the Brooks River. 

1986 General Management Plan, 

Reactions and Responses

Aft er three years and four student theses, 

NPS completed a combined General Management Plan/Land Protection Plan/Wilderness Suitability Review (GMP) for the park, 

in which the NPS declared its commitment 

to taking “whatever actions are necessary to 

minimize confl icts between bears and visitors 

in the Brooks Camp area.”47 Th e 1986 GMP 

off ered several possible actions, including restrictions on sport-fi shing along Brooks River 

(including reduced catch limits and temporary 

closures), and a reservations system for the 

campground.48 Th e document also mentioned 

plans to augment services at other camps to 

relieve the pressures of visitor use at Brooks 

Camp, including a primitive campground and 

increased lodge capacity at Grosvenor Camp.49 

Th e GMP announced that NPS would no longer attempt to transport problem bears in Katmai, and although it acknowledged much of 

the recent research on the behavior of Katmai’s 

bears, it concluded that “the precise nature 

and causes of bear/human confrontations are 

poorly understood.”50 

Th e behaviors and attitudes exhibited by 

Brooks River anglers underscored a lack of 

understanding of bear-human interactions. 

One year aft er Katmai’s implementation of its 

bear management plan, anglers continued to 

stockpile their fi sh on the banks of the river 

and were reluctant to use the plastic bags supplied by NPS personnel.51 In the summer of 

1983, archeologists working at a site along 

the river known as “the Cutbank” observed 

many solo and guided fi shermen occasionally 

leaving fi sh—bagged or not—on the bank.52 

Christopher Ryan’s report noted that anglers 

oft en did not want to move out of the path 

of an approaching bear and that bears were 

frequently forced to relinquish a fi shing hole 

altogether when anglers moved along the river. 

According to the incident reports, anglers were 

more than twice as likely as non-anglers to be 

involved in a situation in which bears obtained 

food from people.53 

“Fishermen with lots of cleaned 

fi sh at the end of the day in 1986.” 

Katmai’s bear management plan 

required that anglers place all fi sh 

in a plastic bag when returning to 

camp. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
116 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Jope was keenly aware that many of the 

confl icts with bears at Brooks Camp involved 

anglers. She observed that if fi shing clients 

encounter a bear that is aggressive and seems 

to actively seek people out, those clients “don’t 

have a good time.” Jope reasoned that the 

guide, therefore, had a fi nancial interest in 

ensuring that bears do not become food conditioned. She also noted that peer pressure 

among the guides could work in NPS’s favor to 

help ensure that they kept food and fi sh secure 

from bears. And when some at the agency 

suggested that NPS should close the river to 

angling, Jope argued against it:

Closing the river would reduce the opportunity for bears there to obtain fi sh 

from people. However, it would also 

divert the fi shing guides to backcountry streams of the park, where there are 

no rangers. Brooks River can be viewed 

as a training stream, where fi shing is 

overseen by rangers and where the bear 

behavior that results from proper fi shing behavior is readily evident. Aft er a 

guide has fi shed at Brooks River during 

July, perhaps he will take the lessons 

he learned from that experience to the 

other streams that he visited during 

August and September.54

One possible solution, as suggested by 

Jope, was to impress upon fi shermen, particularly unguided anglers, how suddenly a bear 

can appear out of the streamside vegetation, 

or, just how fast a bear can move when it sees 

a person catch a fi sh. Th is could be accomplished, reasoned Jope, through interpretive 

rangers who emphasize patience, a willingness 

to stop fi shing, and to move out of the river 

and give way to the bears. Jope admitted, however, that complicating matters were the anglers 

who could not “conceive that a human should 

defer to an animal,” or the visitor who believed 

that since “they have paid for an expensive trip 

to Alaska, they should be able to do what they 

want;” or the visitor who believed that “rangers 

should use taxpayers’ money to move the bears 

out instead of asking the people to move out of 

the bear’s way.”55

In order to address these concerns, NPS 

hired a seasonal technician named Susan 

Warner to conduct further bear management 

studies. Warner spent summer 1987 on the 

river collecting data. At the time, the park 

was preparing an environmental assessment 

to evaluate its fi shing regulations. Given the 

alternatives outlined in the environmental assessment, Warner concluded that there were 

two alternatives which would best reduce the 

level of confl ict between bears and people. She 

recommended that NPS restrict fi shing in sections of Brooks River and reduce the duration 

of the Brooks River fi shing season.56

A more drastic solution was proposed in 

the combined 1986 General Management Plan 

and Land Protection Plan/Wilderness Suitability Review, which recommended a phased 

relocation of all or part of Brooks Camp.57

Although NPS offi cials eventually chose to put 

off the issue of a camp move, their concerns 

were articulated in the document: 

It is clear to NPS managers that the increasing number of people and the seasonal concentrations of bears present 

a serious confl ict. It is also clear that if 

visitor use of Brooks Camp continues 

to increase, the potential for a tragic 

incident and for irreparable impact on 

the bear population also increases.58 

Anglers, however, had no intention of 

relinquishing the river to the increasing bear 

population, and they used their political 

muscle to challenge park policy regarding bear 

management at Brooks. Th is became clear 

during the preparation of the 1986 GMP, as 

some of the most contentious issues were debated by NPS managers and the Brooks Camp 

concessioner, sporting groups, and certain 

infl uential clients, who were opposed to the 

proposed move and strongly favored the status 

quo regarding fi shing regulations and visitor use.59 Anglers voiced opposition to most 

actions, including a phased relocation of all 

or part of Brooks Camp and restrictions on 

sport-fi shing along Brooks River that included 

reduced catch limits and temporary closures.60 

And like the Mission 66 prospectus, the GMP 

mentioned plans to augment services at other 

camps to relieve the pressures of visitor use at 

Brooks Camp, including a primitive campground and increased lodge capacity at the 

exclusive Grosvenor Camp.61 

Perhaps hoping to avoid a battle with 

these entrenched interests, Katmai offi cials 

announced that they had decided to defer the 

fi nal decision on the proposals, particularly 

the relocation of the camp “until the results of 
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 117

current studies on bear/human interactions 

in the Brooks Camp area have been completed.”62 Jope selected wildlife biologist Barrie 

Gilbert to conduct such studies that eventually led to policy-shaping research of bears on 

the Brooks River.

Ray Bane’s Administration: 

Seeking Solutions from the Scientists

By the mid-1980s, NPS management policies concerning Brooks’ bears had become a 

target for critics in the increasingly politicized 

battle over how bears should behave at Brooks 

Camp. In the age of Sagebrush Rebels and big 

government foes, which characterized political views in the early-to mid-1980s, the most 

vocal opponents of NPS policy seemed to be 

the park’s local commercial users, primarily 

fi shing guides, and the concessioner, who saw 

bears at best as entertainers for their guests 

and at worst as pests to anglers on the river.63

Attitudes worsened as bears continued to get 

fi sh from anglers. In one noted instance, a 

bear called Sister swatted a fi sherman, ripping 

his vest. Th e incident led the concessioner to 

wonder if NPS was more concerned about 

bears than visitor safety. Typical of such sentiment was the opinion of Sonny Petersen, who, 

when asked about NPS’s approach to bear 

management over the years, quipped, “What 

bear management?”64 

Commercial users, threatened by the 

agency’s discussions regarding possible visitor 

limitations, began to question the researchers’ conclusions about harm to bears. With 

the numbers of bears now seeming to rival the 

number of anglers on the river, they understood the story to be just the opposite—that 

bears were displacing the anglers. Evidence 

that human activity on the river was aff ecting 

the bears’ behavior seemed unfounded to the 

concessioner and other guides who made their 

living on the river. 

Long-time Kulik lodge manager Bo Bennett expressed a point of view shared by many 

of Brooks’ anglers when he stated that most 

guides lacked confi dence in the numerous bear 

studies that were being conducted at Brooks. 

“Th eir [biologists’] thoughts are based on 

limited fi eld research and the opinions of the 

university-based research leaders.”65 He suggested that “Th e bears in the Katmai region 

Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane in 

1989. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #574, 

PH30), Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
118 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

are well fed and not aggressive toward fi shermen.”66 Some commercial users like Bennett 

saw the scientists and other NPS researchers as 

“bureaucrats,” whose only intent was to hinder 

recreational activities for what they viewed as 

the unnecessary protection of increasingly aggressive bears. As a result, the politically connected concessioner and other stakeholders for 

various river users began to cast doubt within 

local and national political spheres.67 

One particular source of Petersen’s frustration was a series of bear studies conducted in 

the mid-1980s that appeared to threaten the 

Brooks River’s lucrative, not to mention historic, sport-fi shing business. Th e agency had 

hired Utah State University biologist Barrie 

Gilbert and graduate student Anne Braaten 

to study how bears behaved around anglers 

in order to provide the park with a behavioral 

profi le of interactions between bears and people on Brooks River. Underscoring the park’s 

reason for initiating the research were concerns 

about food-conditioned bears and whether 

increasing visitation was aff ecting bear use of 

the river corridor. 

Gilbert and Braaten did their fi eld work 

in 1985 and 1986. Gilbert, who had specialized in behavioral and conservation ecology, 

applied behavioral science to interpreting the 

human-bear interactions that he and Braaten 

observed during the fi shing seasons.68 Gilbert 

concluded that NPS policies had maintained a 

kind of accommodation between anglers and 

bears, and that the situation had resulted in 

bears that became so habituated, that they ultimately tolerated the human guests. As Gilbert 

put it, the management of bears in the park 

“maintained an environment relatively free 

from personal threats and injury from bears.” 

Th is meant to Gilbert that charges from alarmists that Brooks River was “a time bomb waiting to go off ” were unfounded.69 

“Flow Chart in Stability or Change in 

Bear Behavior,” from Barrie Gilbert’s 

Human-Bear Relations study in 1984. 

KATM Files, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 119

In 1987, Gilbert (Ray) Bane became 

Katmai’s superintendent, and took the twenty 

years of scientifi c conclusions—from Frederick 

Dean to Barrie Gilbert—seriously. Bane aimed 

to establish NPS policies that were more refl ective of those studies, for he correctly predicted 

that dramatic increases in general visitation to 

Brooks Camp would impact bear use patterns 

and stress other resources, such as fi shing. He, 

like Dean recognized that TV programs and 

magazines articles featuring Katmai were instigating interest in bears. But with the recent 

passage of ANLICA and the popularity of the 

environmental movement around the lower 

48, national media coverage of Alaska bears 

had shift ed from “menacing” to “magnifi cent”. 

Bane also recognized like Dean that attitudes 

of people toward the bears varied greatly. 

“Th ere is the whole gambit from very strong 

interest and a great desire to see and photograph the bears in a more or less serious fashion 

to the perhaps more usual visitor’s attitude that 

seeing a bear is part of the experience that is 

expected from Katmai” wrote Dean in 1967. 

“Beyond these,” the research continued, “there 

is a total disinterest in bears and a consideration of them only as a nuisance and hazard.”70 

Dean’s prediction that the greatest potential 

trouble between bears and humans lies with 

these two groups did not go unnoticed by Katmai’s newest superintendent. 

In following new park rules in place by 

1988, Bane offi cially mandated a one fi sh limit, 

required that all pilots fl y at least 1000 feet 

over the Brooks Camp area, prohibited pilots 

from step-taxiing and taking off within 2000 

feet of the beach, capped the campground to 

sixty campers using a reservation system, engaged more in visitor education, and sought assistance from regional specialists with expertise 

in bear/visitor management. To protect bear 

use of the river during what Gilbert called the 

“critical fall feeding time,” Bane followed biologists’ recommendations from Troyer on: he 

closed the lower Brooks River between the falls 

and the river mouth to all users, even casual 

tourists, aft er September 10, and capped the 

number of guests that each commercial operator could bring to Brooks Camp at that time.71

Like Dean and every bear researcher at 

Brooks Camp since, Ray Bane recognized that 

“bears are a unique resource with needs and 

characteristics that have historically placed 

them in confl ict with humans.” Particularly 

worrisome to the superintendent was the 

combination of a bear’s omnivorous ability to 

“eat anything,” its “childlike curiosity,” and its 

“seemingly risk-free toleration of people.” Bane 

was quite aware that the public’s image of bears 

not only shaped visitor expectations, but that 

these perceptions changed all the time. “Th ere 

are few who are neutral about bears,” wrote 

Bane, “they are either viewed as furry versions 

of “Jaws” or “Gentle Ben.”72 

According to Bane, these visitors were 

drawn by the opportunity to see and photograph bears, but paradoxically, he noted that 

brown bears were growing increasingly sensitive to human disturbance.73 Furthermore, 

Bane observed that when people were in the 

presence of bears that did not pose a threat, 

human behavior was altered. He called this 

modifi ed behavior “reverse habituation.” In 

a letter to Deputy Regional Director Richard 

Stenmark, Bane explained that within a short 

time of their arrival at Brooks Camp, “people 

who arrived in terror of being attacked are confi dently approaching bears or disdainfully dismissing them as nuisances,” adding that agencies can be subjected to reverse habituation, 

too.74 Bane did not mince words about the 

complicated situation taking place at Brooks 

Camp. He stated emphatically that [visitor] 

“increase will further stress the park’s bear management capabilities.”75

In 1988 and 1989, Bane and Deputy 

Director Stenmark exchanged a series of letters about bear management at Brooks. Bane, 

highly concerned about bear-human confl ict 

at Brooks, sent the deputy regional director a 

copy of Barrie Gilbert’s “Brown Bear Behavior 

Progress Report.” Reminding his superintendent of NPS’s dual purpose, Stenmark 

cautioned Bane to “recognize that whatever is 

done involves compromise and a delicate balance between visitor enjoyment and resource 

protection.”76 He then warned Bane that a too 

restrictive management regime might actually 

produce the opposite of its original intention. 

“It is geometrically more diffi cult with each additional management change to determine the 

eff ectiveness of a single management action...” 

wrote Stenmark. 

...Add to this the eff ects of developments on bears, which have not been 

analyzed, and soon you see that a 

single proposed action, however wellthought out, becomes diluted and 

diffi cult to evaluate. Th is results from 
120 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

the complexity of dealing with larger 

numbers of people, man-made structures within a wilderness area, and 

animals as unique and magnifi cent as 

the Alaskan brown bear.77

In spite of the perceptions held by fi shing 

interests and even the deputy regional director, Gilbert commenced his second bear study 

with graduate students Tamara Olson and 

Scott Fitkin in 1988. Olson and Fitkin’s study 

determined that bears not observed to be consistently tolerant of people at fi ft y meters (in 

other words, non-habituated family groups and 

single bears) were most at risk from displacement, and that when allowed unrestricted access to the river (during fi shing and camp closures, for example), these bears responded rapidly by fi shing for longer periods.78 Th e team 

concluded that human proximity—including 

odors, sounds, and visible presence—was a 

signifi cant factor infl uencing bear use of the 

river.79 Although the fi nal report came out in 

1990, the research started by Gilbert in 1988 

continued beyond that date. Olson collected 

additional data through 1991 using the same 

sampling protocol as a seasonal NPS biological 

technician, and again in fall 1992 as a visiting 

graduate researcher. As a result, several publications derived from this work.80 

Meanwhile, issues over late-season fi shing 

once again placed strain on the park’s relationship with the Brooks Camp concessioner. In 

1990 the concessioner requested lengthening 

the lodge season beyond September 10, arguing that the addition of a single day could increase their profi ts by three percent or more.81

Th is request raised signifi cant concerns with 

biologists. In 1991, Olson worried that an extended lodge operating period would negatively impact the long-observed increase in bear 

use during the fall, particularly at the fl oating 

bridge where bears are focused on feeding on 

spawned out salmon that tend to drift downstream and deposit in a number of locations, 

including the vicinity of the bridge. 

When NPS granted the concessioner an 

extension to September 17 in 1992, Gilbert, 

Olson and Ronald Squibb independently went 

out that fall to collect data in order to examine 

the eff ects of extending the operating season 

of the lodge. Th e researchers found that the 

presence of humans late in the fall had a “signifi cant depressive eff ect” on non-habituated 

adult bears attempting to use the river.82 Noting that visitor use of Brooks River had more 

than doubled in the previous decade and that 

the park in general was experiencing an upward 

trend in visitation, the researchers strengthened the case against allowing the lodge to stay 

open, longer.83 Nevertheless, despite the biologists convincing research that fall fi shing likely 

harmed bears, the closing date of September 17 

has continued to present day.

First Steps to Building 

Cultural Resource Capacity

By the 1980s, the park began to make a 

more concerted eff ort to identify Katmai’s cultural resources, with support from the Alaska 

Regional Offi ce staff . Aft er the mid-1970s, 

most of the monument’s archeological activity at Brooks Camp had been conducted by 

NPS archeologists for intermittent compliance 

purposes, rather than continuous and rigorous 

science. Th is was necessary in order to help 

advance Brooks Camp’s growing infrastructure. 

In the early days, however, progress, and certainly the need to update state environmental 

codes and regulations, trumped archeological and historical preservation. Ed Stondall 

recalled that acting Superintendent Roy Sanborn, who ran Katmai between the superintendencies of Gill Blinn and Dave Morris, decided 

to clean up the area around the fi sheries lab 

operation at Brooks Lake in 1979, and in doing 

so, went a bit too far:

When they [NMFS] fi nally turned 

those over [the fi sheries properties] to 

us in the late ‘70s, they left virtually 

everything behind and they had a lot 

of fi shing ropes and elaborate fi sheries 

laboratory equipment and building 

materials and nails and fasteners and 

pipe and just a whole host of materials that were there. And he didn’t get 

rid of all those items, but a good many 

truck loads of those were loaded up 

and taken out and buried in one of 

those pits out there, a major cleaning. Th ere were actually two pieces of 

equipment out there that we picked 

up also. One was a jeep and another 

one was a cleat track tractor. I don’t 

recall what happened to the jeep but 

the cleat track tractor, when we took it 

over, was parked behind what we call 

building BL1, which is the panabode, 

three bedroom panabode residence, 
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 121

closest to the woods up at Brooks 

Lake and he had Ralph Furbush pull it 

with one of our loaders, a John Deere 

450 loader, pull it over to a site near 

our mechanic shed, right now, and 

had him dig a hole over there and bury 

that. So we’ve got a cleat track tractor 

that’s buried over there, which will 

probably make a wonderful fi nd for 

some archeologist about fi ve hundred 

or a thousand years from now.84

“Roy Sanborn obviously did something 

he shouldn’t have done in an archeological district,” admitted Stondall. “He went over there 

and made a big hole and buried that [equipment] and the work also got back to the archeologists and they were steaming.”85

Th ere were other maintenance concerns. 

Aft er ANILCA, for example, very little was 

done to maintain the archeological exhibit, 

even though evidence of vandalism had occurred at one point.86 But at the time, archeologists’ were doing their best to make sure development projects complied with section 106 of 

the National Historic Preservation Act. Beginning in 1982, Alaska Regional Offi ce archeologist Harvey Shields completed the compliance 

work for Brooks Camp concession employees 

housing, known informally as “Tuckerville.” 

Between 1985 and 1987, University of Oregon 

graduate Roger Harritt completed four compliance projects at Brooks, including installation of the Brooks Lake sign board and food 

cache, relocation of the campground outhouse, 

the Brooks Lake Sewer Project, and the relocation of the Brooks Lake shop building.87

Jeanne Schaaf was hired in 1987 as a permanent archeologist at the Alaska Regional 

Offi ce, under Regional compliance archeologist Paul Gleeson. Patricia McClenahan, also 

working for Gleeson, and Schaaf were tasked 

to conduct a litany of compliance work at 

Brooks Camp, which at the time included 

the Brooks Lake sewer upgrade, the alternate 

Brooks Lake leach fi eld clearance, a sewer upgrade at the old USFWS fi sheries lab at Brooks 

Lake, relocation of the visitor center stairs, 

Archeologist Cindy Amdur works 

to salvage Native house site on 

the Cutbank in 1979. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
122 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

the addition to the freezer room at Brooks 

Camp, emergency water line repair, the incinerator building and sewer line hookup, and 

the waterline to the concessioner’s employee 

housing, and the boiler house.88 In addition 

to compliance, Don Dumond remembers that 

fi eldwork in the early 1980s was diffi cult to 

complete with the increasing amount of bears 

on the river:

In 1982-83 they [archeologists working at a site along the river known 

as the Cutbank] were able to work 

full seasons, but by then there were 

enough bears patrolling the river that 

in July especially they had continually to yell at them to keep them from 

stomping right through the site. Th e 

bears did get used to the situation, 

and would jump off the bluff to pass 

the excavation by walking right at the 

edge of the river.89

Until 1992, all cultural resources related 

work was conducted by the Regional Offi ce. 

Paul Gleeson, in an eff ort to compile an accurate map of the surface features (visible house 

depressions) in the Brooks River Archeological District (listed on the National Register in 

1978), sent his compliance archeologists Karlene Leeper and Steve Klingler, to map the area 

in 1991. Th e archeological sites they mapped 

now form the basic GIS dataset for the Brooks 

River archeological district. Patricia McClenahan began writing the National Historic 

Landmark (NHL) nomination for the Archeological District while employed at the Regional 

Offi ce and fi nished it aft er she was hired as the 

park’s fi rst archeologist in 1992. Her eff orts 

resulted in the National Historic Landmark 

designation of the Brooks River Archeological District in 1993. NPS archeologists began 

to work with Katmai staff to avoid further 

impacts to archeological resources within the 

NHL and promoted a “no new ground disturbance” policy aided by the protection provided 

by the nine to eighteen inch layers of ash from 

the 1912 eruption of Novarupta.90 Ground 

disturbance was kept within or above the ash, 

or restricted to previous ground disturbance 

that was clearly recognizable to archeologists 

as a change or disturbance in the nearly white, 

uniform ash deposit.

McClenahan worked to bring the agency 

more fully into compliance with Section 106 

of the National Historic Preservation Act by 

conducting consultation with affi liated Native groups. Th is required some planning in 

Expansion of the lodge to 

accommodate a freezer addition 

resulted in the partial excavation 

of a Native house site in the early 

1980s. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 123

advance of the ground-disturbing work, a 

requirement not readily accommodated by 

maintenance staff . She also saw beyond Brooks 

Camp needs and developed cultural resource 

project statements for the park’s 1994 Resource 

Management Plan that outlined baseline studies needed in the areas of ethnography, collections management, history, historic structures 

and archeology for Katmai and Aniakchak.91 

Attempting to repair, replace and operate 

within Brooks Camp’s aging infrastructure 

was stressful for maintenance and interpretation staff who each year had to base operations 

out of historic administrative structures and 

to complete work projects within increasingly 

restrictive parameters protective of natural and 

cultural resources. “It was not very many years 

ago that there was a blanket statement out by 

the archeologists that if we [maintenance] did 

any ground disturbing activity that did not 

penetrate the ash layer that they didn’t need to 

be involved at all,” explained Stondall. “And 

there is now a rule that you literally can’t touch 

anything out there without having it looked 

at.”92 Th is in part was due to liberties taken 

by maintenance with penetrating the ash layer 

into the pre-1912 eruption ground surface below and widening existing trenches.93 

The Space between Bears and People 

becomes Harder to Defi ne

Th e archeological investigations at Katmai 

brought to light the long history of the Brooks 

River area as a cultural landscape. Th rough the 

combined work of Don Dumond, regional offi ce archeologists, and park personnel, at least 

nine hundred house depressions and older 

camps were identifi ed, making the Brooks River 

area one of the most dense concentrations of 

prehistoric settlements known in North America.94 Th e distribution of the house features, 

from the oldest to most recent, also helped researchers decipher the Brooks River area’s geologic and hydrologic history.95 Archeologists 

working in the Brooks River area over the decades gained insight into the mysterious Arctic 

Small Tool tradition and the lifeways of people 

who lived along the river about 3,800 to 3,000 

years ago. Th ey also discovered the cultural 

remains of four other distinct archeological traditions, revealing that the Brooks River area has 

been a hub of human activity for millennia. 

The space between bears and people 

was becoming harder to defi ne by 

the end of the 1980s. Here anglers 

and a bear compete for space on the 

river. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
124 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Th e changing visitor activities in the 

Brooks River area and visitors’ growing emboldened behavior around bears began to make 

the management aim of keeping people and 

bears separated far more diffi cult. Even with 

the implementation of a bear management 

plan in 1983, people continued to compete 

with bears for river space. To the sport-fi shers 

and guides, however, the park’s bear-human 

concerns on the Brooks River were not simply caused by anglers. With the passage of 

ANILCA sport-fi shers and NPS mangers 

alike began to witness an additional source of 

competition on the river—visitors and other 

wilderness enthusiasts with cameras.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 125

ENDNOTES

1

 Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 

272-279.

2

 Sellers, Preserving Nature in National Parks: A History, 211. 3

 Ibid.

4

 In fall 1979 Morris replaced Roy Sanborn, who served as acting superintendent of Katmai 

National Monument during summer 1979.

5

 They were supported by fourteen seasonal workers, many of whom were stationed at 

Brooks Camp from May to September. 

6

 ANILCA also created Alagnak Wild River and Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve 

which came under Katmai’s management at the same time.

7

 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 199-200. Historian Frank Norris points out that expenditures resulting 

in new Brooks Camp improvements made sense, given that “Brooks Camp was where the 

increasing number of visitors spent time at Katmai.” Personal communication, 2-14-2010.

8

 The Alaska Area Offi ce became the Alaska Regional Offi ce in December 1980. 9

 “Katmai/Aniakchak Staff to 1997,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1997.

10 Ed Stondall, interviewed by Bill Hanable, 9-15-1989.

11 Letter, To Gilbert Blinn, From Harry Rietze, January 13, 1977.

12 “Transfer of Property,” National Marine Fisheries Service, 1978.

13 Letter, To William J. McNeil, National Marine Fisheries Service, From Gilbert E. Blinn, 

Superintendent, December 6, 1976.

14 Ibid.

15 NPS, “Combined Environmental Assessment and Development Concept Plans for 

Concession Facilities, Operations and Services Within the Brooks Camp and Grosvenor 

Camp Areas,” Katmai National Monument, Alaska, 1980; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 196. 16 Katmailand Inc. purchased the Katmai concession operation from Wien Consolidated 

Airlines in 1982.

17 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 197-198. 18 Ed Stondall, interviewed by Bill Hanabale, 9-15-1989.

19 “Katmai/Aniakchak Staff, to 1997,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1997.

20 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 202. 21 Ibid, 230-231.

22 Ibid.

23 According to DeBruyn, this numbers comes from data accumulated by Singer (1982), 

Squibb 1991), bear management report forms, and case incident records. 

24 NPS, “Draft Resource Management Plan,” (1982), 30.

25 Ibid., 31.

26 Ibid., 30-31.

27 Joan B. Beattie, “Brown Bear/Human Interactions at Katmai National Park and Preserve: 

Implications for Planning and Management,” (B.A. thesis, University of California, 1983), v.

28 Beattie, 326

29 Dave Robison and Sheridith Robison, “Planning Towards a Wilderness Park: Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, Alaska,” (B.A. thesis, University of California, 1983), 17-18.

30 Ibid., 47.

31 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 325. 32 “Bear Management Plan,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, (1983): 5.

33 “Bear Management Plan,” 8.

34 Ibid, 5.

35 Ibid, 9.

36 Kathy Jope, “Monitoring of Salmon Passage at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park and 

Preserve,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1985.

37 Eicher, “History of the Bristol Bay Investigation, 1938-1956,” (1967).

38 “Superintendent annual report, 1986.”

39 Carl Burger, James Lundeen, and Anders Danielson, “Biological and Hydrological 

Evaluations of the Fish Ladder at Brooks River Falls, Alaska, US Fish & Wildlife Service, (June 1, 

1985): 6-7.

40 “Brooks Falls Fish Ladder, Katmai National Park and Preserve,” Environmental Assessment 

Draft, (May, 1987).

41 Ibid.

42 Based on recent fi sh counts at the falls by park rangers, it appears that more and more 

salmon are moving up the ladder rather than jumping the falls. Some fi nd this alarming, 

postulating that Brooks Camp’s the main attraction—bears catching fi sh at the fall—may, 

in fact, be disappearing. Personal communication with longtime Brooks Camp bear 

technician Imes Vaughn, June, 2012.
126 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

43 Letter, To George R. Snyder, Auke Bay Laboratory Director, From William R. Heard, Program 

Manager, May 21, 1986.

44 Ibid.

45 Letter, To Carl Burgar, Fish and Wildlife Service, from Theodore Merrell, Jr. Manager, Habitat 

Investigations, December 20, 1985. 

46 Kathy Jope, interviewed by Chris Allen, 12-7-2006.

47 “General Management Plan/Land Protection Plan/Wilderness Suitability Review,” Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, (1986): 31.

48 Ibid., 31-32.

49 Ibid., 32.

50 Ibid., 47, 31.

51 Christopher G. Ryan, “Brown Bear-Visitor Confl icts at Katmai National Park: Some 

Suggestions for Management,” Washington State University, (1986): 22, 26.

52 Dale Vinson, personal communication, 3, 2010.

53 Ibid., 22, 23.

54 Kathy Jope, “Use of Interpretation to Prevent Bear Incidents in Katmai National Park,” 

Courier, (February 1987). 55 Ibid.

56 Susan H. Warner, Patterns of Brown Bear and Visitor Use of Brooks River and 

Recommendations for Management [draft], (December 1987): 3; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 

327.

57 “General Management Plan/Land Protection Plan/Wilderness Suitability Review,” 31-32.

58 Ibid.

59 Norris, Tourism, 115. 60 “General Management Plan,” 31-32.

61 Ibid., 32.

62 “General Management Plan,” 31.

63 For more critical viewpoints see Bo Bennett’s Rod &Wings: A History of the Fishing Lodge 

Business in Bristol Bay, Alaska (Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000). 64 Sonny Petersen interviewed by Tim Rawson, 7-8-2008.

65 In his book, Bo Bennett titled the section of NPS bear research, “Are the Inmates Running 

the Asylum?” This highlights the distrustful attitudes some fi shermen hold towards the federal 

government. Rods &Wings, 333. 66 Ibid., 305.

67 Raymond “Sonny” Petersen interviewed by Tim Rawson, 7-8-2008.

68 Barrie Gilbert and Anne M. Braaten, “Profi le Analysis of Human-Bear Relationships in Katmai 

National Park and Preserve,” Utah State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and 

the Ecology Center, Logan, Utah,( 1987): 10.

69 Ibid., 61, 64.

70 Dean, 13-14.

71 To Deputy Regional Director Richard Stenmark, from Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane, 

January 19, 1989. 

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid.

76 To Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane, from Acting Deputy Regional Director, May 2, 1988.

77 To Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane, from Acting Deputy Regional Director, April 18, 1988.

78 Tamara Olson, Barrie Gilbert and Scott Fitkin, “Brown Bear Behavior and Human Activity at 

Salmon Streams in Katmai National Park, Alaska.” Logan, Utah State University. (1990): 104.

79 Olson, et al., 107.

80 See Tamara Olson and Ronald Squibb, “Brown Bear Behavior at Brooks River, Katmai 

National Park, Final Report,” 1991; Tamara Olson, “Bear Behavior Brooks River,” 1991; Tamara 

Olson, Barrie Gilbert and Ronald Squibb, “The Effects of Increasing Human Activity on Brown 

Bear Use of an Alaskan River,” 1993. Olson, T.L., B.K. Gilbert, and R.C. Squibb. 1997. “The 

effects of increasing human activity on brown bear use of an Alaskan river.” Biol. Conserv. 

82:95-99.Olson, T.L., R.C. Squibb, and B.K. Gilbert. 1997. “A comparison of brown bear 

activity on salmon streams with and without people.” Ursus 10:547-555. Olson, T.L., and B.K. 

Gilbert. 1994. “Variability in habitat use, movements, and activity of brown bears on an 

Alaskan river.” Internat. Conf. Bear Res. and Manage. 9:97-106. Olson, T.L. 1993. “Infanticide 

in brown bears (Ursus arctos) at Brooks River, Alaska.” Can. Field Nat. 107(1):92-94. 81 Olson and Squibb, “Summary of Information RE. Fall Closing Date of Brooks Lodge,” 1990.

82 Tamara L. Olson, Barrie K. Gilbert, and Ronald C. Squibb, “The Effects of Increasing Human 

Activity on Brown Bear Use of an Alaskan River [Draft],” 1993, 21.

83 Ibid., 2, 31.
 Chapter Six: A New Park and Preserve: Improvements, Plans, Programs and Politics 127

84 Ed Stondall, interviewed by Bill Hanable, 9-15-1989.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 “List of Katmai Compliance Numbers and related Accession Numbers,” Katmai National 

Park and Preserve.

88 Ibid.

89 Don Dumond, personal communication, March, 2010.

90 Jeanne Schaaf, personal communication, 2012.

91 Ibid.

92 Dale Vinson, “Bears, Fish, Archeology, and Deferred Maintenance at Brooks Camp, 

Katmai National Park and Preserve,” in Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World: 

Proceedings of the 2007 CWS Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural 

Sites, Hancock Michigan: The George Wright Society, 2008. 93 Ed Stondall, interviewed by Bill Hanable, 9-15-1989.

94 Brooks is recognized as one of the top most important places in the state for learning 

about American prehistory. The Brooks River Area is both a National Historic Landmark and 

a National Register of Historic Places Archeological District, one of only fi ve places in Alaska 

that bear both designations.

95 Don Dumond, Archeology on the Alaska Peninsula: The Naknek Region, 1960-1975, 

University of Oregon Anthropology Papers No. 21 (Eugene, OR, 1981).
128 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

To protect Brooks Camp’s wilderness value, 

Superintendent Dave Morris suggested that 

visitors look beyond bears for a “wilderness 

experience”. Pictured is a hiker seeking 

solitude in the Valley of Ten Thousand 

Smokes. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

To protect Brooks Camp’s wilderness value, 

Superintendent Dave Morris suggested that 

visitors look beyond bears for a “wilderness 

experience”. Pictured is a hiker seeking 

solitude in the Valley of Ten Thousand 

Smokes. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

Toprotect BrooksCamp’s wilderness value,

SuperintendentDave Morrissuggested that

visitorslook beyondbears for a “wilderness

experience”. Pictured i s a hiker seeking

solitudeinthe Valley of Ten Thousand

Smokes. KATM S lides Archive, Records

ofKatmai National Parkand Preserve,

Anchora Anchorage, Alaska. ge, Alaska.

To protect Brooks Camp’s wilderness value, 

Superintendent Dave Morris suggested that 

visitors look beyond bears for a “wilderness 

experience”. Pictured is a hiker seeking 

solitude in the Valley of Ten Thousand 

Smokes. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 129

About fi ve minutes later, a bigger bear, which I have never seen, came down wind out 

of the brush and pounced on the smaller bear. Within a minute, the small bear was 

completely torn apart. About this time I had my people assembled and heading down 

the river. Th e last I saw was the larger bear ripping at the small bear’s throat.

Th e photographers remained at the scene to take pictures.

 ~Craig Otto, Fishing Guide 

 Statement to NPS Ranger

 July 23, 1970

“Excited with Seeing Bears so Close”

In late summer 1973, ranger Steve Buskirk 

described an “invasion” of Brooks Camp by 

bears in a letter to the NPS Alaska Support 

offi ce in Anchorage. Buskirk’s letter not only 

indicated that emboldened bear activity was 

increasing around areas inhabited by people, 

but also revealed peoples’ perspective of bears 

and the blurring line between human and bear 

country. According to Buskirk, they came at 

night, “terrorizing” camp, making both visitors 

and employees feel exceedingly “jumpy,” “emotional” and “irrational.” As Buskirk put it, “I 

was frankly frightened at night myself.”1

Superintendent Gilbert Blinn reasoned 

aft erwards that “Bears are a natural part of the 

Katmai community. ... [But] at the same time, 

visitors and employees should be able to walk 

around developed areas and campgrounds 

in reasonable safety, without fearing a bear 

encounter as they walk between buildings.”2

As previously mentioned (chapter six), NPS 

responded to the so-called late summer “invasion” fi rst with a series of ad hoc strategies to 

fi x the immediate problem. Facing the monument leaders were unanswered questions, articulated by Dean in 1967:

Do we want people to come into 

close contact with bears? If so, what 

level of probability is an acceptable 

minimum? Should every visitor who 

comes to the monument have essentially a guarantee of seeing brown 

bears? Or, should he have just a good 

Chapter Seven:

Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: 

Wildlife Watchers

chance of seeing one individual? 

Should he be given the opportunity 

if he so desires to get within a matter of yards of brown bears? Or 

perhaps even a matter of feet? But, 

at any rate, should he be given the opportunity for close observation and 

study? Should the visitor and worker 

in the park be absolutely guaranteed 

that he will be free from any hazard 

connected with bears? Should he be 

guaranteed complete freedom from 

any damage to his property by bears? 

Should he be guaranteed the opportunity to conduct his activities with 

essential freedom from modifi cation 

required by the presence of bears?3

To lay groundwork for the future, the 

agency put into motion steps that would 

become Katmai fi rst bear management plan. 

When Kathy Jope authored the 1983 plan, she 

articulated the park’s management philosophy 

concerning bears. Like Dean’s “human country,” Jope included all areas in the immediate 

vicinity of Brooks Lodge, the Brooks Lake 

residences, the campground, and all structures, including the Brooks River Bridge and 

the Brooks Falls viewing platform. Together, 

they formed what she termed the park’s “front 

country.” “Bear country” or what Jope referred 

to as “back country” included the Brooks Lake 

Road, the fl oodplain of Brooks River, Naknek 

Lake Beach, and all other areas of the park 

and preserve.4

 By 1984, the term “Developed 
130 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Areas” was used to describe the front country 

area, referring to the buildings and cabins in 

the vicinity.

In 1983, bear management actions included visitor education, elimination of human 

food and garbage, removing problem bears 

from developed areas, and peppering bears 

frequenting those areas or that had obtained 

anthropogenic food with #9 bird shot from a 

12 gauge shotgun.5

 Th e plan seemed simple 

enough: by using a variety of methods and 

tools, the agency’s goals were to “allow their 

[the bears’] natural patterns of feeding and 

habitat use to continue unimpeded, preclude 

the learned orientation of bears to people, and 

minimize bear human confrontations.”6

 But 

as Brooks Camp entered the 1980s, visitor and 

employee perspectives of bears had changed, 

so that separating human and bears was an 

increasingly hard goal for bear management 

personnel to achieve.

When Dave and Sheridith Robison wrote 

“Planning Towards a Wilderness Park: Katmai 

National Park and Preserve” in the 1980s, 

the student researchers noted that visitation 

at the Brooks Camp campground alone had 

increased from 168 in 1970 to 913 in 1982 

(an increase of 550% in 12 years).7

 Because of 

this rise, the researchers argued that, “NPS’s 

excellent orientation program,” created to limit 

bear-people interactions at Brooks Camp, (in 

other words to educate people to properly behave in “bear country”) was becoming increasingly ineff ective, for the visitor’s absorption of 

the information “was only possible because of 

the low visitation rate.”8

 With such a boost in 

visitor numbers to Brooks Camp, the researchers concluded that a simple solution to reducing human-bear confl ict did not exist.

To the Robisons, the rising number of 

people visiting Brooks Camp was only a part 

of the problem. Complicating the situation 

was also visitors’ unrealistic expectation of 

walking among grizzlies in their natural habitat, and, perhaps most problematic, what NPS 

should be doing to satisfy that expectation. 

According to on-site interviews conducted 

in 1981, some came to fi sh and see the Valley, 

but primarily, visitors were mostly “excited 

with seeing bears so close”, indicating a marked 

change in perspective over the decade.9

 Aft er 

reading brochures and seeing park advertisements, visitors arrived not only expecting 

“to see bears” but perceived the situation at 

Brooks Camp to be how wild bears existed in a 

more primitive America.

Fueling visitors’ primeval expectations was 

the recognition of Brooks Camp as a prime 

bear watching destination just as the environmental movement peaked in America. Th e 

nation’s embrace of wilderness and its wild animals, especially in Alaska, coupled with rising 

bear numbers at Brooks Camp, conspired to 

drive visitors’ high, unrealistic, and ultimately, 

unsustainable expectations. By the mid-1980s, 

many arriving visitors saw their “Brooks Camp 

experience” to be synonymous with a “wilderness experience,” and instead of fearing bears 

Hoping to see “a bear up close” is 

a misguided goal for many visitors 

at Brooks Camp. Shown here are 

photographers taking pictures of a 

bear sometime in 1980. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 131

(or viewing them as nuisances the way anglers 

had in earlier decades), those visitors saw the 

wild animals as the sole inspiration for their 

visit.10 In 1979, for example, parents felt safe 

enough to camp at the Brooks River campground with their children. One family with 

a toddler arrived in a klepper on a backcountry trip around Naknek Lake, while another 

brought a three month baby girl, which reportedly slept in a “basket-cradle covered with 

mosquito netting which they hung from a tree 

in their campsite for natural rocking motion.”11

Dozens of articles, fi lms, and books featured 

Katmai’s bears; it was, in the words of one observer, “where the wild things are.”12 As David 

Morris, Katmai’s superintendent during the 

peak of ANILCA-inspired conservationism, 

reasoned, “People wanted to come [to Brooks 

Camp] because ... Brooks Camp encapsulates 

all the things Alaska is celebrated for.”13

Th e American public’s positive response 

to the expanded wilderness acreage provided 

and preserved by ANILCA, and other federal 

laws passed to protect wilderness and wildlife, 

acted to reinforce many visitors’ perceptions of 

bears, nature, and Alaska. Floatplanes allowed 

for unprecedented access to see bears in their 

natural habitat. Upon arrival at Brooks Camp, 

visitors felt that they were entering “a small 

community in a huge, remote, and unspoiled 

wilderness.”14 As writer Bill Sherwonit later 

remarked, “Within three decades [Brooks 

Camp] had transformed from a sleepy fi sherman’s paradise into today’s Wild Kingdom 

photo op.”15

Th e increasing number of tourists coming 

to see bears forced NPS and the concessioner 

to enhance visitor services for both comfort 

and safety reasons. Th is development of 

Brooks Camp paradoxically aff ected visitors’ 

“Brooks Camp experience,” for the perceived 

advancement of humans into “bear country” 

negatively impacted the area’s wilderness features. Brooks Camp’s increasing popularity 

with bear watchers, its increasing bear population, and visitors’ primal expectations in terms 

of their “Brooks Camp experience,” combined 

to create a signifi cant problem for NPS personnel trying their best to manage the situation. 

Th e NPS dilemma of managing bears 

and tourists coming to camp with unrealistic 

and unsafe expectations did not develop overnight. It was created over decades within the 

larger story of Katmai’s early tourism and park 

administration. Decisions made by NPS and 

the concessioner to address pertinent issues 

Katmai Staff in 1987. Top Row: Ralph 

Furbush, Lester Dietrich, Ed Prusak, 

Bernadette Ross, Kathy Hess, Ron 

Antaya, Wyn Menfee, Leigh Selig, 

Kerre Nest, Susan Warner, Dave 

Shirokahker, Laura Weip, Chris Ryan. 

Bottom Row: Al Gauch, Lee Taylor, Joe 

Mechan, Hal Grovert, Michael Clark, 

Kathy Jope, and Mike Shapsnikoff. 

KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #302), 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
132 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

and needs at the time were clearly reasonable, oft en necessary, but they had unforeseen 

consequences. Particularly, marketing and 

publicity campaigns designed to capitalize on 

the nation’s changing views towards nature 

contributed to the transformation of Brooks 

Camp’s image from a “fi shing camp” to a “wilderness camp” in the 1960s and 1970s. Th e 

change accommodated more visitors, and 

certainly helped to embellish their expectations once they arrived.16 Consequently, the 

park’s original bear management plan that 

was designed to reduce bear-human interactions by separating people from bears was 

unachievable from the moment it was implemented because visitors wanted—in fact, 

they expected—to be immersed in wild and 

untouched “bear country,” and mostly, desired 

to see them up close. Seeking a long-term solution to protect bears and enhance the visitor 

Tourist taking photo of bear resting 

on the beach in mid-1980s. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. #574, PH31), 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska. 

Tourist watching sow with yearling in 

1984. KATM Photo Archive (Acc. #574, 

PH31), Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 133

experience at Brooks Camp would become 

the decade’s most signifi cant challenge, but, it 

should also be noted the problem of people’s 

perceptions of bears was created when visitors 

were fi rst lured to Katmai.

Creating a Wilderness Park 

for the Symbolic Grizzly

Prior to Mission 66, agency policies and 

management decisions created a kind of frontier ambiance in Alaska parks, with the use of 

a rustic style of architecture in park buildings, 

particularly, gable-roofed log buildings that 

projected an image of frontier living.17 Architectural development tended to follow Servicewide trends, but the reality was that a frontier 

style was less expensive. For the most part, the 

sheer lack of money available to NPS (brought 

on by lack of visitation and isolation) prevented Washington D.C. offi cials from playing 

a stronger hand in building construction. Th e 

ranger station, the visitor center, and to some 

extent, the numerous panabode cabins best 

refl ect the frontier ambiance and rustic style of 

architecture at Brooks Camp.18

Between 1954 and 1960, NPS and the 

concessioner operated in tandem in the utilization of Alaska’s frontier image to lure a larger 

percentage of the traveling American public to 

Katmai (chapter one). While modern America 

raced towards a “New Frontier” at the end of 

the 1950s, advertising campaigns marketed 

Alaska as the “Last Frontier,” which evoked to 

a quickly changing society a nostalgic connection to the past. Th ese promotional campaigns 

attracted a diff erent type of visitor to Alaska—

one who wanted to experience more than 

superior hunting and fi shing. NPS planners 

predicted correctly that these tourists, whom 

they called “tomorrow’s visitors,” would soon 

be traveling to Katmai, not for sport but rather 

“to see the many natural wonders the monument off ers.”19

Th e growth of appreciation for nature resulted from the increasing desire to directly experience Alaska, particularly the Last Frontier’s 

Marketing campaigns designed to 

capitalize on the nation’s changing 

views of nature contributed to the 

transformation of Brooks Camp’s 

image from a “fi shing camp” to a 

“Wilderness camp” in the 1960s 

and 1970s. By the 1980s the bear 

watchers saw Brooks Camp as one of 

the premier places to see the iconic 

brown bear up close. Photographed 

by Jim Gavin, National Park Service.
134 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

main attribute—pristine wilderness—a luxury 

quickly disappearing in the modern world. 

Because the great majority of Alaska’s national parklands were wild, places like Brooks 

Camp—which off ered some amenities—welcomed visitors who did not need the skills 

and recreational equipment required of most 

backcountry users. Th us, for visitors seeking 

scenic beauty and wild animals at Katmai, 

escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life 

was relatively easy. At multi-faceted areas like 

Brooks Camp, explains NPS historian William 

Brown, “It d[id] not take the full-scale wilderness plunge to fi nd places where the land sets 

its terms and people conform to them.”20

Katmai’s concessioner, Ray Petersen, 

though very much focused on fi shing, began 

early on to solicit clients interested in activities 

related to the frontier image. To do so, Ray 

Petersen also embarked on a campaign strategy 

that evoked Alaska’s wild, frontier spirit. During the winter of 1950-51, Petersen hired a 

local homesteader, trapper, and hunting guide, 

Rufus Knox “Bill” Hammersly, to convey Katmai’s wild and rugged-frontier spirit to potential clients. Th e Nonvianuk Lake homesteader 

toured the United States, telling rugged tales 

about life in Katmai to radio and television 

audiences.21 Tall, rough, and sporting a full, 

graying beard, Hammersly personifi ed the image of an Alaskan pioneer. He lived a solitary, 

yet adventuring life, and maintained the skills 

to survive in Katmai’s wilderness. By 1954, Petersen was marketing to guests a “last frontier 

experience” by fl ying them out on sightseeing 

excursions to Native fi sh camps located on the 

nearby Alagnak River.22 Th us, Katmai, with its 

remote setting, abundant wildlife, and picturesque scenery, became Alaska’s ideal frontier 

park, a coveted isolated paradise. 

Before 1949, Katmai National Monument 

was closed to the public, and the agency had 

spent years trying to justify the necessity of 

retaining the monument to Alaska’s territorial 

leaders and vocal public. Aft er Petersen established Angler’s Paradise in 1950, NPS was able 

to put to rest a signifi cant problem. With an 

increasing number of visitors by the end of the 

1950s, NPS’s major concern was not how many 

were coming, but rather, how and where those 

tourists would eventually be accommodated. 

As Mount McKinley superintendent 

Duane Jacobs noted, “It should be the continuing objective of the National Park Service to 

emphasize to a lesser degree [Brooks River] 

and to encourage travel into the monument for 

its many other values and attractions.”23 

Geographical diversifi cation, however, did 

not occur, due primarily to the fact that activity diversifi cation did. Brooks River would 

become to an American public raised on the 

Wild World of Disney a place—a symbol—of 

“where the wild things” dwelled, and therefore 

was the park’s main draw. Consequently, if 

not paradoxically, its development into a front 

country operation continued. Ray Petersen’s 

infl uence in the highest political circles accomplished his desire to build the road to the 

Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes, which not 

only cemented Brooks Camp as Katmai’s visitor hub, but it foreshadowed the all-important 

impact that politics would have in shaping the 

park’s future. 

Th e establishment of Brooks Camp by 

NCA may have been NPS’s justifi cation for 

opening Katmai National Monument to the 

public, but in just ten years the symbiotic relationship between the two parties began to 

go in divergent, philosophical directions. In 

1960, the agency’s plans for managing tourists 

began to take shape. Shift ing NPS policies 

regarding Brooks Camp in the early 1960s 

refl ected a larger paradigm shift within the 

agency about how humans should experience 

nature. Th e transition from the developmentoriented activities of the Mission 66 program 

to one dictated by the Leopold Report and the 

management strategy of “natural regulation” 

shows the infl uence of the culturally and politically integrated conservation movement. Aft er 

the U.S. Congress passed the Wilderness Act in 

1964, the philosophical values of Katmai began to revolve around the knowledge that such 

a large tract of wild land, encompassing whole 

ecosystems, was relatively uninfl uenced by human activities.24 

Indeed, the task to establish “aesthetic 

conservation” as mandated by Mission 66, 

and underscored by the construction of the 

road to the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes in 

the early 1960s, gave visitors more reasons for 

coming to Katmai than just angling, but it also 

represented the expanding of Brooks Camp’s 

footprint. Continued seasonal additions to 

the visitor activity off erings during that decade 

transformed the camp in ways that would 

seem familiar today, with the lodge and service 

facilities, campground and trails, and interpretive programs off ered to visitors.25 Even in 

the early 1950s, journalists were describing 
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 135

the comfort aff orded to tourists at what was 

then considered a rustic Brooks Camp. “Th e 

Katmai Camps,” reported the Christian Science 

Monitor, “are very comfortable.... From the 

moment the tourist arrives he fi nds his wants 

supplied by effi cient, well-trained hosts. Th e 

tents have oil furnaces. Superb fi shing—best 

in the world, many say—may be had at these 

camps.”26 But the increasing numbers of visitors and staff to deal with them by the end of 

the 1960s revealed the shortcomings of the 

Brooks Camp site: limited area for buildings, 

chronic sewage problems, increasing evidence 

of cultural sites under the vegetation, and the 

interference of the camp facilities with bear 

travel routes to and from the north side of the 

river and to Naknek Lake. 

While park staff responded to daily concerns in Brooks Camp, events were unfolding 

throughout the nation that brought attention to Katmai’s mission and its status as an 

increasingly popular tourist destination. In 

the decades following World War II, suburbs 

sprawled, industry grew, and logging and dam 

construction progressed at unprecedented 

rates. Consequently, some Americans began 

to seek places far removed from urban centers. 

Th e combination of the postwar economic 

boom and a new ecological consciousness 

sparked a wave of middle-class visitors to Katmai—the baby boomers, who as children, had 

developed a romantic, almost Edenistic view 

of nature. Th e baby boomer generation sought 

what they considered vanishing wilderness 

and, more specifi cally, one of its most enduring 

North American symbols—the grizzly bear.27 

Th e baby boomer tourists outfi tted themselves with modern recreational equipment 

and were transported to Alaska’s wild places 

by an expanding eco-tourism industry. Th ese 

backpack-tourists were intrigued and drawn to 

Alaska by a fl ood of publicity calling attention 

to the North. Th ey read Mardy Murie’s book, 

Two in the Far North, published in 1972, and 

John McPhee’s national best seller Coming 

Into the Country, published in 1977, both of 

which became classic narratives of wilderness 

adventure.28 In 1979, Katmai superintendent, 

Gilbert Blinn wrote a foreword to Dave Bohn’s 

nature odyssey, Rambles Th rough an Alaskan 

Wild, underscoring the public’s changed attitudes towards wilderness, generally, and Katmai, specifi cally:

Katmai National Monument is fi rst 

of all a wilderness landscape, a place 

where the imprint of wildlife is greater 

than that of people, where clear lakes 

and rivers abound, where nearly two 

hundred miles of coastline bear little 

sign of man, and where steaming volcanoes rise above the entire scene. It 

is a land of uncrowded spaciousness, a 

place where people can experience wilderness on its own terms without the 

distraction of hordes of other visitors. 

Brooks Camp’s Historic Ranger Station 

is now used by NPS as a visitor center. 

The building’s log-cabin architectural 

design refl ects the frontier image 

adopted by both the concessioner 

and NPS in the 1950s. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska. 
136 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Former biologist Will Troyer 

captures “The Shot” at 

the Brooks Falls in 1999. 

Courtesy of Will Troyer.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 137

It is a place where time and change are 

measured by the sun, the tides, and the 

seasons rather than clocks and calendars. Katmai, in short, is an experience set in the wild, and perhaps it is 

even a frame of mind.29

Th is shift in attitude refl ected a transformation in national parks where wilderness 

values began to trump the need for human 

accommodation. Th ese new visitors tended to 

share a wilderness ethic espoused by advocates 

of a national environmental movement that led 

to passage of federal laws such as the Wilderness Act of 1964, the National Environmental 

Policy Act of 1969, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973, along with the establishment 

of the infl uential NPS polices such as the 

“Wildlife Management in the National Parks,” 

otherwise known as the “Leopold Report” and 

the National Academy of Sciences’ Robbins 

Report, both published in 1963. By the 1970s, 

the U.S. Congress recognized that “wilderness 

status [would] enhance and preserve these 

exceptional values.” And that wilderness designation would off er “the brown bears and other 

wildlife of the [park], and their habitats, the 

highest degree of protection available under 

federal law.” A proposal for Katmai National 

Park stated poignantly that without more federal protection the very survival of Katmai’s 

brown bears was at risk:

Th e Alaskan brown bear, largest and 

noblest predatory beast that yet roams 

the earth may come to depend on 

Katmai National Monument and its 

surroundings as his last big sanctuary 

from the pressures of civilization. ... 

Katmai is, perhaps, one of the last places on earth where the brown bear still 

reigns over an unspoiled wilderness.”

Th e 1975 proposal advocated that, 

“As a national park, Katmai would remain 

a stunningly beautiful land where one of 

America’s most fascinating animals could live, 

unharmed and just as man fi rst found him.” 

Th us, to protect the species and preserve 

other aspects of natural history that have 

national signifi cance, the author(s) argued 

that “major addition to Katmai” needed 

to be added “with the area designated as a 

national park.”30 For these reasons, in 1980 

Congress designated 3,473,000 acres, or over 

eighty percent of Katmai—as wilderness to 

be included as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.31 By January 1983, 

just three years aft er Katmai was made into a 

national park and preserve by ANILCA, its 

planning team acknowledged that there was 

a “strong desire to see Katmai managed as a 

wilderness park.”32 

Of the remaining lands within the park 

boundary, only 176,592 acres were deemed 

unsuitable for designated wilderness. Because 

of their use by motorboats and amphibious 

aircraft , Naknek Lake and its arms, as well as 

Brooks Lake, were not proposed for wilderness. 

In addition, development at Brooks Camp 

prevented it from wilderness designation. Although the concentration of bears at Brooks 

Falls made Brooks Camp a seemingly once-ina-lifetime wildlife spectacle, the area was never 

considered for designation as wilderness, but 

rather, sat on the threshold of it. 

“The Shot”: Seeking the Wild Things 

In 1988, nature photographer Tom Mangelsen camped for a week at the Brooks Camp, 

waiting for “the bears to arrive, the salmon to 

leap the falls, and the rain to stop.”33 Call it 

serendipity, luck, patience, skill, experience, 

or vision—but in one moment, it all came 

together. Entitled “Th e Catch of the Day,” 

Mangelsen’s perfectly timed photo of a sockeye salmon leaping into the waiting jaws of an 

Alaskan brown bear forever became known to 

photographers as “the shot.” Twenty years later, professionals and amateurs alike still come 

to Brooks Camp hoping for a chance to reproduce it. Even if that means pushing bears—not 

to mention pushing other bear viewers off the 

platform—to do so.

Photographers and wildlife watchers, in 

recent years, have been pushing the boundary 

between people and bears, and consequently, 

adding to the bear management concerns at 

Brooks Camp. Photographer Matthias Breiter attempted to explain the motives for his 

profession in 2000. In his book Th e Bears of 

Katmai: Alaska’s Famous Brown Bears, Breiter 

describes the excitement and awareness he feels 

while photographing bears: “For a few moments, the play of light and shadow captures 

all my attention. Th e world around exists only 

on the very periphery of my awareness. Th en 

the sound of steps in the sand penetrates my 

concentration, and my focus widens.”34 Bo 

Bennett, guide and lodge manager for Angler’s 
138 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Paradise, believes that is the problem. “People 

carrying cameras are much more likely [than 

anglers] to push the rules of safe conduct in 

bear country to get a better photograph,” writes 

Bennett. “Camera-toting people seldom stand 

in the rivers giving the bears the sense they are 

fi shing. Shutterbugs quite oft en try to get too 

close, wait too long before yielding ground, 

and may give bears the impression that they 

are being stalked.”35 So, similar to the angler 

focused only on the end of the line, Bennett 

felt that photographers are just as, and arguably far more, hazardous on the Brooks River. 

Th e dividing philosophies between anglers and 

photographers were so obvious in 1995, that 

visiting travel writer Philip Greenspun, observed: “Two kinds of people come to Katmai: 

(1) photographers who can’t understand why 

a grown man would pay $5,000 to fl y up here 

and spend two weeks standing up to his hips 

in icy water in order to catch and release 20 

slimy fl opping salmon; and (2) fi sherman who 

can’t understand why anyone would lug 50 

pounds of equipment one mile and then sit all 

day taking pictures No. 1,437,213 through No. 

1,437,896 of Katmai bears.”36

Writer T.H. Watkins once likened our 

photographic obsession to a modern expression of the ancient urge to hunt—whether 

pulling a trigger or triggering a shutter, we let 

go with the same “Got’im!”37 Th e photographer has, in several respects, replaced the 

hunter, and like the angler, they create numerous problems for bear management at Brooks 

Camp. Although some photographers like 

Breiter claim that photography sharpens their 

awareness, more times than not, a photographer, so intent on getting “the shot,” will lose 

sight of the surroundings, not to mention the 

consequences of his or her actions. Many times 

a bear walking down the beach has been forced 

to change its direction due to a line of people 

with fl ashing cameras in front of the lodge, 

appearing to the bear as an obstacle. Behind 

the bear is usually a line of fl oat planes parked 

on the beach, which create a similar obstacle. 

Ultimately the direction the bear takes is right 

into camp. A lack of awareness combined with 

the urge to get the shot and a loss of common 

sense heightens, as Bennett points out, the risk 

of injury to that visitor or others. Long-time 

Katmai employee Dale Vinson has witnessed 

this behavior on numerous occasions, pointing 

out that “Th e focus of the photographers’ intention is the bear and they will push the bear 

and they will push the Park Service to get the 

unique, candid shot.”38

Even before Mangelsen took his famed 

photograph “Catch of the Day,” images of 

bears have attracted wildlife watchers with 

cameras to Brooks Camp. One of the first 

to do so was filmmaker Walt Disney, who, by 

the early 1950s, had pioneered the industry 

of making nature films about Alaska. Disney’s audiences, especially children, loved 

to watch Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, 

Photographers sometimes get too 

close to bears when trying to get “the 

shot.” KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 139

but also entertaining was watching naturalists engage a fierce animal like a wolf or bear 

and transform the wild animal into a pet-like 

friend. Although serious conservationists 

criticized Disney’s wildlife films for domesticating wildlife and “faking nature,” historian 

Douglas Brinkley argues that by telling stories through the perspective of animals, Disney’s films also introduced the general public 

to Alaska’s fragile and exotic ecosystems, 

ecosystems that needed to remain pristine in 

order for those animals to survive. As Brinkley put it, “Disney’s nature documentary 

brought many young recruits to the modern 

environmental moment.”39 

Disney was particularly interested in Katmai, and in the early 1950s, a production crew 

arrived to fi lm the movie, Bear Country. Two 

camera towers were constructed at American 

Creek but only a few bears materialized, so 

producers decided to fi lm the movie in Yellowstone Park instead. Nevertheless, Bear 

Country, which earned an Academy Award 

in 1953, along with television shows like Th e 

Wide World of Disney and Mutual of Omaha’s

Wild Kingdom, not only entertained a postwar national audience, but forged a childhood 

bond between American baby boomers and 

bears that has lasted a lifetime. 

By the mid-1980s, baby boomers had 

grown up, but a plethora of publications and 

other media continued to evoke people’s 

childhood love for bears and some of that 

media exposure was directed to the vicinity of Katmai National Park. TV programs, 

magazine articles, an Alaska Geographic book 

on “Katmai Country,” and several National 

Geographic publications replaced Katmai’s 

fi sh stories with a new attraction, the Brooks 

bears. Th e consequence of the increased media attention, however, was a postwar explosion of visitor interest in Katmai that would 

stretch the park’s bear management capabilities to its limits by the 1980s. As Superintendent Morris put it in 1983, “Th e situation of 

mixing bears and people in Katmai, especially 

at Brooks Camp, makes everybody nervous. 

I can’t envision any planning documents that 

will eliminate that edgyness (sic); bears are 

simply too unpredictable.”40 Th us, also aff ecting park service planning was the more daring, camera-toting, wildlife seeker. For when 

it came to people with cameras, they could be 

just as unpredictable as the wild animals they 

came to watch.

Easing Mobility for Bear Watchers 

and its Repercussions 

Th e political rise of the environmental 

movement culminated with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in December 1980. However, the steadily rising pressure of visitation in the park during the 1980s 

was making the ANILCA mandate to protect 

brown bear habitat increasingly more diffi cult 

to meet. Just aft er passage of the landmark law 

in 1981, the park’s concessioner reported 5,694 

overnight stays at Brooks Lodge alone, and the 

park recorded a tenfold increase in backcountry use from 166 in 1973 to 1700 in 1982.41 

Use of the campground at Brooks Camp had 

increased from 168 during the 1970 season 

to 847 in 1981.42 Visitor numbers continued 

to climb, and by the mid-1980, some notable 

visitors were taking an interest in Katmai. In 

1985, Brooks Camp was visited by the Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel; Secretary 

of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Bill 

Horn; regional directors for USFWS, NPS, 

and the Offi ce of Mining and Minerals. Alaska’s United States Senator Ted Stevens sent aids 

to Brooks Camp as well as other Washington 

D.C. insiders. In July, former President Jimmy 

Carter and his grandson were guided to Brooks 

River by Chris Goll of Rainbow River Lodge.43

By 1986, Brooks River’s bears had received 

an increase in interest from the media, including Fuji TV, National Geographic TV, the National Audubon Society, Turner Broadcasting, 

the Smithsonian Institution, Time Magazine, 

and Stern Magazine.

44 In 1993, Alaska Geographic cited “human overcrowding at Brooks 

Falls” as one of the biggest management challenges in recent years, noting that the “Viewing 

platform was built to accommodate 25 people, 

but in July it’s oft en crowded by 30, 40 or even 

more bear-viewers and photographers.”45

In order to handle the new popularity and 

subsequently, its increasing visitation, Katmai 

National Park embarked on an era of construction, intended to enhance visitor experience 

and safety at Brooks Camp. Th e goal was to 

streamline visitor traffi c in predictable ways. 

As park ranger Bruce Kaye explained in 1980, 

“Well that’s what we do in Katmai. As you 

can see, we manipulate humans as much as the 

bear. Aft er all, we don’t wait for the bears to 

feel discriminated against.”46 At the time, NPS 

was still discussing plans to spread visitation 

throughout the park, but in reality, managers 

needed to fi nd ways of dealing with the aging 
140 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

1950s camp, increasing visitation and changes 

in visitor expectations. By the time of the 

passage of ANILCA in 1980, Brooks Camp 

and the Brooks Falls had become, essentially 

a brand, promoting Katmai as Alaska’s wilderness park, while the camp itself had paradoxically become the park’s visitor epicenter.

Th e development of Brooks Camp began 

because the construction of the road to the 

Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes and the commencement of the concessioner-run bus tours 

created a need to effi ciently transport people 

across the mouth of the Brooks River. Before 

the Valley Road was constructed, pedestrian 

traffi c was fi rst ferried across with a boat and 

rope-pull system, and later in motorboats, 

where they were docked at small “marinas” 

located on both sides of the river.47 Edward 

Stondall, maintenance chief for Katmai, designed a bridge modeled aft er Puget Sound’s 

Hood Canal Bridge. In 1981, he and NPS 

maintenance staff constructed a fl oating 

bridge across the Brooks River, which could be 

removed and reinstalled each year to accommodate freezeup and breakup of the river.48 

Th e fl oating footbridge provided easier access 

to the NPS facilities at Brooks Lake and several bear viewing sites along the south side of 

the river. 

Although the bridge streamlined foot 

traffi c to the falls, it introduced a host of new 

problems that concerned NPS rangers. Unaccompanied visitors began walking to bear 

viewing sites, resulting in a greater number 

of inexperienced people encountering bears. 

Moreover, the design of the bridge became an 

issue because it disrupted the movement of 

bears along the river. Bears were forced to get 

out of the water to pass around the structure, 

leading to confl icts with people crossing the 

bridge or fi shing from the river banks.49 Furthermore, the bridge didn’t solve the problem 

of quick river crossings. Aft er the fi rst bear 

management plan instituted the 50/100 yard 

rule in 1983, bridge crossing delays occurred 

while bears lingered on the lower river within a 

few yards of the fl oating bridge. 

In 1982, her fi rst year as resource specialist, Kathy Jope had to address these and other 

visitor-related concerns, particularly those regarding the trail to Brooks Falls, which in those 

days paralleled the river’s south bank. Th e trail 

ended at Brooks Falls where bears gathered 

in high numbers as salmon leap over a picturesque six-foot-high cascade. Bear watchers, 

photographers and other visitors frequently 

found themselves uncomfortably close to the 

fi shing bears. Under Jope’s watch, a pair of 

rustic benches located only fi ft een feet from 

the falls was replaced with an elevated platform 

that could accommodate 15 bear viewers. 

In the 1950s anglers would walk to the 

Brooks Falls from camp using a trail on the 

north side of the river. In 1962, NPS developed a trail that extended along the bank of the 

river’s south side. In 1980 Will Troyer noted 

that the vegetation along this foot trail needed 

to be manicured to provide better visibility for 

A visitor photographing leaping 

salmon before the falls platform 

was built in 1982. Alaska Task Force, 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 141

both people and bears, hopefully reducing the 

chances of people and bears “bumping” into 

each other at close range.50 

Th e south side trail led visitors through 

prime bear feeding and resting habitat, adding 

to the dilemma of surprise encounters.51 Jope 

selected a new inland trail to the platform 

which was routed away from the riverbank to 

avoid the high density bear areas.52 Th e trail 

crew also removed vegetation, widened the 

rerouted trail to increase visibility, and encouraged visitors to travel in groups or with a ranger. 

Between 1980 and 1990 the number of 

tourists visiting Katmai nearly quadrupled, 

while at the same time, Brooks River was 

attracting an increasing seasonal concentration of bear use during July and the 

fall. Brooks Camp’s construction projects 

improved safety and enhanced the visitor’s 

ability to see bears, which in turn attracted 

more visitors. In 1988 Katmai superintendent Ray Bane tried to explain the dilemma 

created by Brooks Camp’s surging visitor 

numbers:

A bear crosses the fl oating Brook 

River Bridge, fi rst installed by 

park staff in 1981. Courtesy of Bill 

Sherwonit.
142 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Parks and other conservation units 

with signifi cant populations of brown 

bears and concentrations of visitors 

are faced with particularly sensitive 

and diffi cult resources and visitor 

protection problems. Paradoxically, 

while brown bears are very sensitive to 

human disturbance, park visitors are 

drawn by the opportunity to see and 

photograph these animals.53

By the mid-1980s, photographers and 

anglers were involved in bear-related confl icts 

on the river. Th e years 1985 and 1986 saw four 

incidents in which people photographing bears 

endangered themselves. Other camera-toting 

tourists ignored the advice of rangers, refusing 

to move back from approaching bears, putting 

fellow visitors and staff at risk. In his report 

that examined bear-visitor confl icts at Brooks 

Camp, seasonal ranger Christopher Ryan remarked, “From my personal experience, many 

professional photographers caused many problems in the summer of 1986 when they did not 

want to move back from approaching bears.”54 

Jope, on the positive side, pointed out that 

when it came to natural history topics, “sightseers and amateur photographers are oft en the 

most open to learning. As they learn about 

the bears and the environment in which they 

Jope selected a new inland trail to 

the platform which routed visitors 

away from the riverbanks to avoid 

high density bear areas. Signs like 

this provided information to visitors 

walking the trail to the falls. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. #574, PH31), 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 143

live, these visitors develop a deep appreciation for the remarkable processes that they 

are observing.”55 But Jope also recognized 

that “professional photographers are oft en 

the most aggressive toward bears.”56 She suggested to management that an eff ective approach to dealing with this behavior would be 

to employ “peer pressure and self-interest,” by 

pointing out to problem photographers that 

when they push a bear, the bear is “likely to 

leave the river, shortening the opportunity to 

photograph it.”57

Greg Wilker identified major concerns with the Falls Platform system of use, adding more data 

to document the urgent 

need for managing people at Brooks. Based 

on intervalometer 

camera monitoring of 

visitors on the Falls 

Platform in 1988 and 

1989, he concluded 

that professional photographers were taking 

up “a disproportionate 

amount of platform space 

and prime bear viewing time.”58 

Overcrowding by professional photographers had also become a major source of 

visitor complaints to the park. According to 

Wilker, those complains were not going to 

end any time soon:

I am confi dent the complaints will 

continue. Photographers do not 

yield space to the newcomers on the 

platform. I do not believe that we can 

expect them to do so voluntarily. As 

I stated before, the photographers’ 

purpose for being on the platform is 

to get the publishable bear photo, this 

demands that they be in the front row 

for long periods of time.59

Wilker recommended that Katmai’s management needed a plan to alleviate the pressure 

on the bear viewing platform, warning that 

“lack of action will not only continue to generate many visitor complaints, but will increase 

our impact on the bears and may compromise 

the safety of the visitors at Brooks Camp.”60

As the 1980s-the decade of ANILCAcame to a close, bear-human management challenges showed no sign of disappearing. Bear 

numbers increased while people with cameras 

continued to aggressively approach bears. 

Management’s goal of keeping bears and people from short distant encounters had become 

more diffi cult to achieve. Clearly worried 

about the situation, Ray Bane declared, “I can 

fi nd no other federal or state park or other conservation unit that allows the close association 

of brown bears and visitors that is common at 

Brooks Camp.”61

Enhancement and Education

Over the course of the 1991 season, 

Brooks Lodge recorded 3,312 

overnight-stays and 3,564 

campers overnighted in the 

campground, while an 

additional 3,915 day-use 

visitors spent time in 

Brooks Camp. On a 

busy day in July more 

than 250 people were 

sharing the lower halfmile of Brooks River 

with twenty-fi ve or more 

bears.62 According to compiled bear management report 

form data from July 1991, there 

were thirty “food-related events,” including three cases of bears obtaining human food, 

ntified major conlatform sysore data 

ent 

eof

d

-

ng 

te 

pace

ng time.”58 

ofessional photogOver the course

Brooks Lodg

overnigh

campe

camp

add

vis

Br

bu

th

sh

mi

with

bears.

6

piled bea

form data from

were thirty “food-rel

Dave Nemeth was Brooks Camp’s 

manager in the early 1990s. KATM 

Photo Archive (Acc. #754, PH29), 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.

Interpretive specialist Mark Wagner 

started the Brown Bear Booster 

Program in 1991 to encourage good 

behavior around bears. A sampling of 

his booster pins can be seen center— 

right, this page, and on the following 

pages. KATM Collection, Anchorage, 

Alaska.
144 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

three cases of bears stealing fi sh from anglers, 

thirteen unsuccessful fi sh stealing attempts, and 

eleven cases of improper food storage. Th ere 

were 208 instances of bears wandering in the 

developed area of Brooks Camp or in the campground, and NPS staff displaced or attempted 

to displace bears from the camp on ninety-one 

occasions. In following Katmai’s bear management plan that encouraged bears to keep out 

of places people resided, Bane explained 

that, “It is necessary to continuously 

‘train’ bears through the use of fi rearms 

to prevent them from entering the developed area.”63 NPS staff responded to 

bear incidents on forty-four diff erent occasions in which rangers hazed them by fi ring 

cracker shells and plastic bullets. Rangers 

recorded twenty-two instances of bears aggressively approaching people and forty other 

instances when bears approached people without apparent aggressive intent.64 

In the late 1980s, bears, especially in the 

fall months, had caused considerable property 

damage to both NPS and lodge facilities. It 

appeared that more bears were aggressively pursuing fi sh caught by anglers. Another humanbear interaction caused alarm in 1991 when 

a NPS ranger Linda Marr received a small 

puncture wound on the wrist of her right hand 

from a charging bear. While bear management 

faced challenges on the river, supportive leadership remained in fl ux. Ray Bane left Katmai 

in 1989. James Ryan came out of retirement 

to serve as acting superintendent until Alan D. 

Eliason took over the position in June 1989 

and served until July, 1993. During that time, 

Ronald Squibb, Katmai’s resource management 

specialist, made a concerted eff ort to begin 

documenting all bear-human interactions at 

Brooks Camp. Th e Bear Management Report 

Forms were used to document interactions and 

bear-related events of management concern beginning in 1990. Squibb’s plan had four components: 1) prevent bears from learning that 

humans are a source of food, whether garbage, 

human food, or caught fi sh; 2), prevent bears 

occasions

ment pl

of p

th

‘t

to

ve

bear in

sions 

cracke

record

gressiv

instance

out appar

Katmai’s “Bear Policy for Developed 

Areas” directed NPS employees to 

meet all visitors and inform them 

about how to behave around 

bears. This practice would evolve 

into the Brooks Camp “beach talk.” 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 145

Bear Speech Outline. Katmai Files, Anchorage, Alaska.
146 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

from becoming excessively tolerant of people at close distances; 3) 

allow bears access to foraging areas 

and other habitat; and 4) train 

bears to avoid areas of human 

habitation.65 Although the park 

sought a long term solution that 

included regulating the number of 

visitors (chapter nine), more immediate bear-visitor management 

solutions came in the form of 

more visitor facility construction 

and an increased focus on preventative visitor education.

Back in 1987, Jope argued 

that with the increasing numbers of people 

coming to watch the bears, a need existed for 

park rangers at Brooks Camp to explain—or 

interpret—to visitors the bear’s behavior and 

interactions that visitors experienced along the 

river. She also noted that such information 

could be covered in the orientation talks. It 

could then be reinforced during a daily nature 

walk and again at an evening program designed 

for visitors.66 In 1991 the park followed up on 

Jope’s recommendations. Glacier National Park 

alumnus Mark Wagner was hired as Katmai’s 

interpretive specialist and the fi rst permanent 

interpreter to be stationed at Brooks Camp. 

Before Wagner arrived, bear orientation consisted of the rangers meeting planes and giving 

beach talks to arriving visitors. One of the 

fi rst contributions Wagner made to the bear 

management program was to move the orientation to the visitor center because, as Wagner 

recalls, “Th ere were too many bears on the 

beach, frankly, to really hang out there too 

long.”67 With Wagner the interpretive 

program was established. Th ree 

seasonal interpretive rangers 

worked for Wagner, whose 

priority that fi rst summer was making the old 

beach speech became a major 

component of the Brooks 

Camp bear management 

program.68 Wagner 

stepped into the newly created position 

of Brooks Camp 

manager in 1994, 

and consequently, the role of interpretation in 

bear management also expanded. 

Wagner established the Brooks Camp Bear 

School, where interpretation rangers participated in a comprehensive training program 

that taught them how to convey bear safety 

principles to visitors in under fi ve minutes. 

Th e orientation message concentrated on fi ve 

specifi c points: 1) no eating food, except at 

designated areas; 2) don’t run—for a bear may 

think you are prey; 3) don’t leave gear unattended—for this negatively habituates bears to 

people; 4) cut your fi shing line if a hooked fi sh 

attracts the attention of a bear; and, perhaps 

most signifi cantly, 5) make noise—clap or 

sing—but make sure that the bears know that 

you are human and in their area.

To ensure that non-English speaking 

visitors also received bear safety guidelines, 

Wagner produced a short, ten-minute bear orientation movie that could be watched in four 

diff erent languages at the visitor center. Under 

Wagner’s watch, interpretive rangers also roved 

outside the visitor center. For example, if rangers had to move a bear from the lodge area, 

interpreters were called in to station themselves 

at certain locations where the bear might run 

in an eff ort to move people safely out of the 

way. Th e interpreter was then called upon to 

answer the public’s questions regarding ranger 

activity, particularly if shotguns were used in 

the hazing process. 

Arguably, Wagner’s most signifi cant and 

creative contribution to bear management was 

his Brown Bear Booster Program, implemented 

in 1991, which was intended to positively 

reinforce visitors’ good behavior, rather than 

reprimanding them for bad behavior. Th e idea 

was formulated as a way to enhance visitors’ 

experience at Brooks Camp while ensuring that 

they were complying with park rules regarding 

bears. Rangers presented visitors who were 

observed “doing the right thing” around bears 

with a coveted “bear pin.” Recognition for 

good visitor behavior not only kept bears and 

people a bit more safe, but the popular program encouraged good relations between the 

NPS rangers and the general public. In 1993, 

Wagner received the national Freeman Tilden 

Award in Washington D.C. for his outstanding 

work in visitor-bear interpretation and publications.69

Meanwhile, construction projects began 

to enhance visitor access and improve the 

quality of Brooks Camp’s aging infrastructure. 

Congressional funding allocations in the early 

1990s included $1.1 million to build a new 

and improved boat ramp and dock on Naknek 

Lake near King Salmon and money to improve 

beach talks to arriving visitors

fi rst contributions Wagner ma

management program was to m

tion to the visitor center beca

recalls, “Th ere were too man

beach, frankly, to really ha

long.”67 With Wagner

program was estab

seasonal inte

worked fo

priority th

mer was m

beach speech

componen

Camp be

progra

stepp

ly c

of B
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 147

the fl oating bridge across Brooks River. Bear 

watching at Brooks Camp was so popular that, 

by the 1990s the activity consumed most of the 

time of rangers stationed at Brooks Camp. Talk 

of limiting visitor use at Brooks Camp worried 

commercial users, whose businesses had come 

to depend upon the bear watching industry. 

Such concerns increasingly involved 

Senator Ted Stevens in Brooks Camp bear 

management and park development issues. 

Stevens, for his part, wanted a $100,000 

bear-viewing platform built at a site along the 

Naknek River and a new visitor center for 

Lake Clark National Park in Soldotna, both 

of which he included in a 1990 spending bill. 

NPS regional offi cials responded to Stevens’ 

actions by stating that the platform would 

be in the wrong place because few bears visited that particular stretch of the river and 

that the visitor center in Soldotna would be 

too remote to be of much use. Instead, they 

wanted funding for NPS staff housing in 

northwestern Alaska.70 

Th e standoff ended when NPS Regional 

Director Boyd Evison agreed to build a new 

platform at the lower end of Brooks River near 

the south end of the fl oating bridge and Stevens agreed not to interfere with a Kotzebue 

housing project. Construction of the new 

platform began in 1992 over the objections of 

some agency staff who opposed Stevens’ vision 

of ever-increasing development. Opponents 

of the platform argued that the project was 

inappropriate at a time when approximately 

eighty percent of the park’s budget was used to 

prevent confl icts between bears and humans in 

and around Brooks Camp.71 Th ey saw the new 

construction as a means to attract more visitors 

rather than as a means to better manage existing visitor volumes. Additionally, the park felt 

it could not start construction for the set May 

date, because the public comment period on 

Photographers compete for space at 

the Falls Platform in 1992. Writer Bill 

Sherwonit remarked that “Within 

three decades, [Brooks Camp] 

had transformed from a sleepy 

fi sherman’s paradise into today’s Wild 

Kingdom photo op.” Courtesy of Bill 

Sherwonit.
148 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

the project’s environmental assessment was still 

open. Moreover, there were concerns that the 

proposed platform would not be compatible 

with the as-yet-unfi nished Development Concept Plan for the Brooks River area.

 Th ese political tensions were obviously 

on the mind of Katmai superintendent Alan 

Eliason when he stated to a newspaper reporter 

in 1991 that: “You’ve got lots of people saying 

‘limit tourists’. You’ve got the state promoting 

tourism. You’ve got the congressional delegation saying ‘open up the parks for people.’ And 

then you’ve got the double edged sword of the 

Park Service mandate.”72 A year later, Dave 

Nemeth told reporters that “the number of 

people showing up has outstripped the facilities.”73 “You can only put so many people and 

bear together in a limited space,” concluded 

Superintendent Eliason that summer, “before 

you start to get problems.”74

The Dilemma of Managing Brooks 

Camp as Front Country

By the mid-1990s, NPS 

management still faced 

the dilemma of protecting signifi cantly vital 

cultural resources, while 

enhancing visitors’ use, 

enjoyment, and safety 

of the Brooks Camp 

area. Surging foot traffi c by growing numbers 

of visitors using the trail to 

Brooks Falls had eroded the 

protective layer of Katmai ash that 

covered an important cultural site near 

Brooks Falls. Th e trail to the falls meandered 

through several semi-subterranean house depressions threatening to disturb them. 

Brooks Camp served as the park’s front 

country—Katmai’s only developed area. As 

Chief of Concessions, Becky Brock described 

it, “When you go to any other location in Katmai, and I’ve been to lots of them—the coast, 

Moraine, American Creek, I’ve been all over, 

Contact Creek—that’s back country. Brooks 

is front country.”75 Th roughout the 1980s, 

Brooks Camp functioned as traditional national park front country, exhibiting all the necessities of any small town: transportation, roads, 

regular mail service, food services, bathrooms, 

utilities, and comfortable sleeping accommodations.76 According to Superintendent Morris, “an awful lot of people arrived at Brooks 

Camp despite our eff orts to convince [them] 

that Brooks Camp was not the be all and end 

all at Katmai.”77 Morris noted that there was 

a change in the management of Brooks Camp 

that shift ed from “simply applying a cosmetic 

fi x to a problem to the recognition that the 

agency was faced with the realty of making 

hard choices between people’s and bear’s use 

of the area.”78 And at that time, NPS tended 

to make the decision to accommodate people. 

“We did cite some people and let them know 

that we meant business when it came to creating confl ict with bears,” recalled Morris. But 

in all too many cases, “it became a textbook 

sequence, accepting the fact that the needs of 

the visitors were pre-eminent.”79

While some welcomed the accommodation and proximity to wilderness, not everybody seemed to appreciate the conveniences. 

On the one hand, wilderness guides, seasonal 

rangers, and concession employees began to 

express a preference for concentrating future visitation at Brooks 

Camp. Th ey argued that 

NPS should keep access 

and facilities limited in 

the “core” or “outback 

areas” in order to ensure 

that Katmai remain 

a vast, undeveloped 

land.80 Some visitors 

saw Brooks Camp as 

wilderness despite the 

development and complained that airplane noise and 

platform crowding were detracting 

them from their “Brooks Camp experience.”81 As one camper stated, “it’s bad enough 

that we have to experience wilderness over the 

drone of several planes a day.”82 By the late 

1980s, Brooks Camp’s visitation had accelerated even more with fl y-in anglers, other “daytrippers,” and ever-increasing package-tour 

clientele.83

Since Brooks Camp was founded in 1950, 

NPS had discussed and debated its role in park 

development. Just as the 1953 Alaska Recreation Survey and the 1958 Mission 66 Program 

proposals aimed to do, park planners in later 

years attempted to decrease visitor reliance on 

Brooks Camp. A draft of Katmai’s Master Plan 

in 1971 proposed that the monument’s major 

“use node” and transportation hub be relocated 

to the west end of Naknek Lake. Moreover, 

it proposed that other primary-use zones be 

naging Brooks 

ntry

0s, NPS 

ced 

ectl

while

use,

ty

rafbers 

trail to 

ded the 

atmai ash that

rangers, and concession 

express a prefere

ing future v

Camp. Th

NPS sh

and f

the “

area

that

a va

land

saw B

wilder

develop

plained tha

platform crowd

the proj

open. M

propose

with the

cept Pla

Th

on the m

Eliason 

in 1991 

‘limit to

tourism

tion sayi

then you

Park Ser

Nemeth

people s

ties.”73 “
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 149

developed, including Research Bay on the Iliuk 

Arm, the Bay of Islands at the east end of Naknek Lake, and Kukak Bay along Shelikof Strait 

on Katmai’s Pacifi c coast.84 

One reason cited for considering alternative visitor locations was that Brooks Camp 

had become recognized as prime bear habitat 

during the 1960s, and park planners were 

nervous about the increasing number of bearhuman confrontations taking place in the 

vicinity—most notably the injury to a Brooks 

Camp camper in 1966.85 Although the fi nal 

master plan toned-down the language that had 

previously appeared in the draft plan, noting 

that “further study is needed to determine the 

role of Brooks Camp and to stress the need of 

maintaining the camp’s impact on the environment,” NPS, nevertheless, began to consider a 

long-range policy for eliminating Brooks Camp 

altogether.86 In the short term, however, the 

installation of a utility system in 1974-75 (as 

it pertained to Harvey Shields’s work noted in 

chapter two), suggested that the camp would 

remain, at least for the time being. 

Although development around Brooks 

Camp continued, problems concerning 

the swelling visitor use of the river area 

remained. Th e clash of resource use accelerated in part by the exploding popularity of 

fl y-in fi shing trips in the 1980s (Chapter 

fi ve). Th e steady increase of tour groups 

from the major tour operators only exacerbated the worsening situation. By 1985, 

park offi cials recognized that the camp and 

river corridor were becoming crowded. Th e 

concentration of people at Brooks Camp began 

to worry park managers that the summertime 

visitor-use levels were impinging on the health 

of the local bear and fi sh populations. As a result, Superintendent Morris approved the funding of the NPS-sponsored studies directed by 

Barrie Gilbert in 1985. Gilbert’s research fi ndings confi rmed those concerns three years later, 

when his fi rst bear-human study of the Brooks 

River was completed.87 

Th e 1985 draft GMP, which was particularly sensitive to clashing views on resource use 

at Brooks Camp, called for the camp’s eventual 

relocation in order to avoid future bear-human 

encounters. Facilities would be relocated on 

a phased schedule to an unspecifi ed area of 

spruce forest south of Brooks Falls. But the 

fi nal GMP, published in 1986, only recommended a “stabilization of activities at Brooks 

Camp,” and suggested that “long-range plans 

may require either its relocation or additional 

restrictions on sport-fi shing along Brooks 

River, or both actions may be necessary.”88 In 

the end, the fi nal GMP, as with the fi nal master 

plan twelve or thirteen years earlier, was more 

tentative, calling for more studies to document bear/human interactions in the Brooks 

Camp area. It called for the preparation of a 

second Brooks Camp Development Concept 

Plan (DCP) to address the camp’s most vexing 

problems. “Perhaps the most signifi cant development of 1987...,” wrote Bane, “...has been 

the realization that the park has evolved from 

a relatively small operation into a much more 

complex situation requiring close sensitive 

p

116. “Park rangers nervous about 

human-to-bear ratio at Brooks.” 

Anchorage Daily News, July 30, 1990.
150 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

interactions with numerous agencies, interest 

groups, and individuals.”89

Given the ongoing discussions among 

park and regional offi cials, the future of 

Brooks Camp was uncertain in 1988. Just as 

the decade began with a series of questions, 

the 1990s posed a similar set of philosophical 

unknowns: Should Brooks Camp remain a 

dot in the wilderness? Should it be the staging 

area for Katmai and try, as its planning team 

suggested in 1983, to provide “all things to all 

people?”90 Or, should Brooks Camp be eliminated altogether? Th e requested DCP would 

hopefully supply the answers.
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 151

ENDNOTES

1

 Steve Buskirk, ”Ranger Report,” August 1, 1973.

2

 NPS, Katmai National Monument Bear Policy for Developed Areas, 1973. 3

 Dean, 24.

4

 “Bear Management Plan,” (1983): 4.

5

 Dave and Sheridith Robison, “Planning Towards a Wilderness Park: Katmai National Park 

and Preserve,” unpublished mss. (1993): 29.

6

 “Bear Management Plan,” (1983): 1.

7

 Robison, et al., “Planning Towards a Wilderness Park”, 5. 8

 Robison et al., 29.

9

 Ibid., 19.

10 Ibid., 7.

11 Studebaker and Womble.

12 K.M. Kostyal, “Katmai National Park: Land of the Great Bear—America’s Lordly King of 

Beasts.” National Geographic Traveler, (May/June, 1989), 97-103; Sara Vickerman and 

Wendy Hudson, “Wildlife Watching: A Growing National Recreation.” Alaska’s Wildlife: 

The Magazine of the Department of Fish and Game, vol 23, no. 2. (March/April 1991), 2-3. 

“Bad News for Katmai Bears,” National Parks, vol 66. (Jan/Feb 1992), 14-15; Craig Medford, 

“Almost Unbearable: Compromise South for Bears, Anglers” Anchorage Daily News, (August 

4, 1991); D-1+D2-3

13 David Morris, interviewed by Bill Hanable, 11-4-1989.

14 Robison et al, 18.

15 Bill Sherwonit, “Way to Go: In Bear Territory—Viewing Bears at Brooks Camp,” AK, Sierra, 

(Sept-Oct, 1998).

16 Robison, et al., 11.

17 For more information on Alaska’s Last Frontier Parks see Theodore Catton’s Inhabited 

Wilderness: Indians, Eskimos, and National Parks in Alaska (Albuquerque: University of New 

Mexico Press, 1997).

18 Tourism and Early Park Development Resources of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Multiple Property Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, 2009.

19 Park Planners called Katmai’s future visitor for whom their park plans would benefi t, 

“Tomorrow’s Visitor.” Mission 66 for Katmai National Monument (Washington D.C.: 

Department of the Interior), 3 and 5.

20 William E. Brown, This Last Treasure (Anchorage: Alaska National History Association, 1982), 6. 21 Ibid., 32.

22 Norris, Tourism, 34. 23 Memorandum, To Regional Director, Region four, from Mount McKinley Superintendent 

Duane D. Jacobs, August 27, 1957.

24 “Wilderness Recommendations Katmai National Monument Alaska,” National Park 

Service, August 1972.

25 Norris, Tourism, 49. 26 Louis R. Huber, Christian Science Monitor, 1950. 27 Nick Jans, “A Bears Garden of Eden,” Alaska Magazine, (November 2007): 8-9, 59. 28 Mark Harvey, “Loving the Wild in Postwar America,” in American Wilderness: A New History

ed. Michael Lewis (Oxford University Press, 2007) 187-201.

29 Dave Bohn, Rambles Through an Alaskan Wild: Katmai and the Valley of the Smokes

(Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1979), 19.

30 “Katmai National Park: A Proposal,” National Park Service (ca. 1975): 1-10.

31 Robison, et al., 32. U.S. Congress, House, 96the Cong., House Report, 1st sess., Volume 3, 

#97, 1979.

32 Planning feedback letter from David Morris, superintendent of Katmai, regarding current 

status of planning activity, January 1983.

33 http://www.audubonmagazine.org/backyard/backyard0101.html.

34 Matthias Breiter, The Bears of Katmai: Alaska’s Famous Brown Bears (Portland: Graphic Arts 

Center Publishing, 2000), 22.

35 Bennett, Rods & Wings, 313-14. 36 Philip Greenspun, “Overcharged in Katmai,” We Alaskans (April 30, 1995), G9-G13. 37 Schullery, Real Alaska, 54. 38 Dale Vinson, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 6-12-2008.

39 Douglas Brinkley, The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960 (New 

York: HarperCollins, 2011), 343.

40 Letter, To Regional Director, from Dave Morris, April 15, 1983.

41 “Resources Management Plan [Draft],” Katmai National Park and Preserve, April 15, 1982, 25.
152 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

42 “Statement for Management [Draft],” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 1982, 5. See 

Appendix D.

43 During Carter’s visit, according to Superintendent Morris, “the weather was poor, and the 

fi shing was worse.” David Morris, “Superintendent Annual Report,” (1985): 3.

44 David Morris, Superintendent Annual Report, (1986): 4.

45 Bill Shewonit, “Bear Viewing,” Alaska Geographic 4, vol. 20, (1993): 57-69. 46 To Robert A Riggs, Wildlife Biologist, from Bruce M. Kaye, Park Ranger, on Bear 

Management at Katmai, February 12, 1980.

47 Don Dumond, personal communication, April, 2010.

48 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 198. 49 Joan Beattie, “Brown Bear/Human Interactions at Katmai National Park and Preserve,” 

(unpub. Mss., 1982): 18.

50 Will Troyer, Movements and Dispersal of Brown Bear at Brooks River, AK (Alaska Area 

Offi ce, NPS, Anchorage, AK. March, (1980): 21. 51 Beattie, 18.

52 Kathy Jope interviewed by Chris Allan, 12- 7-2006. 

53 To Deputy Regional Director, from Ray Bane Superintendent, April 2, 1988.

54 Ryan, 26.

55 Jope, “Use of Interpretation to Prevent Bear Incidents in Katmai National Park,” Courier, 

February 1997.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 Greg Wilker, “Visitor Use of the Brooks Falls Viewing Platform,” Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, July 28, 1990.

59 Ibid, 5.

60 Ibid, 6.

61 Memorandum: Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane to Deputy Regional Director Richard 

Stenmark, Bear/Visitor Management, Alaska Regional Offi ce, April 2, 1988. 62 “Resources Management Plan,” 44.

63 Bane to Stenmark, April 2, 1988.

64 Ron Squibb, “Bear Use of Brooks River: Summary of Information Relevant to 

Management,” (1991): 1.

65 Ronald Squibb, “Bear Management Report Forms,” Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

1991.

66 Jope, “Use of Interpretation to Prevent Bear Incidents in Katmai National Park,” Courier, 

February 1997.

67 Mark Wagner, interviewed by Chris Allan, 12-4-2006.

68 “KATM/ANIA Staff to 1997,” Katmai National Park, 1997.

69 “Superintendent Annual Report,” (1993).

70 David Whitney, “Stevens, Parks Settle Feud,” Anchorage Daily News, February 15, 1990, B2. 71 “Bad News for Katmai Bears,” National Parks 66 (January/February 1992), 14-15. 72 Craig Medred, “Almost Unbearable: Compromise Sought for Bears, Anglers,” Anchorage 

Daily News, August 4, 1991, D1+. 73 Bill Sherwonit, “Boom Times Come to Katmai,” Alaska Magazine, Vol. 59, Issue 4 (1993), 22-29. 74 Ibid.

75 Becky Brock was Chief of Concessions between 1998 and 2009. Becky Brock, interviewed 

by Tim Rawson, 6-17-2008.

76 Becky Brock, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 6-17-2008.

77 David K. Morris, interviewed by William Hanable, 11-2-1989.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid.

80 Robison, et al., 44.

81 Ibid., 16.

82 Stacy Studebaker, Survey of Campground Users at Katmai National Monument, Alaska: 

A Report For Management, July 1979, (National Park Service Cooperative Park Studies Unit, 

University of Washington, 1979), 102.

83 For details on the effects of Brooks Camp visitor growth see Norris, Tourism, 110-115; see 

also Bennett, 253-277.

84 Norris, Tourism, 67. 85 NPS, “A Master Plan, Katmai National Monument, Alaska” (Preliminary Working Draft) 

August 1971; see also Norris, Tourism, 67. 86 Alaska Planning Group (NPS) “Katmai National Park, Alaska, Master Plan,” December 

1973, see also Norris, Tourism, 68 and 195. 87 Braaten, Anne M. and Barrie K. Gilbert. “Profi le Analysis of Human-Bear Relationships in 

Katmai National Park and Preserve.” Final Report for NPS Contract CX 9700--0019. NRFR AR-
 Chapter Seven: Pushing the Boundary in Bear Country: Wildlife Watchers 153

88/12. National Park Service, Alaska Regional Offi ce, Anchorage, Alaska, 1987. 88 “General Management Plan, Land Protection Plan, Stability Wilderness Review, Katmai 

National Park and Preserve,” (October 7, 1986).

89 Ray Bane, Superintendent’s Annual Report, (1987): 1.

90 Planning feedback, January 1983.
154 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Arseny Melak Melognok (July 24, 1925 – 

December 16, 2006) fi shing for salmon at the 

mouth of the Brooks River poses for Victor 

Cahalane in 1940. The photo underscores 

the long-standing human use of the Brooks 

River and George Halls’ conclusion that “for 

approximately 4000 years humans have lived 

in the same habitat with bears and they have 

apparently lived there for the same reason 

– fi sh! Information on photo identifi cation 

courtesy of Mary Jane Nielsen. Melgenak 

Collection, KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 155

Bears, Fish and the People Who Love Them

Between 1993 and 1998, William (Bill) 

Pierce served as Katmai’s superintendent.1

 

Overseeing a park, which by the mid-1990 had 

become synonymous with bears, seemed like a 

perfect fi t for Pierce. Perhaps because he came 

from Olympic National Park in Washington 

State, another park with a healthy wildlife population, nature writer Paul Schullery described 

Pierce as “the kind of man I most like to hike 

with in bear country.”2

Reporting to Pierce during that fi rst summer were eighteen permanent employees, 

thirty seasonal (50 percent stationed at Brooks 

Camp), and seven student volunteers also all 

assigned to Brooks Camp. Besides staff positions, visitation, according to the Superintendent’s Annual Report, had also surged, increasing about thirteen percent to just over 53,500, 

including 10,000 to Brooks Camp.3

 Th is 

number at the time was not only perceived 

by staff as a new record for the park, but the 

numbers also indicated that people were visiting other areas, particularly the coast. Th e 

park, in response, created a coastal management biologist position, fi rst fi lled by Buddy 

Goatcher in 1994, and managed from an NPS 

offi ce at Kodiak. Adding to the increase of 

visitation were two new lodges that started 

operating in Katmai: Chris and Linda Branham established Royal Wolf Lodge in 1995 

and Richard Van Druten established Rapids 

Camp Lodge in 1996. Despite the slowdown 

of new lodges since their peak in the 1980s, 

fl y-fi shing remained popular and increasingly 

lucrative. For the fi rst time, the state issued 

more nonresident fi shing licenses than resident licenses in 1990.4

 By 1998, nonresident 

license sales soared in Alaska to 254,494, and 

because nonresidents pay more for a fi shing liA major concern for this plan is to decide to what extent and where the expected 

increases in visitor demand can be accommodated without overwhelming the natural and cultural resources by overuse or allowing the visitor experience to deteriorate 

because of overcrowding.

~Brooks River Area Development Concept Plan

Alternative Workbook, 1991

Chapter Eight:

Brooks Camp at the Crossroads

cense than state residents, this jump in outside 

sales generated a major increase in revenue for 

the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.5

 

Meanwhile, the number of independent bears 

sharing the Brooks River with anglers during 

the June-July migratory fi sh period between 

1988 and 1991 had gone up from seventeen 

to twenty-six, and by 1997 that number had 

increased to fi ft y-three.6

 

Th e number of undesirable bear-human incidents occurring in the middle portion of the 

Brooks River escalated in July 1993.7

 In spite 

of a number of bear-angling studies and the 

cautious recommendations that oft en followed 

them, the 1990s continued to witness numerous negative bear-angler encounters. Anglers 

were supposed to give bears a wide berth and 

to break their lines rather than allow a bear to 

have a hooked fi sh, but nevertheless, there was 

a rash of fi sh incidents in which bears obtained 

fi sh from anglers in 1993. At least one of those 

fi sh was obtained from a person who was carrying it inside his jacket not contained in a plastic 

bag. Th is convinced NPS managers to temporarily close parts of Brooks River to anglers 

in late July.8

 Th e NPS Brooks Camp manager, 

Mark Wagner, later posted signs warning that 

the river would be temporarily closed to all 

fi shing if a bear obtained another fi sh from an 

angler. Th e signs remained posted through 

most of the sockeye run.9

Based on the counting methods used at 

the time, another visitation record was set in 

1995 with the Superintendent’s Annual Report 

showing over 70,000 visitor use days for the 

park.10 Th at number refl ected the growing popularity with “day trippers,” those who fl y in and 

stay several hours, then leave. Brooks Camp 

became so crowded that July that most visitors 

PART IV BALANCE (AND ITS CHALLENGES), 

were forced to wait two to three hours before 

1996-2006
156 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

getting to the falls, while some, needing to catch 

airplanes, never made it to the falls at all. Visitor behavior was also reported to be worsening, 

as described by a visitor who wrote about his 

experience for the Anchorage Daily News:

Remarkably, most of the bears take 

little notice of humans and never 

make eye contact with visitors. Th e 

one exception I observed was actually 

the 4-year-old that charged me. He 

had been taunted earlier by a German tour group as he paced back and 

forth across a pontoon bridge. Th ey 

hollered and jeered at him in German 

until he came underneath the platform to stare us down. It was chilling to look into his eyes and not his 

six-inch-long claws. As the park gets 

more visitation, some of the younger 

bears like this one are losing their fear 

of humans. Th e Park Service instructs 

visitors to always back away from 

bears, so sometimes they apparently 

learn how much fun it is to run tourists off trails.11

As Superintendent Bane had predicted 

just a few years prior, people had become 

more habituated to Brooks bears and some of 

those bears appeared particularly habituated 

to people. 

Habituation by both bears and people was 

particularly noticeable in the lower river area. 

Unusually low water on Brooks River during 

the 1997 season made it easier for bears to 

fi sh the outlet of the river into Naknek Lake, 

where they concentrated in numbers seldom 

recorded in normal years. Th e new preferred 

fi shing spot, which happened to be in close 

proximity to the Brooks Camp visitor center, 

brought bears and arriving visitors together 

in ways that made park offi cials “nervous.” 

According to Pierce, during one of those situations, “a boar killed a cute cub near a viewing 

platform from which, tourists normally watch 

bears kill far less cuddly salmon.”12 Th ough 

preying upon young bears is typical boar behavior, Pierce explained to reporters, what 

made this killing unique is that “it doesn’t 

usually happen in front of startled tourist.” If 

that wasn’t startling enough, a week earlier a 

dominant male jumped a smaller boar at the 

Brooks Falls in what bear biologists commonly 

call “a dominance display.” “For whatever 

reason,” said Pierce, “this boar just gloms onto 

the back of this smaller one and never lets go...

He literally rips out the back of that other bear 

right down to the backbone and starts eating him while he’s still alive.”13 A year later, a 

similar situation arose when a boar killed and 

ate a cub at the falls. Although biologists confi rmed once again that this was typical bear 

behavior, media reports about the incident 

echoed past accounts of “bad bears.” Th is was 

underscored by the name the public and some 

staff called the ignoble bear: “B.B. (for Bad 

Bear), the cub killer.”14

Th e high number of active bears near 

the fl oating bridge that summer also caused a 

bottleneck eff ect, impeding the fl ow of visitors across the river, and resulted in situations 

in which large numbers of people attempted 

to maneuver past multiple bears. In order to 

avoid violating the park’s 50/100 yard rule (see 

Chapter six) visitors were frequently forced to 

wait for a bear lingering on the bridge (or on 

Bill Pierce served as Katmai’s 

superintendent between 1993 and 

1998. Courtesy of Bill Pierce.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 157

the path near the bridge), and while waiting, 

groups of visitors were oft en forced to back 

up along the trail to avoid a second or third 

bear. Aft er a summer of observing this unusual 

bear-human proximity, bear biologist Terry 

DeBruyn later called the area surrounding the 

mouth of the river “uniquely problematic.”15 

Solving Problems: Visitor Numbers Rise, 

and Food-Related Incidents Decline

By the mid-1990s Katmai had fi nally 

resolved many of Brooks Camp’s food related 

problems. Although the number of bears 

observed at camp had grown since they began 

to return in the 1950s, most caught fi sh or 

foraged for berries, rather than acquiring food 

and garbage from humans. Th is feat seemed 

remarkable considering the number of people 

visiting the Brooks River area in the 1990s, all 

of whom created a great deal of waste and unforeseen opportunities.

One of those unforeseen opportunities 

was a malfunctioning sewage system that temporarily revived the waste issue in 1995. Th e 

Brooks Camp maintenance workers found 

that the system failed because of the increasing 

volume of human waste and the introduction 

of fi sh entrails. Th e odor of this unprocessed 

waste had for some time attracted bears to the 

camp’s leach fi eld and to the system’s sewer 

covers, which bears regularly fl ipped over and 

damaged.16 Concerns over human health risks 

prompted the State of Alaska to require the 

camp to eliminate fi sh guts in the system. As 

part of its eff ort to comply, NPS removed the 

sink from the fi sh cleaning building and installed a freezer in its place. Instead of cleaning 

their catch before departing, anglers were now 

asked to freeze their fi sh whole and leave them 

in the freezer for the length of the person’s stay. 

During their initial use, freezer bags were sold 

for two dollars to help cover the cost of the 

bags and the freezer, and visitors were thereafter prohibited from cleaning fi sh within a quarter mile of the camp.17

Despite the focus on prevention of 

food-conditioning, a few isolated incidents 

still occurred at Brooks during the 1990s in 

which bears obtained anthropogenic food. 

For example, in July 1996 bears entered the 

A high number of fl oatplanes line 

Naknek Beach in front of Brooks 

Camp. By the mid-1990s commercial 

operators were fl ying record 

numbers of visitors to Brooks Camp. 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
158 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

campground on at least eighteen occasions, 

and damaged fi ve tents on three separate days. 

A bear-proof garbage can was installed at the 

Brooks Lake day-use area for the fi rst time, but 

a bear pushed the can over and ate some garbage before the can could be secured to its concrete pad. Late in the season, a series of events 

occurred involving garbage and destroyed 

property: 1) a bear pulled a “bear-proof ” can 

off of its cement pad, pried open the lid and 

destroyed it, 2) a large boar and a sow with 

two cubs ate the garbage before authorities 

were alerted, 3) a bear damaged a sewer pipe 

and electrical valve near the fi sh freezing building, 4) in late September a bear dug unburned 

garbage from a fi re pit, and 5), pushed an outhouse off its foundation.18

In the 1990s when such isolated incidences were taking place, park wildlife biologists worked hard to get the message out 

that bears are smart, but that intelligence 

would have dire consequences if people do 

not change their food behavior around bears. 

“We humans are inevitably a part of the bears’ 

world...” warned Tammy Olson and Ron 

Squibb, “...individual bears must either avoid 

us or learn to accept and perhaps exploit us. 

But a bear cannot think ahead to the ultimate 

consequences of its behavior around people. It 

only knows how to fi nd food by responding to 

opportunities in its environment.”19 

For most visitors, staff , and concessions 

employees, that message has been understood 

and continues to be the primary framework 

infl uencing human behavior at Brooks Camp. 

On arrival, visitors continue to be instructed as 

to where they can eat and properly store their 

food. An electric fence erected around the 

campground in 2000 provides added security 

there.20 And, although food-related incidents 

continued, few have involved bears obtaining 

anthropogenic food, and incidents of bears obtaining fi sh have declined due to visitor education and other preventative methods.21

Although the saying “a fed bear is a dead 

bear” remains a truism among park rangers, 

it seems to be far less of a reality at Brooks 

Camp today than it once was. If one considers the host of potential problems resulting 

from encounters between 250-plus daily 

visitors and a population of 50-70 bears, 

food-related incidents still occur, but have 

become relatively rare. With NPS policies now in place that efficiently deal with 

food consumption and garbage disposal, 

to a large degree, the problem of foodconditioned bears has been successfully controlled at Brooks Camp. The only real place 

where bears might acquire food from people 

continues to be on the river itself. 

“Katmai bears crowd around 

park center.” Anchorage Daily 

News, July 21, 1997.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 159

Dealing Successfully 

with Limited Viewing Space, 

Preferential Treatment, and Complacency

In the 1990s photographers monopolizing 

viewing space on the platforms created a very 

real problem for rangers at Brooks Camp. Like 

a trophy fi sh or animal mount, a photograph 

is a way for bear viewers to record what many 

consider an experience of a lifetime. Th e park 

constructed a new Falls Platform in 1997 that 

comfortably held forty people. Still, even with 

the new platform, it was growing harder for the 

average sight-seeing visitor to have that experience mainly because the professional photographers—and well equipped amateurs—occupied the lower, front area of the two-level 

platform. Th eir heavy tripods, supporting 

massive lenses, claimed most of the platform 

The completion of the incinerator 

building in 1991 solved many of the 

food-related problems at Brooks 

Camp. KATM Photo Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.

Other solutions to Brooks Camp food 

problem included a designated picnic 

area. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
160 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

real estate. Th at summer, bear technicians 

stationed there began to recognize some of the 

same problems as before – namely, increasing 

stress levels among visitors, many of whom arrived at Brooks River seeking that photograph 

of a lifetime. NPS staff members witnessed 

“extreme tensions” among visitors on viewing 

platforms and observed visitors elbowing and 

pushing each other in an attempt to get a better view of the bears.22 

Th e problem became a concern to NPS in 

1989 when a park survey asked visitors: “Do 

you have any comments about anything that 

detracted from the enjoyment of your trip to 

Brooks Camp?” Of the nineteen responses, 

fourteen complained about photography in 

some way, with most commenting on the photographers and their equipment as adding to 

the crowding at the viewing platform.23 Th e 

visitor survey found that 78 percent of visitors 

took photos while at Brooks.24 Th ough most 

visitors taking pictures at Brooks were not professionals, the urge to get “the shot” remained a 

signifi cant part of their visit. 

In part, visitor stress stemmed from the 

perceived preferential treatment for professional photographers. Such perceptions were 

not necessarily unfounded, for national parks 

in Alaska and professional photographers 

from around the world maintained a long 

relationship, in which published photographs 

of scenic vistas and charismatic wildlife served 

as brilliant promotional campaign, inspiring 

a love of Alaska wilderness worldwide. In 

the past, the state’s congressional delegation 

encouraged tourist promotion, and the parks 

were asked to give photographers every advantage. Th e NPS also saw photographers playing 

a signifi cant role in the passage of ANILCA 

by conveying to the national public the grandness of Alaska’s wilderness. 

Th is sense of entitlement among professional photographers forced Brooks Camp 

manager Mark Wagner to try a more immediate solution in 1998. Wagner invited all 

visiting photographers—professionals and 

amateurs alike—to a meeting to talk about 

the problem with photography and a lack of 

viewing space at the falls platform. Th e group 

pointed out that problems concerning bear 

watching at the falls were not simply the fault 

of the professional photographers. Some bear 

Photographers on the lower 

platform wait patiently for a bears. 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 161

watchers vocally harassed the bears; some even 

clapped, whistled, and found other ways to get 

the animals’ attention, all for a better picture to 

take home. At the time, photographers themselves volunteered to switch over to smaller 

camera mounts, which could be clamped onto 

the platform’s heavy railing. 

Aft er that meeting, the park instituted 

a series of etiquette rules that guided visitor 

behavior on the platforms. NPS instructed 

visitors to be quiet and not to cheer, clap or 

try talking to the bears. Visitors were asked 

to show courtesy to others by sharing the best 

viewing places along the railings. Th ey were 

asked to not use fl ash photography. Th ey 

could not sit on the platform railings or crowd 

the access ramps. Nor were visitors allowed to 

eat, drink (except water) or smoke on the platform. Th e following year, Wagner had the rules 

for Platform Etiquette printed on the back of 

fi ve cards, which included various photographs 

of a famous Brooks River bear, Diver. Th ese 

popular “Diver Cards” were distributed to visitors by the interpretation staff . 

Also in 1998, a commercial fi lm permit 

program was instituted to regulate videography, in which management information was 

gleaned from other parks managing large fi lm 

programs such as Glen Canyon, Santa Monica 

Mountains and Denali. Commercial Film 

Standard Operating Procedures, guidelines, 

policy and fees were established that specifi -

cally pertained to Katmai.25

Clustering the Southwest Parks 

and Building a Cultural Resources Program

In 1996, the Alaska Regional Offi ce decided to “cluster,” or administratively combine 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, Aniakchak 

National Monument and Preserve, the Alagnak 

Wild River and Lake Clark National Park and 

Preserve. Bill Pierce was tasked to manage the 

three units (Alagnak Wild River is conserved 

part of the Katmai unit) from the Lake Clark 

offi ce in Anchorage. Th e park units operated 

as a combined administrative identity from 

1996 through 2003. Th e collective mission 

was to:

Brooks Camp Manager Mark Wagner 

created the “Diver Cards” program 

to encourage proper etiquette on 

the viewing platform at the falls in 

1998. KATM Photo Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
162 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

...preserve and protect each park’s natural and cultural resources while providing for traditional use, inspiration, recreation, subsistence, and scientifi c study. 

Charged as stewards, we pledge our 

dedication and service to achieving this 

mission for the enjoyment and benefi t 

of current and future generations.

Park clustering also brought shared program management responsibilities for managing several programs, among them concessions, 

cultural resources, planning and subsistence.

Katmai’s cultural resource program began 

in 1996, when the Regional Offi ce and Bill 

Pierce agreed to detail Jeanne Schaaf to act 

as Cultural Resources Manager for the Lake 

Clark/Katmai/Aniakchak park cluster. In 

addition to those parks, she was also asked to 

oversee the cultural resource program at Kenai 

Fjords National Park.26 

Pierce asked Schaaf to pursue four goals: 

1) to begin building a viable cultural resource 

program for the cluster area emphasizing sound 

scholarship and good science, and the integration of research and scholarship in program 

management, 2) to make certain the program 

encompassed the full range of cultural resources program responsibilities, including archeology, cultural anthropology, curation, historic 

architecture (including cultural landscapes) 

and history, 3) to establish viable working relationships between the parks, the regional offi ce 

and the local Native communities, and 4) to 

identify specifi c, immediate cultural resource 

needs in the cluster parks. Th is was viewed 

as the very beginning of a cultural resources 

program in Katmai with the idea that over the 

next ten years the program would grow to the 

point that it could adequately meet cultural 

resources responsibilities.27 

Schaaf started her detail in March 1996 

with no staff and a budget of $36,000. Recognizing what the job of establishing and 

overseeing a solid cultural resources program 

for the parks required, Regional Director 

NPS Brooks Camp Crew in 1997. 

Camp Manager and Chief of 

Interpretation, Mark Wagner, poses 

in the back row, fourth from the 

left. Top Row: Jim Gavin, Martha 

Hess, Angie Wagner, Mark Wagner, 

Dave Boyd, Katie Johnson, Kimberly 

Garner, Kara Hartman. Middle Row: 

Pat Allen, Jennifer Adelman, Brian 

Westlund, Michael Willis, Dan parks, 

Pete Webster. Sitting: Kristen Carden, 

Bill Allen, Joel Barnett, Tom Kay, 

Lester Dietrich. Courtesy of Jennifer 

Adelman.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 163

Marcia Blaszak granted Schaaf ’s request that 

the Regional Offi ce continue to pay her salary 

for a period of fi ve years, allowing her to fi ll 

the vacant Katmai archeologist position with a 

National Historic Preservation Act compliance 

archeologist.28 Dale Vinson was hired in 1998 

to fi ll that role, primarily dedicated to protecting resources in the Brooks River Archeological District National Historic Landmark. 

Schaaf made a major eff ort to implement 

cultural resource management policy in the 

clustered parks by building permanent staff (a 

curator, cultural anthropologist and research 

archeologist) through OFS base increases for 

cultural resource professionalization, hiring 

John Branson as a permanent historian and acquiring project funding for collections management, baseline documentation of ethnographic 

resources, historic cabins, historic resources, 

National Register eligibility assessments and 

archeological surveys. Th e Katmai park group 

began regular consultation with the Council of 

Katmai Descendants established in 1994 and 

with the Heirs of Pelagia Melgenak for Brooks 

Camp matters. At Brooks Camp ground disturbance was limited to previously disturbed 

areas and to above or within the 1912 ash 

as much as possible. Most archeology in the 

The National Park Service’s southwest 

cluster units: Lake Clark National Park 

and Preserve, Katmai National Park 

and Preserve and Aniakchak National 

Monument and Preserve. Map by 

Alaska Regional Offi ce, Anchorage, 

Alaska.
164 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

National Historic Landmark continued to be 

compliance-driven and not research oriented 

with the exception of the Cutbank excavations 

directed by Vinson, which was a combination of NAGPRA compliance and research. 

Katmai’s cultural resources program began 

immediately to produce signifi cant, scholarly 

studies. Central to the cultural resources program from the beginning has been the commitment to resource preservation through public 

education; involving meaningful community 

participation in projects, and sharing resource 

information through community presentations 

and publications. Especially pertinent to the 

Brooks River area are: Building in an Ashen 

Land: Historic Resource Study of Katmai National Park & Preserve, A Naknek Chronicle: 

Ten Th ousand Years in a Land of Lakes and 

Rivers and Mountains of Fire (a synthesis of the 

prehistory of the Naknek River region written 

for use in the area schools), Witness: Firsthand 

Accounts of the Largest Volcanic Eruption in the 

20th Century (this booklet draws from Native 

eyewitness accounts to tell fi rst-hand the story 

of the eruption and its aft ermath aff ecting the 

people residing in what is now Katmai), and 

Story of a House (an account of the excavation 

and reconstructed prehistoric house on exhibit 

at Brooks Camp).

Jeanne Schaaf, Chief of Cultural 

Resources for Katmai National Park 

and Preserve, Aniakchak National 

Monument and Preserve, and Lake 

Clark National Park and Preserve 

from 1996-2012. Schaaf conducted 

extensive archeological investigations 

on the Katmai coast. Photograph by 

Kathryn Myers.

Archeologist Dale M. Vinson is 

shown here conducting archeological 

compliance testing for the Brooks 

Camp leach fi eld in 2006. Vinson is 

unsurpassed in his comprehensive 

knowledge of cultural resources in 

the Brooks River National Historic 

Landmark Archeological District, 

which he has protected since 1998. 

Photograph by Kathryn Myers.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 165

The Legal Battle for Public Access

and Appreciating the Native Presence

Th e establishment of a cultural resource 

program at Pierce’s request came at an important time for Brooks Camp and Katmai 

National Park and Preserve. Ted Stevens, 

meanwhile, had continued to allocate funding 

for visitor enhancement projects. In 1997, 

three million dollars was provided for a new 

boardwalk and a bear-viewing platform to replace the decaying fourteen-year-old platform 

at Brooks Falls. Th e old platform, which had 

been designed to hold only fi ft een people, was 

replaced by a two-tiered viewing deck that accommodated as many as forty visitors. An additional viewing platform was installed below 

the falls and a covered node on the boardwalk 

gave NPS the ability to manage bear viewers, 

by creating “gates” for crowd control. Because 

these and other ensuing construction projects 

potentially disturbed sites within the National 

Historic Landmark, the park needed to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic 

Preservation Act, in order to evaluate and 

mitigate impacts. 

By 1997, however, cultural resource concerns at Brooks Camp went far beyond compliance issues. To ensure future access to land 

along Brooks River and to Brooks Falls, the 

following year, Senator Stevens provided nearly 

four and a half million dollars to fi nalize a real 

estate deal with the NPS and the Angasans, a 

Native family who once, along with other local families, seasonally occupied areas at the 

Brooks River mouth.29 

Th e lands deal was the culmination of 

a twenty year legal battle, which provoked a 

great deal of animosity between the park and 

the family, but it also marked a time when NPS 

increased consultation with regional Native 

leaders about archeological remains at Brooks, 

as mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 

(NAGPRA) passed in 1990. Th e consultation 

process produced an appreciation, not just for 

the world-class archeological sites, but also for 

the Native descendants of Katmai and what 

they had to say about the challenges of maintaining their current culture. “Concern for 

the past is important,” explained the Region’s 

Cultural Anthropologist Tim Cochrane aft er 

a consultation with Bristol Bay Native leaders 

in 1993. “[But] the preservation of their living 

culture, as oft en sustained by subsistence, is a 

primary concern.”30

Before 1997, the thought of restricting 

the public from viewing bears at the Brooks 

Falls due to Native land claims issues seemed 

improbable. Twenty years earlier, only about 

130 acres of private land existed within Katmai 

National Monument—less than 0.01 percent 

of Katmai’s total land area.31 Although Alaska 

Natives had lived in the area for thousands of 

years, conducting activities such as hunting, 

trapping, fi shing, and berry picking, Alaska Natives, either individually or collectively, owned 

no land within Katmai National Monument.

Events related to the December 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) 

changed that, as Alaska Natives in the area surrounding Katmai National Monument took 

advantage of the law’s implementation, which 

made it easier for them to obtain land. As part 

of that movement, around twenty-fi ve individuals applied for Native allotments during 

Pelagia Melgenak at South Naknek 

in 1961. Melgenak Collection, 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
166 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

the 1970s within the boundaries of present-day 

Katmai National Park and Preserve. Additionally, village and regional corporations applied 

for land. Most of the allotment requests posed 

few problems for NPS managers because few 

applicants and certifi cate holders actually lived 

on their parcels, and many parcels had no 

improvements on them. Th e only potential 

allotment that confl icted with Brooks Camp 

was the Pelagia Melgenak claim.32 If approved, 

the claim would have signifi cant implications 

for Brooks Camp management and the public’s 

access to viewing bears at the falls.

On March 31, 1971, Old Savonoski 

resident and wife of American Pete, Pelagia 

Melgenak, applied for a parcel under the 

terms of the Native Allotment Act of 1906. 

The parcel, which covered approximately 

120 acres, was the traditional location where 

Superintendent Been and Victor Cahalane 

witnessed several Native families along 

with Palakia’s family harvesting spawned 

out salmon during their visit in 1940. The 

requested allotment included the Brooks 

Camp area, land on both sides of the Brooks 

River, the river itself, and almost one-half 

mile of Naknek Lake shoreline. 

 Pelagia Melgenak was born July 21, 1879 

in Old Savonoski, Alaska. She fl ed from her 

home aft er the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, 

and lived most of her life in New Savonoski, 

a new site on the Naknek River just upriver 

from present day South Naknek. According 

to her granddaughter Mary Jane Nielsen, who 

also grew up at New Savonoski, Pelagia was a 

culture bearer and matriarch of the MelgenakAngasan family. “Until her death in 1974,” 

wrote Nielsen, “she passed on stories, songs, 

customs and traditions that link contemporary 

Sugpiat to their pasts.”33 

In 1950, when Ray Petersen established 

his Angler’s Paradise Camp at the mouth 

of the Brooks River, Pelagia Melgenak lived 

seasonally in a cabin with her husband on the 

south side of the river, near the shore of Naknek Lake. Nielsen remembers going to the 

Brooks River to fi sh with her grandmother in 

those days:

While we were at Qitirwik, (now 

called Qit’rwik) on Brooks River, 

Grandma, Taata, and our parents 

would catch fi sh to split and dry. Th e 

spawned red salmon or sayathluk 

begin turning red as they arrive at 

fresh water as the fi sh are returning to 

their rivers of origin to spawn. Th e 

colloquial term for them is redfi sh. 

Th e men built racks to dry the fi sh 

at the mouth of Brooks River on 

the south shore. Fish racks were still 

up in the 1950s when the National 

Park Service became more visible in 

the area. I have a visual image of the 

scene. I am not certain if the people 

standing across the river looking at 

us, at our tents, and at our fi sh racks 

were Northern Consolidated Camp 

personnel or tourists. Th ey may have 

been National Park Service employees. Th ereaft er, we traveled to Brook 

River later in the season to catch and 

dry our redfi sh.34

Th e cabin her family had built on the 

north side of the river was supposedly appropriated by the concessioner and turned into 

a gas storage shed.35 Melgenak’s family later 

alleged that the concessioner also tore down 

Pelagia’s north side tent frames. According 

to documents written in 1958, NPS offi cials 

acknowledged that the Melgenak structures 

existed and recognized the family’s traditional 

use of the area: 

Th ough we are apt to think of their 

fi shing camps more as nuisances and 

cluttered junk piles than as something 

of value, we must admit that it is part of 

the local color of the Monument, and 

eventually will be of visitor interest.36

Less than a year aft er fi ling the claim, 

93-year-old Pelagia died. Her death left Trefon 

Angasan, Sr. and Ralph Angasan as leaders 

of the Melgenak family heirs.37 On March 7, 

1983, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 

announced that Melgenak’s application had 

been adjudicated.38 Th e decision, which the 

NPS immediately appealed, commenced a 

twenty-year legal struggle over lands on which 

Brooks Camp was situated. On September 24, 

1993 administrative Judge Will A. Irwin issued 

his decision. Irwin ruled in favor of the NPS, 

and agreed there was little evidence to support 

any claim to the north side of the river. He 

rejected all claims that the heirs of Pelagia Melgenak had made and decided that NPS was the 

uncontested owner of all land in the Brooks 

Camp area.39
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 167

A few weeks aft er Irwin’s ruling, Margie 

Macauly of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) invited the Regional Cultural 

Resources manager Ted Birkedal and Tim Cochrane to attend a meeting in 1993 with Bristol 

Bay area Native organization leaders, many with 

cultural ties with Old Savonoski and the Brooks 

River area. Th e purpose of the 1993 consultation was to gather information for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would, according to Cochrane, “insure a mutually agreeable protocol to meet our Native American 

Grave Protection and Repatriation Act responsibilities in an effi cient manner.” And, given the 

timing of the Irwin decision, Cochran hoped 

to do it “...in a non-combative atmosphere.”40 

Th e MOU was never signed, but 19 years later 

in 2012 with the help of Margie Macauly-Waite 

the NAGPRA Memorandum of Agreement 

“Alaska Native Human Remains and Associated 

Artifacts Encountered as a result of construction, maintenance and research within Katmai 

National Park and Preserve” was signed by nine 

tribes and three interested parties.

 According to Donald Nielsen, a principal BBNC shareholder, the 1993 meeting 

was the fi rst time in his recollection that NPS 

personnel had attended such a gathering, and 

Nielsen, like many BBNC attendees saw this 

as a genuine opportunity to heal relations that 

Cochrane characterized as “estranged and 

sour.”41 Cochrane and Birkedal heard several 

concerns about the park’s management of cultural resources in the past. Th ey were asked 

about the grave markers at Old Savonoski 

which had disappeared and about how the 

looting of thirty-fi ve ceremonial masks from a 

cave near Savonoski River in 1926 could have 

occurred under the watch of the National Park 

Service. In a memo to the Regional Director 

summing up his experience, Cochrane stressed 

that his “take away message” from the meeting, 

one he felt “deserved a wider audience,” was 

that the local Natives considered Brooks Camp 

“a sacred place.” “Certainly, the numbers 

of known protohistoric burials alone in the 

Brooks Camp area,” wrote Cochrane, “suggests 

the place might carry strongly held religious 

The Pelagia and Nick Melgenak and 

Trefon and Vera Angasan families at 

Qit’rwik in 1950. Information courtesy 

of Mary Jane Nielsen. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
168 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

In 1998, Senator Stevens negotiated a land exchange between the NPS and the Melgenak family heirs in which NPS gained access along the area known as the spit 

(opposite page) in exchange for about 10 acres near Old Savonoski.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 169
170 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

beliefs.” He then pointedly noted: “It is quite 

clear our management actions to date have 

foreclosed the recognition and response to that 

possibility.42 Cochrane continued to explain 

why he felt the information garnered from the 

consultation mattered:

It is important for park managers to 

understand the simmering anger many 

of the people I talked with have towards the park service. However, the 

key point about the anger is that it is 

an indicator of the great care they have 

for KATM, and for which we have not 

acknowledged. We tend to see our 

tenure at a park as a discrete unit of 

time, the Bristol Bay folks do not...

...While oft en angry about a handful 

of issues, they did not lash out at me. 

Rather, there existed a fragile current 

of hope, that maybe the NPS might 

want to communicate more openly 

and less as perfunctory obligation. It 

was a hopeful sign that many of the 

Melgenak heirs, active in many area 

Native organizations were some of 

the voices of reason and restraint in 

our discussions. 43

Cochrane admitted such “fence-mending” 

actions would not come cheap, citing a need 

to better involve staff on the ground at Brooks 

Camp, as well as hiring experienced archeologists to rebury human remains found along the 

Brooks River in a legal and respectful manner. 

“If we cannot show this modicum of respect 

in the near future,” warned Cochrane, “we 

are fooling ourselves if we expect radically 

improved relations between us and culturally 

affi liated Native organizations.”44

In May 1995, Cochrane, again with the 

help of Margie Macauly, organized a consultation trip to Brooks Camp with members of the 

newly organized Council of Katmai Descendants, which included Mary Jane Nielsen, general manager of the Alaska Peninsula Corporation, Edna Smith with the Oceanside Corporation, Ted Anagasan with the South Naknek 

Village Council, Jeff Anderson with the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, Trefon Anagasan 

with the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and 

Katherine Groat of South Naknek. Several 

in attendance were also heirs to the contested 

Palakia Melganek Native allotment. Th e 

purpose of the consultation included another 

attempt to address NAGPRA related issues, 

to inform the Native leaders as to the park’s 

upcoming Develop Concept Plan (DCP), to 

gather information for an “ethnographic resources” section that would be included in the 

DCP, and to discuss the ramifi cations of slow 

oil leaks from several tanks at Brooks Camp 

that had contaminated sensitive cultural sites 

in the early 1990s.45

While walking throughout the Brooks 

River area, the heirs recounted recollections 

stirred by what Cochrane characterized as an 

“emotional trip.” Th ey shared stories about a 

“Feed-Me Rock,” a place where family members passed on their journey up the Naknek 

River en route to Qit’rwik, and the importance 

of Iliuk Arm: “...because once inside Iliuk they 

were “safe” from the full fury of the lake and 

“home.” Th ey talked about the devastation 

caused by the 1919 fl u epidemic, transmitted, as some believed, by exchanging money. 

“Aft er that,” the group told Cochrane, “their 

grandmother would wash and iron bills.”46 

Th ey remarked on how the “old people” used 

the ridges for easier walking, and that before 

the Katmai-Novarupta eruption in 1912, it 

was common to travel to Katmai Village on 

the coast, over the pass from Old Savonoski. 

Finally, each agreed that they would like to be 

called “Sugpiaq.”

Th ough the heirs revealed a great deal of 

ethnographic information, Cochrane noted 

that they were equally reluctant to discuss aspects of life of the river. Th ey were unwilling 

to discuss subsistence activities in detail for fear 

of being accused of pursuing them when they 

were not allowed to do so in the park. Nor did 

they talk specifi cally on how much time the 

family actually spent at Brooks Camp. In part, 

their hesitation stemmed from the present 

lawsuit. Some comments, however, suggested 

a much older and deeper suspicion. Mary Jane 

recounted that their grandmother, who was 

born at Old Savonoski, had once told them, 

“Never talk to whites about the volcano eruption,” reasoning that “all the telling would lead 

to is the whites taking everything.”47

A positive sign that progress was made, 

however, included a meeting between the 

group and Brooks Camp manager Mark 

Wagner, Cary Brown, and the seasonal interpretive staff to discuss ways to convey appropriate messages about Native culture to 

visitors. Th ough reluctant to divulge specifi c 
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 171

information, the heirs also recognized that 

having a more knowledgeable public would 

likely increase empathy for their position. Th e 

heirs shared with the interpreters information 

about redfi sh and plantlore, and then delved 

into the more complicated issue of who should 

be the people telling the story of Native presence and use of Katmai. Th ough most agreed 

that “getting the message out” was best, they 

nevertheless felt strongly that NPS should 

employee more Native rangers. An area of 

interpretation that especially displeased the 

family concerned the reconstructed house site 

being referred to as a “pit house.” “As a small 

act of defi ance,” reported Cochrane, “they put 

a piece of notebook paper over one metalized 

sign with the Native term for house and Sugpiaq as the name of the traditionally associated 

people with Brooks Camp.”48

Cochrane acknowledged that the trip to 

Brooks Camps was not an easy one for the 

heirs. “One occasion,” wrote Cochrane, “it 

troubled Anagasan family members to be back 

in Brooks Camp staying in NPS facilities, being back with NPS personnel, while having a 

rush of past memories engulf them.” Strong 

emotions, as Cochrane pointed out, stemmed 

from a combination of past family associations, 

strong connection to the place, as well as the 

on-going dispute with the NPS and bad experiences with earlier rangers.49 

Meanwhile the lawsuit regarding the Melgenak heirs claim to land near Brooks Camp 

proceeded. In response to the Irwin decision, 

and not much of a surprise for NPS personnel attending the early summer consolation 

trip to Brooks Camp, Pelagia Melgenak’s heirs 

fi led suit in U.S. District Court on November 

15, 1995. Judge James K. Singleton wrote 

in his decision that “In fact, the NPS people 

had knowledge of Melgenak and her family’s 

presence and did everything they could to 

discourage it.” He affi rmed the Interior Board 

of Lands Appeal decision in United States of 

America v Palakia Melgenak that the family 

did not have claim to the north side parcel, but 

reversed Irwin’s 1993 decision, concluding that 

the Melgenak heirs had valid claim to the south 

side parcel.50

On November 26, 1997, BLM issued a 

certifi cate of allotment for Native allotment 

application AA-7604, Parcel B to Pelagia Melgenak’s heirs. Located on the south side of the 

Brooks River, Parcel B is fronted by the Naknek Lake beach to the east, the river, including the southside spit at the mouth of the river 

to the north, and spruce forest to the south 

and west. Th e 67.96-acre property contained 

signifi cant archaeological resources, part of the 

NPS road to Brooks Lake, and trail access to 

the Brooks Falls.51 

Th e location of Melgenak’s allotment put 

NPS managers at Brooks Camp in a quandary. 

Not only was much of the public’s route to the 

falls now privately held, but the Melgenak allotment on the south parcel directly confl icted 

with NPS plans to move the camp, which had 

been decided in the 1996 Development Concept Plan (see next section). Senator Stevens 

negotiated a land exchange in August 1998 

between the NPS and the Melgenak family heirs, in which NPS access along the area 

known as the spit was traded for property near 

the mouth of the Savonoski River.52

In the deal, the heirs conveyed a portion of 

their 67.96 acres as a Conservation Easement 

to the United States that would protect “habitat for various species of wildlife, including the 

Alaska Brown Bear, and provide opportunities 

for Park visitors to see and enjoy the same.”53

In return, the heirs received conveyance of approximately ten acres of land from the United 

States on Iliuk Arm of Naknek Lake, near the 

mouth of the Savonoski River and the location 

of their traditional, pre-eruption home. On 

January 14, 1999, BLM issued a certifi cate of 

allotment for Native Allotment AA-7604, Parcel C, located near the mouth of the Savonoski 

River, to Pelagia Melgenak’s heirs.54 

Katmai Descendants and the Redfi sh Fishery

Margie Macauly, whose grandfather Alex 

had lived in Katmai, Mary Jane Nielsen and 

her brother, Trefon Angasan, Jr. formed an 

advocacy group—the Council of Katmai Descendants in 1994 to promote preservation 

of traditional knowledge about their cultural 

heritage and to represent the widely scattered 

Katmai descendants in matters relating to Katmai. Th is group was inspired by the teachings 

of Pelagia Melgenak about sense of place and 

the importance of preserving their cultural 

and spiritual connections to Katmai country. 

Members came from surrounding villages, including Perryville, Ivanof Bay, Chignik Lake, 

Chignik Lagoon, South Naknek, Naknek and 

Chignik Village and from Kodiak Island. According to the group’s founders, the Council 

was formed to represent all Natives with traditional ties to the Katmai lands regardless of 
172 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

where they currently live, their Native Corporation, or their tribal enrollment.55 Co-founder Margie Macauly made it clear that the living descendants of Katmai were tied to the cultural resources 

within the Brooks River, and made it their mission 

to participate in their further protection:

Th e lands within the Katmai National 

Park and Preserve are the homelands 

and spiritual resting place of our 

ancestors, therefore, all of the lands 

within the Katmai National Park and 

Preserve are considered sacred lands to 

the Council of Katmai Descendants. 

Th e Council of Katmai Descendants 

is driven by our strong motivation to 

protect and preserve the descendants’ 

cultural and spiritual connection to 

Katmai country.56

Th e Melgenak case, along with the establishment of the Council of Katmai Descendants, brought public and NPS management 

attention to the Brooks Camp’s cultural history 

and highlighted the importance of the traditional redfi sh harvest that the heirs and others Native families had conducted before the 

western boundary of the park was realigned in 

1969 and again in 1978, precluding any subsistence activities in Katmai. 

“Redfi sh” is the term Native people call red 

salmon when the fi sh reaches its late spawning 

stages and lacks the oil of fresh salmon so it 

dries more easily. Th ough elders in particular 

enjoy the taste, groups of all ages use redfi sh for 

traditional dishes.57 But in spite of the redfi sh 

use in Native diets, the Council of Katmai Descendants felt that the purpose of the redfi sh 

harvest was not nutritional. Rather, the redfi sh 

had special spiritual value that connected them 

to their ancestors.58 Th us, the redfi sh were 

important because, as Mary Jane Nielson explained, “it makes them who they are.”59

In 1994, Congressman Don Young introduced Public Bill H.R. 4943 which allowed 

for the descendants of Katmai residents to 

continue their traditional fi shery for redfi sh in 

the Naknek Lake and Brooks River.60 Th e bill 

Alaska Natives splitting redfi sh at 

the mouth of the Brooks River in 

1960. Photo by Bill Heard. Melgenak 

Collection, KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 173

was immediately challenged by sport fi shers 

and environmental groups who raised concerns 

about how the redfi sh fi shery would impact the 

river’s sensitive ecosystem. In the response, the 

Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) sponsored a series of meetings with representatives 

from the Sierra Club, the Wildlife Alliance, the 

National Parks Conservation Association, the 

State of Alaska, and the Secretary of Interior in 

order to inform the various groups and address 

their concerns.61

During the meetings it was agreed that the 

redfi sh fi shery would open aft er October 15 

when the sport fi shery was closed. Th e BBNC 

also explained that the fi sh being caught would 

be past the stage of reproduction, and thus, 

their capture would not impact the health of 

the salmon fi shery nor compete with anglers 

who had no desire to catch such fi sh with rod 

and reel. Moreover, concerned groups representing the commercial fi shery were assured 

the targeted spawned-out salmon had no commercial value. To ensure the Native harvesters 

would not aff ect the ecosystem, it was agreed 

that catch numbers would be capped at 1,500. 

And to prevent the degradation of the habitat 

only boats and gill nets would be allowed and 

anchors would be prohibited.62 

But according to Trefon Angasan who 

helped author the bill, the biggest hurdle was 

responding to the argument that if the residents wanted salmon, all they needed to do 

was to set their nets in front of their villages 

and harvest all the their subsistence needs from 

the ocean fresh salmon that were swimming by 

in salt water. Angasan responded, explaining 

that the Katmai descendants’ entire identity 

hinged upon the signifi cance of place:

My ancestors have harvested these 

redfi sh for the past 5,000 years as 

documented by the archeologists 

who have studied the ancient village located under the site of the 

concession....Since the descendants 

could not resettle at the place of our 

forefathers, they returned under the 

dark of night to continue their sacred 

practice of harvesting, sensing that 

their ancestors were pleased with 

their continued practice of harvesting 

the redfi sh at the Brooks River. Th ey 

felt that as long as they are able to 

continue this practice, they are not 

an abandoned people.”63

Th e point made by Angasan and the 

BBNC was that the redfi sh harvest was not 

meant for subsistence purposes. It was a 

spiritual event that allowed the descendants to 

remember their ancestors and to connect with 

them though the ritual of harvesting the fi sh. 

By 1996, the BBNC had gained unanimous 

support for passage of the redfi sh bill. On 

July 18, 1996, HR 1786 passed the House of 

Representatives and September 12 passed the 

Senate. 64 President Bill Clinton signed the bill 

into law soon thereaft er. Th e relevant portions 

of the “Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996” (Public Law 104-333, 

Section 1035) are:

SEC. 1035. REGULATIONS OF 

FISHING IN CERTAIN WATERS 

OF ALASKA. (a) IN GENERAL.—

Local residents who are descendants 

of Katmai residents who lived in the 

Naknek Lake and River Drainage shall 

be permitted, subject to reasonable 

regulations established by the Secretary of the Interior, to continue their 

traditional fi shery for redfi sh within 

Katmai National Park (the national 

park and national preserve redesignated, established, and expanded under 

section 202(2) of the Alaska National 

Interest Lands Conservation Act (16 

U.S.C. 410hh–1)).

(b) REDFISH DEFINED.—For the 

purposes of subsection (a), the term 

‘‘redfi sh’’ means spawned-out sockeye 

salmon that has no signifi cant commercial value.

Th at same year, Katmai National Park and 

Preserve authorized Katmai residents who lived 

in the Naknek Lake and River Drainage to continue their traditional fi shery for redfi sh. 65

Th ey set into place regulations and a 

procedure for issuing permits to descendants of those who had traditionally taken part in the redfi sh harvest. 

Th ey drew up a plan for a study that 

was to trace the harvest and its eff ects 

from 1997 to 1999. With the help 

of local descendants, they assembled 

a list of more than 50 households in 

Naknek, King Salmon, and South Naknek (New Savonoski had long since 

been abandoned) who were eligible 
174 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

to participate in the fi shery, based on 

traditional use and ancestry.66

Redfi sh continues to be the single, most 

important issue defi ning the relationship 

today between the Park and local Native residents.67 Th e Council of Katmai Descendants 

has continued its primary mission to connect 

their children to Brooks Camp through fi eld 

trips and annual family trips during summer 

and fall time for a “sense of renewal and to 

harvest redfi sh.”68

The 1996 Brooks River 

Development Concept Plan

NPS began planning for bear habitat 

protection, visitor safety and enjoyment, and 

the preservation of the area’s signifi cant cultural resources that culminated with the 1996 

Brooks River Area Development Concept 

Plan (DCP), perceived by many to be the 

ultimate solution for Brooks Camp. Representing seven years of fi eld studies, public 

meetings, and plan revisions, the DCP process 

consumed most of Pierce’s tenure as Katmai’s 

superintendent. 

Brooks Camp, primarily because of the 

bears, had proven so popular over the years 

that it developed into the park’s major visitor site, creating numerous problems related 

to its management (Chapter eight) which 

commanded the great majority of the park’s 

staff , time, and budget. According to historian 

Frank Norris, “the two most critical Brooks 

Camp management issues since the mid-1980s 

have included bear-human interactions and 

the sheer volume of Brooks Camp use.”69 In 

1991 the park’s planning team distributed an 

Alternatives Workbook throughout the agency 

which addressed development and resource 

management concerns in the Brooks River 

area. Th is workbook contained a range of 

conceptual alternatives. Alternatives 1 and 2 

kept Brooks Camp facilities in place and varied 

little in proposed improvements. Alternative 

3 removed and relocated Brooks Camp facilities to Iliuk Moraine, four miles southeast. 

Alternative 4 removed Brooks Camp facilities 

and did not replace them anywhere. Public 

meetings were held that summer to discuss the 

workbook. 

About ten percent of the public comments indicated that the highest management 

priority at Brooks River was “the bears that 

inhabited the area.” Swayed by the strong 

sentiments, NPS decided “to ensure that the 

planning eff ort is adequately considering the 

importance of bears and Brooks River.” To do 

this, a Bear Research Committee, consisting 

of bear biologists and archeologists, was created to review the most current bear studies 

completed at Brooks River and write a synopsis 

of those studies with recommendations. Th e 

report, which was published in 1993, served 

Crowds of people wait for an NPS escort 

to Brooks Falls in 1995. Courtesy of Bill 

Sherwonit.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 175

as a foundation for Brooks Camp planning in 

regards to bears.70 

Based on the Brooks River area research 

reports and studies in 1980-1991, the Bear 

Research Committee developed fourteen 

guidance recommendations, provided recommendations based on the DCP’s 1992 fi eld 

studies, recommended criteria for boardwalks 

and bear viewing platforms in the Brooks River 

area, and made recommendations regarding 

the proposed actions. Aft er reviewing the park 

record, the committee concluded that bear 

management practices at Brooks River had 

improved, even in the face of increasing visitation. Nevertheless, the committee ultimately 

determined that if Brooks Camp is to remain 

in its historic location (alternatives one and 

two) then “Brooks Camp needs to become as 

bear-free as possible.”71

The Decision to Move Brooks Camp

Between 1991 and 1993, a series of events 

took place at Brooks Camp that raised signifi cant concerns for many and heighted the 

need for camp removal. In 1991, as previously 

mentioned, a bear made physical contact with 

a park ranger, indicating a possible escalation 

of dangerous bear-human encounters.72 Fuel 

leaks at numerous locations around camp 

seeped into the water table, forcing NPS to 

remove the entire fuel distribution system in 

1992. In 1993, the Brooks River Archeological District was designated a National Historic 

Landmark, and visitation that year hit new 

heights, reaching, according to the park’s 

counting methods, 10,000 at Brooks Camp.73 

Th ese developments suggested that the current 

situation of juggling wildlife watchers, anglers, 

bears, and protection of archeological remains 

was growing unmanageable. Th e solution to 

park offi cials seemed obvious: Brooks Camp 

needed to be moved.74

Th e DCP process consumed the fi rst half 

of the decade and was completed, along with 

an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for 

the Brooks River area in 1996. Th e fi nal DCP 

evaluated six alternatives for the management, 

use, and development of the area. Th e proposed action (Alternative #5 – Beaver Pond 

Terrace) called for a reorientation of management and use to more adequately preserve and 

interpret the area’s globally signifi cant Alaskan 

brown bear viewing opportunities and prime 

brown bear habitat, and to manage these elements as integral parts of an evolving environment that also contains nationally signifi cant 

cultural resources, scenic values, and worldclass sport fi shing opportunities.

Along the way, parts of the planning 

process generated considerable controversy, 

particularly the section that proposed that NPS 

dismantle the Brooks Camp facilities and the 

lodge operation, relocate the camp, and create 

in the process a “people-free zone” north of 

Brooks River. One third of the written comments received during the review process from 

stakeholders representing state agencies, local 

agencies, Alaska Native groups, organizations 

and businesses acknowledged the presence 

and importance of protecting archeological 

resources at Brooks Camp. Most of those comments communicated support for the removal 

of camp operations away for the river and rebuilding on the north side of the river. Some 

also supported the development of a “gateway” 

location such as Naknek. King Salmon, or Lake 

Camp rather than incurring the grater expense 

of moving a short distance away from Brooks. 

Even those individuals who generally disagreed 

with the alternative to move camp admitted, 

as David McGuire, MD remarked, “Th e only 

credible argument that I’m aware of for moving 

the present buildings is that they occupy an archeological site.”75 Th ough it appeared obvious 

to researchers, NPS fi eld staff , and several stakeholders that the number of visitors to Brooks 

Camp needed to be reduced and cultural resources protected, many entrenched users—the 

concessioner, outdoor sports groups, infl uential 

clients, and some members of the NPS hierarchy—felt that moving Brooks Camp was not an 

acceptable solution and were strongly opposed 

to any change in the status quo. 

NPS estimated the cost of moving the 

camp in 1996 at $9.3 million but argued that 

moving was worth the cost because it would 

provide a refuge for bears, reduce surprise encounters between bears and people, and move 

buildings away from specifi c settlements making up the Brooks River NHL archeological 

district that paralleled the Brooks River.76 Th e 

plan also called for NPS to collect visitor use 

fees, provide staff for guided walks to bearviewing platforms, impose new restrictions on 

sport-fi shing, and limit day-use visitation. Accordingly, NPS planners expected the DCP to 

improve the visitor experience in several ways:

Th e visitor experience would be 

greatly improved by less crowding and 
176 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

more adequate visitor facilities and 

interpretation. Th rough an enhanced 

visitor experience, people would gain 

a better understanding of the human 

history of the region and local environment and the ecological relationships between salmon, bears, and humans, which might promote a desire 

to live in better harmony with nature, 

an unquantifi able but very real contribution to the quality of life...About 

3.3 acres of disturbed land would be 

restored to more natural conditions by 

the removal of some existing facilities. 

No critical habitat for listed species 

would be negatively aff ected.77

The Public Responds

When NPS released its fi nal proposal 

1996, the Alaska Visitor Association opposed the plan, saying that there was no clear 

evidence of people-bear confl icts at Brooks 

River. Th ey were joined by Ray Petersen Sr., 

president of Katmailand, Inc., who questioned 

whether the situation warranted a move and 

asked in a written statement, “Doesn’t the fact 

that there are lots of bears and satisfi ed visitors 

mean something besides a crisis?”78 Some critics of the plan also opposed relocation but only 

because the plans did not go far enough—they 

opposed all development inside the park and 

suggested that a campground was the only appropriate form of human footprint that should 

remain.79 For some people, the case for moving the camp was strengthened by an incident 

in July 1997, aft er the plan had been released, 

when an eight-year-old boy, standing with his 

family along the trail to the falls, was overrun 

by a pair of juvenile bears who were chasing 

each other in play. Although the boy skinned 

his elbows when he was knocked down by the 

fi rst bear and was stepped on by the second, he 

emerged from the experience with a story to 

tell, but otherwise unscathed.80 

Th e Council of Katmai Descendants 

also opposed development near Brooks River 

because of the area’s traditional use by Native 

people and suggested relocating the camp 

facilities to King Salmon where most people 

began their journeys into the park and where 

local businesses could benefi t. Th e Bristol Bay 

Native Corporation, by contrast, endorsed the 

plan as a way to preserve a sustainable source of 

tourism dollars and to educate the public about 

local Native cultures.81 Th e National Parks 

Conservation Association (NPCA), a parks 

advocacy organization that keeps close tabs on 

park issues, welcomed the plan as a balanced 

answer to the confl icting issues of bear protection and visitor access.82 

Patricia McClenahan discovers an 

intact oil burning lamp when doing 

compliance for a wheelchair ramp 

that NPS was installing for the 

auditorium in 1990. Disturbance of 

cultural resources was one reason 

cited in the DCP to move Brooks 

Camp to the south side of the Brooks 

River. KATM Slides Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 177

Whether sentiments were in support 

of the move or against it, Katmai’s Chief of 

Cultural Resources, Jeanne Schaaf noted that 

the public views refl ected several misconceptions, particularly 1) that the archeological 

resources occur only at Brooks Camp in the 

lodge area; 2) that the damage to the resources 

occurred in the past and is limited to the initial 

construction of the lodge and utilities; 3) that 

everything is known about the archeological resources; 4) and that there are signifi cant 

archeological sites at the Beaver Pond Terrace 

that would be destroyed by the proposed development there. As Schaaf explained, “Th e 

Brooks River Archeological District was designated a National Historic Landmark April 13, 

1993. Th is designation highlighted the density 

and signifi cance of archeological sites along the 

entire Brooks River corridor as well as on the 

Naknek and Brooks Lake beach ridges adjacent 

to the river. Th is apparently was not conveyed 

to stakeholders suffi ciently in the DCP/EIS 

public review process, nor through our interpretive activities at the time.”83

Political Infl uences

By far the most infl uential voice in the 

debate over the DCP was that of Senator Ted 

Stevens, who called NPS plans to move Brooks 

Camp “a bunch of nonsense.” Th e Senator 

agreed with those interests opposed to the 

move, who thought that further development 

improvements to Brooks Camp’s infrastructure was a fi tting solution. He also considered 

Brooks Camp importance to the state, calling 

it a venerable institution in Alaska.84 As the 

chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, 

Stevens inserted language into an appropriations bill prohibiting the park from spending 

money to limit visitation, particularly in the 

ways described in the plan. Th e language in the 

bill read as follows: 

Th e committee does not agree with 

the Park Service’s proposal to move 

Brooks River Lodge ... and has prohibited the use of any funds to do 

so. Th e Committee expects the Park 

Service to fi nd alternative means to 

manage increased day use ... without 

instituting or utilizing a quota system 

on visitors.85 

Instead of limiting visitation, Stevens made 

it clear that he wanted Katmai’s managers to 

fi nd ways to increase visitor use by improving 

or expanding existing facilities, boardwalks, 

and boat landings, and in the bill he allocated 

$200,000 for that purpose. 

Th e response to Senator Stevens’ rejection 

of NPS plans came quickly. Chip Dennerlein, 

president of the NPCA, sent a letter to the 

senator’s offi ce explaining that the demographics of Brooks Camp visitation had changed 

in recent years to include more families with 

small children and more people with little or 

no experience dealing with bears.86 Dennerlein 

went on to address the popular argument that 

Brooks River was safe because no visitors had 

been seriously injured or killed in a bear attack:

No one has been seriously hurt at 

Brooks. Th is is true. But two years 

ago, I personally grabbed a two-yearold toddler who ran into the woods 

aft er a bear when his parents turned 

away for a moment, and I helped 

move a bear out of camp aft er she 

reached into a tent and took the foot 

of a sleeping camper in her mouth. “It 

hasn’t happened yet” is not a responsible management principle for the 

future of Brooks Camp – for visitors 

or bears.87

Tom Hawkins of the Bristol Bay Native 

Corporation sent a letter to Senator Stevens’ 

offi ce urging the senator to reverse his decision on plans to move the camp, citing public 

safety and the quality of the visitor experience, 

threats to the area’s archeological sites, and the 

need to maintain Brooks River as a tourist attraction on a sustainable basis. 

For many years, Senator Stevens had taken 

a personal interest in Brooks Camp and had 

showed little hesitation when recommending 

funding for the park, as long as that funding 

expanded public access and reaffi rmed the role 

of Brooks Camp as the park’s recreation headquarters.88 In spite of a 1998 report in which 

the authors described the Brooks River area 

“the most dangerous bear-human interaction 

situation we have ever seen,”89 the Senator’s 

eff orts helped to ensure that Brooks Camp 

would remain in its present location and that 

NPS facilities at Brooks River would accommodate a growing number of visitors. 90

Two years later Katmai park offi cials, 

thinking that they had retooled the plan suffi ciently to gain Senator Stevens’ support, 
178 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

welcomed the Department of Interior’s 1999 

budget which included $6.2 million to be used 

to remove the campground and lodge and rebuild both at the new location. However, by 

the time the appropriations bill came out of 

the Senate, the allocation had disappeared.91 

Stevens’ chief committee aide on Alaska issues 

explained that the Senator felt that the Brooks 

Camp plan “needed further refi nement” and 

that the Senator felt the plan was not “visitor 

friendly.”92 

In the end, for reasons we may never fully 

know, Senator Stevens pulled funding for the 

move.93 Th e Stevens’ decision caught NPS offi cials by surprise and stalled many of the plans 

detailed in the park’s 1996 DCP for a decade. 

“Brooks Camp relocation pulled from 

budget.” Anchorage Daily News, 

October 13, 1999.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 179

ENDNOTES

1

 Alan Eliason retired in August 1993; Will Tipton served as acting until Pierce arrived winter 

1993.

2

 Paul Schullery, Real Alaska, 27. 3

 “Superintendent Annual Report,” (1993). It should be noted that this number is likely 

overestimated for the represent visitor days versus actual number of visitors.

4

 “Nonresident license sales in 1990 and 1998,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game; see 

also Bennett, 279.

5

 Ibid., 279.

6

 Terry D. DeBruyn, “A Review of Bear/Human Interactions over Time and the Overall 

Implications to Management of the Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park and Preserve.” 

Katmai National Park and Preserve Bear Management and Monitoring Technical Report 

NPS/KATM/99-004, 1999. Also, see chart of page 59.

7

 “Superintendent Annual Report,” “1993).

8

 Craig Medred, “Bears Find Easy Meal in Katmai,” Anchorage Daily News (July 24, 1993), 

A1+; see also “Furry Muggers Close Katmai,” Alaska 60 (April 1994), 61. 9

 Hilary M. Boyd, “Bear Management – 1996,” Katmai National Park and Preserve Bear 

Management and Monitoring Technical Report NPS/KATM/96-002, (1996): 6.

10 Again note that Pierce’s number is likely high, for those should be counted as visitor days 

rather than actual number of visitors.

11 Philip Greenspun, “Overcharged in Katmai,” We Alaskans (April 30, 1995), G 9-13. 12 Craig Medred, “Katmai Bears Crowd Around Park Center,” Anchorage Daily News, 

Monday July 21, 1997, B1-2.

13 Ibid.

14 Wesley Loy, “Grizzly Lives up to Image: One Big Bad Bear” Anchorage Daily News, Tuesday 

July 20, 1998, front page headline. 

15 DeBruyn, “A Review of Bear/Human Interactions Over Time and the Overall Implications to 

Management for the Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park and Preserve,” 20.

16 Ibid., 10.

17 Boyd, 8-9.

18 Ibid., 5-8.

19 Squibb and Olson, 23.

20 Bill Sherwonit, “Too Close for Comfort,” National Parks 74 (September/October 2000), 36. 21 “Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan” (2001): 2; Olson, et al., “Bear Management 

at Brooks River,” (2002): 2; Olson, T.L., E.M. Groth, K.W. Mocnik, and C.I. Vaughn,. “Bear 

Management at Brooks River, Katmai National Park, 2003-2006” AK Reg. Nat. Resour. Tech. 

Rep. NPS/AR/NRTR-2009-73 (2008): 51;

E.K Bentley, T.L. Olson, and C.I. Vaughn, “Bear Management at Brooks River, Katmai National 

Park, 2002,” AK Reg. Nat. Resour. Tech. Rep. NPS/AR/NRTR-2007-62. (2007): 34.

22 Kellie Peirce and Terry DeBruyn “Summary of Bear/Human Interactions During 1999 and 

Recommendations for Future management of the Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park 

and Preserve.” Bear Management and Monitoring Technical Report NPS/KATM/99-002, 

(1999), 11. 

23 Barton and Johnson, 1989 visitor survey, 96-97. 

24 Barton and Johnson, 70, 73.

25 Katmai Annual Superintendent Report, (1998): 2.

26 Kenai Fjords NP would later be dropped from the list of cluster parks.

27“Functional Description and Agreement Cultural Resource Manager Detail KATM, LACL, 

and KEFJ,” National Park Service, 1996.

28 “Cooperative working agreement,” signed 11-13-1997.

29 Natalie Phillips, “Feds, Family Strike Katmai Deal,” Anchorage Daily News (September 16, 

1998): A1. 

30 Memo, To Associated Regional Director, Resource Services, from Regional Cultural 

Anthropologists, Division of Cultural Resources; December 15, 1993. 

31 Of the seven private parcels, fi ve were owned by institutions such as the Russian Orthodox 

Church, the State of Alaska, and the U.S. Air Force. The other two parcels were owned by 

non-Native individuals. 

32 Although spelled Palakia in the court documents, her granddaughter Mary Jane Nielsen 

spells her name Pelagia. See “The Pelagia Story” (University of Alaska Fairbanks, unpublished 

master’s thesis, 2005).

33 Mary Jane Nielsen, “The Pelagia Story” (University of Alaska Fairbanks, unpublished 

master’s thesis, 2005) iii.

34 Nielsen, 43. Qitirwik is the Sugcestun word for Kittiwick that means “sheltered place behind 

a point.”
180 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

35 For more on the Melgenak Claim at Brooks Camp see Norris, Isolated Paradise, 211-218. 36Father J. Michael Hornick, J.C.L., “RECARPETING ANILCA: Is it the carpet or the carpet 

layers that need replacing?” A Report to the Peoples of Alaska D(2), Part 2. http://www.

alaskaminers.org/d2ch12.pdf, 67.

37 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 211. 38 Administrative Law Judge E. Kendall Clarke approved Native allotment application AA7604 in part and rejected it in part.; Ibid., 212

39 United States v. Palakia Melgenak, IBLA 86-32, Decided September, 24, 1993. 40 Memo, To Associated Regional Director, Resource Services, from Regional Cultural 

Anthropologist, Division of Cultural Resources; December 15, 1993. 

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Tim Cochrane, “Consultation Trip to Brooks Camp,” May 18-20, 1995, Trip Notes, 1-12.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid.

50 United States District Court for the District of Alaska Civil Docket entrees for case A95-

0439—CV (JKS) “Heirs of Palakia Melgenak et al v USA et al”.

51 To Jeanne Schaaf, Cultural Resources Manager, Katmai from Janet Sosnowski, reality 

specialists land resource program center, December 5, 1997. AA-7604 Parcel B Native 

Allotment certifi cate number 50-98-0085. 52 “Chronology of Major Events and Physical Improvements at Brooks Camp,” Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, 2003.

53 “Agreement between Melgenak Heirs and the United States of America,” National Park 

Service, 3.

54 To Land Resources Program Center Chief Charles Gilbert, from Dale Vinson Cultural 

Compliance Coordinator, Katmai National Park and Preserve, January 29, 1999.

55 Nielsen, 45.

56 Ibid, 45-46.

57 “Redfi sh harvest, Upper Naknek River, Katmai National Park, Briefi ng Statement,” 

Department of Interior, National Park Service, November 19, 1993.

58 Cochrane, 7; “Trefon Angasan, “Subsistence is What Connects You to the Seasons and the 

Land,” nd. Article located at uaa.alaska.edu/café/uplode/Subsistence-trefon-2.pdf.

59 Cochrane, 7.

60 Angasan, “Subsistence.”

61 Ibid.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid. 

64 House of Representative Report 104-687, 10th congress, 2nd Session, “Regulating Fishing in 

Certain Waters of Alaska, July 18, 1996; Senate Report 104-390, 104th Congress, 2nd Session. 

“Fishing in Certain Waters of Alaska,” September 30, 1996.

65 Katmai Redfi sh; Subpart O--Special Regulation—Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

13.1204, Traditional red fi sh fi shery. 36 CFR 13.66. 66 P. Partnow Draft Ethnographic Overview and Assessment for the Brooks River Area, March 

19, 2013.

67 Jeanne Schaaf, personal communication.

68 A. Agli, Traditional Cultural Property Inventory, Kittiwick (Brooks River Area), Katmai 

National Park and Preserve, 2006.

69 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 238. 70 “Final Report of the Bear Research Committee, Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park 

and Preserve with recommendations to the planning team, Brooks River area Development 

Concept plan,” National Park Service, (January 1993).

71 Ibid, 10 and 23.

72 It is unclear the ranger was bit or pawed in the hand. Nevertheless, it was the fi rst “attack” 

in 25 years.

73 Again, this number is likely overestimated by the park.

74 Norris, Isolated Paradise, 242. 75 Memorandum, To Superintendent, KATM, from Chief, Cultural Resources, “Statement of 

Stakeholders Interest in implementation of Brooks River DCP,” January 20, 2005.

76 John Quinley, “Signifi cant Brooks Camp Changes Proposed in Final NPS Development 

Plan,” Draft public affairs release, (December 20, 1996): 1.
 Chapter Eight: Brooks Camp at the Crossroads 181

77 “Brooks River Area Development Concept Plan”, http://www.nps.gov/katm/parkmgmt/

brooksdcp.htm, February 22, 2010.

78 Steve Rinehart, “Katmai Park Plans Fees, Visitor Limits,” Anchorage Daily News (December 

26, 1996): D1; see also Steve Rinehart, “Traffi c Jams at Brooks River,” Anchorage Daily News, 

(July 26, 1998): A8.

79 Sherwonit, “Crossroads,” 33.

80 Steve Rinehart, “Stevens Fights Katmai Quotas,” Anchorage Daily News, September 27, 

1997. 

81 Letter, To Senator Ted Stevens, from Tom Hawkins, Senior Vice-President of Bristol Bay 

Native Corporation, September 19, 1997.

82 Sherwonit, “Crossroads,” 33.

83 To Superintendent, KATM from Chief, Cultural Resources, January 20, 2005.

84 Sherwonit, “Crossroads,” 33.

85 Excerpted from copy of Congressional Record, 1997 [?], 38.

86 Letter, To Senator Ted Stevens, from Chip Dennerlein, National Parks Conservation 

Association, September 29, 1997.

87 Ibid., 3.

88 During the 1990s, his funding allocations included $1.1 million to build a new and improved 

boat ramp and dock on Naknek Lake near King Salmon and money to improve the fl oating 

bridge across Brooks River. Stevens also provided $4.4 million to fi nalize negotiations with the 

Angasan family that would ensure future access to land along Brooks River and to Brooks 

Falls. In 1997, Stevens provided $3 million for a new boardwalk and a bear-viewing platform 

to replace the decaying fourteen-year-old platform at Brooks Falls. The following year, 

Stevens also attached a rider to a spending bill that allowed Katmailand, Inc. to operate 

Brooks Lodge indefi nitely, immune from competition from other companies interested in the 

concession contract like the Bristol Bay Native Corporation. 

89 Christopher Servheen and John Schoen, “Brown Bears at Brooks Camp, Katmai National 

Park: Recommendations for Management,” Letter to the Katmai Superintendent (1998): 2.

90 Natalie Phillips, “Feds, Family Strike Katmai Deal,” Anchorage Daily News, (September 16, 

1998): A1.

91 David Whitney, “Brooks Camp Relocation Pulled From Budget,” Anchorage Daily News

(October 13, 1999): B3.

92 Ibid.

93 Deb Liggett, Interviewed by Rawson, 6-26-2008.
182 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

A sow fi nds food in a cooler left along the 

beach at Geographic Harbor. The scene 

underpins the negative impact of increased 

use of Katmai’s coast on bears. Courtesy of 

Stephens Harper, National Park Service.
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 183

In fall 1999, the Brooks River’s most 

photographed bear that attracted most bear 

watching enthusiasts to Brooks Camp, ‘Diver,’ the 35-year-old brown bear, was on his 

last legs. He was gaunt and creaking when 

he showed up at the river to consume carcasses of dead and rotting salmon. Th ough 

he put on some weight, he didn’t look all that 

healthy heading into winter and hibernation. 

According to Brooks Camp manger, Mark 

Wagner, “He looked really bad.” Despite the 

odds, the venerable bear survived the winter. 

But the future for Diver was grim. “Probably 

the only thing saving Diver now, lamented 

Wagner, “is that the other bears haven’t really 

noticed his frailty.”1

By the late 1990s, Brooks Camp, like 

Diver, was old and its infrastructure was failing. Th e nearly 50-year-old camp’s location 

within the National Historic Landmark and 

archeologists’ knowledge of culturally sensitive 

areas seriously restricted infrastructure growth 

and improvements needed to support staff and 

visitors. In addition, there were signifi cant 

Native sensitivities, “Th e Brooks River is where 

my dad was born,” expressed Trefon Angasan 

of the importance of the area’s cultural history 

to Katmai’s descendants, “it’s where I grew up.”2

 

Meanwhile, the number of NPS staff had 

out-paced available housing, the high numbers 

of bears and people continued to make mobility diffi cult, and subjective reliance on the 

50/100 rule made it hard to enforce around 

Brooks Camp. By the end of the 1990s, thanks 

in part to Katmai’s heightened media attention, a surge of commercial operators began to 

fl y wildlife spectators to other areas of the park, 

particularly the coastal areas, while Brooks 

Camp continued to command the largest 

percentage of NPS resources. Th e problem of 

romanticized expectations held by visitors and 

some staff clashed with a more pragmatic adHow much money do you spend on the old camp if you’re moving to a new camp?

 ~Deb Liggett, 

 Katmai Superintendent, 1998-2003

Chapter Nine:

Post-DCP Management Challenges 

at Brooks Camp

ministration; and throughout it all, Lake Clark 

and Katmai National Parks administered under 

one superintendent since 1996, were in the 

midst of separating. 

“There Were Simply Too Many People”

In 1998, Deborah O. Liggett became Katmai’s ninth superintendent. Prior to Liggett’s 

arrival, she had gained experience with highprofi le controversy while dealing with the issue of sacred sites versus recreational activities 

as superintendent at Devil’s Tower National 

Monument.3

 Liggett had come to Alaska in 

October 1997 and spent a year in the regional 

offi ce as a management assistant to the Regional Director, Robert (Bob) Barbee.4

 Liggett 

then spent almost fi ve years running the Lake 

Clark and Katmai park cluster. 

Aft er instituting what she described as a 

more realistic management strategy, Liggett 

noted that her “marching orders” were to 

implement the 1996 Brooks Camp DCP. In 

1999, archeologists surveyed, tested, and 

cleared a 40-acre parcel on the Beaver Pond 

Terrace with access roads to visitor arrival areas on Brooks Lake and Naknek Lake. Also 

that year a “Brooks River Brown Bear Use and 

Movement Assessment” was conducted to 

gain a better understanding of the bear migrations in the proposed development areas and 

their surrounding environs including a map 

indicating high use bear trails. Funding for the 

research came in the form of a gift from Canon 

U.S.A. which gave $90,000 to Denali and Katmai national parks to use to study the impact 

of people on bears. “Preliminary research in 

Katmai suggest that human presence may force 

bears away from the best feeding areas, which 

could lower reproduction rates,” explained 

Rick Clark, chief of natural resource management, when asked how the money would be 

spent. Th e $48,000 three-year Katmai project 
184 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

also funded studies of bears foraging along the 

coast and how their behavior changed when human were nearby.5

 Finally, a Brooks River task 

force agreed to use special project funding support to hire a wildlife biologist for 1999 to help 

resource managers synthesize and analyze all 

monitoring and fi eld data previously collected 

on brown bears and humans within the Brooks 

River area. Terry DeBruyn, detailed from the 

Alaska Regional Offi ce, fi lled that position. 

Almost immediately, Liggett faced opposition to the DCP’s implementation, primarily 

because it called for the removal of NPS and 

commercial operations from the river corridor 

and the construction of a new visitor entry 

point and facilities at the Beaver Pond Terrance.6

 With growing concerns from guides 

and commercial users that NPS plans for 

Brooks Camp would limit visitor use, and subsequently, negatively impact key commercial 

operators’ businesses, Congressional funding 

evaporated, and the infl uential lobbying of 

powerful politicians eventually led to the postponement of the implementation of the DCP 

(chapter nine).7

 Th is had an enormous impact 

on Brooks Camp. Particularly, it severely 

complicated on-the-ground decision-making 

concerning visitor and bear management. 

Deborah O. Liggett became Katmai’s 

superintendent in 1998. Courtesy of 

Deb Liggett.
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 185

“Traffi c Jams at Brooks River.” Anchorage Daily News, July 26, 1998 
186 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Th e very real problems created by the high 

number of bears and visitors had become a logistical nightmare for rangers in charge of traffi c control. In search of a solution, Regional 

Director Bob Barbee invited grizzly bear expert 

Christopher Servheen to Brooks Camp in 

1998 to observe the situation between people 

and bears and give NPS his report. Accompanying Servheen was bear biologist John Schoen 

now of the Alaska offi ce of the National Audubon Society. Th eir report was not only a ringing endorsement of limiting visitor use, but it 

punctuated the seriousness of increasing numbers of people coming to the Brooks River area. 

In our professional opinion, the situation at Brooks River will eventually lead to [a] serious bear human 

encounter resulting in the death or 

serious injury of one or more visitors. 

Th e human use of the Brooks River 

area, the placement of the facilities, 

and the high density of bears make 

this site the most dangerous bear-human encounter situation we have ever 

seen. Th is is a very serious matter. 

Th e reason for this is the constant 

interaction between large number of 

bears and uninformed visitors along 

the trails leading to the viewing platforms, and within the existing facilities along Naknek Lake Shore. Th e 

issue is not if a death or injury will 

result, it is when it will happen. Such 

a death or serious human injury from 

a bear at Brooks River will forever 

change the complexion of how visitors use the area, how the facility will 

be managed, and how people both 

at the site and in general will view 

bears. Th is incident will erode public 

support for bears and will result in 

a negative view of the NPS and the 

concessions operation. Th e time to 

act is now before this death or serious 

injury occurs.8

 

In their report Servheen and Schoen 

echoed pervious Katmai superintendent, Ray 

Bane’s observations made a decade earlier, 

that “humans habituate to bears at Brooks,” 

meaning that over time, people became more 

willing to experience bears at closer proximity. 

Servheen and Schoen reiterated statements 

made by previous Brooks bear researchers, noting that “bears are oft en described as ‘cute’ by 

“In Alaska’s Bear Country.” New York 

Times, June 9, 2002.
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 187

people and these people tend to lose their common sense by getting too close.”9

 

Joan Beattie fi rst identifi ed this trend 

in the 1980s, noting that visitors arrived at 

Brooks Camp usually with the belief that 200 

to 300 feet off ered an acceptable measure of 

safety, and that aft er a day of watching bears 

at the falls, the number dropped to twenty or 

thirty feet, leading her to conclude that people 

accustomed to urban zoos came to think of 

Brooks River as merely “a zoo without bars.”10 

Likewise, journalist Bill Sherwonit echoed the 

metaphor, writing in 1993 that “Brooks Camp 

now off ers something of an outdoors zoo experience. Visitors can see wild Alaska brown 

bears in a controlled and tightly managed 

environment, without having to leave most 

civilized amenities behind.”11

In 1999, Terry DeBruyn repeated Liggett’s 

concern that the management situation at 

Brooks Camp was not realistic for rangers 

making on-the-ground decisions. Th at year 

DeBruyn was tasked to review Brooks Camp’s 

bear management program. In his “Review of 

Bear/Human Interactions Over Time and Th e 

Overall Implications to Management of the 

Brooks River Area,” DeBruyn described visitors as being forced to “run a gauntlet of bear 

activity” between the camp and the viewing 

platforms.12 Moreover, he recognized that biologists still had no concrete evidence as to why 

bear numbers at Brooks River had increased 

over the years, but noted several contributing 

factors: 1) there was an overall increase in the 

brown bear population on the Alaska Peninsula, 2) additions to Katmai in recent decades 

increased the protected land surrounding the 

Brooks River and provided additional protection for bears, 3) the size of the salmon run, although highly variable, had increased through 

time, drawing more bears into the area, and 

4) the presence of park staff has added to the 

overall protection of the bears.13

Th at same year, DeBruyn and biological 

science technician Kellie Pierce co-authored 

a report that summarized the rising bear 

activity at Brooks Camp and its impact on 

NPS employees’ ability to manage the high 

number of visitors.14 DeBruyn and Pierce examined protocols for dealing with serious and 

emergency-related incidents and found the 

system at Brooks Camp to be deeply fl awed. 

Th ey recommended that NPS establish a carrying capacity for visitation at Brooks Camp 

during peak season and limit visitation and 

guiding accordingly.15 Moreover, they found 

that some user groups had decided that September and October were good months to 

visit because they could do as they pleased 

without being “bothered by park staff .”16 Th e 

report warned that the conditions facing NPS 

staff at Brooks Camp made the rules largely 

unenforceable and the situation “unmanageable, unpredictable, and unsafe.”17 DeBruyn 

and Pierce concluded that “much of the staff ’s 

time in July was spent providing traffi c control: safely moving...brown bears which were 

in close proximity to high visitor use areas.” 

As the wildlife biologists stated, “Th ere were 

simply too many people.”18 

Wildlife Biologist Terry DeBruyn 

watches salmon near Brooks Camp 

in 1998. Courtesy of Katherine 

Ringsmuth. 
188 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

NPS Seeks to Improve Visitor Safety

Lacking the option to move, at least any 

time soon, NPS responded to these detailed 

and urgent appeals for change with more incremental and stop-gap measures. Without 

the option of moving Brooks Camp, Liggett 

advanced other visitor enhancements laid out 

in the DCP, one being the new bridge that allowed bears to swim underneath more easily. 

Meanwhile, one particular concern for bear 

management was hazing bears while the public 

watched. NPS employees were oft en hesitant to 

haze bears who were exploring the newly fenced 

bridge because of the clear vantage point from 

which visitors could witness any NPS action 

along the lower river. Visitors, therefore, had 

a front-row seat to what DeBruyn described 

as “a negative reaction to aversive conditioning.”19 Besides visitor’s misunderstandings of 

hazing, DeBruyn was concerned that a hazed 

bear learned nothing more than it was harassed 

near the bridge on occasion, and furthermore, 

might actually habituate to hazing tools and 

techniques. In spite of the new fl oating bridge 

recently installed at the lower river, DeBruyn 

concluded that NPS should construct a permanent raised bridge over the river because “at no 

time in the history of Katmai have there been 

more bears and people crowded together in the 

Brooks River area.”20

Meanwhile, Liggett’s administration had 

undertaken a major construction project along 

the trail to Brooks Falls. Th e trail, used by 

hundreds of people a day, was eroding grass 

covered features of a major archeological site 

crossed by the trail. NPS widened the trail to 

the falls beginning in 1999, and in 2000, NPS 

maintenance crews began to construct a onethousand-foot boardwalk and new viewing 

platform a short distance downstream from 

the Falls Platform. Th e elevated walkway got 

visitors off the more sensitive cultural sites and 

away from the most utilized bear trails, while a 

new platform overlooking the “riffl es” just below Brooks Falls alleviated viewer numbers on 

the falls platform. 

Visitors walk along the raised 

platform to the Brooks Falls. NPS 

built the platform in 2000 to allow 

bears uninhibited access to the 

river, keep visitors safe, and prevent 

further harm to cultural resources. 

Photographed by Robert Winfree, 

National Park Service.
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 189

At both platforms NPS attempted to limit 

the amount of time that visitors were allowed to 

watch bears. Time limits helped to regulate the 

fl ow of people onto and off of the platform (so 

that everyone got a chance to view bears) and 

relieved pressure on the bears, some of which 

had been reluctant to use the falls when people 

were present. At the entrance to the falls platform, rangers asked for names and requested 

that during peak hours, visitors remain approximately one hour on the platform. When 

the platform reached its forty-person capacity, 

the ranger then asked visitors who had reached 

their time limit to relinquish their places. 

In order to mitigate any adverse environmental impact, beginning in 2001 the falls and 

mid-river platforms were closed between 10:00 

pm - 7:00 am to allow bears a period of time 

free of human presence and to decrease the 

potential for surprise encounters in the dark.21 

Because many of the challenges involved navigating the trail to the fl oating bridge and beyond to the viewing platforms, a combination 

of interpretation rangers and bear management 

personnel were stationed at “the corner,” where 

“bear jams” were most frequent, and at the 

Lower Platform, where a ranger surveyed the 

whole lower river area and could advise visitors when it was safe to cross the bridge. More 

electric fences were employed around the camp 

aft er 2000 to prevent property damage. As outlined in the DCP, management initiated plans 

to remove the scattered structures from Brooks 

Lake and consolidate these functions at a new 

maintenance facility up the Valley of 10,000 

Smokes Road away from visitor activity.22

NPS planners widely believed that the new 

construction solved many signifi cant problems—it eased visitor crowding, prevented 

further disturbance to cultural resources, and 

reduced bear-human encounters. However, as 

the park continued to plan for more construction at Brooks Camp, critics started to ask 

whether the visitor enhancements improved 

conditions or simply encouraged increased visitation, which would ultimately endanger the 

bears again.23

Solutions Inadvertently Create Problems

 Students and volunteers were added to the 

staff at Brooks Camp in the mid-1990s to help 

address specifi c safety concerns; however, their 

collective inexperience around bears unintentionally undermined management continuity 

and visitor confi dence at Brooks Camp. By the 

beginning of the 2000, park reviewers, scientists, managers, and visitors began to recognize 

consistency problems among staff , especially 

when hazing bears or gauging the 50/100 yard 

rule.24 Back in 1984, Superintendent Morris 

saw the loss of institutional memory and a lack 

of staff continuity as a potential problem and, 

as a result, stressed the value of returning seasonal employees:

Th e continuity they [seasonals] bring 

when they return, permits park operations to develop in progressive 

fashion, rather than conducting an 

annual rebuild of last year’s activities. 

Having to rebuild a developing operation each year may cause us to have 

an inappropriately shallow seasonal 

operation. We may become masters 

of the fi rst or second year operation, 

but will experience diffi culty getting 

beyond those stages. Th e benefi ts are 

obvious of attracting and holding certain seasonals for longer periods (e.g. 

four or fi ve years) to gain benefi t of 

their experiences.25

More staff was needed for managing visitors by the late 1990s, and as more permanent 

and seasonal staff left their positions, inexperienced volunteers and new staff were not 

prepared to deal with the high volume of visitors around bears. Without any funding for a 

permanent Brooks bear technician, not surprisingly Pierce and DeBruyn concluded, “Continuity...in the bear management program is 

lacking at Brooks River.”26

 Crowd control also burdened the seasonal 

interpretive staff , many of whom had never 

seen a bear in the wild when they were hired. 

Even with improved infrastructure, the reality 

of managing people around bears caused interpretive rangers to be so busy that they rarely 

had time to interpret park resources or even to 

educate people about bear safety. 27 Th is was 

made clear from a visitor who described a recent visit to Brooks Camp. “Most interpretive 

contacts with visitors during our trip (during 

a period of very high bear and visitor use) appeared to be focused on bridge crossing, rather 

than on the spectacle of nature unfolding before the visitor’s eyes.”28

Whether you were an interpretation ranger, a bear technician, law enforcement ranger 

or maintenance worker, your primary position 
190 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

duties were secondary to managing the increase in visitation and in bear numbers on the 

Brooks River in the mid-2000s. Th e number 

of bears counted during the summer months 

in 2004 was forty-three, and the following year 

that number jumped to seventy. Additionally, 

number of sockeye salmon for the Naknek escapement increased from 1,939 fi sh in 2004 to 

2,744 fi sh in 2005. Th e escapement numbers 

continued to remain above 2,000 throughout 

the decade. Not surprisingly, fi sh attracted the 

bears, and the bears attracted people.29

Th e pressure to engage in crowd control 

and visitor mobility during the July peak season became equally frustrating for volunteers 

and experienced seasonal staff , who struggled 

to control groups of thirty to forty visitors with 

bears nearby. Moreover, the lack of experience 

by some staff inevitably left visitors with mixed 

messages regarding distance rules or when to 

move bears.30 Visitors were confused when 

staff with more experience employed discretionary actions to further optimize mobility 

without compromising safety or impacts to 

bears, while other rangers, with less confi dence 

in making such decisions, were less fl exible 

with visitors. Additionally, staff —from bear 

technicians to interpretive volunteers—wore 

similar NPS uniforms and consequently, some 

visitors had a diffi cult time distinguishing the 

rangers in their respective roles and responsibilities.31 It was feared that the mixed messages 

to visitors, guests, and guides would ultimately 

undermined the agency’s credibility in the eyes 

of an even less experienced public.32 Without 

uniformity of message and action among rangers and volunteers, visitors were more prone to 

disobey regulations, putting themselves and the 

bears at risk. Th is was apparent to a reviewer 

from the Regional Offi ce in 2006, who observed that Brooks Camp’s front-line staff did 

not always demonstrate “experience, maturity, 

and confi dence working around bears.”33

Troy Hamon, Natural Resources Chief 

since 2001, defends Brooks Camp rangers, 

pointing out that what many visitors and 

guides fail to understand is that caution among 

staff is encouraged, especially when dealing 

with the innate danger of human and bear 

encounters, and that too much perceived confi -

dence can put rangers and the visitors they are 

leading in harm’s way. As Hamon notes, “Th e 

confi dent ones are usually the staff who have 

never actually managed crossing [of the bridge] 

with sixty people at once.”34 

An Aging Camp with No Room to Grow

As Brooks Camp entered the twenty-fi rst 

century, its most daunting challenge was the 

physical condition of its infrastructure. Accommodations, sewer systems, and employee 

housing refl ected a 1960s-era camp. When the 

Visitors at the north end of the bridge 

are asked to give a passing bear a 

space of 50 yards. Photographed by 

Robert Winfree, National Park Service.
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 191

Record of Decision for the DCP was signed in 

1996, it was thought by NPS that those problems would soon be solved, but no signifi cant 

actions were forthcoming to move camp. As 

a result, park staff began to cobble together 

an interim strategy to maintain deteriorating 

facilities and address related life, health, and 

safety issues at Brooks Camp. 

Even before the DCP process was initiated, housing at the camp was a major problem. Rising visitation in the 1980s, combined 

with the area’s multiple uses, instigated a need 

to add more divisions (such as interpretation 

and cultural resources) to manage the camp’s 

growing needs. Th is meant that more NPS 

employees, particularly seasonal employees, 

were stationed at Brooks Camp. Th e camp 

manager, lead interpretive ranger, and lead protection ranger each had their own cabins. As 

previously mentioned, maintenance workers 

occupied quarters located at Brooks Lake beginning in 1978, which had housed Bureau of 

Commercial Fisheries biologists prior to 1974. 

Seasonal employee housing consisted chiefl y of 

panabode-style cabins and tent frames located 

on the south side of the river. Th e rise in hired 

employees outpaced the construction of living 

quarters. By the mid-1990s, Brooks Camp 

Manager Mark Wagner began to hire qualifi ed 

couples—one reason being that two employees 

could occupy a single cabin. 

Adding to the housing problem was the 

summer increase of staff there to conduct 

fi eldwork. In 1998, a Pacifi c Yurt Building was erected near park housing at Brooks 

Camp to accommodate staff overfl ow. Beds, 

however, were few, and during the peak of the 

season, they were fi lled primarily by relatives 

and friends of employees stationed at Brooks 

Camp. Cultural Resources Chief Jeanne 

Schaaf explains that the housing situation at 

Brooks over the years has hindered her program’s ability to conduct research, “We know 

where sites are but not much about them.”35

Th e inadvertent discovery of human remains by Dale Vinson in 1999, eroding along 

the portion of the River known as the Cutbank, represented another signifi cant management challenge. Th e Cutbank is located along 

a bend where high water in 1977, 1978 and 

1980 combined with continuous river bank 

erosion endangered a large prehistoric village. 

Work was conducted in the early 1980s at the 

Cutbank Site to recover scientifi c information 

through excavation of the portions of the site 

to be threatened by erosion. 

Expanding NPS seasonal staff inhabited 

nearly all of the available cabin space at Brooks 

Camp, leaving no space for housing researchers or a lab to conduct research. Archeologist 

Don Dumond lamented that conducting archeological research at Brooks Camp in July “is 

impossible because of the bears and almost as 

diffi cult because of park housing conditions.”36 

Although cultural resources staff employed 

Left to right: Archeologists Don 

Dumond, Steve Klingler and Dale 

Vinson are working at the Cutbank 

site, May 2001. KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
192 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

electric fencing to discourage bears from entering the excavation area along the Cutbank, 

bear managers noted that the animals were still 

abundant in the area and it was reported that 

on occasion a sow would leave her cubs near 

the fence while she fi shed. As a result, some 

camp managers recommended abbreviating the 

excavation season within the already short window of opportunity for archaeology.37 

Th e Cutbank project is just one example 

among many that show the strain on available 

space, combined with the two-pronged mandate of the National Park Service (to provide 

for the public enjoyment and preserve resources for future generations), which created 

confl ict between management programs at 

Brooks Camp. Th e strain was later identifi ed 

by a management reviewer, who aft er interviewing many of the Brooks Camp permanent 

staff , noted that NPS employees dealt with “extremely diffi cult, stressful situations” on a daily 

basis. Th e stressful work environment, caused 

chiefl y by inadequate space, made relationships 

between diff erent work units, “severely challenging, even hostile.”38

The Struggle for 

Common Vision and Reorganization

Superintendent Liggett recognized immediately that the stressed relations between the 

program divisions at Brooks Camp was a growing problem. Liggett believed that her employees were a “talented and dedicated group,” 

but in her words, “they weren’t all pulling the 

dogsled in the same direction.”39 She made a 

concerted eff ort to solve staff confl icts by attempting to instill in her managers a common 

vision for the management of Brooks Camp 

and the rest of the park. 

Some of the issues she perceived as problematic derived from an idealistic view held 

by many employees of how the park should 

be managed. Deb Liggett stressed that, “these 

parks in Alaska are our last chance to get it 

right,” but acknowledged that perhaps newer 

park employees, with little knowledge of 

ANILCA, “came up from the Lower 48 with 

some idealized view of Alaska parks.”40 Th is 

attitude perpetuated an expectation held by 

some visitors and employees—that Brooks 

Camp was pristine wilderness, untouched by 

human hands. Visitors and employees saw the 

Brooks River as a kind of “Garden of Eden,” 

where, as New York Times journalist Barry 

Estabrook put it, “Humans, not bears are considered intruders.”41 Th e idea that the Brooks 

River area was somehow devoid of human 

infl uence was, of course, myth, for the river 

corridor had supported at least 4,500 years of 

cultural history. 

Liggett began to see a great deal of confusion in her staff regarding their specifi c 

management roles, so she set out to streamline 

management. In doing so, she set into motion major changes in the Brooks Camp chain 

of command. Since the 1990s, the chief of 

interpretation Mark Wagner had served as the 

Brooks Camp manager. In 2001 Ed Dunlavey, 

a law enforcement ranger, was directed to manage Brooks Camp. Liggett reasoned that the 

tasks demanded of an interpretation chief had 

outgrown the position’s dual responsibilities, so 

the job of Brooks Camp Manager was moved 

to the law enforcement division.42 Wagner was 

made chief of interpretation for both Katmai 

and Lake Clark. In addition, Troy Hamon was 

promoted to chief of natural resources, and 

Tamara Olson, who had a great deal of experience studying Brooks River’s bears over the 

years, was hired as the park’s wildlife biologist 

at the end of 2000.

Staffi ng issues, including turnover in several key positions complicated Liggett’s goal 

for streamlined management in 2002. Chris 

Pergiel was functioning as both the chief 

ranger and unit manager until he transferred 

to Grand Canyon National Park and was replaced by Joe Fowler from Glacier Bay. Th e 

position for a wilderness district ranger was 

established but remained vacant because no 

suitable candidate was found. Ed Dunlavey, 

therefore, supervised both the Wilderness 

District and Brooks District. Long-time 

chief of interpretation, Mark Wagner vacated 

his position. And most upsetting to staff , 

as well as the entire Naknek community, on 

December 19, 2002, park pilot and local resident Tom O’Hara was killed in a plane crash 

while radio tracking moose in the Alaska 

Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge near 

King Salmon.43

The most significant change for Katmai 

occurred in 2003, when Regional Director 

Rob Arnberger commissioned a management review of the Lake Clark/Katmai 

park cluster. Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Aniakchak National Monument 

and Preserve, and Alagnak Wild River had 

been managed as a group with Lake Clark 

National Park and Preserve under a single 
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 193

superintendent in the Anchorage office 

since 1996. Based on park operations and 

interviews with program managers, the 

review board recommended that the parks 

once again be managed by their own superintendents. Reorganization officially commenced in August 2003. 

Th e Regional Director established fi ve 

guiding principles for the reorganization. Th e 

fi rst four simply returned the parks to their 

pre-1996 organization. First, the park cluster 

would be separated into two separate park entities: Lake Clark National Park and Preserve as 

one park, and Katmai, Aniakchak and Alagnak 

would be managed as one administrative unit. 

Second, the superintendent for Katmai would 

be duty stationed at King Salmon. Th ird, the 

Lake Clark superintendent would be located 

at Port Alsworth during the fi eld season and in 

Anchorage during the winter. Fourth, management teams for the two parks would remain 

located on site (King Salmon for the Katmai 

cluster and Port Alsworth for Lake Clark), 

and fi ft h, Cultural Resources, Concessions, 

Planning/Design/Project Management and 

Subsistence would remain shared programs 

and continue to provide support and expertise 

to the parks.44

Aft er the parks were separated, Liggett left 

her position as superintendent in 2004, and 

retired soon thereaft er. But before she resigned 

her position, Liggett initiated a program designed to encourage more cooperation with the 

park’s commercial operators.

Managing Guided Visitors 

at Brooks and other Park Areas 

Th e inability to implement elements of 

the DCP related to capping visitor use levels 

at Brooks Camp continued to create numerous problems for park administration. When 

Liggett arrived at Katmai in 1998, the bear 

numbers had more or less leveled off and daily 

visitor numbers had peaked at 300. Liggett, 

who had experience at numerous parks, noted 

that “Anywhere else in the world, 300 visitors a 

day would be no big deal,” but because maintenance and construction plans had been delayed 

due lack of implementation of the DCP, 300 

people was a big deal for rangers contending 

with very real problems created by the on-theground management of an aging, though continually popular, Brooks Camp. 

One unintended result of Brooks Camp 

popularity was that commercial operators, 

frustrated by the long waits to the bear viewing platforms and competition among anglers, 

began to take guests to less occupied areas in the 

park. Th us, one important aspect of Liggett’s 

legacy at Katmai was to bring more attention 

on the park beyond Brooks Camp. In spring 

2000, the concessions division introduced the 

Brooks River Guide program, a pilot program at 

Brooks Camp designed to increase public awareness of the park’s fi shing resources and, at the 

same time, off er innovative ways to proactively 

contact the public. A position was created to 

work exclusively with the commercial operators 

(now called Commercial Use Authorizations, or 

Katmai National Park and Preserve 

implemented the Brooks River Guide 

Program during Deb Liggett’s tenure 

as superintendent in 1999. Pictured is 

a fi shing guide removing a fl y from a 

rainbow trout. Courtesy of Katherine 

Ringsmuth.
194 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

CUAs)45 who provided the public with access 

into Katmai. Th e main objective for this position was to communicate the park’s educational message to commercial operators and fi shing 

guides and to teach them to communicate the 

message to their clients.

At the time there were approximately 150 

CUAs permitted to bring clients into Katmai, 

one of the highest numbers of any national 

park. Th e guides hired by the commercial 

operators were fl ying clients to Katmai’s rivers 

and coastline throughout the summer—places 

where park rangers may reach once or twice a 

season. Due to sheer numbers and mobility, 

guides frequently spotted unique wildlife, impacted areas, problem bears, and illegal activity 

throughout Katmai’s 4.2 million acres. Th e 

goal for the Brooks River Guide Program was, 

as Liggett suggested at a CUA meeting in King 

Salmon, to turn all guides into “park rangers.” 

Four fi shing lodges—No See Um, Kulik, 

Royal Wolf, and Enchanted Lake—participated in the pilot Brooks River Guide Orientation Program. Guides from participating 

lodges were required to attend an orientation 

about Brooks Camp procedures and bear 

safety information. Th ey were then asked to 

prepare their own version of the bear speech, 

aft er which they received a certifi cate showing 

that they were qualifi ed by the Park Service 

to give the bear speech to clients. Th e advantage of the program, from the guides’ point 

of view, was the freedom to take day guests 

to Brooks at fi rst light without having to go 

to the visitor’s center on arrival at Brooks 

Camp. In 2001, Liggett acknowledged that 

“Th e program was successful and once again 

raised the level of professionalism expected 

of commercial operations in the parks.”46 By 

2005, twenty-one companies with 135 guides 

were participating in the program.47 Still, the 

Brooks River Guide program has had problems, including a failure by some operators to 

comply with park regulations.

In spite of the attempt to transform fi shing guides into park rangers, the congestion at 

Brooks Camp that prompted commercial operators to seek more secluded bear viewing areas, created a need for management’s attention 

elsewhere. Th e increased crowding at Brooks 

Camp in the late 1990s prompted commercial 

operators to seek new bear-watching areas in 

Katmai—a practice that may have helped ease 

overcrowding at Brooks Camp but created a 

need for management’s attention elsewhere. 

By 2001, guided bear viewing activity had increased exponentially along the Shelikof coast 

of Katmai. Twenty-six companies reported that 

they had guided 1,937 people on Katmai’s outer 

coast, the majority of them to two locations: 

Geographic Harbor and Hallo Bay.48 In 2002, 

‘bear viewing’ was included as a separate category by the park’s concessions management. 

Photographer and wildlife viewers 

reached Katmai’s coastline by boat or plane, 

with either wheels or fl oats, and as a result, 

park visitors in search of bear viewing opportunities could as likely see bears feeding on 

sedges or digging for razor clams at Hallo Bay 

as fi shing for salmon at Brooks Camp. Observers report that decades ago bears on the 

coast typically disappeared whenever a human 

approached, but in the past ten years or so 

it appears that bears have become much less 

wary of people. Most wildlife biologists attribute this change to the arrival of hundreds 

of oil spill workers who spent time along the 

coast following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil 

spill disaster and to the steady fl ow of visitors 

now arriving for wildlife viewing.49 

In 1999 the gross receipts for all commercial operations along the Katmai coast totaled 

$2.5 million, and Katmai bear viewing has bolstered the tourism economies of Kodiak, Homer, Anchorage, and King Salmon, all of which 

have companies who off er fl ights or boat tours 

to the coast.50 Tour companies have had considerable success attracting customers through 

a direct-mail advertising campaign using the 

“overfl ow list” of people who did not receive 

permits to visit McNeil River sanctuary. Nor is 

the visitor population on the outer coast limited 

to individuals and small groups arriving by plane 

for bear-viewing or sport-fi shing. In the early 

1990s, the cruise ship World Discoverer, while 

passing through the Gulf of Alaska, dispatched a 

fl eet of twelve infl atable Zodiac raft s full of their 

passengers to search for bears. Cruise ships 

continue to be active in this manner, but the 

number of people they bring in on zodiacs is not 

reported because they typically do not land and 

therefore are not considered CUAs.

In many ways, the management issues that 

have plagued NPS offi cials at Brooks River 

were being repeated along the coast, including 

the problem of people approaching too close to 

bears and of bears stealing fi sh from anglers or 

food from campsites. In the early 1990s, accounts of bears being harassed and driven away 

from feeding areas by hikers were common, 
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 195

Tourists interact with a brown bear in Geographic Harbor, August 17, 1997. Photograph by Michael Hilton. KATM Photo Archive, Records of Katmai National Park 

and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
196 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

and the arrival and departure of multiple fl oat 

planes from relatively small, protected landing 

areas has led to elevated noise pollution levels 

and near collisions between planes.51 In addition, NPS offi cials worry about campsites 

scarring the coastal zone, overfi shing by commercial fl eets, marine debris, illegal commercial 

activity, poaching, archeological vandalism and 

damage, and future spill threats from proposed 

off shore oil development.52 

In 2003, the Alaska Department of Fish 

& Game and the NPS cooperated in draft ing 

a list of “Best Practices” for viewing bears on 

the Katmai Coast and the western shore of 

Cook Inlet. Th e list of guidelines was aimed 

at guides and tour operators as well as at visitors new to bear country. By recommending 

that visitors respect the personal space of bears 

and follow a few common sense measures to 

keep human food out of reach of bears, the 

two agencies hoped to make it more likely that 

bears might “accept our presence as an unobtrusive part of the environment” and continue 

their natural behaviors while being watched.53 

However, compliance with these guidelines 

is voluntary, and enforcement is diffi cult along 

the Katmai coast even in cases of obvious violation of NPS regulations. Commercial operators who want to bring guests to the coast must 

obtain a permit and agree to follow certain 

bear safety and bear protection rules, but commercial operators who are determined to avoid 

NPS rules can take advantage of a loophole in 

the regulations. According to ANILCA, NPS 

jurisdiction along the coast extends only to the 

mean high-tide line, which means that unless 

they take clients onto the uplands, pilots who 

land their planes on the tidelands below that 

line do not need a permit and are not subject 

to NPS enforcement.54 In addition, a loophole 

built into the distance regulation themselves 

can render the 50 yard rule ineff ective, for many 

people typically claim bears approach them 

rather than the other way round. Concerning 

to many bear management personnel is the absence of enforcement of the regulations on the 

coast, for NPS has been aware of violations, but 

rarely issues warnings or citations. Still, communication with CUAs has greatly improved 

in recent years. Becky Brock instituted mandatory annual meetings for commercial operators 

seeking NPS permits. Th ese meetings, held in 

Anchorage, Homer, King Salmon, Kodiak, and 

Iliamna, provided excellent opportunities for 

dialogue on a range of issues.

NPS offi cials are also concerned about 

the rising number of visitors along the coast. 

Besides the backcountry ranger program, NPS 

was never able to diversify visitor services to 

other areas in the park. Th is did not prevent 

commercial operators from bringing their rising number of clients to the less crowded areas. 

Th is has instigated concern over the volume 

of day visitors, who represent the greatest 

potential impact in areas designated as wilderness. Another major concern was over some 

campers setting up for extended periods. NPS 

attempted to limit the environmental impact 

of long-term campsites by asking campers to 

remain no more than two weeks at a single site 

before moving their camp to another location; 

however, NPS rangers reported that the policy 

resulted in a kind of musical chairs played with 

the best sites. 

NPS offi cials considered establishing 

permanent campsites (with bear-proof food 

storage) removed from high density bear-use 

areas. But for the most part, the agency continued to manage the Katmai coast with few 

rules and fewer rangers. In order to monitor 

the situation, NPS began sending out a team 

of two rangers to patrol popular viewing spots 

along the coast and other specifi c areas in the 

backcountry for a few weeks each summer, but 

fi nancial realities (and bad weather) forced 

NPS managers to focus most of their rangerhours on the greatest concentration of visitors: 

Brooks Camp. 

Th e fi rst deaths in Katmai resulting 

from a bear attack did not occur at Brooks 

Camp, but rather, on the coast, in Kafl ia 

Bay, on October 6, 2003. Th e victims were 

Timothy Treadwell, a bear advocate and selfproclaimed eco-warrior, and Treadwell’s girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, who joined him for 

a late-season camping trip. Media and public 

attention on the incident consumed much 

staff time throughout the following winter. 

Th e deaths focused additional attention on 

the continuing review and rewrite of park regulations contained in the Compendium and 

Part 13 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 

Bear viewing, food storage, and camping in 

bear country were the focus of regulation and 

management issues. Treadwell had camped 

along the Katmai coast for extended periods 

of time in the 1990s and was the fi rst to observe and document the interactions between 

commercial operators, their bear viewing clients and the bears. 55
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 197

In the aft ermath of Treadwell and Huguenard’s deaths the legal issue of carrying fi rearms 

in the park was raised by two commercial 

operators, who wanted NPS to allow them to 

legally bring guns into Katmai. Other ways 

to protect visitors in remote wilderness were 

also sought, particularly aggressively pursuing 

those who violate NPS rules, such as touching 

and interfering with natural bear behaviors.56 

Meanwhile, a major criminal investigation into 

the poaching of several bears in the Katmai National Preserve, north of Brooks Camp during 

the summer of 2004 brought even more public 

and media attention to Katmai and confl icts 

between people and bears. “Th ese incidents,” 

wrote Joe Fowler, who became Katmai’s superintendent in 2003, “refl ect an escalation of 

bear/human confl icts occurring in the park 

units including at Brooks Camp.”57

In the end, however, Katmai offi cials, while 

shocked and alarmed at recent events, could 

fi nd little to change about Katmai’s actual bear 

policies. If anything, the tragic case of Timothy 

Treadwell, in particular, testifi ed to the remarkable tolerance that Katmai’s brown bears have 

typically shown toward humans. Perhaps the 

most lasting eff ect of the Treadwell incident was 

the attention it focused on Katmai’s largely undiscovered 390-mile-long, outer coast.

Th e most vital goal for superintendents for 

the Brooks Camp bear management program 

has been to reduce risk to people and bears. In 

Coastal Ranger Stephens Harper 

explains park regulations on proper 

food storage practice to Timothy 

Treadwell at Hallo Bay in 1999. 

KATM Slides Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

past years however, Katmai superintendents 

have been under some pressure to instruct their 

staff to escort visitors around bears at close 

range and to haze bears for human traffi c conveniences, which are actions that do not promote reduced risk—in fact they contribute to 

the opposite. Consequently, each superintendent has tried to implement recommendations 

for a safer Brooks Camp and satisfying visitors 

and the CUAs. Recent recommendations 

included rangers escorting visitors in the river 

corridor and on platforms, reconsideration of 

the ‘50 yard rule,’ and construction of a raised 

bridge.58 Although the mauling of Treadwell 

and Huguenard served as a reminder to Katmai’s superintendents and the public alike as to 

the potential dangers bears represent to people, 

few easy answers emerged. 

A sow and cub dig for clams on Katmai’s coast in 1997. 

Commercial operators were bringing people to these less 

accessible areas of the park by the mid-1990s. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
200 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 Craig Medred, “A Giant’s Final Days? Venerable bear unlikely to survive winter Katmai 

rangers say.” Anchorage Daily News,( October 1, 2000): K1 and K4. 2

 Quoted in Bill Sherwonit, “Too Close for Comfort,” National Parks, (2000), 37. 3

 For a discussion of the Bear Lodge Multiple Use Association v. Babbitt see Tomas F. King’s 

Places that Count: Traditional Cultural Properties in Cultural Resource Management (Walnut 

Creek: AltaMira Press, 2003), 261-62.

4

 Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks along with Aniakchak National Monument were 

administered by one superintendent.

5

 Isaiah Wilner, “Gift allows study of human impact on bears in parks,” Anchorage Daily 

News, (Friday July 10, 1998): B-4. 6

 Steve Rinehart, “Traffi c Jams at Brooks River, Anchorage Daily News, (July 26, 1998): front 

page, A-6.

7

 For a more detailed discussion of the 1996 DCP see Chapter nine.

8

 Christopher Servheen and John Schoen, “Brown Bears at Brooks Camp, Katmai National 

Park: Recommendations for Management,” (1998): 2.

9

 Ibid.

10 Beattie,18.

11 Bill Sherwonit, “Bear Viewing,” 65.

12 DeBruyn, A Review of Bear/Human Interactions Over Time, 20 13 Ibid., 7.

14 Peirce and DeBruyn. (1999).

15 Ibid., 11.

16 Ibid., 16.

17 Ibid., 11; see also, DeBruyn, A Review, 20. 18 Ibid., 10.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., 18-19, 23.

21 Compendium for Katmai National Park and Preserve, 2001.

22 A few years ago, a maintenance employee working on his back beneath a truck was 

startled to fi nd that a bear was licking his boots. See, Troy Hamon Interviewed by Chris Allan, 

7-10-2006. 

23 Jack Hession, “Katmai National Park and Preserve bear/visitor management: Park Service 

offers weakened plan” Sierra Club Newsletter-the Alaska Report. Vol. 35. No. 4. (November 

2009): 4-5.

24 Brooks Camp visitor survey, go to www.psu.uidahp.edu/vsp.htm.

25 David Morris, “Superintendent Annual Report,” (1984).

26 DeBruyn and Pierce, 9.

27 Ibid., 8.

28 Robert Winfree, John Hechtel, and John Neary, “Brooks Camp Developed Area Bear 

Management Administrative Review,” Natural Resource Report NPS/R//NRTR-2007-60 ( 2007): 15.

29 Alaska Department of Fish and Game, “Bristol Bay Historical Information, Season 

Summary,” 2000-2008; Olson, 2009; DeBruyn, 1999.

30 Brooks Camp visitor survey, as cited by Winfree.

31 Winfree, et al. 15. 32 Ibid

33 Ibid. 3.

34 Troy Hamon, personal communication, May 2010.

35 Jeanne Schaaf, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 11-9-2007.

36 Barbara E. Bundy, Dale M. Vinson, and Don E. Dumond, “Brooks River Cutbank: An 

Archeological Data Recovery Project of the National Park Service in Katmai National Park, 

Alaska. “University of Oregon Anthropological Papers 64, (2005).

37 Winfree, et al., 

38 Ibid., 3.

39 Deb Liggett, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 6-22-2008.

40 Ibid.

41 Barry Estabrook, “In Alaska’s Bear Country,” New York Times, (Sunday, June 9,) 2002. 42 “Superintendent’s Annual Report” (2001): 16.

43 “Superintendent’s Annual Report” (2002): 17-18.

44 “KATM & LACL Reorganization Implementation Plan,” National Park Service, 2004.

45 At the time CUAs were called Incidental Business Permit holders (IBP).

46 “Superintendent’s Annual Report” (2001): 24.

47 “Superintendent’s Annual Report” (2006): 19.

48 Bill Sherwonit, “Where the Wild Things Remain,” National Parks 78 (Spring 2004), 44.
 Chapter Nine: Post-DCP Management Challenges at Brooks Camp 201

49 “Draft Coastal Natural Resources Monitoring and Management Report, 1994,” Katmai 

National Park and Preserve (1994): 3.

50 Tom Kizzia, “Shelikof Grizzlies,” Anchorage Daily News (July 11, 1993): F4. 51 Ibid., 7.

52 Ibid., 1; see also, Doug O’Harra, “3 Bears in Katmai Shot and Left to Rot,” Anchorage Daily 

News, August 3, 2004, B1+; and, Doug O’Harra, “Another Poached Bear Left to Rot Near 

Katmai Park,” Anchorage Daily News, (August 4, 2004), A1+. 53 Alaska Department of Fish and Game and National Park Service, “Best Practices for 

Viewing Bears on the West Side of Cook Inlet and the Katmai Coast,”(1993): 1.

54 Stephens Harper, “1998 Backcountry Field Season, Summary Report,” Katmai National Park 

and Preserve and Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, (1998); see also, Natalie 

Phillips, “The Other Bear Market,” Anchorage Daily News, (September 30, 2001): E4. 55 Timothy Treadwell’s 1996 report detailing commercial operations, safety hazards and 

displacement of bears is on fi le in the Katmai Archives, Alaska Regional Curatorial Center, 

Anchorage, Alaska.

56 Ryan Dougherty, “Bear Attack Raises Questions at Katmai: Park looking at ways to protect 

visitors in remote wilderness,” ParkScope,( January/February, 2004): 8. This was made legal 

in February 2010.

57 “Superintendent’s Annual Report,” (2004): 2.

58 Winfree, et al., 19.
202 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

A mother bear balances her cub on her back. 

Courtesy of Will Troyer.

A motherbear balances her cub on her back.

CourtesyofWill Troyer.

A mother bear balances her cub on her back. 

Courtesy of Will Troyer.
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 203

Between 2003 and 2006, Katmai 

had four different superintendents at the 

helm.1

 Katmai’s chief ranger Joe Fowler 

replaced Liggett in 2003. Fowler originally came from Glacier National Park and 

had been chief ranger at Lake Clark, leaving in 1996 just as the Lake Clark and Katmai cluster was organized. Fowler did not 

remain at Katmai long after being hired as 

superintendent. He was replaced one and 

a half years later by Steve Frye, who served 

as superintendent for less than a year and 

who spent less than half of that time in 

Alaska. Troy Hamon, Katmai’s Chief of 

Natural Resources, filled the position until 

Ralph Moore became Katmai’s superintendent from 2006 through 2012.2

 

Given Katmai’s rapid turnover in 

superintendents, some worried about 

the future of Brooks Camp.3

 Turnover 

chipped away at the camp’s institutional 

memory. Consequently the staff ’s, as 

well as the concessionier’s inconsistent 

interpretation of park policy continued. 

During the July peak in visitation, pedestrian mobility seemed to move at a crawl, 

and public perceptions of bears not only 

continued to fluctuate but the attitude 

that Brooks Camp was a place to see bears 

up close remained. “The opportunity to 

get close to a species stereotyped as badtempered and vicious...” wrote New York 

Times journalist Barry Estabrook “...is 

one of the park’s main attractions”4

 Yet, 

in the midst of the parks’ administrative 

separation, the media firestorm over the 

Timothy Treadwell fatality, and the problems caused by an aging camp, management at Brooks Camp continued to carry 

out a delicate balancing act of managing 

people and bears, due in a large part to 

the dedication of the park staff and their 

camaraderie with one another. 

Chapter Ten:

A Delicate Balancing Act

Part of the Brooks Camp experience must be a lesson in patience.

 ~Carlton Imes, 2012

Bear Management in the 21st Century

Tamara “Tammy” Olson, who had a great 

deal of research experience at Brooks Camp 

working with other bear experts such as Barrie 

Gilbert and Ron Squibb, was hired in 2000 as 

wildlife biologist at Katmai.5

 Th at year Kellie Proffi tt, who replaced Kellie Pierce as the 

bear technician at Brooks Camp, authored 

the “Brooks Camp Brown Bear Management 

Report,” in which she described Katmai’s longstanding policy of preventing bears from entering camp as an “unrealistic goal” and also questioned whether hazing bears beyond the designated developed areas for visitor convenience 

was consistent with existing management plans 

and policies.6 Increased pressure to facilitate 

traffi c fl ow across the bridge at Brooks Camp, 

resulted in increased management actions to 

haze resting bears.7

Proffi tt pointed out that as long as a steady 

stream of humans passed through the densely 

populated bear-use zones on both sides of 

the river, and as long as stand-off s and hazing 

scenarios were a daily reality, humans had the 

right-of-way at Brooks River rather than the 

bears. Although it was not the written policy 

of the park to haze bears outside of camp for 

human traffi c conveniences, it was nonetheless happening.8

 In 2000 a number of unprecedented actions were taken to haze bears 

outside of camp. Th ese included documented 

instances when bears were hazed out of the 

lower river with crackershells during the fall 

to allow visitors to cross the bridge and board 

the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes bus, and 

an attempt was made to “cracker” cubs out of 

a tree at the corner. Th is did not work and the 

mother came racing back. Proffi tt suggested 

that hiring additional personnel to escort visitors around sleeping bears would be preferable 

to hazing them along the trail to the falls. Although new enhancements such as the raised 

platform to the falls appeared to better serve 
204 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

visitors at Brooks that summer, Proffi tt stressed 

in her bear management report that the “status 

quo” management did little to prevent bearhuman problems at Brooks Camp.9

Carlton Imes Vaughn, an eleven year 

Brooks Camp biotechnician suggests that continuity issues had less to do with inexperience 

and more to do with pressure placed on bear 

management at Brooks Camp to favor the concessioner and commercial operators and their 

clients rather than the bears or even the safety 

of park staff . 

Over the years Vaughn has seen distance 

regulations between people and bears whittled 

down, particularly the elimination of the 100 

yards minimum for sows and cubs. Also witnessed in Vaughn’s tenure at Brooks Camp 

were shrewd guides getting around the distance 

regulation all together, by allowing visitors to 

get far closer than 50 yards because the animal 

itself approached the them, rather than the 

other way around. Vaughn maintains that the 

50 yard rule “is not just about safety, but respect for bears access to the river.” Th e salmon 

migrating up the Brooks River present one of 

the fi rst opportunities of the season for bears to 

feed on a high-calorie food source during a period in which many bears are still losing weight 

following spring den emergence.10 If they feel 

too much pressure from people and avoid the 

river during the day or in some cases all together, it places the bears at risk. Plane operators, 

too, have benefi ted from relaxed regulations, 

decreasing the distance in which they must taxi 

from shore before they apply full throttle from 

100 yards to a mere 50 yards.11 Bear management records indicate that roaring engines 

divert bears away from the beach and directly 

into camp or the campground.12

Th e most problematic burden placed on 

bear management staff , according to Vaughn, 

was the pressure by superintendents to keep 

resting bears off main trails and to keep the 

bridge open. Vaughn recalled that while trying 

to wake a resting bear near the corner he and 

his fellow biotechnician, Katja Mocnik, tried 

Two NPS employees cross the bridge 

as a bear emerges from the high 

grass. When a bear comes within 

50 yards, rangers close the bridge to 

foot traffi c. Photographed by Robert 

Winfree, National Park Service.
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 205

fi rst clapping then when that failed, blowing an 

air horn at the bear. Both actions were considered proper haze methods. Th e horn worked, 

but too well. Th e bear jumped to its feet with 

alarming speed, and charged the rangers, who 

were forced to run at full speed to the safety of 

the platform, only to be ridiculed by tourists. 

Another situation found a sleepy bear reluctant 

to move from the trail. Again biotechnicians 

were brought in to haze the bear. Th e bear responded to their hazing, only to return again. 

Aft er sending numerous visitors past the place 

where the bear slept, it was discovered that the 

sow had treed her three cubs there. 

By the early 2000s, Katmai’s bear management program returned to practices where 

bears were not hazed simply for traffi c concerns. 

As one of her fi rst tasks as Katmai’s wildlife 

biologist, Olson updated and revised a “BearHuman Confl ict Management Plan.”13 Similar 

to the 1986 Bear Management Plan, the 2001 

plan cited fi ve objectives: 1)retain the natural 

population dynamics of bears, 2) allow their 

natural patterns of feeding and habitat use to 

continue, 3)preclude a learned orientation of 

bears toward people, 4)minimize bear-human 

confl icts and, 5) provide opportunities for humans to learn about, observe, and appreciate 

bears. Specifi cally, the 2001 plan recognized 

that the key to avoiding confl ict was to manage 

for appropriate human behavior.14

In order to reduce potential confl ict, the 

plan emphasized the use of preventive methods such as education and proper storage 

and handling of food and garbage, and good 

decision-making practices on part of the visitor. 

Between 2003 and 2006, only a few documented incidents were reported in which bears obtained human food or garbage.15 Th e 2001 plan 

also noted that the 50 yard rule, if respected, 

would decrease encounters and curb fi sh stealing by bears, reduce potential injury to people, 

and extend to bears the space to decide whether 

to approach or withdraw from an encounter.16 

In the years immediately following the plan’s 

implementation, the instances where a bear 

directly approached or charged people usually 

involved a sow with cubs who had been threatened by people trying to photograph them at 

far closer distances than the 50 yard minimum 

or an angler failing to cut his/her line.17

Th e 2001 plan provided guidance on responsive management, including use of hazing 

equipment to prevent or eliminate undesirable 

bear behavior. Such methods included yelling 

and clapping, air horns, percussive instruments, 

bird care devices (bangers and screamers) 

fi red from a 15-mm pistol-like launcher, and 

12-gauge deterrent rounds (cracker shells, beanbags, and rubber bullets).18 In order to prevent 

opportunities for bears to damage structures, 

planes, boats, vehicles, even unattended bicycles, 

The small historic log building serves 

as the operational headquarters 

for the entire Brooks Camp staff. 

KATM Photo Archive, Records of 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
206 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

for example, bears were hazed as soon as they 

were witnessed exploring the property.19 Still, 

Olson’s plan cautioned that aversive stimuli 

could render a bear’s intended response ineffective.20 Th e plan stressed the importance of 

the Brooks’ bears to scientifi c investigation. It 

stated that the park’s brown bears are “recognized as a resource of major signifi cance for 

the enjoyment of park visitors. Because of the 

protected status of the population, it is also of 

inestimable scientifi c value.”21

When hazing practices were applied, it usually meant a relentless attempt by bear management personnel to deter bear from trespassing 

into camp. Th is has always been a daunting 

task, because, as Will Troyer expressed in his 

1980 NPS study, that the park and concessioner 

camps “...could not have been placed in a worse 

location to interfere with regular movement 

patterns of bear when they fi sh the river.”22 Likewise, in 1987 Barrie Gilbert determined that 

fi sh carcass deposits tended to correspond with 

bear travel routes, which led him to conclude 

that the camps were “surrounded on three sides 

by bears feeding on salmon.”23 Bears wandering within the residence areas continued to be 

“driven out,” but the 2001 plan suggested that 

“bears will be given the right-of-way” in all other 

areas of Brooks Camp.24 Underpinning bear 

management was the concern that bears were 

becoming habituated to frequent hazing and no 

longer responding to hazing attempts by staff . 

Given the placement of the lodge between Naknek Lake and Brooks River, it became virtually 

impossible to eliminate bear trespasses through 

the residence areas without enclosing the entire 

camp within an electric fence.25

Most visitors seemed willing to adjust 

their behavior around bears. When a family of bears forced a visitor to delay his bus 

tour to the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smoke, 

his attitude seemed to underscore NPS message that visitors to Brooks Camp need to be 

willing to let the bears proceed in their time 

rather than force them to adjusting to ours: 

“Th at wasn’t the only time I had to adjust 

my schedule to that of a grizzly in Katmai,” 

noted the resigned visitor.26 To the concessioner and some program managers who 

had become accustomed to hazing practices 

started in 2000, this appeared to them a 

shift —even regression—in how bear management in the Brooks River area was being employed.27 Long-time concessions chief, Becky 

Brock (1998-2009) observed that aft er 2001, 

Brooks Camp’s bear management practices, 

in her opinion, had changed:

...Since I’ve been here [Katmai] ten 

short years...the bears have taught 

the humans and have habituated the 

humans. ...Because of the turnover in 

staff , bears...used to be here [gesture] 

when I was there. Th ey transited 

down the beach, they didn’t get 

to sit down, they didn’t stop, they 

went through camp maybe once in 

awhile. Now it’s over here [gesture], 

and...the new staff thinks that that’s 

the norm. So the norm has shift ed. 

Th e bears have actually gained real 

estate. ... It was a September [2003 

or 2004] at Brooks and he [the superintendent issued orders that] ...

put up a barricade at the fi sh freezing building and allowed the bears 

that whole spit. I’ve never seen that 

before. ... [It] also [occurred] at the 

ranger station...a barricade, and they 

[the bears] were allowed to come up 

through the road and transit through 

[camp]. ...Th at fall, bears were sleeping on the porch of the lodge, employees couldn’t even get in [without] stepping on a bear. Th ey [the 

bears] had gained real estate.28

Practicing Pragmatic Management

By the mid-2000s, Katmai’s bear management program refl ected the conclusion that 

visitor safety required a focus that Deb Liggett 

called “people management;” specifi cally managing human behavior and attitudes in bear 

country through preventive management and 

visitor education. Th e “2006 Bear-Human 

Confl ict Management Plan” echoed past bear 

management plans that called for prevention 

and interpretation. 

Although the plan identifi ed a “bear free 

zone,” which included the lodge and housing 

area, it also recognized that people and bears 

cross paths constantly. In addition, attempting to “train” bears as previous administrations 

attempted to do, was not only unrealistic, but 

perhaps not even possible. Th e 2006 plan noted 

that bears occupied many of the same areas used 

by people: trails, bridge access points (though 

not the bridge itself ), boat and plane landing 

areas. Th is shared-use of space made it very diffi cult to keep bears from those areas. In fact, as 
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 207

the plan pointed out, those places designated as 

“developed areas,” went unoccupied by people 

for eight months out of the year and were used 

freely by bears.Th e plan also pointed out that 

those same areas assigned to people in the summer are unoccupied eight months out of the 

year and used freely by bears.29

Th at same year Olson authored “Human 

Traffi c Delays near Brooks Camp: Background 

and Considerations,” in which she discussed why 

bottlenecking problems existed and suggested 

ways the park might better deal with an impatient 

public. Olson noted that in thirty years of studies, 

bear biologists have found that spatial patterns of 

bear use of the Brooks River area has remained 

relatively similar across years, particularly during 

the fall.30 What diff ers is how human have used 

of the river over the years. Olson identifi ed three 

areas near camp where sporadic human traffi c 

delays occurred due to bear activity. One was 

the beach in front of camp, where human traffi c 

delays were typically related to aircraft access. She 

suggested that with the exception of people transporting gear between the planes and campground, 

foot traffi c could oft en be routed around bears on 

the beach. Second was the trail between the fi sh 

freezing building and the bridge, where human 

traffi c delays involved foot traffi c and sometimes 

small utility vehicles. And third, she identifi ed the 

bridge access in front of the lower platform. 

In such situations, the bear management 

personnel were instructed to monitor the situation and have people wait until the bear(s) 

moved out of the way, and then to explore alternative routes and means that could be used to 

get people around the bear(s). Oft en, this meant 

having people detour off the trail/road/beach 

around bears, which presented a host of other 

management problems. For instance, if NPS 

management led humans closer than 50 yards 

from bears, visitors received mixed message regarding acceptable behavior around bears. If such 

human behavior is repeated regardless of NPS 

oversight, it can enhance habituation, which can 

have future management implications. 

In addition, moving people through alternative foot travel routes, such as skirting the 

tree line at the edge of the marsh near the corner might increase environmental harm such as 

bank erosion, and would certainly ensure wet 

feet for unprepared visitors. Instead of taking 

action immediately, Olson reasoned that more 

times than not, bears tend to move from their 

location within approximately thirty minutes. 

In order to minimize disturbance to bears, 

NPS used the half-hour bear nap as a measure, 

and implemented a rule in which staff must 

wait at least that length of time before taking 

any action to move people around bears.31 

Th e 30 minute minimum wait, which was 

implemented in 2000, was specifi ed to avoid 

hasty hazing of bears outside the residence area 

and in bear feeding zones in accordance with 

the 2006 bear management plan. Th e 30 minute waiting period deterred impatient humans 

who attempted to immediately haze bears that 

would otherwise leave the area anyway; and 

it reduced over-hazing, which caused bears to 

become habituated, while at the same time, 

reducing the eff ectiveness of these techniques 

when they are really needed. As Olson noted, 

the landscape surrounding camp off ers little 

room for error:

Hazing bears on the beach in front of 

camp can be tricky because potential 

bear retreat routes are limited. Resting bears on the beach are sandwiched 

between the lake and camp, and there 

is considerable human traffi c in camp, 

on the beach trail, and on the beach.32

Finally, in order for bear management to 

successfully manage traffi c fl ow in the vicinity 

of camp, Olson pointed out that those visitors 

NPS tries to deter bears from entering 

Brooks Camp’s developed areas. 

Photographed by Robert Winfree, 

National Park Service.
208 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

must be managed for realistic expectations 

about possible delays, and they needed to be 

prepared to wait in bad weather, buggy conditions, and other situations. Although she 

conceded that some scenarios may only be 

viable if trained personnel are available, and 

that the experience level of staff may also aff ect 

decision-making, Olson made it clear that the 

conduct of NPS personnel during traffi c delays 

can aff ect visitor expectations and attitudes:

It is likely that delays are more tolerated 

and the bears present (that people came 

to see) are more appreciated when we 

make a concerted eff ort to maintain a 

positive attitude, actively provide information regarding the resources, etc. 

to people that are waiting, and actively 

answer visitor questions. Totally focusing on the “delay” tends to be a contagious mind-set, and group dynamics 

also then generate increased stress and 

other associated unpleasantries.33

By 2006, the most important practice 

credited with reducing human-bear conflicts 

at Brooks Camp continued to be the prevention of bears acquiring food from humans. 

As a result, all food and odor-causing items 

such as toothpaste are stored in food caches. 

Food within a 1.5 mile radius of camp can 

only be consumed at the wooden shelters or 

nearby picnic tables. All caught fish must 

be stored at the fish freezing building. The 

food and garbage management efforts and 

fishing rules, as well as the electric fencing 

of the campground, have been extremely 

successful in addressing this issue. Although the location of Brooks Camp and 

the level of visitation remains, at least at the 

time of this writing, unchangeable factors 

contributing to the frequency and nature of 

human-bear conflicts at Brooks Camp, bear 

management staff identified several recommendations regarding the Brooks Camp 

operation that could help minimize bearhuman conflict. Such recommendations 

included adding extra staff to sufficiently 

respond to bear management concerns; increasing NPS presence on the river and well 

into the fall fishing season; reduce vehicle 

movement near the spit; avoid scheduling project work during peak bear activity; 

structure and trail reconsiderations, such repositioning the Lower River floating bridge 

so that it connects perpendicularly to the 

The fl oating bridge remains the only 

way for NPS and lodge employees 

to move everything from luggage to 

construction materials from one side 

of the river to the other. If the wind 

is blowing from the east, then fl oat 

planes must land at Brooks Lake. This 

means that guests too must be ferried 

to the other side over the bridge. 

Problems occur when a bear lingers 

at the bridge preventing people from 

crossing. Photographed by Robert 

Winfree, National Park Service.
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 209

trail at the corner and moving the trail to 

the campground away from the beach; and 

educate new and returning staff as to their 

role in Brooks Camp nonstop bear management concerns.34 

Studying the Effect 

of Elevated Structures on Bears

While Olson focused on public and 

staff education and prevention, other natural 

resource biologists focused on assessing the 

eff ects of the new elevated boardwalk. In 

2005, Terry DeBruyn, Tom Smith, and other 

biologists, conducted a study to determine 

how brown bears responded to the elevated 

viewing structures along the Brooks River. 

Th ey conducted studies on the 300 yard elevated boardwalk and interconnected viewing 

platforms that NPS constructed in August 

2000. To determine what eff ects the new 

structures might have on the bears, researchers observed bear movements and behaviors 

before and aft er construction. Th ey used 

direct observation and motion-detection 

cameras to track the individual bears. Of 123 

bears observed approaching the structures, 

they found that about twenty percent rerouted to avoid crossing under the elevated structures. Meanwhile, management enhanced 

public education regarding visitor conduct 

on the boardwalk to minimize impact of the 

structures on bears.35

Chief of Natural Resources Troy Hamon 

and other park biologists conducted a study 

to analyze bear use in and around the current 

bridge, which Hamon called a “fl oating boardwalk,” and to evaluate whether or not repositioning the bridge may reduce human bear 

interactions. Th is research used time-interval 

photographs to record bears presence within 

100 yards of the current and the proposed 

bridge locations during July and September 

2004. Th e researchers found that during September bear activity was higher within 100 

yards of the current bridge location than within 100 yards of the proposed downriver site. 

Th ey suggested that repositioning the bridge 

to the proposed downriver site could provide 

more direct access to the bridge on the north 

side of the river and could reduce bear-caused 

human traffi c delays because people would no 

longer have to travel parallel to the river adjacent to a productive bear feeding area, and the 

bridge would be relocated to a site with relatively less bear activity.36 

Aft er this initial 2004 study, bear researchers again employed time-lapse photography to document bear and human activity 

patterns and changes at Geographic Harbor 

in 2007, 2008 and 2009. As this method of 

bear monitoring continues, long-term data 

collection and analysis of bear use at such remote sites will help, as researchers conclude, 

“Katmai staff to identify natural and humanA bear walks beneath the new 

platform in 2000. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage Alaska.
210 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

caused changes in bear activity, and resource 

management options for mitigation negative 

impacts to brown bears.” With this information, the park hopes that its managers, as well 

as guides, will be better able to adapt tourism 

and management activities to protect natural 

bear population dynamics, while continuing 

to maintain high quality wildlife viewing experience for the public.37

The Moore Administration: 

Meeting Challenges Head On

Ralph Moore became Katmai’s superintendent in July 2006. Aft er several years of 

revolving park leadership, Moore remained in 

Katmai as long as any superintendent in recent 

history. During his tenure, Moore continued 

to implement decisions made to make Brooks 

Camp a safer place for both visitors and bears. 

A family group strolls beneath the 

Lower Platform in 1998. Courtesy of 

Jennifer Adleman, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 211

In the “Brooks Camp Bear Management 

Implementation Plan” made available in May 

2007, Moore acknowledged the challenges and 

defended his staff . He stressed to employees 

that they need not cater to impatient critics 

and to always choose prudence over pressure. 

And most signifi cantly, Moore encouraged 

them to respond to visitors’ unrealistic expectations with a pragmatic and unwavering dedication to public safety.38 

Moore also addressed the observations 

made in the 2007 “Brooks Camp Developed 

Area Bear Management Administrative Review,” specifi cally requested by Marcia Blaszak, 

the Alaska Regional Director, for the incoming 

Superintendent.39 Most concerning, the report 

described an eroding continuity among staff 

and concessions employees, and that Brooks 

Camp “lacked a common vision.”40 As a result, at the start of his fi rst full season in 2007, 

Superintendent Moore and Brooks Camp permanent staff attended a facilitated session with 

Katmailand’s Sonny Petersen and Jim Albert to 

fi nd ways individual employees could work better together as a team. By the end of the session 

the group had craft ed a vision statement for 

Brooks Camp: 

To maintain ongoing Brooks Camp 

operations by providing resource protection and a quality and safe visitor 

experience and, in order to provide 

improved resource protection and 

quality visitor experience for the future, complete all projects on time and 

within budget. 

Th ey left the meeting with the goal of implementing the recommendations of the Bear 

Management Review Team made earlier that 

year. Th ose recommendations included the following: 1) the Brooks Camp Manager would 

be the single point of contact for both the park 

and the lodge and will have authority to make 

immediate decisions across all program areas 

when timely decisions are needed, 2) averse 

conditioning practices would be re-evaluated, 

3) the 50-yard rule would be relaxed under certain managed conditions in order to keep the 

A bear perches upon the fi sh ladder, 

looking directly at the photographer. 

The Brooks River Area continues to 

be a balancing act between bears, 

fi sh and people. Photograpph by Will 

Troyer, KATM Photo Archive, Records 

of Katmai National Park and Preserve, 

Anchorage Alaska.
212 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

fl ow of traffi c moving as much as possible, 4) if 

staff is available, guided hikes to the platforms 

would be implemented, 5) the Bear School for 

visitors would be re-focused, 6) aft er-hours responses would continue and better procedures 

developed, 7) the landscape would be modifi ed 

to reduce dangerous encounters, 8) more time 

would be devoted to training employees, 9) a 

mentoring system would be instituted so that 

experienced individuals will aid those with 

less experiences and, 10) the park would work 

more closely with the concessioner and CUA 

holders in the area of marketing so that day 

visitors will have a clearer understanding of 

what to expect at Brooks.41

Another signifi cant challenge was to address the structural problems that had plagued 

Brooks Camp for decades. Th e fi rst was 

Brooks Camp’s failing infrastructure, particularly the extremely overused leach fi eld. Th e 

park had proposed to construct a new leach 

fi eld at Brooks Camp in 2006, but the presence 

of sensitive cultural resources led NPS archeologists to propose constructing a new leach 

fi eld well north of Brooks River. Consultation 

with the Council of Katmai Descendants and 

Heirs of Pelagia Melgenak concluded that they 

supported constructing the leach fi eld away 

from known archeological sites, specifi cally 

mentioning that they did not want a leach 

fi eld over the graves of their ancestors. Archeological testing at the northern alternative 

site, however, yielded new cultural resources, 

particularly a hearth and lithic scatter dated 

around 520 BC. Torrential rains also proved 

the alternative location to be a poor choice 

for a leach fi eld. Th is ultimately led to the 

decision to rehabilitate the existing leach fi eld. 

Th rough public education and the removal of 

some employee housing to the south side of the 

river, the park took action to reduce the number of people using facilities on the north side 

of Brooks River.42 

Predictions that the rehabilitated leach 

fi eld would only function for a decade led 

Moore’s administration to consider reducing 

staff numbers at the original Brooks Camp by 

fi nally implementing the phased relocation 

of housing to the south side of Brooks River. 

Other signs that Moore was moving ahead 

with plans to move camp included the decision 

to move the Brooks Lake Maintenance Facility 

off Brooks Lake adjacent to the Valley of Ten 

Th ousand Smokes Road intersection. In 2008, 

the park contracted with Katmailand, Inc. to 

operate Brooks Lodge for another fi ve years, 

but disallowed any new construction. By 2009, 

the Moore administration began promoting a 

vision for Brooks Camp that would implement 

the 1996 Development Concept Plan. Moore’s 

vision included a series of major line-item construction projects, such as a new barge access 

road, housing layout, utilities planning and 

development, and an additional maintenance 

facility in King Salmon. 

In 2009, Moore invited fi ve wildlife biologists (Steven Herrero, Barrie Gilbert, Harry 

Reynolds, Larry Van Daele, and Bill Leacock) 

to Brooks Camp to discuss the pros and cons 

of constructing a permanent, elevated bridge 

across the mouth of the Brooks River, reasoning that besides assisting with the move, an 

elevated bridge would be a possible solution 

to the bottlenecking problem at the lower 

river. Th e scientists agreed with NPS Brooks 

Camp staff that a raised bridge and boardwalks 

would help to maintain bear viewing safety 

and reduce crossing delays.43 But as a reminder 

to the group that simple solutions historically 

at Brooks Camp are rare, Steve Herrero cautioned, “I think it is important to put considerable eff ort into defi ning what are acceptable 

and unacceptable human infl uences on bears 

and how these can be measured, monitored, 

and responded to if necessary.”44 As of this 

writing (2011), the park continues to work on 

an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for 

the Brooks bridge.45

Today Brooks Camp remains a visitor’s 

paradise, where large numbers of wild bears 

and visitors continue to interact along the 

Trefon (1910–1988) and Vera (Kie) 

Angason (born 1928) with Trefon 

Angasan Jr. taken at Qit’rwik in 1950. 

Trefon Sr. was born in Old Savonoski 

and raised by his great aunt Pelagia 

Melgenak after his mother Ekaterina 

died. Ekaterina is buried on the 

west side of Dumpling Mountain. 

Information provided by Mary Jane 

Nielsen, Melgenak Collection, KATM 

Archives, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 213

Brooks River corridor. Visitors see bears ambling along the edge of Naknek Lake as their 

fl oatplanes taxi toward the beach. Th is truly 

unique “Brooks Camp experience” is considered by many a trip of a lifetime.46 

Th e current state of bear management 

at Brooks Camp remains a balancing act between visitors and bears, but one tempered by 

pragmatic management decisions. As Alaska 

Regional Science Advisor, Robert Winfree, 

noted in his administrative review of bear and 

visitor management of Brooks Camp in 2007, 

the longevity of the camp’s positive safety 

record “refl ects the incredible tolerance and 

adaptability of well-fed, habituated coastal 

brown bears, deliberate NPS management 

practices, and to a certain extent, luck.”47

Brooks Camp is situated at the heart of 

Katmai and remains a place where emotions 

run as thick as salmon in July. Th roughout history, people have loved the Brooks River for 

very diff erent reasons, and that outpouring of 

emotion has been at the heart of NPS management challenges.

Overcoming these challenges remains 

an ongoing process. Oft en, actions taken to 

improve visitors’ comfort and safety have hindered the park’s ability to manage the area’s 

nationally signifi cant cultural resources. Th e 

future challenge to appropriately protect cultural resources in the Brooks River area must 

go beyond archeological compliance. In 

partnership with traditionally affi liated Native groups, research-oriented investigations 

will answer important questions about the 

prehistory of the region. Moreover, Brooks 

Camp—Qit’rwik—is sacred. “When Pelagia 

grew too old to go back up to her ancestral 

homelands...,” recalls Mary Jane Nielsen, “...she 

asked all who went to Kittiwick to bring back 

some water and a small bit of soil. Grandma 

would cross herself, and then drink the water. 

She seemed rejuvenated and her face refl ected 

immeasurable joy.”48

Nielsen hopes that someday the voices of 

her people will also be shared with visitors so 

that they will know that besides fi sh and bears, 

the Brooks River is also revered for its deep 

cultural history:

(I hope visitors)...will know that the 

Katmai National Park and Preserve 

is the ancestral homeland of living 

descendants who still have strong ties 

to the land...One day, the Katmai 

National Park will present our history 

and our culture as a living, ongoing 

heritage, along with examples of our 

spiritual ties to the land and its history. Th e cultural aspects will be a 

vital part of what the tourists go there 

to see. Th e visitor experience will be 

more than bears and scenery.”49 

As Katmai National Park and Preserve 

makes its way through the fi rst decade of the 

twenty-fi rst century, it has an unprecedented 

opportunity to make the meaning of ‘Katmai’ 

not only synonymous with abundant bears and 

fi sh, but the living history of an ancient people 

and rich resources that support them. 
214 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 Joe Fowler (acting superintendent from 8/2003 to 11/2003 and permanent from 11/2003 

to 4/01/2005); Steve Frye (from 6/27/2005 to 3/2006); Troy Hamon (acting from 4/01/05 to 

6/27/05 and 4.01/06 to 8/10/06); and Ralph Moore (7/2006 to 10/2012).

2

 According to Deb Liggett, this system, though perhaps seemingly ineffi cient, was 

established for a reason. In the past, the Park Service operated on a military model, in 

which employees tended to move every two years. At the time, NPS discouraged what 

was called ‘homesteading,’ (in other words, moving to a park area and becoming involved 

in the community) because those kinds of personal experiences made decision-making 

diffi cult. “You’re not as objective as you might be otherwise,” explains Liggett. But these 

days with working spouses and kids vested in local schools, it’s admittedly more diffi cult 

to move as frequently. Liggett, always the realist and one of Katmai’s longest-standing 

superintendents, admits that in order to have the greatest impact at places like Brooks 

Camp, “park employees with the highest pay grade should stay the longest in their 

position.” See Deborah Liggett interview by Tim Rawson, 6-22-2008.

3

 Jack Hession, “Katmai National Park and Preserve Bear/Visitor Management: Park Service 

Offers Weakened Plan,” Sierra Club, Alaska Report, Volume 35, num. 4. (Nov. 2009):4-5.

4

 Barry Estabrook, “In Alaska’s Bear Country,” New York Times, Sunday, June 9, 2002. 5

 Tamara L. Olson, Matthew T. Moran, and Erin K. Bentley, “Bear Management at Brooks 

River, Katmai National Park, 2001,” Natural Resource Management Technical Report, KATMNR-02-02, (2002): 3. 

6

 Ibid., 5-7. 

7

 Tamara L. Olson, Eric M. Groth, Katja W. Mocnik and Carlton I. Vaughn, “Bear 

Management at Brooks River, Katmai National Park, 2003-2006” Natural Resources Technical 

Report NPS/AR/NRTR, 2009-73 (2009): 20.

8

 “Guidelines for Bear Management Response and Scenarios in Brooks River Area, Katmai 

National Park 1999” specifi cally states on page 17 that: “Bear sleeping on road or trail to the 

falls: close the area to humans until the bear has moved.” 

9

 Kellie Proffi tt, “Brooks Camp Brown Bear Management Report,” Resource Management 

Technical Report KATM-NR-02-01. Katmai National Park and Preserve, King Salmon, Alaska. 

(2000).

10 Tamara L. Olson, Eric M. Groth, Katja W. Mocnik and Carlton I. Vaughn, “Bear 

Management at Brooks River, Katmai National Park, 2003-2006” Natural Resources Technical 

Report NPS/AR/NRTR, 2009-73 (2009): 16.

11 Carlton Imes Vaughn interviewed by Katherine Ringsmuth, June 2012.

12 Olson, et al. “Bear Management at Brooks River, Katmai National Park, 2003-2006” (2009): 10. 

13 “Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan” Katmai National Park and Preserve, Aniakchak 

National Monument and Preserve, Aglagnak Wild River, (2001).

14 Ibid.

15 Olson, et al., “Brooks River Bear Management Report,” 2003-2006 (2009): 17 16 “Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan” Katmai National Park and Preserve, Aniakchak 

National Monument and Preserve, Aglagnak Wild River, (2001): 17.

17 Olson, et al., “Brooks River Bear Management Report,” 2003-2006 (2009): 7, 10, 13. 18 “Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan” Katmai National Park and Preserve, Aniakchak 

National Monument and Preserve, Aglagnak Wild River, (2001): 4.

19 Olson, et al., “Brooks River Bear Management Report,” 2003-2006 (2009): 17. 20 “Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan” Katmai National Park and Preserve, Aniakchak 

National Monument and Preserve, Aglagnak Wild River, (2001):, 21.

21 Ibid, 1.

22 William Troyer, “Movement and dispersal of brown bears at Brooks River, Alaska,” Alaska 

Area Offi ce, National Park Service, Anchorage, Alaska, 1980. 23 Ann Braaten and Barrie Gilbert, “Profi le analysis of human-bear relationships in Katmai 

National Park and Preserve.” Addendum to fi nal report for NPS, Utah State University, Logan 

Utah (1987).

24 “Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan” Katmai National Park and Preserve, Aniakchak 

National Monument and Preserve, Aglagnak Wild River, (2001): 18.

25 Jean Roy, personal communication, April 2012.

26 Barry Estabrook, “In Alaska’s Bear Country,” New York Times, Sunday, June 9, 2002. 27 See Becky Brock and Sonny Petersen Interviews.

28 Becky Brock, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 6-17-2008.

29 Tamera Olson, Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan,” 2006. 30 Tammy Olson, “Human Traffi c Delays near Brooks Camp: Background and 

Considerations,” (2006): 1.
 Chapter Ten: A Delicate Balancing Act 215

31 Tammy Olson, “Human Traffi c Delays near Brooks Camp: Background and Considerations” 

Katmai National Park and Preserve, (2006).

32 Ibid, 4.

33 Ibid, 4-5.

34 Olson, et al., “Brooks River Bear Management Report,” 2003-2006 (2009): 25-27. 35 Terry DeBruyn, Tom Smith, Kelly Proffi tt, Steve Partridge, and Thomas Drummer, “Brown Bear 

Response to Elevated Viewing Structures at Brooks River Alaska.” Wildlife Society Bulletin, 32 

(4) (2004), 1132-1140. 36 Troy Hamon, et al. “Determining bear activity levels in the lower Brooks River, an area of 

high visitor use in Katmai National Park Alaska.” Alaska Region Natural Resources Technical 

Report

NPS/AR/NRTR-2007-68, (May 2008).

37 Carissa Turner and Troy Hamon, “Describing Brown Bear Activity Patterns Using Time-Lapse 

Photography in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska Park Science, Vol. 10, issue 2, 

(December 2011).

38 “Implementation Plan For Recommendations Made by the Bear Management Review 

Team”—Brooks Camp 5/31/07, Katmai National Park and Preserve, (2007).

39 Memorandum, To Superintendent, Katmai National Park and Preserve, from Regional 

Director, Alaska Region, Brooks Camp Developed Area Administrative Review, June 1, 2007.

40 Winfree, et al. 13. 41 “Implementation Plan For Recommendations Made by the Bear Management Review 

Team”—Brooks Camp 5/31/07.

42 Dale Vinson, 2007.

43 Jack Hession, “Katmai National Park and Preserve Bear/Visitor Management: Park Service 

Offers Weakened Plan,” Sierra Club, Alaska Report, Volume 35, num. 4. (Nov. 2009), 4-5.

44 Comments on questions related to Brooks Camp River crossing alternatives, Steve Herrero, 

September 10, 2009.

45 Ralph Moore, Superintendent’s Annual Report, (October 2009-September 2010).

46 Carlton Imes Vaughn, interviewed by Katherine Ringsmuth, June 2012.

47 Winfree, et al., 4. 48 Nielsen, 44.

49 Nielsen, 65.
216 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

“World’s Most Expensive Chew Toy, 2004.” 

Intended only to draw a chuckle from the 

magazine’s readership, the image is symbolic 

of the blurred lines between people and 

bears at Brooks Camp. Printed in the April 

2005 issue of Alaska Magazine. Courtesy of 

the photographer, Dave Orberg.

“World’s Most Expensive Chew Toy, 2004.” 

Intended only to draw a chuckle from the 

magazine’s readership, the image is symbolic 

of the blurred lines between people and 

bears at Brooks Camp. Printed in the April 

2005 issue of Alaska Magazine. Courtesy of 

the photographer, Dave Orberg.

“World’s Most ExpensiveChew Toy, 2004.”

Intendedonly to draw achuckle from the

magazine’s readership, the image issymbolic

ofthe blurredlines between peopleand

bears atBrooks Camp. Printed in the April

2005 i ssue ofAlaska Magazine. Courtesy of

the photographer, Dave O rberg.

“World’s Most Expensive Chew Toy, 2004.” 

Intended only to draw a chuckle from the 

magazine’s readership, the image is symbolic 

of the blurred lines between people and 

bears at Brooks Camp. Printed in the April 

2005 issue of Alaska Magazine. Courtesy of 

the photographer, Dave Orberg.
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 217

Teddy, Smokey, Yogi . . . throughout the 

twentieth century Americans grew up with 

fantasized images of bears. Th e National Park 

Service contributed to this perception in the 

fi rst half of the century with its attitudes toward 

bears. Th e park concept itself was new. Th e 

twin objectives of preservation of resources 

and visitor enjoyment seemed straightforward 

enough when it came to mountains, canyons, 

waterfalls, or forests; some trails, a road here or 

there, and well-placed overlooks. But visitors 

also liked seeing wildlife, which did not off er 

the same viewing dependability as static scenery. 

Wildlife mostly meant large herbivores which, 

as generations grew protected from hunting, lost 

their shyness. 

Th e public also liked bears; the stuff ed 

Teddy bear having been born in 1902 aft er an 

incident involving that champion of hunting, 

wildlife conservation, and national parks, Th eodore Roosevelt. Omnivorous, unafraid of other 

predators, quick to learn, and obligingly trainable, bears quickly incorporated visitor handouts 

into their foraging patterns and became part of 

the normal visitor experience to the western national parks. No other animal on the continent 

was more human-like and thus more subject to 

anthropomorphism. 

Yellowstone National Park, oft en the system’s fl agship park, set the patterns for bear 

viewing. Horace Albright, later an NPS director, 

arrived in 1919 as superintendent and quickly 

organized the park’s garbage dumps—already 

known to the bears—into formal bear feeding 

and viewing areas. By 1924 he considered bears 

the favorite animal of visitors and thought they 

equaled the park’s other features as visitor attractions.1

 Th e point, aft er all, was to make the national parks valued by American taxpayers, and 

if the bears served that end, so much the better. 

Th is symbiosis came at a price: bears that failed 

to appreciate the diff erence between a picnic 

Conclusion:

People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 

I believe there is one most important thing that has not been considered in the Katmai 

bear “problem.” Fortunately, for approximately 4000 years humans have lived in the 

same habitat with bears and they have apparently lived there for the same reason – fi sh!

 ~George A. Hall, Superintendent, Mount McKinley and Katmai

 September 27, 1968

table and a garbage dump were routinely 

shot or captured for zoos. 

Conventional wisdom held that at 

certain parks “people come to see the scenery but stay to watch the bears.” Despite 

that dictum, some NPS naturalists in the 

early 1930s began to question the practice 

of encouraging bears and other animals 

to linger around the hotels, camps and 

garbage dumps. It took twenty years for 

signifi cant changes to take hold; as one 

historian wrote, it took “the consistent 

removal of actual money from people’s 

wallets as actual punishment” to reshape 

visitor actions.2

It was not until 1967 – aft er bears, 

attracted by garbage, killed two Glacier 

National Park campers in one night – that 

the NPS decided on a service-wide basis 

that allowing bears to become food-conditioned was unnatural and dangerous to 

people. Th e problem of bears feeding on 

garbage in national parks lingered until the 

1970s when the last big dump in Yellowstone was closed.3

***

Katmai and Yellowstone share similarities in that the public understands both 

parks as “bear country.” Archeological 

evidence tells us that Katmai’s Brooks 

River area—a place the public associates 

most with “bear country”—was “human 

country” just as long as it has been desirable habitat for the iconic brown bears. 

With the exception of a few vacant periods 

caused by volcanic eruptions, people have 

lived in the area on a permanent or seasonal basis for as long as—perhaps even before—the fi rst salmon made its pilgrimage 

up an ancient Brooks River.4

 Since then, 
218 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

various groups of people have come to Brooks 

River for diff ering reasons. Human perceptions of the river’s bears have transformed over 

time, creating varying, though distinctly meaningful images of the animals. Perhaps most 

signifi cantly, people’s altering views of bears 

have co-existed and converged throughout 

Brooks Camp history.

Sources consistently report that there were 

simply fewer bears around the Brooks River 

during the 1940s and 1950s. When Mount 

McKinley National Park Superintendent Frank 

Been and Biologist Victor Cahalane visited the 

Brooks River in the autumn of 1940, neither 

man saw a bear on the river. Th ey saw fresh 

tracks on several occasions, especially along 

spawning streams, but encountered only one 

family group in another part of the monument 

during their entire Katmai investigation.5

 Been 

however, observed enduring evidence that 

bears were long-time frequenters of the area: 

As seems habitual with the grizzly 

and the brownie, the trail is a series of 

shallow depressions from each animal 

placing his foot in the foot print of the 

preceding animal. Over a period of 

years, this trail becomes so well established that it endures for a long time.6

Although it was September, and Been 

and Cahalane did not see one bear fi shing in 

the Brooks River, the superintendent did witness Alaska Natives from Naknek harvesting 

red salmon at the mouth of the Brooks River. 

Alaska Natives, who have subsisted along the 

Brooks River for approximately 4,500 years, 

viewed bears as food or unwelcome guests at 

fi sh camp. To protect their fi sh as well as for 

more spiritual purposes, Alaska Native hunters 

risked their lives to kill bears using long spears 

fi tted with a one-and-a-half-foot blade and 

cross bar to halt the large animal’s advance.7

 In 

the years following the 1912 Novarupta cataclysm, an eyewitness told researchers that even 

aft er the eruption, he returned to Katmai every 

year to kill a bear.8

 

Some of the oldest stories told by Alutiiq 

elders reveal that ancient Brooks River dwellers 

understood that the human world intersected 

with the world of brown bears. Th is does not 

mean that the two willingly shared their food, 

“Cute as a teddy bear,” A cub sits 

alone on the beach. KATM Photo 

Archive, Records of Katmai National 

Park and Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 219

but it does mean that they established rules—

rules pertaining to food gathering and hunting, 

for example—that allowed bears and humans 

to coexist. Cultural anthropologist Patricia 

Partnow writes that “In this distant time, humans learned how to treat animals respectfully, 

avoid wasting game, to be careful with animal 

bones or skins, and many other rules that still 

apply today.”9

 To the Alutiiq people, bears and 

humans not only inhabited the same physical 

world, but a spiritual world as well, for animals 

could transform themselves into human-looking beings and humans could put on animal 

skins and become animals. Th e blending of the 

“bear” world with the “human” world indicates 

that “a long time ago” the very nature of the 

relationship between people and animals was 

diff erent than it is today.10

Aft er Katmai National Monument was 

designated in 1918, hunting was offi cially prohibited, and bears were protected under federal 

law.11 Although some illegal hunting continued (which was the reason for Been and Cahalane’s 1940 investigation), sustained hunting 

pressures that had taken place over a period of 

at least 4,500 years on the river essentially came 

to an end. Replacing the net-fi shing Alaska 

Natives were rod-toting anglers who, starting in 

1950 with the erection of Brooks Camp, unintentionally provided bears with new sources of 

food, but did not threaten or hunt them. 

Protection of Katmai’s brown bears from 

hunting was also supported by the scientifi c 

community aft er Cahalane returned to Katmai in 1953 and 1954 to work on the Katmai 

Project, an ambitious survey of the monument’s natural resources. Th is interagency 

scientifi c eff ort consisted of a diverse group 

of scientists—archeologists, geologists, and 

biologists—whose collaborative studies resulted in the “Katmai Project: Interim Report.” 

Th e report summarized the existing base of 

knowledge about the monument’s geology, 

topography, biology, archeology, and volcanology.12 At the time, Calahane estimated that 

the bear population consisted of about two 

hundred animals, which was even less than he 

had estimated in 1940.13 Observing that “bears 

“Teddy” Roosevelt was an avid 

outdoorsman and hunter. He once refused to shoot a small bear on a Mississippi hunting trip and the incident 

led to the origin of the “teddy bear” 

as a popular child’s toy. His bear 

friend became a common sidekick in 

many subsequent cartoons. Cartoon 

by Clifford Berryman.
220 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

are generally not dangerous when unmolested,” 

project biologists reasoned that guns should be 

prohibited in the monument.14

At Brooks, just seeing a bear track was 

unusual in the early 1950s, and NPS rangers at 

the camp reported that visible bears kept their 

distance from people. Katmai’s primary archeological investigator Don Dumond, fi rst hired 

in 1960 to conduct research on the river’s signifi cant natural phenomenon, its fi sh, reported 

seeing only three bears that season.15 Because 

people knew little about Katmai’s bears and 

experienced them with only an occasional 

glimpse, Brooks’ bears took on an unpredictable, ephemeral, almost spirit-like quality—

one never knew when or where a bear might 

appear. Th e image of Ursus horribilis16 or the 

“horrifying grizzly” prowled the riverbank at 

night, shaping people’s attitudes and perceptions that a bear which made an occasional 

appearance at Brooks was not only mysterious, 

but menacing as well.17 “I came upon a bear on 

a steep hillside...,” wrote Robert Griggs’ daughter Ruth Griggs Higbie aft er a visit to Brooks 

Camp, “...that all I could think to do was to 

implore meekly, ‘Please don’t eat me, Bear.’”18

In 1967—when the summer campers were 

mauled in Glacier National Park—two archeologists working along the Brooks River heard 

a “growling sound,” ran to warn their colleagues 

downriver, and all four climbed nearby spruce 

trees to safety. Despite the low number of the 

bear sightings in the decade aft er Brooks Camp 

was established, Victor Cahalane, who was now 

head of the agency’s Wildlife Division, had 

garnered experience in all the western parks 

and knew where ad hoc management of bears 

could lead. He recommended sound practices 

for keeping people and camps safe, but noted 

that in Alaska, as in places like Yellowstone and 

Glacier, those were “oft en disregarded.”19 

Consequently, Katmai’s policies towards 

bears in the fi rst three decades of Brooks Camp 

developed elements familiar to the Yellowstone 

experience. As with the other western parks, 

Katmai’s visitors liked seeing the bears, and the 

fi shing lodge staff , desiring satisfi ed customers, 

made eff orts to meet that demand. Perceptions of bears then changed from “horrifying” 

to “entertaining.” Sonny Petersen recalls that at 

Been and Cahalane observed Alaska 

Natives preserving red salmon on 

fi sh racks at the mouth of the Brooks 

River in 1940. KATM Photo Archive, 

Records of Katmai National Park and 

Preserve, Anchorage, Alaska.
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 221

Brooks in the 1960s, “. . . we didn’t run the bears 

away. We thought they were a great attraction; 

we wanted them there. . . . we may have done 

some things back in those days to keep them 

around that we probably shouldn’t have done.”20

Th at, admits Petersen, included feeding 

bears directly. Few eff orts were made to separate bears from garbage, although NPS policies called for burning or burying garbage. “I 

remember some times in the ‘60s...,” recalls Petersen, “...when the bear was ravaging the burn 

barrel right next to the lodge, right out the 

kitchen door of the lodge with a ring of tourists 

around it and the park ranger standing right 

there. He would say something to the eff ect 

of, “Make sure you leave an opening so the bear 

can get away.” Th at’s about as far as it went.” 21

While experiments were made to solve the 

garbage problem, little seemed eff ective as the 

bears adapted to human patterns.22 With new 

food sources and no hunting threats, bears began 

to return to the Brooks River. But on the river 

itself the anglers claimed precedent, as guides 

did not yield the stream or the falls to bears that 

approached, and the NPS rangers more or less 

accepted this.23 As bear numbers rose, so did the 

number of visitors to Katmai National Monument. Instead of coming to fi sh or see the Valley 

of Ten Th ousand Smokes, this new category 

of tourist came specifi cally to Brooks Camp to 

watch bears. Th us, by the mid-1960s Katmai 

visitors were “coming to watch bears and staying 

to experience the scenery.”

Th e popularity of watching Katmai’s growing population of bruins became a big draw 

and, as with Yellowstone Park, led to ongoing 

management issues for the NPS. Aft er a bear 

bit a camper in 1966, NPS recognized a need 

to better control the areas around Brooks 

Camp where bears and people interacted. New 

perceptions towards the Brooks River bears 

merged with those of the imaginary bear—for 

now they were real, dangerous, and wild. 

Frederick C. Dean from the University 

of Alaska Fairbanks was hired in 1967 to conduct the fi rst study evaluating the relationship 

between bears and people at Katmai National 

Monument. Among other signifi cant observations and recommendations, Dean’s concept 

of separating “bear country” from “human 

country,” (albeit misunderstood by anglers, 

commercial operators, superintendents, and 

even the regional director’s offi ce) was a typical response for its time and appeared in many 

forms in bear management at Brooks Camp. 

Th e concept has infl uenced bear policies, at 

least those interpreted by the public, there in 

varying degrees ever since. 

An incident report from 1967 conveys 

the edginess people felt while working in bear country. KATM Archives, 

Anchorage, Alaska.
222 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Dean’s “bear country” was “the wild 

country inhabited by bears; where humans 

were mere visitors and had not intruded on 

the land in substantial or lasting ways.”24 “Human country” consisted of the area where 

“people were most active, specifi cally, the NPS 

facilities, concessioner lodge, housing areas, 

campground, and trails.”25 Th e separation of 

the animals and their habitat from people was 

both a physical and philosophical distinction 

that, presumably, would keep bears wild and 

people safe. Th e distinction, according to 

Dean, was necessary. As the biologist put it, 

“until this concept is part of the bear’s reaction 

then the human is still operating in bear country for all practical purposes.”26 

Moreover, Dean’s fi nal report, entitled 

“Brown Bear-Human Interrelationship 

Study,” also noted that the Brooks Camp 

community of anglers, campers, photographers, scientists, NPS staff , and concession 

employees spent considerable time in the 

park and had acquired a working knowledge 

of how to behave in “bear country.” Th e 

problem, according to Dean, was the rising 

numbers of what he called “the pure, canned, 

passive sightseer” who stayed only briefl y, 

and therefore, lacked any fi rst-hand experience with wilderness situations or the hazards 

associated with bears.27 Th is lack of experienced visitors, wrote Dean, “...places the Park 

Service in the position of handling a large 

number of individuals who are in the least 

experienced category and who may most be 

expected to get themselves into trouble.”28 

When Dean embarked on Brooks Camp’s 

fi rst bear-human study in 1967 the nation’s 

environmental movement was beginning to 

gather momentum. Many of Dean’s so-called 

“pure, canned, passive sightseers” who were 

most likely to “get into trouble” were among 

a postwar generation of Americans who felt a 

sense of urgency about wilderness preservation. 

To these baby boomers, who came to Brooks 

Camp as preservationists, nature photographers, and wildlife enthusiasts, the enduring 

image of the grizzly bear symbolized the great 

northern wilderness—the last frontier. Instead 

of being a threat, many of these Americans began to view brown bears, like the Alaskan wilderness they inhabited, a wild resource threatened by humans. Public perception changed 

once again, from the “entertaining” bear to the 

“symbolic” bear. 

A bear on the hunt for fi sh in 1983 

evokes the image of the “wild or symbolic bear.” Courtesy of Dale Vinson, 

National Park Service.
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 223

It was in this climate that that the 

agency itself was experiencing change. By 

the mid-1960s, NPS had made the profound 

transition from its Mission 66 management 

paradigm, which had focused on park development and visitor accommodations from 

the mid-1950s and into the mid-1960s, to 

one that endeavored to return parks to a more 

natural state.29 Th e Leopold Report, which 

became a kind of guiding ideology for the 

agency in the 1960s, instructed parks to create a sense of primitive America—or at least 

create “a reasonable illusion” of it.30 Th e 

report suggested that the agency’s primary 

management goal should be to keep parks in a 

continual state of primeval wilderness and, as 

A. Starker Leopold recommended, to maintain—or remake, if necessary—the national 

parks “...in conditions that prevailed when 

the area was fi rst visited by the white man.”31 

Dean himself admitted that “one of the principal aims of the National Park Service should 

be to maintain a population of brown bears in 

the area that is little changed from what it was 

before white man arrived in Alaska.”32

Th e Leopold Report of 1963 declared 

that parks should be made to “look natural,” 

even if achieving that goal required substantial 

manipulation of existing landscapes. Th at 

same year, a second report conducted by the 

National Academy of Sciences and known as 

the Robbins Report, argued that instead of 

“looking natural,” park wildlife management 

should be natural.33 Refl ecting the principles 

underpinning the environmental movement, 

the Robbins Report recommended that park 

research should not focus on single species 

management, but rather on the preservation 

of the “total environment.” It also suggested a 

“hands-off ” approach to wildlife management, 

thus establishing the NPS policy of allowing 

wildlife populations to regulate themselves. 

Th is signifi cant natural resources policy became known as “natural regulation,” and was 

adopted as a management strategy by Katmai’s 

managers, who cited natural regulation as one 

of the objectives of its bear management plan 

in the 1986 General Management Plan.34

Dean’s recommendation to create “bear 

country” at Brooks Camp was adopted by 

NPS within the larger context of the environmental movement and the infl uential Leopold 

and Robbins reports. Th e drive to create a 

primitive wilderness, underscored, if not paradoxically, by the NPS’s “hands-off ” strategy to 

regulate wildlife naturally, resulted in a series 

of incremental policy changes to NPS management that helped to transform the Brooks 

River area from a place fi rst occupied by Alutiiq fi shers, and then by 1950, sport-fi shers, to 

a place dominated by Alaskan brown bears, 

within a span of approximately forty years. 

By the 1980s, the number of Brooks River 

brown bears had escalated and a new generation 

of bears began to compete more aggressively 

with a growing number of anglers, even though 

the angler primarily coveted the rainbow 

trout. Th is new generation included individual 

bears that became recognizable to both staff 

and guests. Ester and Goatee, Cinnamon and 

Beauty, Panda and Grumps—each returned to 

the Brooks Falls year aft er year; mother bears 

arrived at the river each spring with cubs in tow. 

Before he disappeared in the late 1990s, Diver, 

a bear known for diving for salmon at the base 

of the falls, was probably the most famous, most 

photographed, and certainly the most beloved 

of the Brooks River bears. To visitors, these 

wild animals had become expected and permanent fi xtures in the park. 

Meanwhile, park and lodge employees 

began to take on an air of complacency in 

their attitudes toward bears, even though far 

more bears occupied the river area than ever 

before. Reports show that many were ignoring 

bears while fi shing and allowing them to come 

far closer than the allowed fi ft y yards. Th e 

problem became so bad that acting superintendent James R. Pepper sent a memo to all park 

employees in 1987, threatening to fi re anyone 

who did not comply with park regulations. 

Pepper ordered employees to “pay close attention to these instructions” and, in stressing the 

importance of his message, he added, “Don’t 

even think of ignoring them.”35

Such conduct and attitudes exhibited 

by Brooks Camp employees in the 1980s 

highlighted another way in which people saw 

Brooks bears. Th e “apathetic bear” seemed to 

appear uninterested in the actions of people. 

Park ranger Gary Lillie described this bear as 

being “matter-of-fact to the point of creating 

an illusion of complete safety” and appearing 

“to view human beings with the same type of 

attitude they exhibit toward the scavengers 

that hover about them while they are feeding.”36 Likewise, in 1983 student researcher 

Joan Beattie recognized that a delicate truce 

had developed between bears and those there 

to photograph and watch them: “Th e bears 
224 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

know the people are there,” explains Beattie, 

“[Th e bears] will tolerate their presence as long 

as their actions fall within a previously established and accepted behavior.”37 

Ray Bane, who was Katmai’s superintendent from 1987 to 1990, recognized that perceptions of the “apathetic bear” probably motivated employees’ own complacent behavior—a 

behavior he called “reverse habituation.” Bane 

explained that within a short time at Brooks 

Camp, “people who arrived in terror of being 

attacked are confi dently approaching bears 

or disdainfully dismissing them as nuisances,” 

adding that agencies can be subjected to reverse 

habituation, too.38

A decade later, complacent attitudes 

seemed to still drive visitor and employee conduct, making one wonder if the goal of keeping 

“bear” and “human” country separate could 

ever be achieved. In 1998, Jeff Rennicke, a 

freelance writer for National Geographic, visited Brooks Camp while working on an assignment about Alaska’s national parks. He wondered if the scores of visitors watching bears 

actually appreciated what they saw.39 Likewise, 

when renowned wildlife writer Paul Schullery 

visited Katmai in 1997, he observed that casual 

bear-watchers exhibited a childish impatience: 

“Th ey cheered the animals catching fi sh at the 

falls like sports fans” and noted that most had 

an attention span of about thirty minutes—

about as long as a situation comedy on television.40 Schullery and Rennicke’s assessment of 

their Brooks Camp experience seems to echo 

an earlier environmental viewpoint, for Rennicke writes that “for all the thrill of Brooks 

Camp, there is an air of unreality about viewing bears in a crowded and controlled setting; 

something is missing. As Rennicke—sounding 

somewhat disappointed—exclaimed: “we saw 

our fi rst bear at Brooks before we stepped off 

the fl oatplane.”41

Sonny Petersen compared Katmai’s bear 

viewers to those who gathered to watch bears 

at Yellowstone’s infamous dumps, and in doing 

so, he articulated a deep irony in the history of 

bear management at Brooks Camp: 

[R]emember in Yellowstone when 

they used to feed bears? ... Th ey 

fed them people food, right? Well 

now we’ve got a viewing platform at 

Brooks—bleachers—so we can watch 

bears feed on what used to be human 

food.42

“Grizzly Lives up to Image.” 

Anchorage Daily News, July 20, 1999..
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 225

Th e question Petersen, Schullery and Rennicke all seemed to be asking harkens back to the 

1980s when agency planners asked: Should the 

Brooks River, with its record number of brown 

bears, be managed as a place of renowned wilderness? Or has the subsequent creation of “bear 

country” attracted so many people that the developed area has paradoxically been transformed 

into an urbanized front country? 

NPS believed that the solution for many 

of the challenges Brooks Camp faced in the 

1990s was the Brooks River Development 

Concept Plan, which among other directives, 

directed NPS to move the camp and the human 

activities associated with it outside of the river 

corridor. Political hurdles, however, prevented 

the plan’s immediate implementation, while the 

number of bears and people on the river soared. 

By the 2000s, bear management personnel at Brooks Camp had taken a more realistic 

approach. Th e numbers of bears visiting 

Brooks River to fi sh each summer had reached 

seventy in 2005, and encounters between 

people and bears were just as frequent—and 

expected. In a matter of hours, visitors’ 

perceptions of those bears shift ed from the 

“imaginary bear” to the “entertaining bear” 

and the “wild bear” to the “apathetic bear,” 

and those shift ing perceptions infl uenced how 

visitors behaved during their stay. 

Presently, “bear jams” and close calls are 

considered by many visitors part of “the Brooks 

Camp experience,” and for some, it is an almost 

necessary part of a successful trip. One interpretive ranger recently described the journey 

between the camp and the viewing platforms as 

a “walk of trust,” referring to the shaky expectation that bears will continue to ignore people 

in their single-minded pursuit of salmon.43 

Th is creates a situation where NPS employees 

at Brooks Camp must persistently scramble 

to negotiate the uneasy truce between visitors 

and their constantly changing perceptions of 

Brooks River bears. 

Unlike previous managers who had called 

for a physical separation of “bear country” 

and “human country,” Brooks Camp’s current 

management recognizes that bears and people 

occupy many of the same spaces in the river 

area. Th e lesson to be learned on the river 

today is patience. Th e outdated, and historically misunderstood, objective of separating 

bear and human country is viewed not only as 

impracticable, but likely, unattainable. Since 

human perceptions of bears have not only 

changed over time, they have also dictated visitor behavior, management, therefore, has set 

out to change the visitor’s expectation of seeing 

bears up close to expectations and perceptions 

of bears that are more reasonable—and safe—

for both. 

***

At the Heart of Katmai is the entwined story of Brooks Camp which has been—and continues to be—one of fi sh, bears, and humans. 

For decades, management and science have 

tried to untangle that story in order to reduce 

potential risks. Since Dr. Frederick Dean fi rst 

studied the relationship between humans and 

bears at Brooks Camp in 1967, Katmai superintendents over the years have looked to science to help them write policy that would keep 

both safe. Dean’s report seems to have been on 

the mind of Mount McKinley superintendent 

George A. Hall in the fall of 1968, when he 

wrote a letter to the Regional Director, discussing the potentially dangerous situation brewing 

between bears and people at Brooks Camp:

To live with bears it is obvious one 

must have respect for them. To live 

with them will always cause a certain 

amount of problems. Th e bears are 

at Brooks River because the fi sh are 

there. If we can reduce the amount 

of other attractions, it seems entirely 

plausible that we shall reduce the bear 

problem to a minimum. But again, 

if humans do live in bear country, 

they must at certain times expect to 

be confronted by bears, and perhaps, 

confronted under the least desirable 

of conditions. It thus becomes apparent that there are two solutions to 

this problem. Remove the humans 

or what they do to attract bears, or 

remove bears. Obviously, neither is a 

tenable solution.44

More than forty years of research have 

provided park superintendents with a more 

evenhanded solution to what Hall described in 

1968 as the Brooks River “bear problem.”45 In 

that time, biologists have indeed accrued a far 

better understanding of the relationship between people and bears. Park managers today 

attribute the source of most problems to bad 

human behavior. For the myriad of choices 
226 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 227

people make around bears, they can either 

cause problems or be the solution. 

Cultural resource experts have also provided superintendents with information to better manage the Brooks River area’s signifi cant 

resources. Archeological investigations conducted in the area since 1960 reveal that there 

has rarely been a time in the past 4,500 years 

when human beings have not shaped the natural situation at Brooks. As former park archeologist Loukas Barton said, “When the glaciers 

retreated ... [the Brooks River area] became 

available for bears and humans—at the same 

time. And so, you might say that humans and 

bears have always coexisted at Brooks River.”46 

Th e story of bears and humans is not 

only ancient, but is continually transforming. 

People chased bears away to protect their fi sh, 

intentionally establishing the area as “human 

country.” Th en, people attracted bears back 

to the river with tantalizing smells of their 

garbage and, by not hunting them (which allowed for the population to multiply rapidly), 

unintentionally created what wilderness seekers 

called “bear country.” Although NPS established policies designed to allow the bears to 

exist “naturally,” those policies nonetheless 

changed and infl uenced bear behavior once 

again. Th erefore, it is important to realize the 

cultural, social, political, even economic contexts in which such perceptions, and ultimately, 

the NPS management decisions that codifi ed 

such perceptions, were made. 

Today, NPS still faces numerous challenges 

in managing Brooks Camp’s most signature resources: bears, fi sh and cultural resources, balancing the interests of diverse user groups, such 

as anglers, wildlife enthusiasts, photographers, 

local Native peoples, and other visitors. What 

sixty years of Brooks Camp history reveals 

is that the management of the river’s natural 

resources, particularly the bears (and the fi sh), 

cannot be realized entirely without understanding their connection to people. Perhaps, 

as the current direction of management shows, 

the solution for Brooks Camp future might be 

found in its entwined, sometimes controversial, but always remarkable history. 

A well-fed bear naps and appears unconcerned with the photographer taking his picture. Courtesy 

of Robert Winfree, National Park Service.
228 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

ENDNOTES

1

 Alice Wondrak Biel, Do (Not) Feed the Bears: The Fitful History of Wildlife and Tourists in 

Yellowstone (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006), 3-4; Richard West Sellars, Preserving 

Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 79. 2

 Biel, Do (Not), 148, 147. 3

 Ibid., 250.

4

 Don E. Dumond, A Naknek Chronicle: Ten Thousand Years in a Land of Lakes and Rivers 

and Mountains of Fire (Washington, D.C.: GPO, National Park Service, 2005). 5

 Frank T. Been, “Field Notes of Katmai National Monument Inspection” National Park Service, 

November 12, 1940.

6

 Been, 26.

7

 John A. Hussey, “Embattled Katmai: A History of Katmai National Monument” (Washington 

D.C.: NPS, 1971), 76. 

8

 Robert F. Griggs, “Our Greatest National Monument” National Geographic 40 (September 

1921), 227. 

9

 Patricia Partnow, Making History: Alutiiq/Sugpiaq Life on the Alaska Peninsula (Fairbanks: 

University of Alaska Press, 2001), 4.

10 Ibid.

11 Morgan Sherwood, Big Game in Alaska: A History of Wildlife and People (New Haven: 

Yale University Press, 1981), 42. This, however, did not include the Brooks River area until the 

monument was extended in 1931.

12 Robert Luntey, Katmai Project, Interim Report, Katmai National Monument, Alaska

(Washington, NPS, March 1954; Norris, 95.

13 Victor H. Cahalane, “A Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument,” (Smithsonian 

Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 138, No. 5. Washington, D.C.: 1959), 164.

14 Everett L. Schiller, “Summary Report on Mammalogy,” in Robert S. Luntey, comp., Interim 

Report on Katmai Project, Katmai National Monument, Alaska, March 1954, 112.

15 Sonny Petersen interview; Lowell Sumner, Magnifi cent Katmai: The Unfolding Story of a 

Great Wilderness in Transition—Katmai National Monument (Reprinted from Sierra Club 

Bulletin, December 1952), 41; Barbara, Bundy, Dale M. Vinson, and Don E. Dumond, Brooks 

River Cutbank: An Archeological Data Recovery Project in Katmai National Park (University 

of Oregon Anthropological Papers No. 64. Eugene: University of Oregon, 2005), vii.

16 Ursus horribilis is Latin for the “grizzly.” 17 Sherwood, 29.

18 Ruth Griggs Higbie, The New York Times, March 18, 1973.

19 Victor Cahalane, Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument, (Washington: 

Smithsonian Institution, 1959), 181.

20 Petersen Interview.

21 The bear nicknamed Charlie Brown can be seen in Bo Bennett, Rods & Wings: A History of 

the Fishing Lodge Business in Bristol Bay, Alaska (Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000), 

309; Cahalane, “Biological Survey,” 182; see also Petersen interview.

22 Norris, Isolated, 313. 23 Sonny Petersen interviewed by Tim Rawson, 7-3-2008.

24 Frederick C. Dean, “Brown Bear-Human Interrelationship Study, NPS PO 126-301, (1968): 15.

25 Dean, 15.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid., 12.

28 Ibid., 14.

29 Richard West Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven: Yale 

University Press, 1997), 230-231.

30 Offi cially called “Wildlife Management in the National Parks,” the Leopold Report was 

authored by A. Starker Leopold, and was meant as a collection of recommendations for 

Secretary Udall’s Advisory Board on Wildlife Management. 

31 Wildlife Management in the National Parks: The Leopold Report Advisory Board on Wildlife 

Management appointed by Secretary of the Interior Udall A.S. Leopold (Chairman), S.A. 

Cain, C.M. Cottam, I.N. Gabrielson, T.L. Kimball. March 4, 1963. 

32 Dean, 26.

33 National Academy of Sciences, “A Report by the Advisory Committee,” Department of 

Interior, 1963. 

34 One of the objectives stated in the GMP is to “retain a naturally regulated population of 

brown bears in the park.”GMP, 47-48.

35 Memorandum: To All Park Employees, from Acting Superintendent, Staff Behavior towards 

bears at Brooks, June 27, 1987.
 Conslusion: People and their Changing Perceptions of Bears 229

36 Letter, To Darrell Coe, Management Assistant, from Gary Lillie, Park Ranger-General, 

“Subject: Bear Observation,” July 17, 1967

37 Beattie,15.

38 To Acting Regional Director, From Superintendent Ray Bane, April 2, 1988.

39 Jeff Rennicke, Treasure of Alaska: Last Great American Wilderness (Washington DC: 

National Geographic Society, 2001) 186-187.

40 Paul Schullery describes this scene in Real Alaska, Finding Our Way in the Wild Country 

(Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001).

41 Ibid.

42 Sonny Petersen, interviewed by Tim Rawson, 7-8-2008.

43 Peter Hamel, interviewed by Chris Allan, 7-13-2006.

44 To Regional Director, Western Region, from Superintendent George A. Hall, Bear 

management Plan for Katmai. September 27, 1968.

45 Ibid.

46 Dale Vinson articulating Barton’s interpretation in an interview by Tim Rawson, 6-12-2008.
230 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Judith Bittner, State Historic Preservation Offi cer 

about the Brooks River Visitor Access Improvement 

Project . They are standing at archeological site 

XMK-044 near the lodge overlooking the Brooks 

River mouth. Photograph by Dale Vinson, June 2010.
 Afterword 231

Brooks Camp is a wonderfully beautiful 

and complex place. It is home to about 100 

bears each summer, and the bears feed on 

abundant salmon runs in the Brooks River. 

Visitors come from all over the world to 

view bears at Brooks Falls as they catch 

fish in mid-air. Brooks Camp offers fishing in a spectacular setting, and it has a rich 

heritage of human lifeways going back 5000 

years. Most recently, the development of 

Brooks Lodge started the concept of fly-in 

fishing lodges in Alaska that have enabled 

thousands of people each summer to enjoy 

a world-class Alaskan experience that they 

might otherwise not be able to. 

Its management challenges are many, and 

they are both interrelated and complex. I am 

reminded of the quote that for every complex 

problem there is a simple solution...that won’t 

work. Everyone who has spent time at Brooks 

Camp has an idea of how it should be managed, and there are many excellent ideas out 

there. Oft en, though, these ideas are onedimensional and favor one group or interest, 

sometimes to the exclusion of other groups 

or interests. If you ever want a passionate 

discussion, talk about Brooks Camp and how 

it should be managed. 

Th ere are some who would promote an 

anthropocentric view, that since Brooks Camp 

has been occupied for 5000 years, it belongs to 

those people and their descendants. In many 

ways, it does. Th e connection they have to this 

place is an important part of who they are. It is 

where their roots lie. It is a rich heritage, and 

we must preserve it.

Th ere are others, taking a biocentric view, 

who remind us that humans were not the fi rst 

inhabitants. Bears and fi sh occupied the area 

for thousands of years before human occupation. Like all biota, these do not have a voice, 

yet their ancestry, too, runs deep. Th ey are rich 

components of the ecosystem, and we must 

preserve them. 

Still others merge these two views into 

a mix that accommodates cultural appreciation, resource preservation, and visitor enjoyment. Striking the right balance is diffi cult. 

When proponents of one view understand and 

respect the values expressed by another, their 

appreciation for what Brooks Camp means 

now is enriched. 

As a manager for the National Park Service, this is what makes the job interesting. Just 

as there has been an evolution in how Brooks 

Camp has been occupied over time, from prehuman to human, there has been an evolution 

of thinking as our knowledge of the area, and 

with it our understanding, has evolved. Th e 

idea of a defi ned Brooks Camp Developed 

Area was envisioned as a “threshold” area, 

providing an experience intermediary between 

that obtained in front country and back country/wilderness areas. It is the most accessible 

part of Katmai National Park, typically a 20 

minute fl ight for most visitors from King Salmon. It provides an opportunity for visitors to 

experience Alaska in a relatively controlled and 

comfortable setting, which seems contradictory. Th is contradiction, though, depends on 

perceptions, and for most who come here, their 

experience at Brooks Camp is so vastly diff erent from anything they can relate to in their 

Lower 48 experiences, particularly concerning 

wildlife encounters, that the point is almost 

moot. For them, it is essentially a “wilderness” 

experience, it usually exceeds their expectations, and it leaves them with life-long memories of their experiences here. Oft en, bears are 

the focal point of those memories. Facilities 

enhance the visit for many people through 

quality accommodations, meals, showers, 

restrooms and picnic shelters. In some cases, 

these facilities make possible visits by those 

who either don’t have the experience necessary 

to camp, or the time or desire to do so. Many 

come just for the day, which may translate into 

only fi ve or six hours on the ground at Brooks. 

Time becomes a factor, sometimes a limiting 

factor, in their visit. Still, visitors may come for 

Afterword
232 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

only a day to view bears, and leave intrigued by 

the rich cultural history of the area. 

Th ere isn’t a clear “right” way or a “wrong” 

way to manage Brooks Camp, although some 

would have you think there is. Clearly, depending on where you sit, some ways are better 

or worse than others, and some off er diff erent 

advantages or disadvantages. Some bring benefi ts that, cumulatively, come at an unacceptable cost. Th e management question becomes 

“Brooks Camp—for whom and for what?”

What we are managing, in the end, is competing values. My approach has been, as much 

as possible, to take the long view with pragmatic 

sideboards, to articulate the direction/vision 

that will get us there over time, but also to 

remember that we want to continue to operate Brooks Camp throughout any transitional 

phases that may occur in the future. To do so, 

I have supported making choices that preserve 

the most options for the future, both in terms of 

preservation and in terms of decision making. 

We learn as we go. Some management necessarily needs to be adaptive to best take advantage 

of new knowledge and new opportunities. For 

example, emerging technology may off er possibilities not envisioned a decade ago to manage 

visitation. A webcam we have placed at Brooks 

Falls sends a live image to the Pratt Museum in 

Homer where interpreters there provide remote 

bear-viewing opportunities to visitors who 

might never have the time or resources to make 

a trip to Brooks Camp or the Katmai Coast to 

view bears close-up. It also serves to motivate 

others to plan such a trip, something they might 

not have considered previously. 

One reason that people feel confl icted 

about Brooks Camp may be diff ering expectations. Th ose coming with an expectation of a 

pristine setting with no signs of humans may be 

disappointed and look elsewhere to fi nd that 

experience. If visitors, or guides and clients are 

displaced because of perceived crowding, they 

will go elsewhere. In doing so, they are more 

likely to impact resources, both cultural and 

natural. At Brooks Camp, they can be more effectively managed than at places where it is more 

diffi cult for the NPS to have a consistent presence. Perhaps we can do a better job in managing expectations by articulating what Brooks 

Camp is and what it can provide visitors. 

As we learn more, our understanding of 

what the Brooks River and surrounding area 

means—as a landscape, as an experience, as a 

setting, as a home, as a heritage, as a world-class 

resource, as an important historic site in the 

development of the fl y-in fi shing lodges and 

subsequently other types of lodges in Alaska, 

and as an opportunity—is constantly evolving. 

We must fi nd a way to honor the past, recognizing that for many native people whose families are descendants, this remains an important 

and powerful place. 

Th e 1996 Development Concept Plan 

(DCP) was a noble attempt to set direction for 

Brooks Camp. Its EIS and Record of Decision envisioned moving facilities to the south 

side at the Beaver Pond Terrace. Although at 

or near the top of the NPS line item construction program for several years, Senator Stevens 

blocked this massive project from happening, 

with a threat to the NPS line item construction 

program statewide, if the project went forward. 

Th e project fell off the radar, then off the lists 

that were put forward for future funding. 

Funding for the line item construction program is oft en a target in the annual NPS budget, and the tendency has been to fund smaller 

projects rather than massive projects unless the 

impacts were on the order of the restoration 

gained by removal of the Elwha Dam in Olympic National Park or the restoration of Giant 

Forest in Sequoia National Park. With a major 

NPS backlog nationwide, prioritization for the 

line item construction program has shift ed to 

critical health and safety concerns. While portions of the DCP move dealt with health and 

safety, the major impetus at the time centered 

around resource concerns. 

Th e only way to fund the move, then, was 

one small project at a time. In doing so, as we 

looked into the details of each piece, and the 

need to assume that this might be the last piece 

for some time (or ever), we realized additional 

constraints in continuing to operate Brooks 

Camp during the transitional period, which 

might be many, many years before funding for 

a subsequent project might materialize. Th e 

DCP dealt in concepts, and as closer examination of details such as routes for electrical 

lines took place, we found unexpected cultural 

resources, or unanticipated complications from 

bear activity in certain places. We have needed 
 Afterword 233

to make adjustments, and deal with each project 

and its impacts as funding became available. 

Sometimes this has resulted in things being in 

diff erent places than envisioned in the DCP, but 

they are still on the south side and in a better 

location than if they had not been moved either 

from the north side or from Lake Brooks. We 

have been accused of proceeding in a piecemeal 

fashion, yet that is now the only way funding 

will materialize for such a massive undertaking.

Planning has been extensive, and on-theground data collection has told us more and 

more about the area as we proceed with each 

project. Th e current funding situation suggests 

that the only way we will be able to make progress for the foreseeable future is incrementally 

and opportunistically, combining additional 

work to funded projects at Brooks, if feasible.

Th e most diffi cult thing we are dealing 

with at Brooks Camp is the prospect of change. 

Some would like things to never change, and 

with each passing year, their recollection of 

“the way things were” becomes more perfect 

and romantic, and at the same time, inaccurate. 

Th e best example of this is the angst surrounding the proposed elevated boardwalk to the 

Falls Platform that was built in the early 1990s. 

People felt it would be unsightly, it would 

change the experience forever, and that it 

would cause people not to visit Brooks Camp 

anymore because the experience had changed. 

Th e Katmai staff were among the most vocal 

opponents. Aft er it was constructed, people 

appreciated the safer route to the Falls, and 

it steered away from the semi-subterranean 

dwellings on the hills above, further protecting these valuable resources. Today, nobody 

comments on the elevated boardwalk, and it 

certainly does not appear to have aff ected visitation or the number of bears in the area. But 

at the time, it was diff erent.

As we go forward, let us all put our heads 

together to fi gure out how best to protect the 

special world-class resources of Brooks Camp 

and provide visitor enjoyment with world-class 

experiences. It will require balancing competing interests and remembering the important 

values these interests represent. I am confi dent 

we can do this. Th e ecosystem did it before 

humans arrived. As humans became part of 

the natural system here, we found a way to coexist, and like all natural systems, the Brooks 

Camp area is part of a dynamic environment. 

Th at environment is natural, cultural, social 

and political. We will have dilemmas in the 

future. I know this because every summer, 

something new emerges as a challenge. Th ere 

are discussions, arguments, and oft en a need for 

additional data and consultations. Decisions 

are made all along the way and management is 

adjusted accordingly. 

When systems are dynamic, it helps to be 

resilient. And I believe we are resilient. I am 

optimistic, because people who work at Brooks 

Camp are passionate about the resources, and 

about what they do. When people care strongly, they do their best, and they strive for the 

best. Th ey inspire those they meet. Whenever 

we meet people at Brooks Camp, we share our 

energy and enthusiasm. In the 5 summers I 

have spent at Brooks, I consistently go away energized by what I see and who I meet. I think 

we are in good shape going forward.

 ~Ralph Moore (Superintendent 2006-2012)
234 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Appendix A: Growth in Katmai’s Boundaries, 1918 to Present

 Public Private Total

Key Legislation Acreage Acreage Acreage

September 24, 1918

Proclamation 1487, 40 Stat. 1855 922,018 13.74 922,031.74

September 5, 1923 -10

Executive Order No. 3897 922.008 13.74 922.021.74 

April 24, 1931 +1,553,371 +215.27 +1,553,586.27

Proclamation 1950, 47 Stat. 2453 2,475,389 229.01 2,475,618.01

August 4, 1942 +3,008 0 +3,008.00

Proclamation 2564, 56 Stat. 1972 2,478,397 229.01 2,478,626.01

January 20, 1969 +94,284 +459.87 +94,743.87

Proclamation 3890 2,572,681 688.88 2,573,369.88

December 1, 1980 +125,719.00 (State)

Proclamation 4619 + 46, 683.15 (Native)

 +2, 161.06 (Private)

 +11.56 (US Air Force)

 +96.51 (easements and mining claims)

 +1,331,570 +174,671.28 +1,506,241.28 

 3,904,251 175,360.16 4,079,611.16

December 2, 1980 +9,930 0 +9,930.00

Public Law 96-487

Present Acreage 3,914,181 175,360.16 4,089,541.16 

Accumulated by Frank Norris, previously published in Isolated Paradise.
 Appendices 235

Outside Administration 1921-1971

Mt. McKinley NP Superintendents with Authority over Katmai:

Henry P Karstens 7/1921 - 10/1928

Harry J. Liek 11/1928 - 519/39

Frank T. Been 6/1939 - 5/1943

Grant H. Pearson (acting) 5/1943 - 1/1947

Frank T. Been 1/1947 - 2/1949

Grant H. Pearson 2/1949 - 6/1949

Grant H. Pearson (acting) 6/1949 - 8/1949

Grant H. Pearson 8/1949 - 11/1956

Duane D. Jacobs 11/1956 - 1/1960

Samuel A. King 1/1960 - 9/1962

Oscar T. Dick 12/1962 - 2/1967

George A. Hall 3/1967 - 6/1969

Alaska State offi ce General Superintendents with Authority over Katmai:

George A. Hall 7/1969 - 10/1969

Ernest J. Borgman 10/1969 - 2/1972

Mt. McKinley-based Season Rangers:

William J. Nancarrow 1950

William J. Nancarrow 1951 (fi rst half of season)

Morton Wood 1951 (second half of season)

George B. Chaff ee 1952

Goerge L. Peters 1953

Dick Ward 1954 - 1955

Richard Riegelhuth 1956

Mt. McKinley-based Rangers-in-Charge:

Warren Steenburgh 1957

Th eodore E. Roeder 1958 – 1959

Robert Peterson 1960

Mt. McKinley-based Supervisory Park Rangers:

Robert Petersen 1961

Robert Dewey 1961

Dave Bogart 1962 – 1964

King Salmon-based Supervisory Park Rangers:

Darrell Coe 1964 – 5/1966

Park Rangers: (summer at KATM, winter at MOMC):

Vernon C. Betts 8/1969 – 1/1972

Steven Buskirk 5/1972 – 10/1972

Rolly Ostranick 1973 - 1977 (interpretive ranger)

King Salmon-based Management Assistants:

Darrell Coe 5/1966 – 9/1967

Th omas E. Atwood 1968 – 5/1969

Russ Cahill (acting) 6/1969 – 3/1971

Gilbert E. Blinn 9/1969 - 3/1971

Appendix B: Katmai Permanent Employee Roster 1912-2006

(1912-1995 from Norris Isolated Paradise 1996; 1995-2006 from Superintendents 

Annual Reports, Federal Personnel Payroll System, personal communication)
236 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Independent Administration (1971-present)

Superintendents:

Gilbert E. Blinn 3/1971 – 6/1979

Roy M. Sanborn (acting) 6/1979 – 9/1979

David K. Morris 9/1979 – 4/1987

James R. Pepper (acting) 7/1987 – 8/1987

Gilbert R. (Ray) Bane 8/1987 - 3/1990

James F. Ryan (acting) 3/1990 – 6/1990

Alan D. Eliason 6/1990 – 7/1993

Will Tipton (acting) 8/1993-12/1993

William Pierce 12/1993 – 1998 (moved to Anchorage in 1996)

Deborah O. Liggett 10/1998 - 7/2003

Joe Fowler (acting) 8/2003 – 11/2003

Joe Fowler 11/2003 – 4/2005

Steve Frye 6/2005- 3/2006

Troy Hamon (acting) 4/2006 – 7/2006

Ralph Moore 7/2006 – 10/2012

Unit Manager:

Karen Gustin 2/1997-1998

John Bundy 1999-2001

Chris Pergiel (acting) 12/2001–6/2002 

Joe Fowler (acting) 8/2002-10/2003

Chief Rangers: 

Loren Casebeer 1981 – 6/1987

Hal Grovert 1987 - (Acting)

Stephen Hurd 2/1988 – 8/1995

Jim Hummel 10/1995 – 5/1999

Mike McGinnis (acting) 6/1999 – 9/1999

Chris Pergiel 9/1999 –6/2002 

Ed Dunlavey (acting) 6/2002—9/2002 

Joe Fowler 8/2002—4/2003

Missy Epping (acting) 5/2003 -8 /2003

Donna Taylor 4/2004-2006 

Law Enforcement Rangers and Pilots (full-time at KATM):

Mike Tollefson 10/1973 – 3/1977 (park ranger)

Bruce Kaye 6/1977 – 6/1982 (park ranger)

Loren Casebeer 7/1981 – 6/1987 (Chief ranger/pilot)

Marilyn Fuller (acting) 1982 (Brooks Camp ranger)

Hal Grovert 11/1982 – 3/1988 (park ranger; became supervisory park

ranger in 1985, district ranger in 1987)

Kim Speckman 6/1988 – 4/1991 (ranger/pilot)

Joel Collins 5/1991 – 10/1994 (subsistence pilot)

Stanley Steck 12/1991 – 9/1994 (district ranger/pilot)

Denny Ziemann 1993-1994 (criminal investigator)

Cliff Lungren 5/1996 – 5/1997 (ARPA ranger pilot)

Pete Webster 1996 - 9/1997 (ranger subject to furlough)

Tom O’Hara 5/1997-12/2002 (ranger/subsistence pilot permanent in 1999)

Janette Chiron 1999 – 2000/01 (wilderness district ranger/protection)

Jean Marie (Missy) Epping 2003- 2007 (wilderness district ranger/protection)

Allen Gilliland 2004-present (ranger pilot) 

Brooks Camp District Ranger:

Ed Dunleavy 4/2000- 4/2003

Joel Ellis 5/2003-2005

Kathy Spengler 2006-2010 (Brooks lead ranger)
 Appendices 237

Resource Management Specialists:

Kathy Jope 9/1982 – 9/1987 (trainee 1982 – 1984)

David Manski (ANIA) 9/1986 – 9/1988 

Janis Meldrum 2/1988 – 9/1990

Rob Squibb 4/1989 – 4/1992 (bears)

Rick Potts 4/1991 – 1995 (supervisory RMS/research)

Buddy Goatcher 10/1993 – 6/1997 (coastal management biologist Kodiak Offi ce)

Natural Resource Management Specialists

Sue Mills 6/1996 – 9/1996 (detailed from Anchorage)

Susan Savage 1996 - 1997 (acting Chief Natural Resources)

Rick Clark 6/1997 - 8/2000 (Chief )

Donald Mike 11/1997- 8/2000 (Natural Resource specialist)

Heather Todd Rice 9/2000- 11/2000 (Interim Chief, detailed from Anchorage)

Troy Hamon 12/2000- present (Chief )

Research Biologists 

John Dennis 1972- (research biologist)

Tom Smith 6/1992 – fall/1993

Terry DeBruyn 2/1999-10/1999 (temporary wildlife biologist)

Tamara L. Olson 2000-2009 (wildlife biologist)

General Biologists:

Amanda Austin 1998-11/2001 (Intake converted to permanent biologist 

 7/2001)

Helen Lons 2002-2009 (biologist; Chief of planning 2006-2009)

W. Daniel Noon 2/2006-2010 (NEPA biologist)

Sharon Kim 7/2005-8/2008 (biologist)

Fishery Biologists:

Don Bill 6/1995 (new position) - 9/1997 (technician 1992)

Troy Hamon 8/1998-12/2000 (term)

Joe Miller 11/2001-2006

Scott Pavey 2006-2010

Cultural Resources Manager/Chief

Patricia McClenahan 10/1992 - 8/1994 (new position from base increase)

Jeanne Schaaf 3/1996 – 4/2012 (LACL & KATM based in Anchorage)

Archeologists:

Dale Vinson 3/1998-5/2012 (based in Anchorage, acting Chief 5/2012-present)

Michael Hilton 5/2002-11/2002 (new position from base increase)

Collections Manager:

Kathryn Myers 6/2006-present (new position base increase)

Subsistence Chief/Specialist:

Susan Savage 10/1992 - 5/1997 (new position from WASO)

Donald Mike 11/1997-8/2000 

Mary McBurney 2000-present (KATM & LACL)

Interpretive Specialist/Chief:

Mark Wagner 4/1991 -1993 (specialist); 1994-2001(Chief ); 2001-5/2002 (Chief 

for KATM & LACL)

Martha Hess (acting) 1/2002-8/2002 (acting Chief for KATM)

Nancy Stimson (acting) 9/2002-12/2002 (Chief )

Rebecca Himschoot 7/2002 – 10/2003 (education specialist shared with LACL) 

Roy Wood 5/2003 – present (Chief )
238 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Lead Brooks Camp Interpretive Rangers:

Martha Hess 2000-2002 (started as volunteer in 1992; term in 1999)

Peter Hamel 2/2005-2008 (chair of brooks camp management team 2006)

Brooks Camp Manager

David Nemeth 6/1992-3/1993

Mark Wagner 1994-5/2002

Ed Dunlevey 6/2002-4/2003

Concessions Specialist and Chief:

Susan Sonnevil ( Joff ree) 2/1986 – 8/1988 (specialist)

David Nemeth 5/1989 – 4/1993 

Becky Brock 1998-2009 (Chief King Salmon and Anchorage)

Michael Groomer 2001-2003 (specialist, Anchorage)

Concessions Management Assistants (based in King Salmon)

David Nemeth 4/1993 – 7/1993

Cary Brown 1993

Vera Gilliland 2/2005-6/2006 (visitor use assistant and management assistant)

Michael Glore 2006 (visitor use assistant)

Maintenance Mechanics/Maintenance Foremen/Facilities Chiefs:

Bill Ross Jeff ord 10/1966 – 1968

Bert James 1968 – 10/1970

Hugh Nicholls 3/1971 – 8/1971

James R. Hepburn 1/1972 – 1975

Carl Yost 1/1977 – 5/1985

Bob Wemple 5/1985 – 8/1985 (acting)

Ed Stondall 8/1985 - 10/1992 (Chief )

Richard Sherman 10/1992 – 5/1993 (maintenance supervisor 2002-2006)

Robin Leatherman 5/1993 – 9/1998 (facility manager, moved to Kodiak 8/1996)

Paul Button 1/1999 –2004 (Chief for KATM & LACL)

James Gavin 2004-present (Chief )

Permanent Maintenance Workers:

Richard Sherman 3/1986 –1992 (started as a seasonal laborer 1981)

Richard Proctor 10/1992 –present 

Jean Gansch 1989-1990 (maintenance clerk)

Elizabeth Maynard start date unknown-1992 (maintenance clerk)

Carole Woodmancy 10/1992 – fall/1996 (maintenance secretary)

James Gavin 1997 - 2004 (ARO employee; started as seasonal engineering 

technician in 1984; electrician foreman 1998-99, Maintenance 

supervisor/electrician 2002-2004)

John Torzillo 2002-present

Tom Ferguson 2002-2008 (started as seasonal in 1984)

Tom Kay 2002-present

Marion Burgraff 2002-2004/05

Bryce Mulholland 2006-2008

Mike Fedorko 2003-4/2013 (started as seasonal in 1984)

Administrative Technician and Offi cer (aft er 1988)/ Management Assistants:

Augusta Skillman 1978-1980 (clerk/typist)

Sally Huff /Orot 1980-1987 (administrative technician) 

Valerie Payne 1988-1991 (administrative technician) 

Elizabeth Copeman 1991- 4/1995 (administrative technician advanced to Offi cer)

Don Bill 10/1992-6/1995 (purchasing agent; reassigned)

Cary Brown 10/1993 – summer 1997 (management assistant, moved to 

Anchorage 1996))
 Appendices 239

Debbie Brown 12/1993 – 6/1997 (administrative technician advanced to Offi cer 

5/1995) (moved to Anchorage 3/1996)

Deborah Emmal/Riddle 6/95 - 10/1995 (purchasing agent King Salmon)

Lynne Santos 10/1995 - 1997 (purchasing agent King Salmon)

Marcia Arnold 1996 – 2004 (administrative assistant Anchorage)

Lisa Clark 1999 (administrative support clerk King Salmon)

Deb Flewelling 4/2000- 4/2003 (Administrative Offi cer Anchorage) 

Adrienne Warren 2002 – 2003 (management assistant to Superintendent Anchorage)

Ruth Egnaty 1999-2002 (personnel specialist Anchorage)

Kristi Bergeron 2000-2002 (operations support clerk)

Sandi Fowler 2002 – 2005 (computer specialist)

Rebecca Britton 2003 – 2006 (operations support clerk)

Vera Gilliland 6/2006 – present (administrative support assistant [6/2006-2/2007 

and 1/2011 to present] and operations support clerk [2/2007-

1/2011] King Salmon)

Lisa Nielse n 2/2004-5/2007 (LACL & KATM Administrative Offi cer 

Anchorage to 11/2005, LACL 11/2005-5/2007) 

Betty Spaff ord 2002-2005 (administrative technician Anchorage) 

Tacy Skinner 11/2005 – 4/2010 (Administrative Offi cer King Salmon) 

Jessica Bowers 2006-2008 (administrative technician King Salmon) 

Bear Management Technicians (temporary seasonal):

Koren Bosworth (ANIA) 1987

Kristen Meyers (ANIA) 1987

James Litch (American Creek/Coast) 1988

Kathy Coghill (Brooks Camp) 1988

Will Cameron (ANIA) 1988

Brian McManus (American Creek) 1989

Heidi Haid 1989

Tammy Olsen (Brooks Camp) 1989 - 1990

Will Cameron (Brooks Camp) 1989

Brian Holmes (Brooks Camp) 1991 - 1994

Kirsten Brennan (AQAU) 1992 - 1993

Mike Roy (Nonvianuk) 1992

Patty DelVecchio (AQUA) 1992

Teresa Moran (Nonvianuk) 1992

Todd Trapp (ANIA) 1992

Linda Hasselbach (ANIA) 1993 - 1995

Lindsey Christensen (Research Bay) 1993

Owen Guthrie (NBS Amalik Bay) 1994

Paul Gibson 1994

Joe Rigney (Alagnak) 1995

Katherine Davis (NBS) 1995

Peter Neitlich (ANIA) 1995

Rick Boretti (Alagnak) 1995

Eveline Martin (King Salmon) 1996 - 1997

Hillary Maier Boyd (Brooks Camp) 1996 - 1997

Bill Hobbins (Alagnak) 1997

Kristen Carden (Brooks Camp) 1998

Kellie Peirce (Brooks Camp) 1999

Kelly Proffi tt (Brooks Camp) 2000

Erin Bentley 2002-2003

Carlton Imes Vaughn 2003-present

E.M. Groth 2006-2008

Katrina Mocnik 2006-2011
240 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Appendix C: Permanent and Seasonal (s) NPS Employees and Volunteers at Brooks Camp*

 

 Interpreters/

Year Park Rangers Naturalists Natural Resources Maintenance Cultural Resources Volunteers 

1971 1 2 s 0 1-4 0 0 

1972 1 2 s 0 1-4 0 0

1973 1 3 s 0 1-4 0 0

1974 1 2-3 s 1 1-4 1 3

1975 1 2-3 s 1 1-4 0 0

1976 1 2-3 s 1 1-4 0 20

1977 1 2-3 s 1 1-4 0 1

1978 1 2-3 s 1 1-4 1 5

1979 1 2-3 s 1 1-4 0 4

1980 1 2-3 s 8 0 7

1981 1 2-3 s n/a n/a n/a 0

1982 1 2-3 s 1 1-8 6 0

1983 1 8 s 1 1-8 6-8 0

1984 1 7 s 1 1-8 3-6 0

1985 1 7 s 1 1-8 0 0

1986 1 6 s 1 1-8 0 0

1987 1 6 s 1 1-8 1 0

1988 1 6 s 1 1-8 0 0

1989 1 6 s 1 1-8 0 

1990 1 1, 5 s 2, 2s 2, 7 s 1

1991 1, 3 s 1, 5s 1 2-8 1 4

1992 3 s 1, 5 s 2 2-8 1 3

1993 3s 1, 5 s 2 2-8 1 37

1994 3s 1, 5 s 2 2-8 1 n/a

1995 3s 1, 4-5s 1-2s 2-8 0 n/a

1996 3s 1, 4-5 s 1-2s 5-6 n/a

1997 3s 1, 5 s 1-2s 5-6 3-8 

1998 3s 1, 5s 1-2s 5-6 14 

1999 3s 1, 5s 3-6 s 5-6 15

2000 3s 1, 5s 3 s 5-6 12 

2001 3s 1, 6 s 3 s 5-6 10

2002 3s 1, 4 s 3 s 5-6 11 

2003 3s 1, 5 s 3 s 5-6 9

2004 3s 1, 5 s 3 s 5-6 6

2005 3s 1, 5 s 3 s 5-6 8

2006 3s 1, 5 s 3-5 s 5-6 9

*Staff and volunteers who worked at Brooks for the duration, or at least part, of the summer season. Th ese 

numbers do not represent personnel from other federal or state agencies, non-NPS scientists or important visitors 

who visited Brooks Camp during this time. Numbers are estimates only.

Source: Superintendent Annual Reports, 1972-2006
 Appendices 241

Appendix D: Brooks Camp Development: A Timeline

Prior to 1920s 

Alaska Natives from Savonoski and Naknek rivers converge at the mouth of the Brooks River each autumn for the redfi sh (sockeye salmon) fi shery. Cabins, tents, and fi sh racks are constructed and utilized at 

various point in time. 

1920 Th e Bureau of Fisheries, operating within the Department of Commerce, establishes a program targeting predators of commercial salmon stocks in Bristol Bay. Agent set up a camp at “Kidawik Creek,” from 

which they seine lake trout and Dolly Vardens, killing over 16,000 pounds of fi sh. Th e program continues 

until 1926.

1921 Bureau of Fisheries blasts the north side of Brooks Falls in order to create a “fi sh passage” between Naknek and Brooks Lakes.

1931 Brooks River area included in expansion of Katmai National Monument.

1939 Th e Bureau of Fisheries and the U.S. Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture move to the 

Department of the Interior. 

1940 Th e newly created U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launches the Bristol Bay Investigation, sending biologists to construct a weir at mouth of Brooks Lake in order to count migrating sockeye for commercial 

harvest regulation and research.

1941 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service establish tractor road connecting Naknek Lake to Brooks Lake. Fish and 

Wildlife Service begins to build a laboratory at Brooks Lake, it is completed in 1957. 

1948 Fish and Wildlife Service begins construction of fi sh ladder at Brooks Falls; it is completed in 1950.

1949 Bureau of Fisheries continues to cut the south bank at Brooks Falls and begins construction of a fi sh ladder.

1950 Northern Consolidated Airlines erects eight or nine tent frames and storage buildings. Trefon Angasan’s 

cabin on north side of the Brooks River exists but is later razed. NPS builds a tent frame, cache, and 

drives a well where the campground is now.

1953 Katmai Project maps four archeological sites near Brooks Camp.

1954 NPS builds new cache near the present picnic site in order to be closer to the river and Northern Consolidated Airlines (CSA) concessionaire activities. 

1955 NPS log cabin/ranger station built by Richard Ward and Russell Todd. 

1956 NCA builds Panabode building that serves as the camp manager’s residence and camp store. 

Th e Fish and Wildlife Act creates two new bureaus: Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the Bureau of 

Sport Fisheries and Wildlife.

1958 North side trail from Brooks Camp to the Brooks River Falls established. Used primarily by anglers.

1959 Appraisal indicates that 20 buildings and three pit toilets are located at Brooks Camp. One of those 

buildings is the log cabin/boathouse located 200 yards from the ranger station. Brooks Camp to Dumpling Mountain Overlook trail developed.
242 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

1960 Th e Bureau of Commercial Fisheries supports Don E. Dumond of the University of Oregon to conducts 

initial archeological excavations near Brooks Camp to better understand prehistoric fi sh runs..

 NCA constructs the Brooks Camp Lodge, including lounge/kitchen/dining room and two underground 

storage cellars. Seven new Panabode cabins and a shower/bath house are built. 

1961 Jeep trail surveyed to Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes. Two Panabode cottages used for family housing 

are constructed by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries at Brooks Lake. 

1962 South-side trail developed along the riverbank. Dumpling Mountain trail to summit developed. Th ree 

prefab buildings for NPS seasonal residences fl own in and constructed. 

1963 NPS completes construction of the Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes jeep trail. Warehouse fl own to 

Brooks Camp by DC-3. Maintenance Shop constructed. First tours conducted on the Valley of Ten 

Th ousand Smokes Road.

1964 NCA begins the construction of Skytel; it is completed in 1965.

1965 Brooks Lodge employees discover two graves while laying water line.

1966 Weather station started; completed in 1973.

1967 Two more NPS cabins constructed, tent frame #1 erected (rebuilt in 1983).

 Excavations conducted for Native house site exhibit.

1968 Don Dumond constructs the Native house exhibit. 

1969 Archeologist Doug Reger is summoned to Brooks Camp to investigate a fi re pit discovered during excavation for a septic tank near Brooks Lodge.

1970 Fish cleaning station reconstructed with solid walls. Replaces open-meshed structure built in 1950. 

On October 3, 1970, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Commerce Department and renamed National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS).

1971 Pelagia Melgenak applies for a 120-acre allotment at mouth of Brooks River.

1972 NPS builds three shelters at Brooks River Campground. Vehicle parking area completed at Brooks 

Camp.

1974 NMFS stops funding for the fi sheries project at Brooks Lake. A bunkhouse is constructed for contractors, later converted to the visitor center through 1989, and used fi nally, as the location for NPS evening 

programs. NPS develops trail to Beaver Pond. Two sites and pit toilet are added at campground. Construction begins for a new dock, fi sh house, water, fuel and sewer. Harvey Shields performs archeological 

compliance at Brooks. He discovers that eight houses and at least two graves are disrupted. Concessioner 

employee housing cabin destroyed by fi re.

1975 Generator building constructed. NPS completes the Brooks Camp dock.

1976 Contractor’s quarters (the auditorium) is remodeled into a visitor center.

1977 New waterline is constructed to Brooks River campground. 
 Appendices 243

1978 NMFS facilities transferred to NPS. Two Panabodes and one cabin located at Brooks Lake and formally 

used by NMFS are rehabilitated for NPS employee use. 

Brooks River Archeological District listed in the National Register of Historical Places.

1979 Brooks River cuts a new channel fl owing into Naknek Lake. Harvey Shields tests and maps archeological 

sites along Brooks River Cutbank.

1980 Th ree Panabode cabins constructed to replace tent frames as NPS employee housing. Detached wash 

house built for log cabin at Brooks Camp.

1975 dock is removed aft er fl ood; remains are converted to a fi sh-viewing platform.

Alaska National Interest Conservation Act expands Katmai and designates the area Katmai National Park 

and Preserve.

1981 Second cache erected at campground. Construction of fl oating bridge at the mouth of Brooks River 

begins.

1982 Viewing platform at Brooks Falls is constructed. Floating bridge completed. Harvey Shields conducts 

archeological excavation at Brooks River Cutbank.

1983 NPS erects two more tent frames. New trail from Brooks Lake Road is developed to the falls. Brooks 

leach fi eld renovated. Harvey Shields continues Brooks River Cutbank Archeological Excavation. BLM 

approves Melgenak allotment application. NPS appeals decision.

1984 Katmailand constructs bath house, Eagles Nest (manager’s or married employees’ quarters) and twelve 

 permanent Panabode cabins at Tuckerville; all are completed in 1985. Katmailand expands the dining 

room of the lodge building. NPS expands leach fi eld. Brooks Camp loading dock built on the spit south 

of Brooks River mouth. Harvey Shields with Don Dumond and Roger Harritt excavate the Crystal Palace, a rare burned house on the lower Brooks River Cutbank. Th ey also investigate Melgenak cabin south 

of Brooks River and historic “dugouts” near the Beaver Pond.

1985 Katmailand builds Laundry/Warehouse/Shop; it is completed in 1986. Razes several tar paper shacks. 

Sandbags block salmon from using the fi sh ladder at falls. ADF&G does not agree with this decision and 

threatens to take NPS to court. 

1986 Completion of “Tuckerville,” the location of the new lodge employee housing. All but two remaining 

NCA shacks razed: one remains as equipment shed next to Lodge Store, the other is moved to the new 

housing area. Increased visitor use of campground trample roots of large balsam popular.

1987 One more concessioner employee cabin built. NPS discontinues use of fi sh ladder at Brooks Falls. 

Converts former generator shed into a storage/ranger work area; converts warehouse into a maintenance 

shop; and builds a fl oating dock at Brooks Lake. A new archeological site is found during clearance investigations for a new outhouse at the Brooks Campground.

1988 A new leach fi eld and septic system is started at Brooks Lake. Th e Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes Road 

is brushed with a power mower. Storage shed for ranger equipment constructed. Katmailand adds 

freezer room to its kitchen and the NPS relocates the stairs at the Visitor Center; adding cumulative effects to archeological resources. NPS establishes a reservation/registration system in the campground, sets 

a limit of 60 campers, and places a limit of seven consecutive days for camping. Visitor foot-traffi c on the 

Falls Trail cited as causing the wearing away of the protective ground cover.
244 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

1989 Brooks Lake leach fi eld archeological clearance excavation conducted. Archeologists also conduct 

clearance for the Brooks Camp incinerator building and sewer line hook up. Need for Brooks River area 

Development Concept Plan (DCP) identifi ed. 

1990 Incinerator Building started, completed in 1991. NPS Planning team conducted reconnaissance for moving Brooks Camp. 

1991 Skytel fuel leak sparks archeological testing of prehistoric house contaminated with diesel. Hydrocarbon 

testing and fuel storage tank testing are also conducted. Underground fuel storage tanks are removed. 

New tent frames are built. Public meetings held concerning Brooks Development Concept Plan (DCP). 

1992 Viewing platform at the lower river built. NPS also builds the above-ground fuel storage tank parking 

area along road. Brooks Camp lodge cellar slump is excavated. Brooks Camp soil and water is tested for 

fuel contamination. Leaking Brooks Camp fuel line is replaced A new well is dug at Brooks Lake.

1993 Permanent radio tower installed for Brooks Camp Visitor Contact Station. Brooks Camp underground 

fuel storage tank is removed. Th e Falls Trail is upgraded and hardened. Sites along Brooks Camp and 

Brooks River Road are drilled to delineate fuel contamination. Brooks Camp above-ground, double wall 

fuel storage tanks and tank skid are installed. Th e fuel spill containment box is built near Naknek Lake 

Beach. Brooks Campground food cache is replaced by a building on skids. A well shed is installed at the 

new Brooks Lake well. Permanent radio antenna installed at Brooks Camp Visitor Center.

 Judge Will A. Irwin affi rms Kendall Clark’s decision to uphold native allotment application AA-7604 in 

part and reject it in part. Both parties appeal.

 Extensive consultation with commercial operators and Alaska Native groups regarding the Brooks River 

DCP is conducted.

A determination of eligibility conducted for the Fisheries Lab at Brooks Lake (BL-3) rehabilitation project fi nds that the building is eligible for the NRHP. 

 Brooks River Archeological District declared a National Landmark.

1994 Brooks Camp, Brooks Lake and Brooks River Road above-ground fuel storage tanks installed. Emergency fuel spill testing conducted at Brooks Lake archeological site. Draft Brooks Area DCP released. A 

ceramic lamp is discovered when conducting archeological clearance for the Brooks Camp Visitor Center 

handicap access ramp. 

1995 Final Brooks DCP released; decision is to move Brooks Camp to the Beaver Pond Terrance, and the 

Brooks Camp area north of the river would be restored to a natural condition.

1997 Tank farm fences are built at Brooks Lake and Brooks Camp. Brooks Falls viewing platform is replaced. 

Judge James K. Singleton decides that the Melgenak heirs have valid claim to the south side parcel but not 

the north side parcel. Brooks Camp dock removed.

1998 Former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens brokers the Brooks Camp-Savonoski-

 Melgenak-Land Exchange creating conservation easement that includes the Brooks River mouth. Brooks 

Camp Visitor Center is remodeled. NPS 

builds a Pacifi c Yurt Building cross from the warehouse at Brooks Camp to accommodate staff overfl ow. 

New fl oating bridge replaces the bridge constructed in 1981.

1999 Archeological clearances for the Naknek Lake Visitor Arrival area, Brooks Lake Visitor Arrival Area, 

Beaver Pond Terrace Access Road, and Brooks Falls Trail Boardwalk are conducted. 
 Appendices 245

2000 Clearance is conducted for a vault toilet at the Brooks Falls trailhead. Construction of the Brooks Falls 

Trail Boardwalk begins. 

2001 Emergency fuel leak occurs at generator building at Brooks Camp.

2002 New tent frame installed at Brooks Camp. Brooks River Cutbank Archaeological Data Recovery Project 

begins an investigation of the eroding grave discovered in 1999.

2003 Brooks Camp NPS employee duplexes proposed. Brooks Camp vehicle parking area fuel spill monitoring 

well installed. Brooks River Cutbank Archaeological Data Recovery Project completed.

2005 Th e Brooks Campground upgrade is planned to include new shelters and a vault toilet. An archeological component is identifi ed at the proposed vault toilet location. Archeologists survey a fi ve acre site for 

a new maintenance facility south of Brooks River and east of Brooks Lake. Archeologists investigated a 

location to install a vault toilet at Brooks Lake.

2006 Due to signs of imminent failure Katmai proposes to construct a new leach fi eld at Brooks Camp. Th e 

presence of archeological resources and the inadvertent discovery of a grave led to rehabilitation of the 

existing leach fi eld. 

Predictions that the rehabilitated leach fi eld would only function for fi ve to ten years led Katmai to consider reducing staff numbers at Brooks Camp by implementing the phased relocation of housing to the 

south side of Brooks River.

 Katmai conducted an Environmental Assessment for the Brooks Lake Maintenance Facility. Katmai 

rerouted the “Corner” trail due to erosion of the north bank of Brooks River.
246 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

1940 Mount McKinley National Park Superintendent Frank Been and Biologist Victor Cahalane visit the 

Brooks River in September. Neither man sees a bear. What they do witness is Alaska Natives from 

Naknek harvesting red salmon at the mouth of the Brooks River. Been surmises correctly that this was an 

activity that has gone on for generations. 

1941 Sportsmen from nearby military base are fl own in to fi sh for trout and salmon at Brooks River.

1950 Raymond Petersen establishes Brooks Camp primarily for anglers; the camp uses an open dump near current auditorium site for garbage. 

First seasonal ranger stationed at Brooks Camp. NPS builds two tent frames, a food cache, and drives a 

well at the current campground site. No actual bears are sighted at camp or near river that season; only 

tracks and beds indicate presence of bears.

1953-4 Katmai Project biologists estimate bear population at 200 on Alaska Peninsula.

1959 Th ree pit toilets put in at Brooks Camp.

1960 Archeological investigation of the Brooks River area begins, lead archeologist Don Dumond recalls seeing 

 only three bears all summer; two of these were destroyed.

1963 NPS publishes the Leopold Report that promotes the preservation of ecology in parks and the National 

of Academy of Sciences publishes the Robbins Report that advances the concept of natural regulation. 

Both are landmark reports that later infl uence the way in which bears are perceived and managed by NPS 

at Brooks Camp. One bear destroyed at Brooks Camp.

1966 Bear bites camper sleeping near a recently used frying pan at Brooks Campground. Open garbage dumps 

 at Brooks Camp closes. One bear destroyed at Brooks Camp.

 

1967 Dr. Frederick C. Dean conducts fi rst Bear–Human Study at Brooks Camp. Two Brooks Camp dumps 

 closed; single dump several miles up Valley Road remains in use.

1968 One bear accidentally destroyed at Brooks Camp.

1969 Garbage is placed outside of concessioner’s cabins each night, and then trucked in three 50-gallon barrels 

each day to the fenced dump up Valley Road. A screened-in shed surrounded by an electric strand fence is 

used to clean fi sh. Dean makes his recommendations to the park.

1970 Based on Dean’s report, the following changes are made at Brooks Camp: Garbage is stored indoors and 

 incinerated before being trucked to dump; plastic liners are used in all garbage cans; an oil-fi red incinera 

 tor is considered; NPS builds hard walled fi sh-cleaning shed. One bear destroyed at Brooks Camp.

1971 A Master Plan for Katmai National Monument directs rangers to give arriving visitors “the beach speech”, 

anglers are advised to stop yielding fi sh to bears and campers are told to keep camp clean and to store 

food in elevated cache. NPS hires Gill Blinn as Katmai’s fi rst independent superintendent, in part to help 

control increasing bear problems at Brooks Camp.

1972 Numerous Brooks Camp cabins are broken into by bears during fall; damage totals $21,900.

1973 “Bear Policy for Developed Areas” articulates for the fi rst time Katmai’s philosophy regarding bears 

and protocols for dealing with bear-human interactions. First record of aversively conditioning bears 

with birdshot. Bears dig up sewer pipes and break into the concessioner’s lodge two days aft er personAppendix E: Bear Management at Brooks Camp: A Timeline
 Appendices 247

nel leave for season. NPS suggest that the concessioner keep at least one person there late into the fall to 

watch the camp. One bear from Brooks accidentally drowned during a relocation attempt when the plane 

the animal was riding in crashed into Geographic Harbor. All people aboard survived.

1974 Will Troyer conducts a tracking study of bears collared at Brooks between 1975 and 1979.

1976 One bear accidentally dies at Brooks Camp a few days aft er being handled for a bear distribution study.

1977 NPS places “bear proof ” fence around Brooks Camp trash burning barrels.

1979 Garbage compactor installed; garbage barged out of camp and taken to Naknek landfi ll. Ed Stondall 

 designs fl oating bridge.

1980 Detached wash house built for log cabin at Brooks Lake; remains of 1975 dock converted to fi sh-viewing 

 platform. Numerous bear-related problems continue to occur at the campground. “Sister” is moved by 

 boat to Idavain Creek, but returns four days later. John and Frank Craighead visit Brooks Camp and off er 

 advice to management.

1981 Second bear-proof cache is built at Brook River campground to help decrease the number of problems 

there, but late fall cabin break-ins are numerous. Due to a high number of dangerous bear encounters, the 

concessioner moves the tent frame cabins away from their original location near the mouth of the river. 

1982 Elevated viewing platform built at Brooks Falls. Floating bridge completed. NPS

 hires four graduate students to conduct studies regarding bears and the rising ecotourism industry. Valley Road dump closed.

1983 Kathy Jope and Hal Grovert write fi rst Bear Management Plan. Th e plan

establishes the “50/100 yard rule.” Th e trail from Brooks Camp to Brooks Falls (.64 mi) is built to replace 

old, eroding (.55 mi) trail. Brooks Camp leach fi eld renovated. A roving interpretive patrol on the 

Brooks River is initiated to emphasize to fi shermen proper catch-and –release methods and bear safety. 

NPS kills “Sister,” the last bear to be shot at Brooks Camp.

1984 Day-users encouraged to use the elevated food cache instead of carrying food along Brooks River. A 

 handout provides information to visitors and fi shermen on minimizing confl icts with bears. Drift -fenc 

 ing erected along parts of Brooks Camp’s perimeter to deter bears from entering the developed 

 areas. Deputy Regional Director Jack Ogle leads a team to evaluate park operations. 

1985 Utah State University biologist Barrie Gilbert and graduate student Anne Braaten study how bears be 

 haved around anglers in 1985 and 1986. Picnicking along Brooks River prohibited; food storage at cache 

 required. Rubber bullets replace #9 lead shot for hazing bears in Brooks Camp area.

1986 Th e General Management Plan mentions a phased relocation of all or part of Brooks Camp. Morris notes 

that bear numbers during the July peak has increased 80% in two years, however, he cites the cause for the 

increase to be unknown. Compendium requirements for Brooks-specifi c food storage implemented and 

listed in the 1986 Bear Management Plan.

1987 New leach fi eld and septic system started at Brook Lake. New incinerator arrives. 

Susan Warner collects data on bear and human use on the Brooks River. Th e Alaska Board of Fish rejects 

the NPS proposal to change State fi shing regulations to reduce the bag limits from fi ve to two salmon 

parkwide, in an eff ort to reduce confl ict between anglers and bears. Park staff participate in the King 

Salmon Air Force base orientation session scheduled by the military.

Increased aircraft traffi c identifi ed as disrupting bear behavior at Brooks. First “bear jam” reported at 

 bridge crossing. 
248 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

1988 Catch limit of one fi sh per day instituted, as promulgated in CFR. Princess Tours 

 enters into an agreement with the Quinnat Lodge and Katmailand to market a tour package that includes 

 a day visit to Brooks Camp, in which the primarily focus is to observe and photograph brown bears. A 

 series of aircraft guidelines are instituted to produce safer and less disruptive aircraft operations. Camp 

 ground brushed and dead trees and limbs are removed in order to reduce potentially dangerous situations 

 between campers and bears.

Barrie Gilbert, Tamara Olson and Scott Fitkin conducted research at Brooks River on bear use of the river 

from Brooks Falls to Naknek Lake, including diff erences in use by age, sex and behavioral classes. Th is 

research was under contract in 1988, and continued through Olson’s employment as a seasonal biotech 

(while still a grad student) until 1991. In addition, Olson and Ronald Squibb collected data at Brooks 

River using the same methods during fall of 1992. Multiple scientifi c publications and an M.S. thesis 

resulted from this work.

Th ere was a single season closure of the river to guided fi shing aft er Sept 10 this year.

1989 Ronald Squibb hired as Resource Management Specialist. Squibb is stationed at Brooks Camp between 

 1989 and 1991 seasons and is primarily responsible for bear management in the park. A single-season fall 

 closure of the river below Brooks Falls to sport fi shing aft er Sept. 10.

1990 Tamara Olson and Scott Fitkin continue to study the recreational use of the Brooks River and its impact 

on bears. Th e fi rst park newspaper, Th e Bear Facts, is published. Natural resource management starts to 

use a standardized bear management report form developed by Ronald Squibb at Brooks Camp, and for 

backcountry events.

1991 Ranger received minor puncture wound from charging bear. Interpretive Program started at Brooks 

 Camp, in part to assist bear management. Incinerator building completed. Garbage no longer barged out 

 of camp. 

1992 Lower bear viewing platform constructed near south bridge landing on lower river. Olson and Squibb 

co-authored Bears of Brooks River (1993). Final contract research report from Olson et al. completed. 

Lodge operating period is extended to September 17.

1993 Th e Bear Research Committee submits fi nal report. 

1994 Katmai develops the Brooks Camp Bear School, in which interpretation rangers, during their fi rst week 

 at Brooks Camp, participated in a comprehensive training program that teaches rangers how to 

 convey bear safety principles to visitors.

1995 Visitation sets record with over 70,000 visitors to the park.1

 Visitors are forced to wait two to three hours 

before getting to view bears at the Falls.

1996 Elevated cache at Brooks Lake was knocked down by bears. It was replaced with a ground-level food and 

 gear storage cache that year.

1997 New Brooks Falls platform constructed. NPS attempts to fence the fl oating bridge, but is taken down 

because cubs were caught in the mesh. A fi rst attempt is made at gating the bridge, but the gates were 

removed because bears simply went around them.

1998 Christopher Servheen and John Schoen observe bear management at Brooks Camp and make 

recommendations. Katmai supplements the Brooks Camp interpretive ranger staff by recruiting a Katmai 

Volunteer Corp, consisting primarily of a student volunteer work force to manage bears and people. 

1

 Since 1995 NPS has used a diff erent calculation to determine visitor numbers. Th us, it is thought that this number, although used by NPS at the time, is probably overestimated.
 Appendices 249

“Platform Etiquette” rules are printed on the back of fi ve cards, which included various photographs of 

a famous Brooks River bear, Diver, and are distributed to visitors. Use of outdoor bear resistant garbage 

receptacles discontinued since mid-season 1998 due to incidents of bears getting into them. Fish 

retention limited to below the fl oating bridge under Alaska sport fi shing regulations.

1999 Brooks River Guide Program initiated. Human remains in a grave at the Cutbank Site are displaced by 

erosion from bears climbing the bank. Tamera Olson hired as Katmai’s wildlife biologist. NPS Regional 

Wildlife Biologist Terry DeBruyn writes a review of Bear Management at Brooks Camp. A new fl oating 

bridge is constructed with railings and.

2000 Bear viewing boardwalk and Riffl es platform constructed. An electric fence is installed around the Brooks 

Campground.

2001 Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan that had been in place since early 1980s is revised. Annual 

sampling is conducted using methods similar to those of Olson et al. Th ese data provide the estimates of 

bear numbers and age-sex composition, as well as other information on bear and human use of the river.

2002 Th e Brooks River Archeological Data Recovery project incorporates an electric fence to exclude bears 

from the excavation.

2003 Th e 100 yard distance requirement for a bear or any large mammal with young was dropped from the 

Superintendent’s Compendium.

2004 Troy Hamon heads study using time-interval photography to determine whether bear activity was lower 

downstream of the current bridge location, data are used to evaluate if placing a bridge in an alternative 

position would reduce bear-human encounters at the lower river. An electric fence is installed between 

Brooks Lodge and the Katmailand offi ce to prevent bears from digging into the cellar.

2005 Code of Federal Regulations included in Park Compendium: designated seasonal visiting hours on the 

falls and riffl es platforms and boardwalks; seasonal area closure in the vicinity of the falls; bear orientation 

required; picnicking in designated locations only; prohibition on unattended property; and food storage 

requirements.

Parkwide distance requirements for large mammals were also promulgated in CFR. An ongoing eff ort to 

analyze data from genetic sampling of bears is conducted at Brooks between 2005 and 2007.

2006 Brooks Camp River Corner Temporary Trail Diversion. Th e Bear-Human Confl ict Management Plan 

is updated. A team of biologists led by Alaska Regional Science Advisor Robert Winfree reviewed the 

current state of bear management at Brooks Camp and made recommendations. Th e CUA stipulation 

that “Landing, taking off or taxiing with 100 yards of visible bears, moose or caribou is not permitted.” is 

dropped from the Park’s CUA stipulations.
250 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Appendix F: Brooks River National Historic Preservation Act Compliance 1969 – 2006

1. KATM_1969:001 Brooks Camp Sewer Line Holding Tank Discovery.

2. KATM_1978:001 Brooks Camp Panabode Construction.

3. KATM_1979:001 Brooks Lake Road Equipment Storage Area Concrete Pad Installation.

4. KATM_1979:002 Brooks Lake Buried Electric Line between BL-1 and BL-3.

5. KATM_1979:003 Brooks Lake BL-1 and BL-2 Septic Tank Leach Field Construction.

6. KATM_1979:004 Brooks Camp Boat Harbor Erosion Barrier.

7. KATM_1979:005 Brooks Camp Drainage Pipe trench in the Wien (Lodge) Facility.

8. KATM_1981:001 Brooks Camp Floating Bridge.

9. KATM_1981:002 Brooks Camp Review of Proposed Concessioner Activity.

10. KATM_1982:002 Brooks Camp DCP (New Employee Housing for Brooks Lodge Concession).

11. KATM_1983:002 Brooks Falls Trail Reroute.

12. KATM_1984:001 Brooks Camp Leach Field Expansion.

13. KATM_1984:002 Brooks Camp Concessioner Employee Housing Utilities Line.

14. KATM_1984:004 Brooks Lodger Dining Room Addition.

16. KATM_1984:005 Brooks Camp Water well Installation.

17. KATM_1984:006 Brooks Camp Fish Cleaning Drain pipe Installation.

18. KATM_1984:007 Brooks Lodge Employee Housing Construction.

19. KATM_1985:001 Brooks Lake Sign Board/Food Cache and Well Relocation.

20. KATM_1985:002 Brooks Camp Radio Tower and Food Cache.

21. KATM_1985:003 Brooks Lake Sign Board and Food Cache Installation, head of Brooks 

River.

22. KATM_1985:004 Brooks Lake Fuel Tank.

23. KATM_1985:005 Brooks Camp Auditorium Addition.

24. KATM_1985:008 Brooks Camp Ranger Station Storage Shed Reconstruction or Removal.

25. KATM_1985:009 Installation of Drain Pipe from Fish Cleaning Building to Naknek 

 Lake.

26. KATM_1985:010 Concession Employee Housing Construction.

27. KATM_1987:001 Brooks Camp Outhouse Relocation, Concessioners Store Area.

28. KATM_1987:002 Brooks Camp NPS Employee Outhouse Relocation.

29. KATM_1987:003 Brooks Lake Outhouse Relocation at BL-1 and BL-2.

30. KATM_1987:004 Brooks Camp Visitor Campground Outhouse Relocation.

31. KATM_1987:005 Brooks Camp and Campground Waterline Replacement and Beach 

Pump.

32. KATM_1987:006 Brooks Camp Removal of Concrete Foundation and Slab of Generator.

33. KATM_1987:007 Brooks Lake; Installation of Subsurface Chain Link Fence around 

BL-1 and BL-2.

34. KATM_1987:008 Brooks Lake; Installation of Subsurface Electrical Line from BL-2 to 

well house.

35. KATM_1987:009 Brooks Lake; Installation of Concrete Pad for Generator Fuel Tank.

36. KATM_1987:010 Brooks Lake Water Line Replacement.

37. KATM_1987:012 Brooks Camp - Replacement of concrete pad over fuel tanks at Fuel 

Station along road. 

38. KATM_1987:013 Brooks Lake - Sewer upgrade for Housing.

39. KATM_1987:014 Brooks Lake Shop Building Relocation.

40. KATM_1988:001 Brooks Camp - Establishment of New Campground along VTTS road.

41. KATM_1988:002 Brooks Lake - Sewer Upgrade Leach Field.

42. KATM_1988:003 Brooks Lake Alternate Leach Field Clearance Denial.

43. KATM_1988:004 Brooks Lake - Sewer Upgrade, force main between BL-3 and Leach 

Field.

44. KATM_1988:005 Brooks Lake Sewer Upgrade: Installation of Septic Tank and lift Station at BL-3. 
 Appendices 251

45. KATM_1988:006 Brooks Lake Sewer Upgrade: Installation of Septic Tank and Lift Station at BL-1 & BL-2.

46. KATM_1988:007 Brooks Camp - Visitor Center Stairs Relocation.

47. KATM_1988:008 Brooks Camp - Katmai Land Freezer Room Addition.

48. KATM_1988:009 Brooks Lake Aircraft Pad Cache Post Excavation.

49. KATM_1989:001 Brooks Camp emergency water line repair.

50. KATM_1989:002 Brooks Camp Incinerator Building Construction and Sewer line hook-up.

51. KATM_1989:003 Brooks Lake Leach Field Clearance Excavation.

52. KATM_1989:004 Brooks Camp Concessioner Employee cabins waterlines and boiler 

house.

53. KATM_1989:007 Brooks Camp Ranger Station New Cache.

54. KATM_1989:009 Brooks Camp Katmailand Foundation Post Replacement.

55. KATM_1989:012 Brooks Lodge Employee Housing Area Water Meter Installation.

56. KATM_1989:013 Brooks Lodge Employee Housing Area Unauthorized 55 Gallon Drum 

Shower Drain.

57. KATM_1990:004 Brooks Camp Lodge Handicap Access Ramp.

58. KATM_1990:006 Brooks Camp Lodge Bear Fence Hardening.

59. KATM_1990:008 Brooks Camp Removal of M/V Ketivik from Beach.

60. KATM_1990:009 Brooks Camp Sign and Flagpole Relocation.

61. KATM_1991:001 Brooks Camp New Tent Frames.

62. KATM_1991:002 Brooks Camp Skytel Lodge Fuel Leak 2x2.

63. KATM_1991:003 Brooks Camp Underground Fuel Storage Tank Removal.

64. KATM_1991:004 Tuckerville Water Meter Replacement.

65. KATM_1991:006 Removal of Two Fuel Tanks at Brooks Camp.

66. KATM_1991:008 Brooks Camp Campground Concrete Pads for cache ladder Installation.

67. KATM_1991:009 Brooks Camp Repair of Lodge Waterline.

68. KATM_1991:010 Brooks Camp Hydrocarbon Testing.

69. KATM_1991:011 Brooks Camp Tuckerville Water Meter Replacement.

70. KATM_1991:012 Brooks Camp - King Salmon Fuel Storage Tank Testing.

71. KATM_1992:002 Brooks River Lower Viewing Platform Construction.

72. KATM_1992:003 Brooks Camp Water Upgrade (Well and Water Line).

73. KATM_1992:004 Brooks Lake Water Well Upgrade.

74. KATM_1992:007 Brooks Camp Visitor Contact Center Garbage Can Concrete Pad 

Installation.

75. KATM_1992:010 Brooks Camp Soil and Water Testing for Fuel Contamination.

76. KATM_1992:011 Brooks Camp Concrete Pads Removal.

77. KATM_1992:012 Brooks Camp Visitor Center Handicap Access Ramp.

78. KATM_1992:013 Brooks Camp Abandoned Well and Intake Capping.

79. KATM_1992:014 Brooks Camp Leaking Fuel Line Replacement.

80. KATM_1992:016 Brooks River Trail Relocation.

81. KATM_1992:017 Brooks Camp Lodge Cellar Slump Excavation.

82. KATM_1992:018 Brooks Camp Emergency Water and Sewer Repairs.

83. KATM_1992:020 Brooks Falls Bear-viewing Platform Emergency Maintenance.

84. KATM_1992:021 Brooks Lake Drilling and Installation of New Water Well.

85. KATM_1992:022 Brooks River Installation of “No Fishing” Signs.

86. KATM_1992:023 Brooks Camp Concessioners Hot Water Leak Emergency Repair.

87. KATM_1992:025 Stabilization and Maintenance of the Brooks Camp Cultural Exhibit 

Pit House.

88. KATM_1992:026 Brooks Camp Fish Cleaning Building Emergency Sewer Line Repairs.

89. KATM_1992:027 Request for Zone Clearance on south side of Brooks Camp NPS housing area.

90. KATM_1992:029 Brooks Camp Above-Ground Fuel Storage Tank parking area along 

road.

91. KATM_1993:002 Brooks Lake, Bureau of Fisheries Laboratory (BL-3) Rehabilitation.
252 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

92. KATM_1993:003 Brooks Camp Underground Fuel Storage Tank Removal.

93. KATM_1993:004 Brooks Camp Emergency Installation of Above-Ground Fuel Bladders.

94. KATM_1993:005 Brooks Falls Trail Upgrade and Hardening.

95. KATM_1993:007 Brooks Camp Food Cache Replacement with Buildings on Skids.

96. KATM_1993:009 Brooks Lake Construction of Well shed for New Water Well.

97. KATM_1993:010 Brooks Camp Pit House Exhibit Repair.

98. KATM_1993:011 Brooks Camp Installing or Reinstalling Various NPS Signs.

99. KATM_1993:013 Brooks Camp Lodge Root Cellar Ground Slumping Correction.

100. KATM_1993:014 Brooks Camp and Brooks River Road Sites Fuel Contamination Characterization

101. KATM_1993:015 Brooks Camp Garbage Room Wooden Floor Installation.

102. KATM_1993:016 Brooks Camp Shower Pipe Installation for NPS Employee Restrooms.

103. KATM_1993:017 Brooks Lake Water Line Installation to BL-3.

104. KATM_1993:018 Brooks Camp Fish House Sewer and Grease Trap.

105. KATM_1993:019 Brooks River Bridge Trail Diversion.

106. KATM_1993:020 Brooks Camp Generator Emergency Waterline Replacement.

107. KATM_1993:021 Brooks Lake Well Electric Line Installation.

108. KATM_1993:025 Brooks Falls Trail Segment Reroute.

109. KATM_1993:026 Brooks Lake Emergency Fuel Spill

110. KATM_1993:027 Brooks River Parking Lot at Lower Platform.

111. KATM_1993:028 Brooks Camp Skytel Above-Ground Fuel Storage Tanks and Tank Skid Installation.

112. KATM_1993:030 Brooks Camp Visitor Contact Station Permanent Radio Tower Installation.

113. KATM_1993:032 Brooks Camp Fuel Spill Containment Box in Naknek Lake Beach.

114. KATM_1993:033 Brooks Lake Fuel Storage Area Tree Removal.

115. KATM_1993:036 Brooks Camp Emergency Waterline Repair.

116. KATM_1994:003 Brooks Camp Locate and Repair Waterline Leak.

117. KATM_1994:004 Brooks Lake Waterline Connections to BL-3, BL-3 Bathhouse, BL-2, and BL-1.

118. KATM_1994:006 Brooks Camp Visitor Center Americans with Disabilities Access Ramp Construction.

119. KATM_1994:008 Brooks Camp Ground Outhouse Excavation Monitoring.

120. KATM_1994:009 Valley of Ten Th ousand Smokes Road Pedestrian Survey of 200-Foot Wide Transect.

121. KATM_1994:011 Brooks Camp Replacement of trails Step to the Lodge and Visitor Contact Station.

122. KATM_1994:012 Brooks Lake Reconstruction of 8’ x 8’ Storage Lean-to next to the “Plumbing Shed.

123. KATM_1994:013 Brooks Lake Beach Ridge #4 Archeological Excavations due to Well Installation.

124. KATM_1994:014 Brooks Lake Road Stump Removal.

125. KATM_1994:016 Brooks Camp Grading Existing Trails.

126. KATM_1994:018 Brooks River Archeological Excavation to Mitigate Cutbank Erosion.

127. KATM_1994:019 Brooks Lake BL-3 Emergency Fuel Spill XMK-008 Testing.

128. KATM_1994:030 Brooks Camp, Brooks Lake and Brooks Road Above-ground Fuel Tank Installation.

129. KATM_1995:002 Brooks Camp Cultural Exhibit Barabara Restoration Maintenance.

130. KATM_1995:004 Brooks Camp Antenna Foundation Construction.

131. KATM_1995:006 Brooks Camp Fuel Spill Remediation Testing.

132. KATM_1995:007 Beaver Pond Terrace Pedestrian Reconnaissance.

133. KATM_1995:009 Brooks Lodge Emergency Waterline Repair.

134. KATM_1996:002 Brooks Camp Waterline Repair.

135. KATM_1996:004 Brooks Falls Bear Viewing Platform and Trail Boardwalk.

136. KATM_1996:005 Brooks Camp Sand Filter and Electrical Line.

137. KATM_1997:003 Brooks Camp Dock Removal.

138. KATM_1997:004 Brooks Lake Generator Shed Core Samples.

139. KATM_1997:005 Brooks Camp Fee Safe.

140. KATM_1997:006 Brooks Lake Kiosk and Pit toilet.

141. KATM_1997:008 Brooks Camp Wayside Exhibits.

142. KATM_1997:009 Brooks Camp Tank Farm Fence.

143. KATM_1997:011 Brooks Falls Bear Viewing Platform Construction

144. KATM_1997:012 Brooks Lake Tank Farm Fence

145. KATM_1997:013 Brooks Camp Fuel Spill Remediation Wells.
 Appendices 253

146. KATM_1998:003 Brooks Camp Visitor Center Remodeling and DOE.

147. KATM_1998:004 Brooks Falls Trail Elevated Boardwalk Alignment Determination.

148. KATM_1998:005 Brooks Camp Fuel Spill Remediation.

149. KATM_1998:006 Brooks Camp Fuel Storage Area Fence.

150. KATM_1998:007 Brooks Lake Fuel Storage Area Fence.

151. KATM_1998:008 Brooks Camp Savonoski Melganak Land Exchange.

152. KATM_1999:001 Brooks River Area DCP Topographic Mapping Archeological Clearance.

153. KATM_1999:002 Brooks River Area DCP Beaver Pond Terrace Archeological Survey.

154. KATM_1999:003 Brooks River Area DCP Naknek Lake Visitor Arrival Area Archeological Clearance.

155. KATM_1999:004 Brooks River Area DCP Brooks Lake Visitor Arrival Area Archeological Clearance

156. KATM_1999:005 Brooks River Area DCP Beaver Pond Terrace Access Road Archeological Clearance.

157. KATM_1999:006 Brooks River Area DCP Brooks Falls Trail Boardwalk Archeological Clearance.

158. KATM_1999:009 Brooks Camp Naknek Lake Fill Removal EA.

159. KATM_1999:014 Brooks Camp Emergency Water leak Repairs.

160. KATM_1999:015 Brooks Camp Campground Gray Water Drain.

161. KATM_1999:018 Brooks Camp Fuel Spill Remediation Wells.

162. KATM_2000:001 Brooks Camp DCP Brooks Falls Trail Board walk Construction Monitoring.

163. KATM_2000:002 Brooks Falls Trail Head Vault Toilet Clearance.

164. KATM_2000:005 Brooks Camp Auditorium Rehabilitation.

165. KATM_2000:006 Brooks Lake Fisheries Laboratory (BL-3) Rehabilitation, Phase 1.

166. KATM_2000:007 Brooks Camp Generator Replacement Archeological Clearance.

167. KATM_2000:008 Brooks Lake Fuel Tank Replacement.

168. KATM_2000:011 Brooks Camp Campground Electric Fence Installation.

169. KATM_2000:012 Brooks Camp Campground/Dumpling Mountain Trail Reroute.

170. KATM_2000:016 Brooks Camp Miscellaneous Electrical Upgrades.

171. KATM_2000:022 Brooks Lodge Pay Phone Installation.

172. KATM_2000:023 Brooks Lodge KatmaiLand Concessions Contract Renewal.

173 KATM_2000:024 Research Project: Eff ects of Marine Derived Nutrients on Riparian Forest Structure.

174. KATM_2000:025 Brooks Camp Emergency Waterline Repair.

175. KATM_2000:027 Brooks Camp Fuel Spill Remediation Monitoring.

176. KATM_2000:028 Brooks Lake Fuel Spill Remediation Monitoring.

177. KATM_2000:030 Katmai Fuel Spill Facilities Response Plan.

178. KATM_2001:005 Brooks Lake BL-3 Rehabilitation and Road Grade Alteration.

179. KATM_2001:007 Brooks Falls Trail Rehabilitation.

180. KATM_2001:008 Brooks Lake Dock Installation.

181. KATM_2001:009 Brooks Camp Auditorium Rehabilitation.

182. KATM_2001:010 Brooks Lake Water System Rehabilitation.

183. KATM_2001:011 Brooks Camp Heating Fuel Tank Replacements

184. KATM_2001:012 Brooks Lake 2000-Gallon Fuel Tank Installation.

185. KATM_2001:015 Brooks Camp Emergency Fuel Leak at Generator Building.

186. KATM_2002:002 Brooks Camp Tent Frame Installation.

187. KATM_2002:003 Brooks Camp Fuel Suppression.

188. KATM_2002:004 Brooks River Cutbank Archaeological Data Recovery Project.

189. KATM_2002:005 Brooks Camp Generator Fuel Line Installation.

190. KATM_2002:006 Brooks Camp Water Utility System Rehabilitation.

191. KATM_2002:008 Brooks Camp Trim Painting Prescription.

192. KATM_2002:010 Brooks Camp Ranger Patrol boat Mooring Station.

193. KATM_2002:011 Brooks Lake Employee Sauna.

194. KATM_2003:001 Brooks Camp NPS Employee Duplex Installation.

195. KATM_2003:002 Brooks Camp Vehicle Parking Monitoring well installation.

196. KATM_2003:003 Maintain Bear Viewing Platforms.

197. KATM_2003:004 Cyclic Brushing of VTTS Road.

198. KATM_2003:005 Paint NPS Buildings at Brooks Camp and Brooks Lake.

199. KATM_2003:006 Brooks Camp NPS Employee Cabin Rehabilitations.
254 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

200. KATM_2003:010 Brooks Lake Cabin (BL-3) Emergency Electric Line Repairs.

201. KATM_2004:003 Naknek Lake/ Brooks River Mouth Fill Removal at the Barge Loading Bulkhead.

202. KATM_2004:010 Brooks Lake - Pavilion Electrical Line Extension.

203. KATM_2005:001 Brooks Camp Campground Vault Toilet and Picnic Shelter Installation.

204. KATM_2005:002 New Brooks Lake Maintenance Facility Installation.

205. KATM_2005:003 Brooks Lodge Offi ce Wireless Internet Satellite Dish.

206. KATM_2005:006 Brooks Lake Vault Toilet Clearance.

207. KATM_2006:001 Brooks Camp Leach Field Expansion.

208. KATM_2006:003 Brooks Camp Ranger Patrol Boat Mooring System Installation.

209. KATM_2006:004 Brooks Camp River Corner Temporary Trail Diversion.

210. KATM_2006:006 Evaluation and Implementation of Vegetation Management at Brooks River Corner.

211 KATM_2006:007 Brooks Lake Maintenance Facility EA. 
Case # Date Location Incident Description

3 6/28/1974 Brooks Camp SAR

Search for missing person-son took early morning hike and supposed to return by lunch. Search lasted for 17:30-20:00 hours. Upon return found missing person. Missing individual took an alternate hike.

6 7/22/1974

Campground, Brooks Camp Bear damage

Bear damage to personal property. Bear suspected to be in town between 8 and 10 and stayed until midnight. Gerry year round tent damage, no further incidents. 

8 7/29/1974 Campground, Brooks River Bear damage Bear got into tent, damaged equipment and left. No one hurt. 9 8/16/1974 Brooks River Water Incident Canoe capsizing. Minor. Three folks involved. 

10 9/22/1974 Brooks Camp Fire

Fire in contractors sleeping building. Put out by extinguishers. Cause of fire undetermined, some feel carelessly left cigarette.

11 9/22/1974 Brooks Camp Bear damage Bear breaks into lodge, damaged door, stole sugar

16 6/20/1975 Bear relocation

Bear relocation-sow and three yearlings. Previously broke into ten buildings and had become accustomed to humans. 

17 6/21/1975 Aircraft incident Taxiing aircraft collided with vertical stablizer while taxiing. 

20 7/23/1975 Bear damage Bear damage to personal property. Sow with two yearlings. Tent damaged. 

23 9/17/1975 Brooks Camp SAR Persons rescued in water area. Everyone involved ok. 

112 7/22/1979 Brooks Campground Bear damage Small bear reportedly came into campsite and took bacon out of ice chest.114 7/17/1979 Brooks River parking lot Bear damage

Visitor left pack at parking lot and upon return found bear pawing at her pack. Scared off easily. 

115 7/21/1979 Brooks Campground Bear damage

Camper pitched tent in unofficial campground. Delivered food to cache, upon return found bear pawing at tent. Scared away easily. 

116 7/21/1979 Brooks Campground Bear damage Small bear snuck up on a sleeping couple in a tent. Screamed and bear ran off. 118 7/26/1979 Brooks Campground Bear damage Bear tore some tents up. 119 7/23/1979 Brooks Camp Bear damage While out fishing bear came in and tore apart 3 tents. 

120 7/22/1979 Brooks Campground Bear damage Blond bear found getting into goretex bivouc with freeze dried food. 121 7/25/1979 Boat Dock at Brooks Lake Bear damage A young blond bear aproached an unattended boat and got into backpack and food. 136 10/7/1979

Brooks River near Brooks Lake Dead bear

Young brown bear remains found near Brooks Lake on SE side of river by old marine fisheries tower. 

137 10/10/1979 Brooks Camp Dead bear

Dead bear found at Brooks Camp- Only hair, few vertebrae, rib bones, paw bones and part of a lower jaw found. 

138 10/15/1979 Brooks Camp Dead bear

Dead bear found at Brooks Camp. Discovered to be one of three yearlings previously relocated. 

APPENDIX G: Case Incident Reports for the Brooks River Area 1974 - 2001

Appendices 255

Appendix G: Case Incident Reports for the Brooks River Area 1974 – 2001
800003 6/1/1980 Brooks Camp Complaint

Camper complained that jet boat should be no place for campground and has witnessed two young men joyriding while intoxicated. Also camper objected to siren that was sounded before every meal. 

800004 6/20/1980 Brooks Camp First Aid

Camper had a stroke. Medical assistance given and victim traveled to King Salmon. Camper was able to walk to plane in his own power. 

800005 7/7/1980

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage "Sister" entered campsite and got into green duffel bag of food. Campers were fishing at the time and unaware of food in bag. 

800006 7/9/1980

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage Group of campers scared away a bear at Site #3. Camper gone for five minutes only to find collared bear exiting tent with pack

800007 7/9/1980

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage A collared bear "Sister" got into a visitors tent. Tent totalled and pack damaged. Group of campers were involved in scaring bear away. 

800008 7/7/1980 Brooks Campground Bear damage

Couple attended evening programs at Brooks Camp. Upon arrival tent was torn down. Tent pole snapped

800009 7/9/1980 Cut bank on Brooks River Bear damage

Dark brown bear and smaller blond bear approached a fisherman. Bear took backpack with camera equipment inside. Only backpack was damaged. 

800010 7/9/1980 Brooks Camp Campground Bear damage

Bear entered campsite and got into belongings of a couple. A few things were damaged and nearby camper scared off bear. Not identified as "Sister." 

800012 7/12/1980 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Bear idenitified as "Sister" was observed pulling and tipping the garbage box outside the Brooks Lodge kitchen. 

800013 6/15/1980 Brooks Camp Training Several Katmai employees attended two hour shot gun training. 800014 7/11/1980 Brooks Camp Possible Theft

A rust colored anorak was missing. Investigation found that a Wien employee stole it and was fired as a result. 

800015 7/12/1980 Brooks Lake Bear damage

13 occupants of south panabode cabin at Brooks Lake heard sounds in the living room kitchen area of cabin. Bear identifed as "Sister" ran away when someone yelled "Bear!"

800016 6/30/1980 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Garbage box next to ranger station discovered by bear and torn into. Contents scattered down to beach. 

800017 6/30/1980 Brooks Camp First Aid

Foreign object in eye. Brooks Lodge employee reported getting sawdust in eye while cutting wood. Eye wash and cotton swabs used to clean red swollen eye. Eye wash removed sliver. 

800018 6/30/1980 Brooks Campground Bear damage

Camper reported that a bear bent the pole to his tent. Nearby campers chased bears away and reported seeing a collar ("Sister").

800019 7/11/1980 Brooks Campground Bear damage

Camper called in for support to deal with bear within campground. Bear got into 4 persons' belongings and did some significant damage to a lot of camping equipment. 

800020 7/17/1980

Brooks Camp-Wien Cabines Fire

Fire in concession cabin. When occupants attempted to relight cabin's oil stove. Left it on for too long and cabin became hot and smokey. So they opened windows and wind pushed curtains to stove and caught fire. Put out with fire extinguisher and garden hose. 

256 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
800020 7/10/1982

Brooks Camp Ranger Station 

Bear Management-Use of shotgun

Large subadult bear chased away from river just above the bridge towards the housing area. Rangers evacuated area and came back onto trail three consecutive times. Shot gun was utilized using a cracker shot, to prevent bear from entering crowded lodge area. Bear not "peppered" due to number of people in area. 

800021 6/22/1980 Brooks Camp Wien Party

Wien employee began ferrying people from Brooks Lodge to campground 2000-2200 hours. Noise complaint was received. Verbal warning given. Some minors were in possession of alcohol. 

800022 7/12/1980 Brooks Camp Bear relocation

"Sister" bear was relocated to another area after several property damage incidents. Bear was relocated successfully. 

800023 7/5/1980 Brooks Camp Vandalism

Vandalism of government property. Boat washed on shore near #47. Both tie lines were cut. Several Wien employees interviewed. 

800024 7/17/1980

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage Bear was found by ranger rummaging through tent. #9 shot and firecracker used to scare bear off. Owners not present while this occurred. 

800025 7/16/1980

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage Visitor returned to camp to see a large blond bear dragging off their pack. Food contained various foods. No personal damage, just property. 

800026 7/6/1980 Brooks Camp Campground Bear damage

"Sister" bear awoke campers in middle shelter by getting into cooler with trash, mustard and rock salt. 

800027 7/5/1980 Brooks Campground Bear damage

Bear was in camp and got into a few packs. Once scared from site, heard others scaring off bear. Four packs were handled by bear. 

800028 7/25/1980 Brooks Camp Bear Damage

Bear damage to private plane. Pilot indicated bear probably smelled old fish from transportation. Bear entered plane and broke window in process. 

800029 7/20/1980 Brooks Camp Vehicle Accident

A touring company backed into two government owned bicyles. Van is fine, bikes were damaged. 

800030 8/4/1980 Brooks Campground Bear damage

Midday a bear ripped into two duffel bags of a group of kayakers who were not present. Bags were ready to go on a day trip. 

800032 7/6/1980 Brooks Camp Theft Fishing reel reported missing. 

800033 7/15/1980 Brooks River Campground Bear damage Bear stumbled over a brand new tent breaking rainfly and pole. 

800035 7/28/1980 Brooks River Campground Bear damage

Two persons en route to King Salmon were forced to spend night at King Salmon and parked two boats on dock. Bears rummaged through food and owners not visibly upset by incident. 

800036 8/19/1980 Brooks Camp First Aid

Possible heart attack occurred. Patient cared for and treated, flown out to King Salmon and from there Anchorage. Patient recovered and was fine 8/21/80

800037 8/28/1980 Stolen Artifacts

Several artifacts were stolen from NPS display case. Suspects identified but perpetraitor not found. 

800038 7/3/1980 Brooks Camp Vehicle Accident A driver backed into a NPS bicycle which was parked 15 ft behind the Wien van. 

800040 8/9/1980

Valley-Road. Brooks River Parking area Vehicle Accident

Cushman scooter found lying on side. After week of questioning Wien and NPS employees did not find the persons responsible or cause of accident. 

800041 8/18/1980 Brooks Lodge First Aid

Incident where a visitor at Brooks Lodge fell and injured head, leg and lower back. Treatment given and patient later flown out to Anchorage. 

Appendices 257
800044 8/29/1980 Brooks Camp Dock Possible Vandalism Possible vandalism to NPS boat (sand in fuel tank).

800050 8/22/1980 Brooks Campgroud Bear damage

Bear got into tent and previously got into a raft. Owners were upset that they were not informed of previous history with bears getting into camps. Owners slept in pananobe cabins that night. 

800051 9/24/1980 Brooks Lake Moose Drowning

Moose with an abnormally low rump was observed in camp, obviously stressed and agitated. Ranger Belous and Sanborn launched skiff to determine if unusual circumstances were result for moose's behavior. Moose eventually drowned and was dragged farther down river since it would more than likely attract bears. Report is extensive with multiple complainants. 

810001 5/25/1981 Brooks Camp First Aid

A fishing person was out fishing when fish hook got lodged inside palm of right hand. Ranger removed hook. 

810002 6/5/1981 Brooks Camp First Aid Training CPR training took place for NPS employees. 810004 6/21/1981 Brooks River Campground Bear damage

Ranger jogging down beach when came across bear with nylon dufflebag. Later peppered the bear. 

810008 7/2/1981

Brooks Camp Ranger Station Found Property

While cleaning equipment, ranger found some travelers checks in $20 increments. Checks mailed back to associated company. 

810012 7/11/1981 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Between 0615 and 0645 a bear(s?) Broke open a window pane of Wien's dry storage building.

810013 7/18/1981 Brooks Camp-Beach Bear damage

A bear (probably "Sister") was oberserved reaching into a boat that had been beached in front of ranger station. No damage to boat. Bear scared off by shouting, rocks and hazing with cracker round.

810014 7/23/1981

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage Campers returned to campsite and found that bear rummaged through their belongings. Bear was attracted by and ate eucalyptus cough drops. 

810015 7/24/1981 Brooks Camp Aircraft incident

NPS aircraft broke loose from overnight tie down and bumped into neighboring plane. Minor damages were sustained and repaired. 

810016 7/22/1981 Brooks Camp Employee Injury

While stepping into boat NPS employee lost balanced and fell, hitting shoulder first. Employee was flown out to King Salmon for treatment and went back to work next day. 

810017 8/20/1981 Brooks Campsite #4 Wildlife Incident

Bear took a backpack left on picnic table while campers slept. Bear ran off with pack, with ranger assistance the bear was located and peppered while still going through the backpack. 

810018 8/20/1981

Wien Cabin #26 Brooks Camp Medical Treatment

Visitor was experiencing major chest pains. When checked appeared stable but in visible pain. Dr. in camp suggested going back to Anchorage to get EKG. 

810020 8/27/1981 Brooks Lodge Complaint

Visitor complaint regarding concession operations. Complaints concerned the cleaniless of their cabin #36 and the fact that they were either picked up late or not picked up at all on two successive nights at river crossings times. 

810021 6/1/1980

Brooks Camp/Eskimo Pithouse Stolen Artifacts Returned

Artifacts that had been stolen (see 800037) were mailed to Bruce M. Kaye from Escondido, CA. Accession #s matched the #s listed for the artifacts that were reportedly stolen. 

258 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
810023 9/12/1981 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Ranger was in cabin when heard bear tearing and chewing into something near cabin. Upon investigation found bear chewing on canoe left at his house for the night. Bear was chased off and canoe put in wearhouse. 

810024 9/12/1981

Brooks Camp-Ranger Station Bear damage

Storage room of ranger station was broken into by bears with camping gear strewn about inside. Door broken beyond repair. 

810025 9/13/1981

Brooks Camp-Employee Housing Bear damage

At 1300 hours employee noticed bear got inside employee housing when magpies were flying in and out of house. Made a minor mess and minor monetary loss of food occurred. No further damage to house. 

810026 9/21/1981

Brooks Camp Guest Cabin BR #38 Bear damage

A guest cabin was broken into and caused damage. Maintenance crew repaired damages later that afternoon. 

810027 9/21/1981

Brooks Camp Women's Restroom Wien Bear damage

While on patrol, ranger noticed women's restroom door opened and minor things knocked over. Upon investigation found that this had been caused by a bear.

810028 9/21/1981

Brooks Camp Residence #BR 47 Bear damage

A medium sized dark bear was found inside Kayes' residence. When bear was found it ran away with a box of saltines in mouth. Did some damage to sofa and food items mainly. 

810029 9/23/1981 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Three Wien guest cabins were broken into on the morning of 9/23/81. Bear just broke in and looked around and left with no further damage to property. 

810031 9/29/1981 Brooks Lake Bear damage

NPS maintenance employees noticed a bear had intruded into carpenters shed on Brooks Lake. Windows and varnish were damaged. Nearby boathouse front board ripped up but bears unable to gain entrance. Repairs made and door was secure. 

810032 9/30/1981 Brooks Lake Bear damage

Carpenter's shed on Brooks Lake side of Camp was broken into by bears on morning of 9/29. Redwood stain gotten into and created a mess, but no actual damage to building occurred. 

810034 Varying dates Brooks Camp

Bear Management-Use of shotgun

A compliation of bear incidents in which shot guns were used in 10 incidents to disperse bears from June to October. 

820007 6/3/1982 Campground, Brooks Bear/moose conflict

At 0815 hours campers informed rangers about a bear moose conflict happening at ranger station. Upon investigation and tracking the bear, bear was asleep. Later with backup it was noticed to have been eating something. Dumpling Mountain trail was closed as a result. Next day, it was found that there was a bear and all that was left of the moose was a hoof. Trail reopened. 

820009 7/6/1982 Brooks River Bear damage

A fisherman had a bear encounter in which a bear got into a backpack. The contents included two red salmon. Fisherman informed to keep fish on river and storage of fish cleaning building. Later, bear was seen investigating a plane, whose owner was also the same fisherman. Fisherman was storing fish in pontoons, not in plastic bags. 

820010 7/5/1982 Brooks River Bear damage

Bear got into backpack left near oxbow overlook of Brooks River. Contents of pack included 35 mm camera, clothing, a .32 caliber pistol, chocolate chip cookies, orange juice, used coffee cups and a thermos of coffee. Guide was informed about firearms policies in park as well as fishing policies. 

820011 6/30/1982

Brooks Camp Ranger Station Training Shotgun training.

Appendices 259
820012 7/10/1982 Brooks River Bear damage

A blond bear encountered some fishermen and got into a backpack full of camera equipment which was submerged and contents scattered when bear was scared away. 

820013 5/28/1982 Brooks Camp Training, First Aid

Wien Air Alaska concession employees completed lecture/practical CPR course on 5/29/82 instructed by Bruce Kaye. 

820014 7/15/1982 Brooks River Bear damage

Bear got into a Wien boat and got a hold of a bag containing freeze dried food. When Wien employees arrived the bear ran off, dropping the bag and food. 

820015 7/16/1982

Brooks Camp Ranger Station First Aid

A Wien employee (?) suffered from a sprain injury; requested and received assistance from rangers. 

820016 7/21/1982 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Visitors left several duffle bags of equipment and a food cooler on the beach in the vicinity of the Wien Lodge. Visitors were able to chase bears away. Visitors had received warnings about bear activity in the area. 

820017 7/23/1982 Brooks Camp Campground Bear damage

In the morning ranger was awakened and informed that a bear climbed up on the information board in the campground and brought down five backpacks from the storage area between the food caches. Bear was not identified and the only damage done was to one backpack and the information board. 

820018 7/23/1982 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Management

A bear was "peppered" multiple times and shot with a cracker round. At 2100 hours ranger "peppered" and used birdshot on the other of two yearlings. These bears are 2 of the 3 yearlings that were left on their own last year when the mother disappeared. 

820021 8/5/1982

Brooks CampCampground Bear damage Campers were woken up by bear rummaging through west side of food caches. Bear was scared away after damaging items in the cache. 

820023 8/25/1982

Naknek Lake, South Illiuk Arm

Overdue Party (Fatality/Missing Person)

Two NPS employees were conducting wildlife surveys and were considered overdue. Upon extensive SAR pieces of kayak were found. Extensive reports enclosed in folder. 

820024 8/21/1982 Brooks River Bear Management

Two photographers were taking photos of a bear and two yearlings in the stream too closely and at an unsafe distance. The sow rummaged through their belongings. 

820029 9/6/1982 Brooks Camp

Floatation devices rendered unserviceable

An inspection of miscellaneous Personal Floatation Devices stored in the warehouse cabinet at Brooks Camp revealed that a total of 9 PFDs were declared unserviceable. 

820030 9/24/1982 Brooks River Area Bear damage

While two NPS vehicles were parked by the river, bears had gotten into them and did some damage to the vehicles. The door covers were damaged and on one of them the side windows were removed. 

820031 9/27/1982 Brooks Lake Bear damage

Rangers were informed that bears had torn the cover to the Bertram motorboat while it was parked in the storage area up on Brooks Lake. No damage occurred to the boat. 

820035 5/17/1982 Brooks Camp

Law Enforcement Training-40 hr. refresher. 

Three seasonal law enforcement commissioned rangers attended the entire Katmai seasonal orientation. 

820037 5/28/1982

Brooks Camp and King Salmon Firearms training-shotgun Katmai employees attended 6 hour training with shotgun familiarization course. 

260 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
830008 6/12/1983 Brooks River

Bear confrontation/management action

A blond sow, "Sister," was tagged #1001 and #1002, and given a lip tatoo #991 by Will Troyer in 1978. In 1982 there were 5 incidents recorded where this sow took backpacks and food as well as fish from fishermen, from elevated storage areas and campground food caches. On 6/12/83, the same bear with 2 yearlings obtained food from fishermen who moved away from their packs when the bear and her cubs approached. Later in the day the bears damaged tents in the campground. The superintendent made the decision to destroy the sow. Garbage bait was placed in the leachfield and the sow was shot when she took the bait. The yearlings were peppered and left the area. 

830010 7/5/1983 Brooks River/Nankek Lake 

A medium sized brown bear with a cub apprached a group of 10 fishermen on the sandy spit directly north of the Brooks River outlet into Naknek Lake. As the bears neared, the fishermen reeled in and/or cut their lines. The group then left their things where they were, since retrieving them would mean nearing the bears. 

830011 7/6/1983 Brooks River Human/Bear interaction

At 1800 a medium sized brown bear with cub ambled out from the marshy area near the oxbow lake on the lodge side of Brooks River. Two fishermen who were on the bridge called out to a party of six down by the river who were fishing. They complied and joined them at the bridge where they witnessed the bear rummage through their abandoned equipment. A low flying float plane scared the bears. 

830012 7/9/1983 Brooks River Bear Management Action

At 1730, a ranger observed 3 fishermen on the oxbow island (NW side of Brooks River), while a female brown bear (medium brown) with a cub (dark brown) were on the SE side of the river. This bear was in place, occasionally looking up at the fishermen. Eventually the bear charged the fishermen and the fishermen fled. Soon two rangers set up a plastic bag with a stick that smelled of fish and some fish guts. The bear approached the bag and got into it. At this time the ranger peppered the bear. 30 minutes later, the sow and cub were observed walking down the lakeshore. They entered Brooks Camp at the building adajacent to the Trading Post and tipped over the burnable-trash barrel. The sow ate something from the garbage and as she turned to go was peppered again. 

830013 7/10/1983 Brooks River Bear damage

At 1100 a visitor was on the NE side of Brooks River across from the oxbow island. Ten other people moved to the SW side of the river because a female brown bear with a cub were moving downstream along the NE side, where the visitor remained. When the sow stood up on her hind legs the visitor ran downstream where another bear was present. The visitor then ran into the bushes and the sow did not follow. The visitor however dropped their camera case and upon retrieval it had been damaged from the bear. 

Appendices 261
830014 7/10/1983 Brooks River Bear Damage

At 1540 some visitors went to clean fish in the fish cleaning station, leaving their belongings with some companions. According to the companions a bear just popped out of nowhere even though 1)everyone else in the area had moved onto the bridge and was shouting and stomping on the bridge and 2) the cub was walking up the path, in plain view, while the sow walked in the river a few feet from the bank. When the companions did move away from the bear, they took their own belongings with them but let the packs belonging to the fish cleaners in place. Bear got into those packs. 

830015 7/10/1983 Brooks River Bear Management Action

Two cracker shots were fired to deter bears following two separate incidents (CI #830013 CI#830014) along the Brooks River. After each shot the bears retreated. The second time however, the bears retreated and returned 45 minutes later. This time the ranger shouted and fired a cracker shell. Then a round of birdshot #9 was shot just three feet behind the cub.

830016 7/11/1983 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A light brown yearling brown bear and a light a light brown subadult were on the shore of Naknek Lake, north of NPS housing, threatening each other and fighting. Two firecracker shots were consecutively shot. One ranger shot one and then another followed through. The bears then walked away. 

830017 7/14/1983 Brooks Camp Campground Bear damage

Upon returning from their hike from the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, two hikers discovered that their packs were damaged by a bear. 

830018 7/13/1983 Brooks River Bear Damage

A guide stated that he and 4 clients were fishing. Their lunch and tackle were behind them. A bag containing two six packs of beer was 10 feet away. A bear then appeared and approached the people who retreated into the river. The bear got into seven cans of beer. A witness saw the bear from 100 yards out and called out to give a verbal warning. The guide awknowledged but did not act on it and the witness thougt the guide could have avoided the incident. 

830019 7/10/1983 Brooks Camp, Brooks Lake Visitor Assistance

Some visitors wishing to photograph Brooks Falls were dropped off at an unauthorized location for camping and advised to keep food in their tent. The next day they bushwacked to the river and met a fishermen who told them they were misinformed and the fishermen called the NPS. Park ranger then advised them that Brooks falls was easier to access from Brooks Camp and to move to the campground. Upon arrival at the impromptu camp, they saw a bear being chased away from tent, which had food in it. Two NPS employees then transported the involved persons' belongings to camp. 

830021 7/15/1983 Brooks Camp Theft

A person reported that his pack was stolen from the NPS warehouse between 1000 7/14/83 and 0900 on 7/15/83. Pack was removed from open warehouse. Shirt and jacket also stolen. No suspects. 

262 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
830023 7/19/1983

Brooks R. Gravel Bar below cutbank Bear damage

At aprrox 1430 on 19 July 83 archeologists witnessed a fisherman put his green camouflaged pack down on the gravel bar and moved off onto the grassy island. Then the archeologists saw a bear and cub moving up river. The archeologists called out warning about the bear approaching. The man crossed the river and sat down and watched the bears get into his pack which contained some food. This occurred in a 30-45 min. timespan. When the bear left the man retrieved his belongings. 

830024 7/22/1983 Brooks Lake Bear damage

Employee's NPS- issued VE-24 tent fly was ripped in a couple of places by what is presumed to be a bear. 

830025 7/22/1983 Brooks Camp Campground Bear damage/management Bear obtained food left on a picnic table in camp. 

830026 7/22/1983 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Damage

Campers left their campsite (#7A) from 1030 to 1230 and returned to a damaged tent by bear. 

830027 7/23/1983 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Management Action

A light brown yearling entered the campground from the beach trail and approached site #9. The people at the site yelled and it walked to the lakeshore. As it passed the campground entrance a cracker-shell was shot behind it. The bear fled for 100 yards past the campground and into the woods. 

830028 7/14/1983 Brooks River Outlet

Bear/Human Interaction/Disorderly Conduct

On 14 July 1983 a ranger was on patrol and observed a fisherman/bear interaction. The encounter involved several fishermen, pilots and guides from the Illiamna Lake area. Durning this interaction the bear, several fishermen continued to actively fish and/or failed to remove fish from their lines with a brown bear within 40'-50'. This action seemed to keep the bear in the area in an excited state much longer than the bear would have normally have stayed. This was espicially disconcerting to a group of fishermen who had ceased fishing and had moved as far away from the bear as they could but were halted from moving further due to deeper water which surrounded them. This group requested that they stop fishing and leave the area, requests which were denied. After this courtesy tags (written warnings) were issued. 

830029 7/22/1983

Government Housing Area (Brooks ?) Bear damage

On Friday a ranger was awakened by the sound of a medium sized bear light in color with no tags and a dark colored cub scratching on the cabin. Minor damage was done.

830030 7/27/1983 Brooks Campground Human/Bear interaction

At 1745 a visitor reported that in the morning a brown bear had pulled down a plastic bag suspended from a tree near their campsite. The bag contained a pot only used to boil water (new) and papers. 

830031 7/28/1983 Brooks Campground Human/Wolf Interaction

0915 visitors reported they heard a noise outside their tent and saw a wolf investigating the campground. Campers yelled at it to no avail. Eventually the wolf walked away. The visitor also reported that neighboring campers saw a wolf approach them at 2300 hours at a campfire. The campers yelled to no effect. Eventually it wandered away. 

Appendices 263
830035 8/22/1983 Brooks Camp Campground Bear damage/management

A medium sized brown bear in the company of a smaller bear were seen and heard entering in the northeast corner of the campground. A bear got into a campers pack containing almonds, trail mix, and insect repellent. All trail mix was eaten. Later the bear then took some belongings from another camper and from there tried to get into the food cache. 

830036 8/24/1983 Brooks Camp Bear Management

A sow and her cub which previously caused property damage (case/incident #830035) was again in the campground, last seen walking towards the campground. Two cracker rounds were discharged and both sow and cub fled in a westardly direction. 

830040 8/26/1983 Brooks River Bear Management Action

A medium brown subadult bear was lying on its half-eaten fish, beneath the willow at the west end of Brooks River bridge. At the superintendants request, a slingshot was used to sling several rocks at the bear. On the 7th attempt the bear was hit. It growled as it stood up and laid down in the same location. After that the ranger fired 3 cracker rounds to get the bear to move into the marsh. 

830043 9/11/1983 Brooks Camp Dock Bear damage 

At 1400 hours ranger witnessed an adult sized bear walk onto the spit, proceed to the dock and then drag an Achilles inflatable boat tied to the dock onto the shore. Bear did not respond to several loud yells, but left the area several minutes later without further damage to boat. 

830045 9/22/1983 Brooks Camp Bear damage

A visitor reported a bear breaking into the Trading Post. Damage to door and door framed occurred. No food was inside building. Bear was chased away.

830046 9/20/1983 Brooks Lake Cabins Bear damage

At 1000, rangers received a radio call reporting that a bear had broken into the big cabin at Brooks Lake. The bear pushed opened the door on south side and entered the kitchen. The bear then went into other bedroom and exited through window. Extensive damage was done to cabin. 

830047 9/16/1983 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A compliation of bear management actions between 9/16/83 and 9/30/83. A total of four incidents occurred within this time frame and cracker rounds were utilized. 

830048 9/28/1983 Brooks Camp Bear damage

A bear broke into the main lodge building at Brooks Camp sometime between 0600 and 0745. A considerable amount of food was stored there but no evidence that bear actually entered building. It lifted a 30 gallon barrel of sugar out of the hole and carried it 20 feet and probably ate some sugar. A possibly different bear, a light brown subadult bear with a dark stripe partway down its back was observed eating sugar from barrel. Bear was peppered with birdshot from distance of 18 yards.

830050 9/27/1983 Brooks Lake Cabin Bear damage

Big cabin at Brooks Lake was apparently broken into by a bear again. Bear tried to gain entry through south window and pushed on the plywood covering the window breaking some panes of glass. Six large boxes of food had been left in the attic. The food was removed and taken to King Salmon.

830051 9/29/1983 Brooks Camp Bear damage

Ranger was walking along beach in front of Katmailand, Inc. when he noticed a Klepper kayak was damaged during the night. Hull was chewed through and wooden frame was broken. Kayak placed in storage to prevent further damage. 

830052 10/1/1983 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A compliation of bear incidents in which shot guns were used to disperse bear encounters between10/01/83 and 10/15/83

264 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
830053 10/14/1983 Brooks Camp Bear damage

A bear apparently attempted to break into the shed where garbage was stored. No garbage was present at time. 

830054 10/18/1983 Brooks Lake Bear damage

At 1000 hours the ranger received a call reporting damage to two woodsheds (carpenter shed and maintenance shed). In the carpenter shed the bear had torn off the door from the hinges and gotten into the varnish. In the maintenance shed the bear also tore off the door and had gotten into some hydralic fluid that was stored there. Buildings were resecured and vehicles parked in front of them. 

840002 2/16/1984 Brooks Camp Patrol

Patrol took place on west boundary of Brooks Camp looking for hunting activity. None found. 

840006 5/22/1984 Brooks River Bear Damage

A bear caused some property damage to a shirt and encountered some archeologists and fishermen in the process at the Brooks River Oxbow. 

840007 6/29/1984 Brooks River Visitor Complaint

A visitor complained that an aircraft overlew him at an extremely low altitidue while he was fishing at the mouth of the Brooks River (adjacent to the Brooks Lodge). The person considered themselves endagered by pilot carelessness and apparent disregard for public safety. The visitor also noted that he intended to follow-up this report with formal complaints to the FAA in King, Salmon and Washington, DC. 

840008 6/30/1984 Brooks River Violation notice

A visitor noted that a person was aggressively snagging and killing fish. Upon investigation the person had illegally taken a sport fish and was issued a violation. # P052556 (36CFR2 3a. Fomerly 36CFR2.13; forefitable bond: $100) Upon discussion visitor decided to sign-over traveller's check for $100.

840011 7/7/1984 Brooks Camp Report of missing property

A visitor reported a missing fly rod outside Brooks Camp fish cleaning lodge. A check of the lodge area however located the rod on the rod rack of cabin 25. 

840014 7/25/1984 Brooks River-Bridge Bear damage

A visitor left a vinyl camera bag on the south end of the Brooks River Bridge. The visitor went to the opposite end of the bridge to take a picture and a sow with a cub entered the bridge and investigated the bag. 

840016 7/19/1984 Brooks Camp Bear damage

On the evening of 7/18/84 the resident of the new lodge employees cabin noted that the screen had been torn during the night, probably by a bear. 

840023 8/22/1984 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Management Action

A small dark brown bear was seen on the Dumpling Mountain trail, within the perimeter of Brooks Camp campground. Bear was walking toward center of campground with bystanders backing away and photographing the bear. The people moved away, in response to the rangers request and ranger shot a cracker shell at the bear. 

840025 9/6/1984 Brooks River

Creating a hazardous condition/wildlife disturbance

A pilot flew too close to the river, over the bridge at an altitude of 50 feet. The resulting incident caused a bear to flee to the opposite bank. 

840027 9/12/1984 Brooks River Bridge Bear damage

The superintendent reported that he observed that the door of the Cushman scooter was damaged. When he discovered the damage he noticed a bear was nearby. 

840028 9/17/1984 Brooks Lodge Bear incident (no damage)

A visitor reported seeing two bears feeding at a tipped over trash barrel in the old lodge employee housing area. When ranger investigated no bears were at the scene, but six were visible on the beach. 

Appendices 265
840030 9/19/1984 Brooks Lake Bear damage

Sometime between 2000 and 2330 a bear damaged the log cabin at Brooks Lake. One of the wall logs was chewed or clawed about three-fourths of the way through at its base. Also a bear broke into this cabin eating a substantial amount of food. (CI 830046)

840031 9/20/1984 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A brown bear with two yearlings were found at the north edge of the Brooks Lodge porch. One cracker shell was fired and the bears retreated. 

840032 9/24/1984 Overlook Cabins Bear Management Action

A medium brown sow with two cubs was seen approaching overlook cabins from oxbow. Upon arrival a cracker shell was fired in front of the two cubs. The cubs and mother retreated towards the exhibit house trail. 

840033 9/22/1984 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A compilation of 12 incidents where a shot gun was utilized to deter bears using cracker shots and #9 birdshot between 9/22/84 to 10/9/84.

840113 7/1/1984 Brooks Camp Bear Incident

At 0800 it has been reported that a sow with a yearling cub discovered a fishing vest containing food on the porch of cabin #26 along the overlook between 0530-0600.

850001 2/14/1985 Brooks Camp Patrol Flight

A pair of rangers stopped at Brooks Camp returning from Levelock. A security check of the camp and concession buildings was done. 

850003 5/24/1985 Brooks Camp

Routine Inspection of Fire Extinguisher

A routine inspection of all fire extinguishers in the Brooks Camp and Brooks Lake area was conducted. 

850004 6/13/1985 Brooks River Bear/Human Confrontation

A visitor was fishing in the middle of the Brooks River, about 25 feet from the island that is across from the cutbank. A splash was heard and the fishermen turned around where a bear was 20 feet away. The visitor yelled at the bear and it moved on. Another bear was walking upstream where the 2 bears met and swiped at each other. At this point the fishermen left the area. 

850006 6/18/1985 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Damage

Two visitors were walking along the beach trail when they startled a bear. They yelled and the bear walked towards the campground and then to the forest. Upon their return to their tent they noticed a rip in their tent vestibule. 

850009 7/3/1985 Brooks Camp Bear Incident/Management

A fisherman was fishing, while a bear across the stream was doing the same thing. Once the fisherman caught a fish the bear moved towards the fishermen, where the fisherman jerked the fish, freeing it. By that time, the fish was on the bank where the bear got a hold of it. At this point a ranger shot at the bear in the rump using a cracker shell when the bear retreated. 

850010 7/5/1985 Brooks River Bear Incident

A bear walked past three fishermen and they kept fishing once the bear passed. A fishermen caught a fish and the bear returned. The fishermen snapped the line and they retreated. The bear took the fish and walked past them. 

266 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
850013 7/7/1985 Brooks River Bear/Visitor Interaction

At 1715 hours, a small dark subadult bear with an injured right forepaw was seen lying on the gravel pile on the beach near Brooks Lodge. When the ranger approached, the bear started moving rapidly toward Brooks River where bystanders were present. The ranger then moved visitors and fishermen (about 40 were present) towards the bridge. As they moved towards the bridge the bear was in pursuit within 10 yards. A fishermen directly in the path of the bear was landing a fish and was instructed to cut the line. The fishermen complied. The bear followed them all the way to the bridge and eventually veered off into the river to snag a fish, likely the fish that was cut off the line. Visitors were kept at the far end of the bridge until the bear left. 

850015 7/16/1985 Brooks Campground Bear damage

At 0630 a visitor observed a small to medium sized, medium brown bear chewing on their plastic water container. The visitor clapped her hands and yelled and the bear ran off. 

850016 7/16/1985 Brooks Camp Bear damage/management

A bear approached a few campsites within Brooks Camp and was displaying signs of aggression. One camp (where they were cooking hashbrowns)managed to scare it away. The bear then proceeded to go to another unattended camp where it bit a fuel bottle. Following that the bear entered another camp where salmon was being cooked. Two families managed to scare it away. At this point a ranger arrived and drove the bear to the beach by banging two pans together. Two other rangers then approached the bear along the beach and fired a cracker round. Rubber shot was used at a distance of 16 yards to drive the bear away from the generator and towards the bridge, where turned and growled. A cracker shot was then fired and the bear meandered off. 

850018 7/10/1985

Foot Bridge over Brooks River Bear-Human Interaction 

A party of three people encountered a bear at the foot bridge over Brooks River. They thought that the bears were discouraged to use the bridge and maintained their position, thinking they would be fine. As the bear neared them one of the three retreated to the floats while the others to the opposite side. They did not know to maintain a 50 yard distance from the bears. Rangers informed them that the bears were permitted to use the bridge and informed them about bear safety. 

850019 7/21/1985 Brooks River Bear/Fisherman Interaction 

A group of fishermen were fishing near the Brooks River bridge. A ranger warned the fisherman that a bear was approaching but the fishermen failed to respond. As the bear approached, a rainbow trout was caught and this got the bear's attention. The bear charged the fishermen and eventually the fishermen bit off the line and left the fish on the beach where the bear ate it. 

850020 7/17/1985 Brooks River Bear Incident

A bear incident occurred where visitors had to stop having lunch and fishing and vacate the area along the Brooks River. Eventually the bear retreated and left the area with no harm to anyone. 

Appendices 267
850021 7/22/1985 Brooks River Bear Management Action

A bear followed some fishermen for a little way along the Brooks River bridge before stopping and catching a fish. Rangers continued to observe the bear and eventually it charged them. The rangers retreated into the woods and bear pursued. As a result one of the rangers shot it in the rump with a rubber shot followed by firing a cracker round. The bear fled into the march.

850022 7/7/1985 Brooks Camp Area

Bear Management ActionsJuly 1985

A compliation of bear management actions for the month of July 1985. A total of six incidents occurred where a shotgun was utilized to deter bears with cracker shells, rubber shells and #9 birdshot. 

850023 7/10/1985 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A fisherman was fishing in Naknek Lake off the end of the spit at the mouth of Brooks River. A subadult medium dark brown bear approached and the fisherman yelled and beat the water with the rod. The bear went north to the boat docks where a ranger shot a rubber shot at a distance of 20 yards. The bear fled to the base of the dock, defecated and moved into the woods onto the path. The bear then proceeded toward the Brooks River bridge where the ranger shot a cracker shot which failed to detonate. The bear nevertheless ran into the marsh and out of sight upstream. 

850024 8/3/1985

Brooks Lodge, Katmailand, Inc. 

Investigation of F.A.R. Violation

On 4 August 1985 at 0815 multiple Brooks Lodge employeees contacted the on-duty ranger about a pilot talking about going flying, after having consumed significant quantities of alcohol at a party. 

850026 7/27/1985

Brooks Falls Observation Platform Visitor Services-Wedding

On 27 July at approx 2 pm a river patrol ranger met the people who arrived on three private boats near the Brooks Lodge to attend the wedding of a couple. After the standard talk regarding bear safety and being told to stay on the trail, there were numerous deviations from instructions given. 

850028 8/29/1985 Brooks Lodge

Visitor Illness-Medical Attention required

A person suffered from a heart attack in the Lodge office. A doctor accompanied the patient to King Salmon where they were met by the emergency squad and where the patient was transported to the Camai Clinic in Naknek, AK.

850037 8/26/1985 Brooks River Bear Damage

A bear confiscated a fanny pack from visitors on the river. An hour later another lodge guest retrieved the pack where a camera and lens were missing. 

850039 9/16/1985

Brooks Camp/Brooks Lake Road Bear Damage

Three gas pumps in the parking lot were damaged by bears. A bicycle seat was was demolished as well where it was left on the southside of the Brooks River bridge. 

850040 9/24/1985

Park road between Brooks Lake and Brooks Camp Motor Vehicle Accident. 

A vehicle accident occurred regarding the 1981 Dodge pickup. The driver of the vehicle was going from Brooks Lake to Brooks Camp. A sewage pump was being transported for use in Brooks Camp. After the bridge where there is a sharp a right angle turn, a bear was in the middle of the road. This caused the driver to immediately stop and the sewage pump slid into the rear window.

850041 9/21/1985 Brooks Lake Road Vehicle Accident

Vehicle struck a tree. The passenger noted that the driver was driving at a speed deemed inappropriate due to the width of the road and the fact that it was fully dark. 

850042 10/1/1985 Brooks River Bear damage The canvas door of the Cushman vehicle was damaged. 

268 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
850049 9/13/1985 Brooks Camp Bear Management Actions

A compliation of bear incidents in which a shotgun was used to deter bears. Rounds used were cracker shots and birdshot #9. A total of 28 incidents are described in this report. 

860004 5/8/1986 Brooks Lodge Bear Peppering

On 5/28/86 at approx 1430 maintenance personnel reported that they had chased two bears from the fish cleaning buidling. When the ranger arrived, one bear exited the premises heading upriver. A small blond bear was still in the area. The bear was near the dock and tried multiple times to come through the camp over a timespan of 20 min. The bear was then hazed with rubber shot. 

860005 5/22/1986 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

NPS maintenance staff were working on cleaning out the sewage holding tanks. When the day ended at 16:00, two 55 gallon drums of sewage were left beside the fish cleaning building. At 18:00 a bear was observed by the drums and kept at bay by two people throwing rocks. Rangers were informed and by the time they arrived the bear was out by the bridge. When the facilities manager was contacted regarding the barrels, he explained that they were out at quitting time and no funds were available for overtime. No "food" was obtained by the bear. 

860008 6/20/1986

Brooks Falls Trails and Platform Safety Inspection

A safety inspection of the Brooks Falls Trails and Platform was conducted. A total of four safety problems were addressed. 

860008 

[duplicate 

number] 6/24/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a license

Six visitors and one guide were contacted after they landed a white Beaver. They informed the ranger that they were from Wild Rainbow Outfitters and upon investigation they did not have a commercial use license. The owner was contacted and the owner stated he would not take any additional clients to Brooks Lodge until a permit was issued.

860009 6/26/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a license

At 1015 4 visitors and one guide arrived. The guide informed the ranger that he was from Alaska Dream Fishing Lodge and upon investigation the company did not appear to have a license. A courtesy tag was written. 

860017 7/10/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a license

A guide from Wild Rainbow Outfitters was discovered to be carrying fish in a bag and operating within the park without a license. A courtesy tag was written and a verbal warning about future operations without a license would result in a $250.00 fine. 

860018 7/10/1986 Brooks River mouth Bear-fisherman interaction

A bear approached two fishermen who had fish in their possessionwhile continuing to fish. They were instructed to put the fish in the river by Ranger Ryan but the bear was very close and got the fish they had caught.

860019 7/12/1986 Brooks Lake Bear Damage

A bear damaged two window panes on the carpenter shed as well as a bicycle tire. Also bear damage was done to a concession-owned vehicle. 

860020 7/12/1986

Brooks River mouth (island) Bear Damage

On July 12, 11:30 5 clients from Cry of the Loon were fishing at the mouth of Brooks River. At this time a bear was observed and the crew waded to the south side. The bear then got a hold of a red day pack and rummaged through it for about 30 minutes. 

860021 7/7/1986 Brooks River (bridge area) Bear Fishermen Interaction

At 1015 a bear bluff-charged a fishermen. The fishermen had been out on the large island 100 yards up from the bridge where a warning was shouted about a bear approaching. The bear with two cubs came quickly through the grass and the fishermen ran towards the bridge. 

Appendices 269
860022 7/7/1986 Brooks River Bear Fishermen Interaction

It was reported that a fisherman allowed a bear to get a fish he had just reeled in. At that time the fisherman was reeling in and fighting a fish when a bear was noticed, light brown in color. The bear then crossed the river and secured the fish in shallow water just after the fisherman cut his line. 

860023 7/18/1986 Brooks River near dock Bear damage

On 7/18/86 at 1800 two canoeing persons returned to the north shore of Brooks River near the dock. While returning gear (gone for five minutes) they returned to see a bear investigating and looking through one of the two packs. 

860024 7/21/1986 Mouth of Brooks River Bear Damage

At approx 10:30 on 7/21/86 a light brown subadult bear was moving along the willows that edge the oxbow marsh adjacent to Brooks Lodge, heading downstream. It swam to an island where 8 people were fishing. All of them waded back to shore with their gear except one person left his gear. The bear investigated the gear, and bit the handle off of a spinning rod. The bear then walked off and continued fishing. 

860025 7/21/1986 Brooks River Bear-fisherman interaction

Two fishermen were out fishing when they noticed a bear more than 100 yards away, fishing as well. They both had fish on their lines and the bear noticed this. One was able to snap his line while the other couldn't. The bear was within 15 ft and obtained the fish while they ran away. The bear pursued them for a short distance and stopped. The bear was described as a blond subadult bear without any markings. 

860026 7/21/1986 Brooks River Bear damage

A photographer left his belongings while going upstream to take photos. A medium sized light brown subadult bear was seen rummaging through the equipment and was reported to the rangers. Two rangers showed up clapping their hands and yelling and the bear dropped the camera and retreated. 

860027 7/18/1986

Brooks River/Nankek Mouth Bear-fisherman interaction

At approx 1230 a single bear on the far end of what is locally called the "Spit" was seen chewing and shaking brown plastic fish bags. Another bear joined and a fishermen was seen approaching and yelling at the bears. The ranger advised that he should not do that and they watched the bears continue to rummage through the fisherman's belongings for 45 minutes. The fishermen stated that due to the hot weather they discarded their vests and were approached from a bear behind with no time to grab them before departing the area. 

860028 7/23/1986 Brooks River Illegal Picnicking

At 1330 a group of visitors across from the cutbank of the Brooks River were contacted by Ranger Ryan. The group was eating lunch which is prohibited within 100 yards of Brooks River. The group complied with the request to pack up their lunch.

860029 7/28/1986 Brooks Camp, Brooks Lake Bear damage

At 1400 a report was receied that a bear had tipped over a NPS bicycle and bit into the tire and pulled out an inner tube by the south end of the Brooks River bridge. An hour later it was reported that a bear damaged another NPS bike that was parked by the residences on Brooks Lake. A window on the wash house was broken as well. 

860030 8/2/1986 Brooks Camp Campground Bear incident

At about7:30 am a visitor was in his tent when a bear showed up and grabbed a boot from the rainfly. The bear then chewed on his hip boots near a different site. This time another visitor yelled at the bear. From there the bear entered the shelter and investigated the backpacks. The visitor yelled again and the bear retreated. 

270 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
860031 8/5/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operation w/o Permit

Island Air, Kodiak transported a Fuji TV film crew to Brooks Camp without a NPS commercial use license. Island Air was contacted and requested to secure the proper permit before conducting any subsequent commercial activities in the park. 

860032 8/8/1986 Brooks River Bear damage

At 0900 a visitor reported to staff at the Brooks Ranger Station that a bear was tearing into a pack at the mouth of the Brooks River on the south shore. The bear had gotten a backpack with powdered milk, soup mix, cooking utensils and sleeping bag. Two visitors had decided to leave their food unattended regardless of bear warnings and safety information.

860033 8/4/1986

Brooks River near foot bridge. Bear damage

At 1645 two rangers discovered that the seat had been removed from the Cushman and chewed on by a bear.

860034 8/8/1986 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Management Action

A bear damaged 3 tents in sites #17, #21 and #6. Rangers were informed about the bear. Upon arrival one ranger shouted "ho" and the bear moved to the beach. Ranger Grovert shot the bear with a rubber shot and it retreated. 

860037 7/31/1986 Brooks Camp Shotgun qualification Three NPS employees received shotgun training and qualification. 

860038 8/8/1986 Brooks Camp Shotgun qualification Three NPS employees received shotgun training and qualification. 860039 8/10/1986 Brooks Camp Shotgun qualification Two NPS employees received shotgun training and qualification. 

860040 8/11/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a Permit

At approx 1150 a Cessna 185 with 8 visitors arrived at Brooks Camp. The pilots informed Ryan that they were employed by "Aleknagik Lodge" and the visitors were to fish and sight see. Upon investigation it was found that no commercial use license had been issued by NPS. 

860041 8/12/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a Permit

On 8/12/86 Hal Grovert received word that two guides with clients from Alagnak lodge had arrived at Brooks Camp to go fishing. On August 5, 1986 a courtesy tag had issued to the lodge for conducting commercial operations in KATM without a permit. Violation No. P 052591 was given to the guide to deliver to the owner .

860042 8/9/1986 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

Jope observed a bear in a skiff that was on the shore adjacent to the dock and called in for Grovert who shot the bear in the rear with rubber shot. 

860044 8/12/1986 Trail to Brooks Falls Visitor Injury-Medical Assist. 

On the trail to Brooks Falls a visitor slipped and twisted her ankle. Medical assistance was given and provided by NPS and escorted back to her lodge. 

860045 8/12/1986 Brooks Camp Bear Management

Ranger Paul Hilburn radioed from the oxbow overlook saying he saw a bear on the east end of the Brooks River foot bridge tearing into a pack. Two rangers approached the bear where the bear was eating food from a cardboard box 25 yards away. One ranger shot at it using rubber shot 25 yards away, followed by firing a cracker shell. The bear retreated. The box belonged to an Outdoor Recreation Planner from NPS ARO and an NPS Representativeat FLETC. 

860047 8/20/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial and Private Operations

At approx. 1345 Ranger Glaser contacted 8 visitors that had arrived at Brooks Camp on a Beaver, plane identification number N68073. The pilot informed the ranger that they were from Kokhonak Falls Lodge in Iliamna but that the people with him were all friends and not clients. The ranger informed him that if Kokhonak Falls Lodge brings clients to Katmai National Park in the future they would need to have a CUL.

Appendices 271
860048 8/20/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operation w/o Permit Beluga Air (Homer, Ak) brought 4 clients to Brooks Camp without a CUL. 

860052 8/31/1986 Brooks Camp Hot water heater explosion A hot water heater exploded on a Brooks Lodge employee's cabin on the previous night. 

860053 9/2/1986 Brooks Camp Bear Management

A bear researcher reported that a bear was damaging one of the concession-owned canoes stored adjacent to Brooks River, northwest of the bridge. Ranger Grovert and Jope invesitagated the bear and Grovert fired a rubber shot whereupon the bear retreated. 

860055 9/11/1986 Brooks River Bear Damage

A fishermen reported that a cub of the year chewed on and broke his rod at approximately 12:00. The fisherman was about 500 yards above the Brooks River falls when he was approached by a sow and two cubs. He grabbed his camera and left in a hurry, leaving his fishing rod behind. 

860056 9/17/1986 Brooks Falls

Tampering with government property

A person had reported that someone had placed sandbags at the head of the Brooks Falls fish ladder, closing off the ladder. Two rangers hiked to invesitate. At least 15 sandbags had been placed, in a layer 1 to 2 bags deep, in the water immediately upstream of the eroded bank at the upper end of the fish ladder. 

860061 10/16/1986 Brooks Camp Incinerator Bear damage

Two rangers went out to check on things at Brooks where they discovered that bears had torn the top off of the incinerator and scattered the ashes. One side was ripped open. 

860062 9/28/1986 Brooks River Parking area Bear damage

A tear was observed in the Katmailand gas hose located in the parking area near the north end of the Brooks Lake/Brooks Camp road. No bear was observed in the vicinity upon discovery. 

860063 9/4/1987 Brooks Camp Bear Damage

On 9/4/87 it has been reported that the large "Welcome to Katmai National Park" sign adjacent to the lodge was down, apparently knocked down by a bear. 

860064 9/16/1986 Brooks Camp Area

Bear Management ActionsSeptember 86 A compliation of bear management actions in which a shotgun with various shells were utilized to deter bears. A total of 10 incidents occurred between 9/16/86 to 9/28/86.

P052517 7/4/1986

Nanek Lake near Brooks Campground Fishing Violation

Ranger Casebeer obersved a person who was fishing at the lake shore near the Brooks campground without a license. Two red salmon were in his possession laying beside the campsite. Violation notice #P052517 was given. 

P052518 7/4/1986 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a Permit

Results of investigation: CVB disposition record for the cited case is attached. Refer to CIR 860043. Defendant forfeited $250.00 collateral, dtd 7/22/86. 

870002 5/24/1987 Brooks Camp Firearms training-shotgun Firearms training.870003 5/26/1987 Brooks Camp Fire Inspection/Training

On 5/26/87 a walk through fire inspection/fire safety review of Brooks Camp area was conducted. On 5/29/87 a fire safety training course took place for 15 park employees and four Katmailand employees. 

870007 5/26/1987 Brooks Camp Katmailand Tour Bus

The head mechanic working on the new tour bus stated that the bus was able to be safely utilized for Valley of 10,000 Smokes tour.

870009 6/2/1987 Brooks Camp Fire Safety Inspection On 6/2/87 a seasonal fire safety inspection taken. 870019 6/28/1987 Brooks Camp Bear Management A cracker shell was utilized to scare off a bear in Brooks Camp. 

272 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
870020 6/28/1987

Brooks CampCampground Bear Damage A camper reported a bear gotten into her tent while taking a shower.

870024 8/1/1987 Brooks Camp Commercial Filiming

A group from "Entertainment Tonight" TV program wanted to film at Brooks Camp but were told they couldn't since they did not have a permit. 

870025 7/3/1987 Brooks River Bear Damage

While on patrol Ranger Meehan witnessed a bear rummaging through a bag left on the bank of Brooks River. Four fisherman were fishing 70 yards downstream and one of them stated that bag was his and admitted he had been informed to not leave bags unattended. No food was obtained. 

870026 7/3/1987 Brooks River Bear Damage

A fishing guide approached Ranger Meehan who was on foot patrol. The guide informed the ranger that a bear had gotten into his wet bag that he had left on the bank. No food was contained within the bag. 

870027 6/25/1987 Brooks Lake

Commercial Operations without a License

A pilot who owned a Grumman Widgeon brought in three visitors. The pilot/owner of the plane indicated that he thought he had a commercial use permit if he was associated with a flying service (Manokotak Air). 

870030 7/3/1987

Brooks CampCampground Bear Obtaining Food from Camper An out of bounds camper was cooking food when a bear approached her and got a hold of her food. Ranger Grovert arrived and peppered the bear. 

870031 7/8/1987 Brooks Camp-Lower River Bear Damage

A fisherman left his pack along the Brooks River shore and a bear got a hold of it and damaged the contents. 

870032 7/8/1987 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

Two very small blond subadult bears were in the Brooks Camp developed area, between the trees along the beach between the ranger station and the generator path. They would not move despite yells form multiple people. One rubber shot and a cracker shell were used to disperse the bears. 

870033 7/12/1987 Brooks Camp Bear Management Action

A light brown female brown bear with one cub was behind the fish cleaning building and would not move in spite of yells from multiple people. Multiple rangers cleared the area and Ranger Jope fired three cracker shells. The bears retreated quickly but did not run away. 

870036 7/1/1987 Brooks Camp Visitor Contact

At 1900 two visitors arrived and were told about food storage regulations. At 1930 Ranger Meehan found several unattended bags at the waterfront and those two visitors stated that they were theirs and contained food in them. 

870038 7/14/1987 Brooks River Bear Incident

At 1130 a medium sized blond adult bear followed Ranger Meehan and a group of ten fishermen, one of which was carrying a fish. The bear followed the party for 400 yards until it stopped and approached a fisherman, stopping within 15 feet of him. At 1145 Ranger Grovert arrived and fired one rubber shot and three cracker shells at the bear. 

870040 7/10/1987 Brooks Camp Operating without a CUL

On July 10, 1987 a person arrived at Brooks Camp and informed the ranger that he was planning on bringing a group of two people and himself to stay at Brooks Lodge and would cocntinue to do so in the future. He was informed that he needed a CUL.

870041 7/20/1987 Brooks Camp Bear Incident

At 1200 hours two young boys rented a canoe and went fishing in the oxbow area. At 1500 hours a bear approached them and they were instructed to paddle downriver. 

Appendices 273
870042 7/23/1987 Brooks River Bear Damage

At approx 1415on 7/23/87 two employees of Katmailand, Inc. drove a tractor down to the bridge when they encountered two different bears. They were transporting camera equipment for the "Spirit of Adventure" fliming crew. 

870042 7/23/1987 Brooks River Foot Bridge Bear Damage

At 1415 two employees were driving a tractor, hauling equipment for Katmailand, Inc., hauling video equipment when two bears crossed their paths at the footbridge. They exited the tractor and went to the suburban for safety. Bear 1 investigated the tractor and exited into the marshes. Bear 2 sniffed around and chewed on the tractor seat. 

870045 7/26/1987 Brooks River Above Bridge

Bear Obtaining Fish From Person

A fisherman was fishing just above the bridge over the Brooks River with five other friends. Two or three bears were in the area. Once he snagged a fish a bear approached and was unable to break 10-12 pound leader. Fisherman did not cut his line and the bear got the fish. 

870049-

870050 8/3/1987 Brooks Camp Missing Government Property 2 Spilsbury FY radios, 2 videotapes, 1 survival suit were reported missing

870051 8/13/1987 Brooks Camp

Wildlife Harassment, Creating a hazardous condition

A Peninsula Airways pilot disregarded a request from Jope to allow a bear to pass by on the beach before firing up the plane for takeoff. This scared the bear towards Brooks Camp creating an unsafe situation for visitors. Bear management policy in Katmai allows bears to use the beach as a travel route to and from Brooks River. 

870052 8/17/1987 Brooks Camp Improper Food Storage

King Salmon Lodge left some food unattended and on 3 different occassions were given verbal warnings to have someone look after the food or to secure it on an elevated platform. They neglected to do so. Once the owner of the food was determined and questioned/informed about the situation, a citation was issued. 

870053 8/21/1987 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Damage

Two visitors reported that something damaged their day pack, which was left unattended at site 7 in the campground from 1145 to 1445. 

870055 8/21/1987 Brooks Camp Bear Damage

A visitor reported a bear had rummaged through their tent, damaging it and scattering misc. toiletries that included toothpaste, bar of soap, bottle of shampoo, a tube of Ben Gay and dish soap. All of these items were chewed on with the contents either eaten or drained out of the containers. 

870066 9/12/1987 Brooks Camp

Possible commercial use of film material

A visitor with high quality filiming equipment was observed. Upon questioning, the owner of the equipment stated that it was for personal use only and not for commercial purposes. 

870074 9/10/1987 Brooks Camp

Adversive Conditioning of Bears

A compilation: shotguns with cracker shots were utilized to deter bears from entering Brooks Camp between 8 September to 19 October with a total of 11 incidents. Rangers closed Brooks Camp 21 October 1987.

880001 5/27/1988 Brooks Camp EMS Training EMS training took place at Brooks Camp. 880002 5/19/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-All Others A float plane was observed step taxiing within 50 yards. 880005 5/24/1988 Brooks Camp-Range Firearms Qualification Firearms training and qualification was conducted at Brooks Camp Range.880006 6/12/1988 Brooks Camp-Naknek Lake Permits-All Others

A pilot was observed taxiing a Cessna 206 100 yards off Naknek Beach in front of Brooks Camp.

274 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
880010 6/2/1988

Naknek Lake, In front of Brooks Camp

Instal buoys 200 Yards From Beach 4 buoys were installed at Naknek Lake. 

880011 6/2/1988 Brooks Camp Range Firearms Qualification Firearms training and qualification was conducted at Brooks Camp range.880012 5/25/1988

Naknek Lake, Brooks Camp Boating Safety and Handeling Boating safety training took place at Naknek Lake. 

880015 5/23/1988 Brooks Camp Training

Rangers attended visual training to help accurately judge distances since a many NPS regulation deals with distances. 

880016 5/28/1988 Brooks Lake Aircraft Ramp

Animals & Wildlife-All Other Wildlife Moose with calf were seen and startled by visitor who reported that the calf drowned. 

880018 6/12/1988

Naknek Lake, Brooks Camp Permits-All Others A Cessna Caravan taxied within slow taxi zone. Pilot was receptive when informed. 

880023 6/17/1988

Naknek Lake Beach, Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

A Cessna 206-Katmai Air-flyed over the Brooks Camp residential area at an estimated hight of 350-400 feet. Pilot knew of Aircraft Operations Guidelines.

880026 6/21/1988 Brooks River Permits-All Others

Plane flew at approx 400' in elevation in the 1100' MSL elevation zone. Pilot was very receptive when informed of Aircraft Operations Guidelines. 

880028 6/24/1988 Naknek Lake/Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

Prior to take off, plane step taxied within the 200 yard slow taxi only zone. Contact not made with pilot. 

880030 6/27/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

Beached aircraft between ranger station and Stondall residence. Informed pilot of Aircraft Operations Guidelines and he was given a copy. 

880031 6/27/1988 Naknek Lake/Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

Plane step taxied during landing and take off within the 200 yard slow taxi only zone. Contact not made with pilot. 

880032 6/28/1988 Naknek Lake-Brooks Camp Accidents other-Airplanes

Plane was resting on its nose with tail in the air, floats toward lake and top of the wings and plane were resting against the brush and trees along the lake beach. No injuries. 

880033 6/30/1988 Brooks River-Near Bridge

Wildlife Management-Cracker Bear

A bear persistently followed some fishermen and a ranger from the boat dock to footbridge. A ranger fired a rubber and cracker shot to deter bear. 

880036 7/3/1988

Brooks Camp-Over Brooks River Low Overflight

Aircraft flew at approx 200 feet when it passed over the footbridge. Owner was investigated.

880037 7/3/1988

Naknek Lake, Front of Brooks Lodge Permits-All Others

A pilot was seen to be within 100 yards of sleeping sow and cub. Pilot was asked not to take off but failed to comply. Pilot took off with passengers regardless. Distance from take off to bears was 200 feet. 

880038 7/3/1988

Naknek Lake Beach, Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

A pilot flying a Cessna 206 Katmai Air plane landed on Naknek Lake just outside the markers. The pilot continued to operate aircraft on step taxi well within the 200 yard limit of Naknek Lake beach.

880041 7/5/1988

Brooks River bear viewing platform Bear Incident

A fisherman was approaching the bear viewing platform on the Brooks River with a fish in a plastic bag. Fisherman encountered bear and dropped fish. 

880042 7/6/1988 Brooks River Permits-All Others

A Beaver flew below 1000 feet AGL over Brooks River. Pilot was receptive and given a copy of Aircraft Operations Guideline and said he would follow them in the future. 

880043 7/6/1988 Brooks Camp Permit-All Others

The superintendant witnessed a pilot flying low at 300 feet AGL. The pilot was confronted and stated he would not fly low again. 

Appendices 275
880051 7/8/1988 Naknek Lake-Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

A plane taxied within 100 yards of a bear. Pilot was unknown and no contact was made with Katmai Air. 

880052 7/13/1988 Brooks Falls Bear Incident-Boar Killed Cub

An adult bear with dark haunches, dark stripe on back, beady eyes and scars peppered on the back of its neck, called Conan by bear researchers, attacked and killed a yearling brown bear that was fishing with its mother at the the top of Brooks River Falls. 

880053 7/15/1988 Brooks Camp Aircraft Violation

Aircraft took off west bound directly over Brooks River. Aircraft passed over footbridge at 350'-400'. 

880055 7/11/1988 Naknek Lake-Brooks Camp Permits-All Others

Pilot operated plane within 100 yards of a resting bear on lake beach. Pilot was unaware of bear. 

880056 7/16/1988 Brooks Lodge Injured-First Aid Given Visitor complained of a 3/16" sliver. Sliver was removed. 880057 7/16/1988 Naknek Lake/Brooks River Permits-All others

A Branch River Air Beaver step taxied on Naknek Lake outside of the 200 yard slow taxi zone, preparing for take off. The pilot aborted take off approx. 100-150 yards from shore. The plane exited the river into the lake and completed its take off outside the 200 yard slow taxi zone. No people nor bears were in the river mouth at the time fo the incident. 

880059 7/16/1988

Naknek Lake-Brooks river mouth

Permits-All others/CUL violation

A Cessna 206 taxied within 50 yards of a sleeping bear. The pilot was informed that this was a violation of a CUL. The pilot was working for Fishing Unlimited and cooperated. 

880060 7/16/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-All others

A photographer was utilizing a 16mm camera to film bears. The photographer stated that photography was his hobby and not for commercial purposes. 

880062 7/14/1988 Brooks Camp-Naknek Lake

Vandalism-Government Property

4 white buoys that mark the no set up-taxi zone in front of Brooks Camp washed ashore. Campers were questioned and suspect was male.

880063 7/3/1988 Brooks Camp Bear Incident

A large, dark male bear worked his way up Brooks River from footbridge. Fishermen began backing away, one left fish with line in it. Ranger Rodeheaver found pole and unhooked it. Bear caught it further downstream. Owner contacted and informed on bear safety issues. 

880064 7/20/1988 Brooks Camp-Naknek Lake Taking off too close to beach A Cessna 180 took off under full power from the beach in front of the ranger station. 

880066 7/18/1988 Naknek Lake-Brooks Camp Assistance to Citizens

Waves and winds pushed a plane sideways and washed it up on the beach. Ranger Meehan pushed the plane back ito the water and retied the ropes holding it down. 

880067 7/18/1988 Naknek Lake-Brooks Camp Permits-All others

A bear walked within 30' of a pilot standing on his floats. Ranger Meehan yelled three times instructing him to get in the plane. The pilot claimed not to have heard him. 

880070 7/13/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-All others

A pilot operating a Cessna 206 to transport passengers to Brooks Camp did not have a commercial use license, but was temporarily working for a lodge that did. On a separate but similar issue the same pilot was working for a different lodge. (#880045). 

880073 7/28/1988 Brooks Camp Complex

Operation: Aircraft/Illegal Low Altitude flight

A Cessna 185 was observed picking up clients who were camping at Brooks Camp. The NPS regional office said that Homer Air did not have a CULto operate in Katmai.

276 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
880075 7/27/1988 Brooks Camp

Business, Operating with no Permit

A guide had 14 paying clients for nature study and photography at Brooks Camp. The guide stated that he was employed by and receiving a salary from the American Museum of Natural History and did not have a CUL. In this case, the guid was not a guide but a facilitator and Ranger Hurd decided a CUL was not needed.

880076 8/1/1988 Brooks Camp-Naknek Lake

Permit-Aircraft Operations Violation

A Cessna 180 began to take off under full power approximately 75 yards from the beach in front of the ranger station. The pilot was not contacted after his departure. See Case Incident Record #880064.

880079 8/5/1988 Brooks Camp Range Firearms Qualification Staff conducted firearms training consisting of weapons, safety, care and maintanence. 880087 8/18/1988 Brooks Camp-Naknek Lake

Commercial Operations without a Permit

A Widgeon droped off 4 campers on Naknek Lake beach in front of the campgroud. The pilot stated that he thought that Yute Airlines had a Commercial Use License. No record of a CUL could be found. 

880090 8/26/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-All others

A Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft few at 300' AGL over Brooks Camp campground. The pilot was informed that the commercial use license requires him to fly 1000' AGL over the Brooks Camp/River area. 

880092 9/3/1988 Naknek Lake-Brooks Camp Permits-All others

A Widgeon white with blue stripes, owned by Peninsula Airways, landed in front of Brooks Lodge carrying 3 passengers. The pilot was informed that beaching of amphibious aircraft must be carried out between Brooks Camp and the campground. 

880093 9/6/1988 Brooks Camp Campground Bear Damage

Bear damage occurred to two visitor's camps at camp #7. Items were damaged and no one was present at time of incident. 

880096 9/7/1988 Brooks Camp

Violation of Commercial Use License

Ranger Frasier observed a Katmailand, Inc. plane step taxi within 50 yards of the beach at Brooks Camp. This is in violation of their commercial use license. 

880098 9/9/1988 Brooks Camp Firerange Shotgun sight realignment

Ranger Munsey checked the sights of the Nonvianuk 12 gauge shotgun. Five slugs were used. 

880099 9/3/1988 Brooks Camp Sick and Injured-Assistance

Rangers Hess and Neet responded to a call about a man who was sweating and thrashing about. He was suffering from isulin shock.

880103 9/17/1988 Brooks River Permits-all others

Four individuals were dropped off to fish upper Brooks River and the pilot left. They were then questioned/informed about increased restriction on Brooks River.

880104 9/17/1988 Brooks River Permits-all others

A party of four landed with the pilot from No See Um Lodge and began fishing. When questioned/informed about the Commercial Use Restriction after September 10th and the adverse impacts on bear/human interaction that could result. They awknowledged they knew about this and continued fishing. 

880105 9/18/1988

Brooks River MouthNaknek Lake Permits-all others

A party of three landed, one being an employee of King Salmon Lodge. They were stopped and informed about the increased bear usage on the river and Commercial Use restriction. The King Salmon Lodge employee expressed discontent. 

880106 9/19/1988 Brooks Camp-Nankek Lake Permits-all others

A Helio-Courier landed. A guide and a friend were there to fish and Ranger Halladay explained the restriction on Brooks River commercial use licenses. 

Appendices 277
880107 9/23/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-all others

A guide landed his plane and stated he was going to let his clients fish without a guide. Rangers explained their stance and the park policy regarding fishing restriction on Brooks River. Guide was cooperative and took clients somewhere else to fish. 

880108 9/23/1988 Brooks Camp Permits-all others

A group was questioned and informed about the nature of restriction of Brooks River on guided fishing activities. 

880114 9/24/1988

Brooks Camp paint storage shed Bear Damage

A subadult brown bear got into the paint storage shed and did some damge. Bear was scared off with a cracker shot after attempting to scare it off verbally and with rocks. 

880116 9/28/1988 Brooks Camp Bear Management

A sow with two cubs slowly approached Brooks Camp. Eventually a cracker shell was fired to scare the bears off. 

880117-

880121

9/29/88 to 9/24/88

Brooks Camp, Brooks River

This is a list of visitors who visited the Brooks Camp/River area who went fishing. In one instance a party arrived and photographed the area. 

880122 9/29/1988 Brooks River Permits-all others

A group of four fishermen were approached and questioned by Ranger Hess. Ranger Hess reassured the reluctant fisherman/guide that she was only there to determine the nature of their visit and to give out bear safety information.

880124 9/28/1988 Brooks River Special Patrol-all others

Two fishermen were dropped off at Brooks Camp. Ranger Hess and the fisherman discussed the Brooks River fishing restriction on CULs. That year, it was the Park Service's objective to decrease human impact on Brooks River. The fishermen understood and continued fishing. 

880127 9/18/1988 Brooks River Special Patrol-all others

A note was left explaining that three off-duty employees of King Salmon Lodge were fishing and that the group included no clients. 

880129 10/1/1988 Brooks River Special Patrol-all others This entry is a compliation of various planes/boats used within the Brooks River area.

Ticket no. 

020421 7/6/1988 Brooks River "Oxbow 36 CFR violation

A fisherman was reported to have left fish at a bank without any bags. The person was questioned and informed on fish regulations. The next day (July 6) Ranger Taylor observed him catch a fish, retain a bag and place the fish in the bag in the grass and continue to fish. A violation was given for 36CFR2.10d regarding food storage. The fish and his rod were confiscated. Rod was returned when $50 fine was paid. 

Ticket no. 

020422 7/20/1988 Brooks Camp

Business, Operating with no Permit

A guide working for Questers Tours and Travel guided 21 paying clients into the park for a nature study and photogrpahy. The same guide was warned that a CUL was needed in the previous year and citation #020422 was given to Questers Tours and Travel for violation of 36CFR5.3

Ticket no. 

020448 8/28/1988 Brooks Camp

Preservation of Natural Features

A photographer was told to maintain a distance of at least 50 yards from bears. The photographer was then seen within a distance of 40 yards of bears. Citation #20448 was issued for violation of 36CFRs1.1(a)(2) for intentionally disturbing wildlife. 

890027 7/7/1989 Lodge Cabin #26 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Sow with three yearlings peppered at cabin #26890030 7/7/1989 Brooks Lodge Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow "Old Mom" with three yearlings peppered at lodge. Bears were in the area of the cabins at the oxbow overlook. Squibb decided peppering was an appropriate response. Moved all people inside cabins. No anglers were on the Oxbow.

278 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
890086 10/4/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger Squibb shot cracker rounds at habituated sow, "Old Mom," with 2 yearlings at NPS housing. Bears had been sniffing at the trailer of the Bolens tractor parked between BR-43 and BR-46.

890087 10/5/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear family of sow "Old Mom" and three yearlings were sniffing at garbage room door; they did not withdraw in response to Squibb's yelling; Squibb returned with shotgun and peppered 2 yearlings which were visible on his side of the building.

890088 10/11/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger Squibb fired cracker shells and rubber buckshot at habituated sow "Old Mom" and her 3 yearlings when they were at the smoldering ash pile left from the day's burning of garbage. Bear family was nosing and pawing at the debris.

890089 10/14/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger Squibb fired cracker shells at a lone yearling bear "Hyena" (child of "Old Mom") to drive it out of NPS housing area.

890090 10/14/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger Squibb fired two cracker rounds to chase a sow and offspring off of the scrap wood pile in the leach field behind BR-46. Bears had been tearing at scrap sheets of plywood. Most likely habituated sow "Goatee."

890091 10/15/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger Squibb fired two cracker rounds and one of rubber buckshot at subadult bear "Tanda" to drive it from the scrap wood pile in the leachfield.

890092 10/16/1989 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger Squibb crackered an unknown bear at scrap wood pile in the leach field. Ranger Olson had yelled a bear out of that area about 15 min earlier.

900016 5/25/1990 Brooks Camp Injured-First Aid Given

Visitor was using pullcart to transport luggage and stopped suddenly, injuring his ankle. First aid was given.

900017 5/29/1990 Brooks Camp Training -- All other

Training conducted: (1) Orientation to Alagnak WSR; (2) Information on safety, survival, river crossings and emergency situations; (3) boating safety, maintenance and operation.

900018 6/6/1990 Brooks Camp Range Training -- Protection Firearms training.

900019 6/7/1990 Brooks Camp Range Training -- Protection Firearms training.900022 6/16/1990 Brooks Camp/Naknek Lake Assistance to Citizens

Assistance and overnight accomodations at Brooks Camp were rendered to two fishing guides employed by Freebird Charters due to inoperable engine on boat.

900023 6/16/1990 Brooks Camp/Naknek Lake

Public Use & Recreation -- Firearms

Observed loaded 12 gauge shotgun being transported on board a jet boat. Boat operators (guides) advised of park regulations regarding weapons and directed to unload and remove barrel from gun. Shotgun secured overnight and returned in the morning.

900028 6/9/1990

Brooks Camp, Visitor Contact Center

Public Use & Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, other weapons

Visitor gave Ranger Szweda his Counter Assault for safe keeping during his stay at Brooks Camp upon the Ranger's request.

900029 6/20/1990

Brooks Camp, Visitor Contact Center Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Park staff conducted bear management action after receiving a report of a bear in the garbage container at the visitor contact station in Brooks Camp developed area. A subadult bear was aversively conditioned as it ate the garbage.

Appendices 279
900030 6/20/1990

Brooks Camp, Mouth of Brooks River

Commercial and Private Operations

Pilot/guide dropped off two clients at mouth of Brooks River, informing them a ranger would be along to brief them. Ranger Szweda contacted the two clients and later informed pilot/guide of the park's new policy requiring clients flown to Naknek Lake to stop in at the visitor contact station for bear safety orientation.

900031 6/22/1990

Brooks Camp, Mouth of Brooks River

Commercial and Private Operations

Pilot/guide tied plane at mouth of Brooks River and prepared to guide clients on river without bringing them to the visitor contact station.

900032 6/25/1990 Brooks Camp Sick and injured -- No first aid

Visitor had been treating sinus infection and was concerned his infection may be progressing. Ranger checked vitals and recommended rest and medication.

900033 6/22/1990 Brooks Camp, Overlook

Public Use and Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, Weapons

Visitor briefed on policy for Counter Assault at Brooks Camp, then was seen showing it to a group of fishermen. Ranger then discussed proper use of CA and associated precautions. Visitor was receptive at stated he'd keep it out of sight.

900034 7/2/1990

Lower Brooks River near the floating bridge Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Visitor remained in the vicinity of a bear as the bear approached to a distance less than 50 yards. Ranger completed field interrogation card on visitor and explained the regulations regarding mandatory distances from wildlife.

900035 7/2/1990 Brooks River Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow "Old Mom" obtained fish from fisherman. Fisherman informed of rules and regulations on Brooks River.

900036 7/15/1990 Brooks Camp

Public Use & Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, other weapons Can of Counter Assault was stored for visitor while he visited Brooks Camp.

900038 7/1/1990

Brooks Camp -- Brooks River Injury -- First aid given

Visitor sustained injury while fishing along the Brooks River and was advised to have the injury looked at by medical personnel. 

900039 7/5/1990 Brooks Camp Range

Training -- Protection -- Weapon Qualification Firearms training

900040 7/6/1990

Bear viewing platform at Brooks Falls

Public Use and Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, Weapons

Visitor observed with Counter Assault attached to the outside of his day pack. Ranger advised visitor to keep safety on the bear repellent and to keep the can out of reach in his backpack.

900041 7/8/1990 Brooks Camp, Auditorium Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Park staff conducted bear management action after observing a sow with one yearling in the vicinity of the auditorium in the Brooks Camp developed area. The sow and yearling were aversively conditioned as they climbed and pawed the wall of the auditorium. 

900046 7/14/1990 Brooks Camp

Commercial and Private Operations -- Operating w/o a permit

Guide engaged in business operations without a CUL, was interviewed and informed he needed a CUL to operate in the park.

900047 7/11/1990

Food cache by Visitor Contact Station Injury -- First aid given

Guide sustained injury while placing gear in the cache. Wound was stabilized, guide flew to King Salmon and was to go to the Camai Clinic in Naknek.

900048 7/15/1990 Brooks River near bridge

Public use and recreation -- Picnicking

Four individuals were consuming food within 100 yards of the Brooks River and in the presence of a bear. Ranger issued verbal warning.

280 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
900050 7/12/1990 Brooks Camp

Visitor Complaints -- Federal Government

Visitor complained of many Katmai Park policies, rules and procedures. Visitor had been observed keeping an over limit of fish from the Brooks River and refused to show identification or a fishing license. Visitor wished to speak with people at the top and wanted to appear in front of a judge to dispute his violation notice, #P078538.

900052 7/19/1990

Brooks Camp -- Visitor Contact Station

Public Use and Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, Weapons Visitor gave Counter Assault to Ranger Gape for storage.

900053 7/19/1990 Brooks Falls Trail

Park maintenance needed -- Trails

Brooks Falls Trail was cleared of visual obstruction including low hanging limbs, brush and tall grass.

900054 7/20/1990 Brooks Falls

Public Use and Recreation -- Preservation of Natural Features

Visitor was between bear viewing platform and Brooks Falls while a bear was present on the falls. Ranger issued verbal warning.

900055 7/17/1990

Naknek Beach in front of Contact Station

Commercial and Private Operations -- Business, Operating with no permit Air service was operating a business in the Park without a CUL.

900056 7/27/1990

Cutbank section of Brooks River

Public Use and Recreation -- Fishing

Visitor failed to immediately take a caught fish to the fish cleaning building while bear was present. Ranger issued verbal warning.

900057 7/22/1990 Brooks River AWOL & Military violations

Two military A10 aircraft flew three passes at low altitude over the Brooks River. Chief Ranger to contact King Salmon Base Commander.

900058 7/22/1990

Brooks River near foot bridge

Public Use and Recreation -- Preservation of Natural Features

Visitor remained less than 50 yards from a bear on two occasions. Ranger issued verbal warning.

900059 7/22/1990

Brooks River near footbridge

Public Use and Recreation -- Preservation of Natural Features Visitor remained within 100 yards of a sow with cubs. Ranger issued verbal warning.

900060 7/25/1990 Brooks Camp

Commercial & Private Operations -- Operating w/o permit

Guide engaged in business operations without a CUL, was interviewed and informed he needed a CUL to operate in the park.

900062 7/8/1990 Brooks Camp

Commercial & Private Operations -- Operating w/o permit

Guide engaged in business operations without a CUL, was interviewed and informed he needed a CUL to operate in the park.

900065 7/24/1990

Naknek Lake Beach, Brooks Camp

Commercial & Private Operations -- Operating w/o permit Air service was operating a business in the Park without a CUL.

900067 7/25/1990

South spit in mouth of Brooks River

Public Use and Recreation -- Fishing

Visitor was using salmon eggs while fishing off the spit in the mouth of the Brooks River. Eggs disposed off, violation not issued.

900068 7/27/1990 Lower Brooks River Property (not stolen) -- found

Two containers a photographer left attended along the Brooks River were found, secured and inventoried. Photographer later collected property.

900070 10/15/1990 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Pilot taxied within 50 yards of a sow and yearling.

Appendices 281
900071 7/28/1990

Brooks River below the bridge

Public Use and Recreatioin -- Preservation of Natural Features Visitor remained less than 50 yards from a bear. Ranger issued verbal warning.

900073 7/28/1990 Brooks Camp -- Naknek

Business, Operating with no permit

Guiding business was engaging in business in Katmai without a permit or other written agreement

900074 8/1/1990 Visitor Contact Station

Public Use and Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, Weapons Gun stored for visitor while he stayed in Brooks Campground.

900075 7/29/1990

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake

Commercial and Private Operations

Aircraft operated within Katmai in violation of the Park's "Aircraft Operations" advisory, a condition of the CUL.

900076 8/4/1990

Naknek Lake beach in front of Visitor Contact Station

Commercial and Private Operations -- Operating with no permit

Guide twice beached an amphibious aircraft in front of the Brooks Camp complex using high RPM. 

900078 8/5/1990

Naknek Lake beach between the Visitor Contact Station and Brooks Lodge

Public Use and Recreation -- Preservation of Natural Features Visitors remained less than 50 yards from a bear. Ranger issued verbal warning.

900079 8/8/1990 Brooks Camp

Commercial & Private Operations -- Operating w/o permit Guide was engaging in buiness in Katmai without a permit or other written agreement.

900080 7/26/1990

Underneath Brooks Falls Bear Viewing Platform Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Visitor was underneath the Brooks Falls Bear Viewing Platform within 30 yards of an adult brown bear. Ranger issued a violation notice which was later changed into a written warning by the Chief Ranger.

900081 7/26/1990

Underneath Brooks Falls Bear Viewing Platform Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Visitor was underneath the Brooks Falls Bear Viewing Platform within 30 yards of an adult brown bear. Ranger issued a violation notice which was later changed into a written warning by the Chief Ranger.

900082 8/2/1990 Brooks River

Public Use and Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, Weapons Can of Counter Assault was stored for visitor while he visited Brooks Camp.

900083 8/9/1990 Brooks Camp, Beach

Sick and injured -- Assistance to injured -- No first aid Visitor sustained injury while walking near MarkAir's Caravan. No first aid given.

900084 8/14/1990 Brooks River Bank

Sick and injured -- Assistance to injured -- First aid given

Visitor sustained injury while hiking down the Brooks River Bank, twisted ankle. Stabilized before departure.

900085 8/2/1990

Brooks Camp Ranger Office

Public Use and Recreation -- Firearms, Traps, Weapons Individual checked two firearms into storage.

900087 8/19/1990

Naknek Lake in front of Brooks Lodge

Public Use and RecreationPreservation of Natural Features A visitor approached and remained less than 100 yards from a female bear with young. 

900088 8/18/1990 Brooks River Animals & Wildlife-Bears Bear obtained fish from fisherman. 

282 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
900090 9/2/1990 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Park staff conducted a bear management action after observing a yearling bear in Brooks Camp developed area. A yearling bear was aversively conditioned as it would not respond to human presence at the Brooks Lodge-Ranger Station area. 

900092 9/7/1990 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Park staff conducted a bear management action due to three bears between the Brooks Camp Ranger Station and the visitor contact station. The subadult bears were aversively conditioned as they have repeatedly entered the developed Brooks Camp area. 

900093 8/31/1990 Brooks Camp

Commercial Operations without a Permit

Kay Parker Tour & Travel was engaging in business operations withing Katmai National Park without a Commercial Use License (CUL)

900094 9/10/1990 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Park staff conducted a planned management action in response to reports that subadult bears were regularly trespassing in the area of the concession's warehouse early in the morning. A subadult bear was aversively conditioned from ambush as it walked into the area of the warehouse. 

900099 8/10/1990 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

At 730 pm on August 10 members of the Baumeler Hiking Group were at the Brooks River Bridge 10 yards away from an adult brown bear. Then again, at 900am on August 11, four members of Baumeler Hiking Group were in the woods by the Boat Dock 35 yards away from an adult brown bear.

900100 9/2/1990 Brooks Camp

Firearms, Traps, Other Weapons: Public Use and Recreation A visitor was observed carrying a handgun in Brooks Camp. 

900101 9/6/1990 Brooks Camp

Business, Operating with no Permit

Alaska International tours were operating businesses in the Park without a Commercial Use License. 

Ticket no. 

078540 7/11/1990

Brooks Camp -- Brooks River

Public Use & Recreation -- Fishing Visitor observed taking two fish in one day from the Brooks River. Citation issued.

Ticket no. 

078598 7/12/1990 Brooks River

Public Use & Recreation -- Fishing

Visitor caught and retained more than one fish per day. Ranger issued Violation Notice and returned fish to the Brooks River.

910013 6/25/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

An adult bear was aversively conditioned while digging next to Brooks Lodge equipment 8 m to the north of the lodge maintenance shop. 

910014 7/2/1991

Brooks Camp Footbridge, South Side

Deaths-Natural CauseEvacuation

Park Visitor suffered from a cardiac arrest while at Brooks Camp. CPR was initiated immediately and continued on the air evacuation to the Camai Medical Center, Naknek Alaska. 

910014 7/2/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Ranger Squibb aversively conditioned a family of four bears which had remained in the vicinity of the Oxbow Overlook despite Brooks Lodge staff yelling to drive them out. 

910016 7/6/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

 Squibb aversively conditioned a two bears which had repeatedly tried to enter the campground despite shouting by campers at the direction of the campground hosts. 

910018 7/8/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Ron Squibb aversively conditioned a family of four bears which had bedded down 10 m north of the visitor contact station and did not respond to attempts to move them back to the beach by shouting. 

Appendices 283
910019 7/9/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Squibb aversively conditioned a family of four bears which had remained at the fish cleaning building for several minutes despite activity of several people and a ranger at the lodge store. 

910020 7/11/1991 Brooks Camp (Falls Trails) Wildlife, Bears

On July 11, 1991 at about 12:30pm, NPS Ranger Linda Marr was charged by a bear and injured while walking the trail to Brooks Falls. 

910024 7/19/1991 Brooks Camp Trail

Closed Areas, Entering (Trespassing)

A visitor was observed walking alone towards the falls while closed to persons less than four. 

910026 7/11/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

An area between the Brooks River and the Brooks Lake-Naknek Lake road including the Brooks Falls Viewing Platform and access trail was closed for one-half day because of a bluff charge in which a bear made contact with a woman. Subsequent investigationof bearhuman incidents revealed several recent encounters which were unusual for Brooks River for July. The most serious incidents were surprise encounters involving 1 or 2 people. Therefore, in order to avoid surprise encounters, Superintendent Eliason replaced the closure with a restriction that required people to be in groups of no less than 6 within the area. 

910028 7/25/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Squibb aversively conditioned a subadult bear several minutes after the bear had stolen a fish from an angler. 

910029 7/24/1991 Brooks Camp Injured-First Aid Given

A visitor sustained minor abrasions to her nose after tripping and falling at Brooks Camp. Park personal administrated first aid. 

910030 7/25/1991 Brooks Falls Trail

Closed Area (to groups less than 4)

Three photographers were seen hiking on the Brooks Falls Trail. The trail is closed to parties less than four, because of bear danger. 

910031 7/28/1991 Brooks Lodge Sick & Injured- Assistance to 

A park visitor with a history of heart problems felt sick and was transported from Brooks Camp to Camai Medical Clinic in Naknek. 

910038 7/29/1991 Brooks River Bridge

Sick and Injured-Assistance & Ambulance Transport

A park visitor fell injuring herself on the bridge and was transported from Brooks Camp to Cami Medical Clinic in Naknek. 

910043 7/31/1991 Brooks Camp

Abandoned and Unattended Property

On July 31 and August 1, 1991 a person was involved in four separate instances of leaving gear (backpack) unattended. On two of these occasions a bear investigated his backpack. 

910048 8/14/1991

Brooks River/200 yds above falls

Picnicking (on sand bar on Brooks River)

Guide from Alagnak Lodge was eating a sandwhich on a sand bar in the middle of the Brooks River. 

910049 8/11/1991 Brooks Camp Camping and Food Storage

A cooler containing sack lunches for the Katmailand bus tour was left unattended. A bear opened the cooler and ate some of the contents. 

910050 8/16/1991 Brooks Camp (Iliuk Arm)

Search and/or Rescue (persons rescued, water area)

A canoe with two people on board capsized in rough water in Iliuk Arm. The occupants were rescued, field treated for hypothermia and transported to Camai Medical Clinic. 

910051 8/21/1991 Brooks Camp

Training (Structural Fire Fighting) Fire drill at Brooks Camp. 

910053 8/24/1991 Porch of Brooks Lodge Larceny-Theft under $50

A park visitor reported that the fishing gear that he left on the lodge porch was not there when he returned for it. 

284 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
910060 9/13/1991 Brooks Camp

Abandoned and Unattended Property A canoe owned by Brooks Lodge was left in the dock area at Brooks Camp. 

910061 8/3/1991 South Bank Brooks River

Assistance to Citizens-Found Items

Ranger Kraskouskas found a billfold containing $280 in American Express travelers checks. 

He held onto them and later returned them to their rightful owner. 

910062 9/12/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Ranger Kraskouskas aversively conditioned a bear which had entered the Brooks Camp developed area between BR-47 and BR-38. 

910065 6/8/1991 Brooks Camp Range Training Firearms training.910066 9/17/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A sow with three yearling cubs was aversively conditioned in the Brooks Camp developed area. 

910067 9/18/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A sow with three yearling cubs was aversively conditioned in the Brooks Camp developed area. 

910069 9/19/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears A bear cub entered a boat and damaged three seat cushions. 

910070 9/21/1991 Brooks Camp Parking Area

Damage to Government Property Windshield was smashed out of three wheeled Cushman cart by bear. 

910071 9/20/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A guide of Kulik Lodge was guiding four anglers in the cutbank area of the Brooks River. In a period of 3 hr., the party was observed fishing within 50 yd. of single bears on three occasions and had encounters with a sow with one yearling twice. On the second encounter, the sow aggresively approached the party to within 20 yds. 

910072 9/24/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Ranger Squibb aversively conditioned two bears which had entered the developed area of Brooks Camp. 

910073 9/24/1991 Brooks Camp

Destruction of Government Property: Non-malicious

A four wheeled cushman (tag 6148) had been damaged apparently during the previous evening by bears. 

910076 10/8/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A subadult bear was aversively conditioned in the vicinity of the oxbow overlook twelve minutes after a window was broken on Brooks Lodge cabin #27.

910079 10/13/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Ranger Holmes aversively conditioned a sow (#83) and her yearling that had entered Brooks Camp.

910080 10/14/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

On 10/14/91 bears were aversively conditioned upon being observed within the Brooks Camp developed area on 3 separate occasions. 

Ticket no. 

76305 7/30/1991 South Bank Brooks River Animals & Wildlife-Bears A person remained within 50 yards of a Brown Bear on the South Bank of the Brooks River. 

Ticket no. 

76323 7/12/1991 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A group of three anglers in the middle of a restricted use area which was closed to groups of less than six people. 

920015 6/4/1992 Tuckervilel Residence Area

Unlawful entry-no forceunknown

The manager of Brooks Lodge informed concessions mgmt spec. David Nemeth that there were some items missing from residential cabins in Tuckerville (the concessionaire's residential area.)

920019 6/10/1992 Brooks River Aircraft, Illegal Operation

On 6/10/92 a cream and white Cessna 150 on floats was observed overflying the Brooks River at approx. 300 feet AGL. 

920023 6/18/1992 Brooks Lake Garage Area

Damage to Government Property

While backing up, a Student Conservation Association volunteer caused damaged to a Natinal Park Service vehicle. 

Appendices 285
920024 6/23/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A habituated subadult bear was aversively conidtioned when it loitered in the area of the fish cleaning building after a confrontation with another subadult bear. Subadult bear #175, "Chow Mein," blond upper body not shed out, dark legs and upturned nose. 2nd bear: fairly shed out, shed out patch on forehead. Bony hind end. 

920025 6/23/1992 Brooks River-Oxbow Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A person had a fish stolen by a bear. Circumstantial evidence suggests bear was a subadult , fairly shed out with a skinny rear end. 

920027 7/1/1992 Brooks Falls & Falls Trails

Business, Operating with no Permit

Crestview Lodge did operate in Katmai National Park without a Commercial Use License, and one of it's guides along with the clients did harrass wildlife while in Katmai National Park. 

920028 6/30/1992 Brooks Camp Assitance to Citizens

The skiff operated by two persons broke down returning Lake Camp from Brooks Camp. Nemeth took them and their boat to Lake Camp aboard the park patrol boat Nimrod .

920029 7/1/1992 Brooks Camp-auditorium Animals & Wildlife-Bears Aversive conditioning was applied on four separate occasions involving five different bears. 920030 7/2/1992 Brooks River-South Bank Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A bear obtained a fish that had been left on the south bank of the river by a tourist. An emergency 24 hour closure had resulted. 

920031 7/4/1992

Floating Bridge of Brooks River Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Kraskouskas observed that a bear had become caught between the floating bridge and an anchor line on the floating bridge. Visitors were brought within 3 meters of this bear due to other bear activity in the area. 

920032 7/4/1992 Brooks River-Mouth Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A bear was observed to damage a private aircraft moored in the Brooks River. This bear also shook a Park Service sign and scratched the plexiglass. 

920033 7/3/1992 Brooks Camp

Business, Operating with no Permit

A person working for Alaska Air Guides, engaged in business operations (provided guided sport fishing and associated services) at Brooks Camp without authorization in violation of 36CFR 5.3

920034 7/8/1992 Brooks Camp-auditorium Animals & Wildlife-Bears

NPS personnel aversively conditioned one subadult bear in the Brooks Camp developed area. One of the recently independent cubs of "Petite" (#4). These bears have been a problem in the developed area this year. 

920036 7/8/1992

Brooks Camp-Near Auditorium Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A sow and her one spring cub were aversively conditioned for being within the developed area. 

920037 7/8/1992 Brooks Camp-Fuel Tanks Animals & Wildlife-Bears

NPS personnel aversively conditioned two subadults in the developed area of Brooks Camp. The two bears were recently independent cubs of Petite (#4). They are very habituated and have been in and out of the developed area frequently. 

920039 7/8/1992 Brooks Camp-auditorium

Damage to Government Property-Non malicious

The back door of the auditorium was opened causing the door to contact the movie screen. This caused the screen to rip. 

920040 7/10/1992 South Bank Brooks River Animals & Wildlife-Bears A subadult bear on the south side of the Brooks River. 920045 7/16/1992 Brooks Falls-Trail Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A person encountered two bears in clsoe proximity (less than 5 feet) on the trail from Brooks Falls. 

920046 7/18/1992 Brooks area-Falls Trails Animals & Wildlife-Bears

After a aclose encounter with a bear along the Falls Trail, a bear approached a woman, sat down in front of her and sniffed her. 

286 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
920047 7/19/1992

North side of Brooks River 100 m. e of falls Animals & Wildlife-Bears A bear cub was severely injured, probably fatally, by an adult bear. 

920050 7/21/1992 Brooks Camp-leach field Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A sub adult bear was aversively conditioned near the leach- field and again near the auditorium.

920051 7/26/1992

Brooks River above cut bank Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A large adult bear on the Brooks River was aversively conditioned .The bear had approached three anglers and was sniffing and checking unattended property. Citations were given to fisherman for maintaining distance within 50 yards of a bear. 

920052 7/1/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears A bear ate food that was left in an unattended boat on the Brooks Camp beach. 920053 7/14/1992 Brooks Camp Training-Protection in Service

30 hours of Law Enforcement in-service training was conducted between July 14, 1992 and August 12, 1992 for seasonal ranger Patricia Brown. Other commissioned park rangers attended some of the training courses. The training was approved by Regional Law Enforcement Specialist Shackelton and was conducted uner the direction of katmai Chief Ranger Hurd. 

920054 7/24/1992 Brooks River-Bridge Injured-First Aid Given

A person received a small quantity of spray pain in her face and eyes. Ranger Kraskouskas administered first aid. 

920055 7/25/1992 Brooks Camp-leach field Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A subadult bear was aversively conditioned on three occasions for remaining within the developed area of Brooks Camp. Bear has a shaggy blond coat partially shed out on sides and neck. Bear is one of the newly weaned siblings of bear #4. Either "Dewey" or "Louie" (#179 or #180)

920057 7/21/1992

Brooks Camp beach near ranger station Visitor complaint, concession

Clients of Silverstreak Adventures complained of an unsafe trip from King Salmon to Brooks Camp. Complaint closely resembled a similar one made on 8/16/90 (CIR 900073)

920058 7/21/1992 Brooks Camp Injured-First Aid Given First aid was given to a visitor due to severe pain in right buttock, hip and leg. 

920059 7/28/1992

Brooks Camp-Fish Cleaning Building Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Bear #178 "Huey", a blond subadult bear with distinctive shed out pattern on sides of neck, was aversively conditioned two times in association with direct approaches to people and buildings. 

920060 7/27/1992 Brooks Camp-Beach Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A subadult grizzly bear entered four rental skiffs and after investigating life jackets and seat cushions, did possibly obtain food. Bear #178 "Huey," and bear #179 or #180 "Dewey" or "Louie," two of the three siblings of bear #4 "Petite."

920061 8/1/1992

Brooks CampCampground Animals & Wildlife-Bears A bear damaged a tent in the campground. Bear was most likely a subadult bear. 

920063 8/2/1992 Brooks Camp Beach Assistance to Citizens

A party of recreational boaters made un unplanned overnight stay at Brooks Campground due to high winds. 

920064 8/1/1992

Brooks CampCampground Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A subadult bear was aversively conditioned for entering the campground. Bear was a subadult offspring of bear #4 "Petite" either bear #179 or #180 "Dewey" or 'Louie." The bear is small, shaggy blond, not shed out, with a fairly short conical muzzle. 

920065 8/3/1992

Brooks CampCampground Animals & Wildlife-Bears A bear damaged a tent in the campground. Bear was medium sized subadult, dark, shed out body with blondish fringe on top of head and a light "beard."

920066 8/2/1992 Brooks Lake

Commercial Operation without Permit A professional guide for Baumeler conducted business in Katmai without authorization. 

Appendices 287
920069 8/8/1992

Brooks Camp-Near Campground Animals & Wildlife-Bears

An attempt was made to aversively condition a bear that stole a bag of garbage from a person. Bear "Ripper" was very shed out and dark, with noticeable harness behind it. 

920070 8/8/1992 Brooks Camp-Tuckerville Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A bear was aversively conditioned for being near the developed area. Bear was"Ripper" (#182), small, dark and shed out with light harness still visible. 

920076 8/15/1992 Brooks River Fishing

An Enchanted Lake Lodge guide was fishing without a licence in possession, Violation of 36 CFR 2.3 (a) State code A.S.16.05.330(a)

920078 8/16/1992 Brooks Camp Beach Animals & Wildlife-Bears A park visitor saw three man harrass a brown bear near Brooks Lodge. 920079 8/26/1992 Brooks Camp Lodge Area Larceny-Theft $200 & over

Two daypacks and a fishing vest taken from Brooks Lodge porch. The items were recovered the next day in an open boat belonging to Orin Williams. During inventory of the contents of daybacks one 44 mag. Smith & Wesson was found. The revolver was fully leaded and operable. 

920082 7/22/1992 Brooks Camp-leach field Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A subadult bear was aversively conditioned on two occasions: 22 July at 1215 and at 1600 hours on 22 July. Bear had blond ears and a dark head. 

920083 8/24/1992

Brooks Area-Beach down from Ranger Office Animals & Wildlife-Bears A bear obtained food left unattended in a boat. 

920084 8/26/1992

Brooks Camp and Campground Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Two bears were aversively conditioned on three separate occasions: 26 August, 27 August and 29 August. Details enclosed in report. 

920086 8/31/1992 Brooks Well Lake Site

Assistance to Injured-First Aid Given/Medical Services A man injured his hand while working on well-drilling project. 

920087 9/2/1992 Brooks River Boat Dock

Commercial & Private Operations

A guide of Battle River Wilderness Retreat and his three clients intentionally remained within 50 yards of a brown bear, they left property unattended and improperly stored food (fresh caught salmon).

920088 8/31/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife, Squirrel An unidentified gentlemen complained of being bitten by a squirrel at the campground. 

920089 9/1/1992 Brooks Camp Assistance to Injured

A park visitor fell while walking on the Brooks Falls Trail. The fall resulted in fractures to his right tibia and fibula as well as other associated injuries. He was transported to King Salmon by park personnel. 

920092 9/4/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Three bears were aversively conditioned on two separate occasions for being within the developed area. 

920094 9/1/1992 Brooks Camp Dock Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A bear obtained a fish from an angler. The bear was known as "Old Mom" with three cubs were involved. 

920096 9/13/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Three bears were aversively conditioned on two separate occasions for being within the developed area. Incidents occurred on 13 Sept and 16 Sept. 

920097 9/14/1992 Brooks River Mouth Public Use and Recreation

Three people were observed photographing bears that were closer than 50 yards and intentionally disturbed a brown bear. 

920101 9/12/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A person intentionally remained within 50 yards of a bear in violation of 36CFR 2.2 (as detailed in the Superintendent's Compedium).

920109 9/15/1992 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife-Bears Two bears were aversively conditioned for being in the developed area. 

288 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
920115 9/30/1992 Brooks Lodge-outhouse Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Multiple bears were within the vicinity of the Brooks Lodge outhouse. After getting hit with cracker shells or plastic slugs the bears would retreat and return within the hour in most occasions. Over next two days 7 plastic slugs as well as 29 firecracker rounds at different bears over the next two days were used in order to deter bears. They were digging around the latrine and eventually they toppled the outhouse over. 

920667 8/6/1992

Brooks Camp/near viewing platform

Injured-First Aid Given/Transport

A worker building the new bear viewing platform fell during construction. Minor injuries were sustained. 

Ticket no. 

76243 8/30/1992

Brooks River/Naknek Lake Area Animals & Wildlife-Bears

Violation of 36 CFR 2.2(a)(2) Disturbing Wildlife. A fisherman was flyfishing in water, within 50 yards of a bear (swimming). Citation was given. 

Ticket no. 

76306 7/5/1992 Brooks River Animals & Wildlife-Bears

A person did remain and approach to less than 50 yards from a brown bear. A citation was issued. 

Ticket no. 

76308 7/23/1992 Brooks River-South Bank

Public Use & Recreation (Wildlife Disturbance)

Three persons intentionally disturbed a brown bear at Brooks Camp, while on the Brooks River by intentionally remaining within 50 yards of the bear. 

Ticket no. 

76309 7/23/1992 Brooks Camp Beach

Offense-Public Use & Recreation-Wildlife

A person was photographing an Alaskan brown bear sow with three cubs from a distance of 40 meters in violation of CFR 36 2.2 (a) (2)..."intentionally disturbing wildlife" as clarified in 1992 Superintendent's Compedium for Katmai National Park/Preserve. 

Ticket no. 

76326 8/26/1992 Brooks Camp

Public Use and RecreationFirearms

A person unlawfully possessed a loaded .44 magnum Smith & Wesson handgun. The weapon being carried in a day pack. The owner was cited under 36CFR 2.4(a)(1)(i), Weapons, traps and nets, optional appearance, $200 collateral. 

Ticket no. 

76327 8/26/1992 Brooks Camp

Public Use and RecreationTampering, Possessing Property

A person unlawfully acquired and possessed personal property of another, with knowledge and reason to believe the property was stolen. Person was cited under 36 CFR 2.30 (a)(5), Misappropriation of property and services, optional appearance, $300 collateral. 

930009 4/7/1993 Brooks Camp Beach

Aircraft -- Other Aircraft Incidents

Propeller of Cessna 206, N32PX was damaged when it came into contact with the beach surface of Naknek Lake northeast of Brooks Camp

930020 5/21/1993

Brooks Camp, woodlot near BL-3 Injury/illness

Maintenance worker sustained blow to forehead while working near BL-3. Transported to Camai Clinic.

930024 6/13/1993 Brooks River, Cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained fish from fisherman. 

930025 6/15/1993 Brooks River, Cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Rangers conducted planned management action. Bear had obtained fish from angler (CI# 930024) and other anglers and guides had reported that bears were approaching and following them on the river. Rangers attempted aversive conditioning.

930026 6/22/1993 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Rangers aversively conditioned two blond subadult bears in the developed area.930028 6/21/1993 Brooks Camp Beach Injury -- Illness Visitor complained of irritated eye. First aid given.930029 6/25/1993 Brooks River Bridge Business, Operating Commercial use in park without a valid license930030 6/29/1993 Brooks Camp Beach Injury -- Illness Visitor sustained injury while fishing. First aid given.

930031 6/25/1993 Brooks Camp Beach Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear obtained fish from floats of a plane. Ranger fired plastic slug and two fire cracker rounds. Verbal warning issued to individual who had left a salmon fillet in float overnight without securely locking float.

Appendices 289
930032 6/26/1993 Cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained fish from fisherman. Ranger issued verbal warning.

930034 7/4/1993 Brooks Lodge Office Injury -- Illness Brooks Lodge manager injured small toe. First aid given.930035 6/26/1993 Brooks Camp

Business, Operating with no Permit Commercial use in park without a valid license

930036 7/2/1993 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bears were aversively conditioned on two occasions for being within the developed area.930037 7/5/1993 Brooks Camp Campground Injury / Illness First aid given to an injured visitor.930038 7/4/1993 Brooks Camp Range

Assistance -- Enforcement Agency Firearms training

930043 7/9/1993 Brooks Camp Campground Damage to Property Private Tree fell on tent in campground930044 7/9/1993 Brooks River, Beach Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained food from unattended boat.930045 7/12/1993

Brooks Camp -- Campground Hazards -- Immediate Hazard trees removed from Brooks Camp campground

930046 7/13/1993 Brooks Camp Injury / Illness Visitor suffered from dehydration, advised to rest and consume a lot of water.930047 7/19/1993

Brooks Camp, Campground #17 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Backpack damaged by bear in campground. Startled by owner of pack, dropped it and retreated up a tree. There was no food in pack.

930048 7/18/1993 Brooks Camp

Business -- Operation w/o permit Commercial use in park without a valid license

930049 7/22/1993 Brooks River, Cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Visitor under platform videotaping bears. Complied when asked to return to the platform.

930050 7/22/1993 Brooks River Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow and two cubs obtained fish from anglers. Had been aversively conditioned once before an emergency closure on the Brooks River took affect as a result of the sow's actions.

930052 7/15/1993 Brooks Camp, River Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Fisherman warned after remaining in river while a sow and her two cubs swam within 70 yards.

930053 7/21/1993 Brooks Camp, Oxbow Animals & Wildlife -- Bears A bear obtained a lifevest left unattended in the Oxbow.930054 7/23/1993 Brooks Camp Illness/Injury A person requested EMS attention due to a swollen hand due to an insect bite. 930060 7/6/1993 Oxbow and Marsh Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Subadult bear or bears obtained two fish from an angler and two subsequent planned management actions took place. Three bears were aversively conditioned for approaching anglers. 

930061 7/24/1993 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Subadult bear aversively conditioned for being in a developed area (on Lodge trail towards the visitor center).

930062 7/20/1993 Brooks Camp Beach Rescue -- Water area Park visitor had canoe get away and overturn in Naknek Lake. 930063 7/17/1993 Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear or bears destroyed property in the campground resulting in a closure of sites 14-17.

930064 7/22/1993 Brooks Falls Platform

Business -- Operation in violation of a permit Guide was in violation of CUL for not taking clients for an orientation speech.

290 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
930065 7/24/1993

Brooks Camp -- Beach area Assistance (Visitors)

Three boaters stranded at Brooks Camp due to high winds and rough water on Naknek Lake issued tent and sleeping bags from ranger cache and a campsite in the NPS campground. They were also provided with food and cooking equipment.

930066 7/25/1993 Brooks Camp Range

Assistance -- Enforcement Agency Firearms training

930068 7/6/1993 Brooks River, Cutbank Wildlife protection

Visitors intentionally disturbed the foraging activity of a bear by failure to release a fish as the bear approached them. Warning notices issued

930069 7/29/1993 Brooks River, Upper River Other Fishing Violations

Visitor was fishing in the Brooks River without an Alaska fishing license. Verbal warning issued by ranger.

930070 8/1/1993 Brooks Lodge Injury / Illness

Young visitor sustained laceration to cheek while exiting the registration office. First aid given.

930071 7/29/1993

Brooks River (upper section) Fishing license violation 

Visitor observed fishing in Brooks River without a valid Alaska fishing license. Written warning issued.

930072 8/2/1993 Brooks Camp

Commercial and Private Operation -- Violation Guide operated in Katmai without a CUL. Verbal warning issued.

930073 8/10/1993 Visitor Center Injury / Illness Visitor requested medical assistance for an infected insect bite. 

930075 8/10/1993

BL3 and Brooks Camp Road Motor Vehicle Accident

Right rear corner of bus hit the southeast corner of BL3's roof while trying to avoid a pile of debris at the turn in Brooks Camp Road.

930076 8/8/1993 Naknek Beach

All other -- improper food storage

Party left food items and gear unattended in boat after beaching it at Naknek Lake and proceeding up the Falls Trail. Verbal warning issued.

930077 8/10/1993 Brooks Camp Assistance to Visitors

Visitors contacted staff regarding an inoperable boat. Party given gear and site in campground for the night while they waited for parts.

930078 8/2/1993 Brooks Camp

Commercial and Private Operation -- Violation Guide operated in Katmai without a CUL. Verbal warning issued.

930079 8/6/1993 Brooks Camp Injury / Illness Visitor requested EMS assistance for a rash. First aid given.930080 8/10/1993 Brooks Lodge Injury / Illness Visitor requested EMS assistance for flu symptoms. First aid given.

930081 8/14/1993

Brooks River, middle section below falls Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained fish from angler

930084 8/20/1993 Brooks Camp Aircraft overflights Military aircraft overflew the Brooks River.

930086 8/23/1993 Brooks Camp Injury / Illness

Individual partially avulsed left index finger while using router. Transported to Naknek Clinic and later to Anchorage for surgery. 

930091 9/8/1993 Brooks Camp

Burglary/Breaking and Entering -- Residence

Five tents were burglarized in Brooks Campground. Two juveniles were suspected, but left before the incident was reported.

930092 9/9/1993 Brooks Camp Injury / Illness

Individual injured right knee in bicycle accident on the road near Brooks Camp. First aid given.

930093 9/12/1993 Brooks River

Business -- Operation in violation of a permit Aircraft operated illegaly at Brooks Camp. Verbal and written warning issued.

930094 9/10/1993 Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear ripped visitor's tent.

Appendices 291
930096 8/31/1993 Brooks Camp

Commercial & Private Operation -- Violation Guiding business operated in Katmai without CUL. Verbal and written warnings issued.

930037 9/16/1993

Brooks Camp Lodge Kitchen Injury / Illness Individual accidentally stuck knife into leg while opening a box. First aid given.

930098 9/16/1993 Brooks Camp Campground

Destruction / Damage -- Private Property Bear damaged property in campground.

930099 9/16/1993 Brooks Camp -- Boat dock

Accidents -- Fall into water at dock Visitor walked off boat dock and fell into water. No injury sustained; property damaged.

930101 9/16/1993 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear aversively conditioned after it tried to come into the camp area from the beach in the vicinity of the ranger station. Bear did not respond to repeated hazing attempts and only ran away after four fire crackers were fired in its direction.

930103 9/20/1993 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Two bears aversively conditioned.930109 7/5/1993 Brooks Camp

Wildlife Protection -- Bothering Guide intentionally approached brown bear with two clients. Verbal warning issued.

930110 7/25/1993 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear damaged the resource management boat's vinyl top930112 9/21/1993

Brooks Camp -- Visitor Center Destruction/Damage Bear damaged government property and was aversively conditioned.

930113 9/24/1993

Brooks Camp -- Naknek Lake Beach Assistance to Visitors Ranger assisted watercraft after vessel becomes beached at Brooks Camp in heavy waves.

Ticket no. 

020450 7/13/1993 Brooks Camp Disorderly conduct

Individual conducted self in a disorderly manner, creating and maintaining a hazardous or physically offensive condition. Citation served.

Ticket no. 

076365 7/31/1993 Brooks Falls Trail Traffic violations -- Bicycles

Two individuals used bicycles in a closed area. One received a citation and the other was warned verbally.

940003 4/28/1994 Brooks Camp Illness/Injury

Rangers responded to a call for an immediate flight for a medical emergency. Injured/ill person was transported to Camai Clinic.

940011 6/6/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Campground fire pit was dug up by a young bear. 940012 6/6/1994 Brooks Camp Campground

Commercial and Private Operation -- Violation Guiding business operated in Katmai without CUL. 

940014 6/7/1994 Brooks Camp Injury / Illness Visitor requested medical assistance for removal of stiches.

940016 6/9/1994 Brooks Camp Deaths -- Natural deaths NPS maintenance employee passed away at his park assigned residence.940017 6/9/1994

North side of Brooks River across from the cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Park rangers conducted a sweep of the Oxbow on Brooks river after receiving a report of a moose calf being killed by a bear with two yearling cubs. 

940018 6/13/1994

Brooks Camp (Brooks River) EMS/Injury -- First aid given Visitor sustained injury to ear while fly fishing. First aid given.

940024 6/20/1994 Brooks Camp Fish House Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Sow and yearling aversively conditioned for being within the developed area.

940025 6/28/1994

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Property -- Lost/found Fishing vest found on beach. Later claimed by owner.

292 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
940026 6/19/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Visitor assist

Visitor contacted ranger re: a stolen cook kit from the food locker in Brooks Campground. The cook kit proved to be in the food locker, having been moved to a different cubby hole.

940027 6/30/1994

Brooks Camp, Visitor Center Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear damaged back railing of Visitor Center. Minimal property damage.

940028 6/30/1994 Brooks Camp Injury/illness Visitor requested EMS assistance to remove stitches. 

940030 7/7/1994 Brooks Camp Range

Assistance -- Enforcement Agency Firearms training.

940031 6/28/1994 Brooks Camp leachfield Animals & Wildlife -- Bears A sow and yearling were aversively conditioned for being within the developed area.

940032 7/11/1994

Brooks Camp -- Falls platform Property -- Lost/found A found lens was turned over to its owner.

940033 7/11/1994 Brooks Camp -- Oxbow Injury/illness Fish hook removed from visitor's left hand.

940034 7/8/1994

Brooks Camp, Visitor Center

Other -- Accidental discharge bear spray Bear spray dispensed in visitor center. Verbal warning issued.

940035 7/7/1994 Brooks Camp , the spit Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear chewed and destroyed a pair of waders.940036 7/6/1994 Brooks Camp Fishing violations -- Other

Rainbow trout illegally taken from the Brooks River. It was discarded in the fish cleaning building.

940037 7/8/1994 Brooks Camp -- site #8 Theft from a tent Video camera worth over $2000 stolen from campsite.940038 7/12/1994 Brooks Camp Property -- Lost/found

Two fly vests and a hat found near Visitor Center. Safeguarded and later returned to owners.

940039 7/12/1994

Brooks Lake -- Plane access

Business -- Operating without a permit Plane flew low over the Brooks Camp area. Verbal warning issued.

940040 7/13/1994 Brooks Camp

Business -- Operating without a permit Lodge operated in Katmai without a CUL.

940084 7/16/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Property damage Visitor's tent was damaged by a bear while it was unattended.

940049 7/15/1994

Brooks Camp, Visitors Center Assist to visitors Visitors sought help finding a flight back to King Salmon.

940050 7/17/1994 Brooks Camp Assist to visitors -- EMS First aid given to an injured visitor.940051 7/15/1994 Brooks Camp Operating without a CUL Guide operated in Katmai without a CUL. Verbal warning issued.

940052 6/30/1994 Brooks Camp leachfield Animals & Wildlife -- Bears A sow and yearling were aversively conditioned for being within the developed area.

940053 7/6/1994 Brooks Falls Platform Assistance to visitors

Elderly visitor with diabetes experienced early symptoms of low blood sugar. She was given food and transported to the lodge for lunch. 

940054 7/18/1994 Brooks Camp

Assistance -- Nonenforcement agency CPR class given.

940055 7/5/1994 Brooks Camp

Training -- Protection -- In service Law enforcement training.

Appendices 293
940056 7/14/1994 Brooks Camp, Valley Road

Assistance -- Enforcement Agency Resource management ranger conducted range exercises.

940057 7/15/1994 Brooks Camp Range

Assistance -- Enforcement Agency Firearms training

940058 7/16/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears A yearling was aversively conditioned for entering the campground.

940059 7/19/1994 Brooks Camp Assistance to visitors Visitor received treatment for an injured ankle.

940060 7/20/1994 Brooks River, Cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained fish from angler. 940061 7/23/1994

Brooks Camp, Brooks Lodge Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Large male bear was aversively conditioned for remaining within the developed area.

940062 7/25/1994

Brooks Camp, Bridge Platform Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Angler had fish stolen off his line by a bear. 

940064 7/25/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Injury/illness Sliver removed from visitor's left index finger.

940065 7/1/1994 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Ranger fired cracker rounds at a sow with cubs at the fish house.940066 7/1/1994 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Ranger fired plastic slug and cracker rounds to adversely condition a bear on leach field.940067 7/20/1994

Brooks Camp, Brooks River

Damage to property (nonmalicious) -- Other Government radio became inoperable after the ranger wearing it had to swim away from an approaching bear.

940071 7/24/1994 Brooks Lake Camping violations Visitor was illegally camping two miles along the eastern shore of Brooks Lake

940072 7/16/1994 Brooks Camp Trail Injury/illness

Visitor sustained abrasion on nose and minor cut to palm of right hand after fall on Brooks Camp trail. First aid given.

940073 7/27/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Theft from building Visitor reported a camp stove kit taken from food cache in the campground. 

940074 7/25/1994 Brooks Lodge Injury/illness Visitor fainted and hit head on the floor. First aid given.

940075 7/12/1994 Brooks Camp Operating without a CUL Guide operated in Katmai without a CUL. Verbal warning issued.940088 8/4/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Theft from building Visitor had kayak spray skirt taken from campground.940151 7/29/1994

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Visitors had food taken by bear.

940152 8/1/1994 Brooks Lodge Injury/illness Visitor requested EMS assistance for flu symptoms. First aid given.940153 8/3/1994

Brooks Camp Campground #2 Injury/illness Visitor cut his finger and requested medical assistance. First aid given.

940154 8/4/1994

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake

Commercial Operations -- Without a permit Airline was operating in Katmai without a CUL.

940156 8/5/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Injury/illness Visitor cut his hand with a knife. First aid given.940157 8/10/1994 Brooks Camp, Brooks Lake Operating without a CUL Lodge was operating without a commercial use permit.

294 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
940160 8/11/1994 Brooks Camp, Brooks Lake Operating without a CUL Lodge was operating without a commercial use permit.

940161 8/6/1994 Brooks River, Cutbank Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained fish fron an angler at the cutbank area of Brooks River.940163 8/15/1994

Brooks Camp, Dumpling Trail Backcountry Patrol Backcountry patrol done on Dumpling trail.

940166 8/23/1994

Campground near NW food shelter Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear damaged a tent in the campground.

940167 8/23/1994 Campground -- Site #4 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Subadult female destroyed a tent in the campground.940168 8/25/1994 Brooks Camp Injury/illness Visitor contacted ranger re: eye irritation. First aid given.

940170 8/30/1994

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake

Commercial Use License -- Operating in violatioin of permit

Pilot started plane engine and took off while a bear was approximately 25 yards in front of it.

940171 8/27/1994 Brooks Camp

Business, Operating with no Permit Lodge operated in Katmai without a CUL.

940172 8/31/1994 Brooks Camp Commercial Use -- No permit Lodge operated in Katmai without a CUL.

940173 8/31/1994 Brooks Camp Commercial Use -- No permit Lodge operated in Katmai without a CUL.

940175 9/7/1994 Brooks Camp Commercial Use -- No permit Lodge operated in Katmai without a CUL.940177 9/8/1994 Brooks Camp Injury/illness Visitor injured her knee and requested medical assistance. First aid given.940178 9/9/1994

Brooks Camp, Brooks River Missing person Two anglers were missing from fishing party, promptly found.

940179 9/12/1994 Brooks Camp, Cutbank

Business -- Operating in violation of a permit Guided fishing party picnicked on the river. Verbal and written warnings issued.

940180 9/12/1994 Brooks Camp

Business -- Operating without a permit Guide operated in Katmai without a CUL

940181 9/11/1994 Brooks Camp

Business -- Operating in violation of a permit

Pilot violated terms of CUL. Started engine of plane and began taxiing out from the Brooks Camp beach while bear was approaching along the beach in clear view of the pilot.

940182 8/9/1994 Brooks Camp Damage to Property -- Private

Flash attachment was rendered inoperable after being shipped on a barge in a nonwaterproof box. The deck was soaked due to high waves.

940183 9/19/1994

Brooks Camp -- Oxbow overlook Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow with two cubs-of-the-year was aversively conditioned for being within the developed area.

940184 9/25/1994 Brooks Camp Commercial Use -- No license Commercial use in park without a valid license

940185 10/2/1994 Brooks Camp Campground Property -- Lost/found Found tripod and head, tent fly, stakes, and ground cloth were turned over to its owner.

Appendices 295
940186? 

[duplicate 

number] 10/13/1994 Brooks Camp Visitor assistance Assistance was rendered to an angler who fell in Brooks River.

940186 10/5/1994

Brooks Camp -- near Oxbow Property -- Lost/found Fly box and license were turned over to its owner.

940187 10/1994 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bears were aversively conditioned on six occasions from October 1-14.

Ticket no. 

076227 6/29/1994

Brooks Camp, Beach near campground 

Interfering with agency function

Visitor disobeyed a lawful order, remaining within 100 yards of a sow and cub after being given numerous orders. Violation notice issued.

950105 6/30/1995 Brooks Camp Campground Camping violations

Visitor observed in the Brooks Camp Campground camping without a permit. Citation issued.

950111 7/9/1995

Brooks Campground - Site #6 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear chewed on items left outside the tent at site #6.

950113 7/12/1995 Brooks Falls Trail

Animals & Wildlife -- Bears -- Closure

Falls Trail closed to all travel unless escorted by ranger because of extreme bear activity on and along the trail.

950116 7/19/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Subadult bear that had entered and remained in Brooks Camp was aversively conditioned.

950118 7/18/1995 Brooks Camp Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Rangers responded with shotguns to attempt to aversively condition a small, blond bear that was remaining in Brooks Camp Campground and who closely approached a sleeping camper in his tent.

950124 8/7/1995 Brooks Camp

Business -- Operating without a permit Tour company operated in Katmai without a CUL.

950125 8/14/1995 Brooks Camp

Business -- Operating without a permit Tour company operated in Katmai without a CUL.

950127 8/25/1995 Brooks Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear destroyed tents and other gear in sites 2, 6, and 9. The three tents were the only tents on the south side of the campground. 

950128 8/29/1995

Brooks Campground - Site #6 Bears -- Property damage Bear destroyed a tent in site 6 of the Brooks Campground.

950129 8/31/1995

Brooks Campground - Site #17 Bears -- Property damage

Bear damaged a tent in site 17 of Brooks Campground. Four people were near the site and chased the bear off.

950130 9/1/1995 Brooks Camp

Driving under the influence of alcohol

Two individuals operated and damaged government vehicles while under the influence of alcohol.

950132 9/6/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Ranger aversively conditioned a female adult bear that entered and remained in Brooks Camp.

950134 9/6/1995 Brooks Camp Theft Jacket reported stolen from Brooks Lodge public restroom.

950135 9/8/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Ranger aversively conditioned an adult bear that entered and remained in Brooks Camp.

950136 9/10/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Ranger aversively conditioned an adult bear that entered and remained in Brooks Camp.

950138 9/20/1995 Brooks Lake Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Rangers aversively conditioned bears after bears apparently tore down cache to get to moose meat in Brooks Lake side. 

296 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
950139 9/30/1995 Brooks lake Animals & Wildlife -- Bears 

A sow's cubs got into the floats of two planes that were beached on Brooks Lake. They got food from the floats and were chased off by cracker rounds and by vehicle. 

950140 10/1/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

A sow's cubs entered Brooks Camp and remained on the leachfield, getting into equipment. Chased off by cracker rounds.

950141 10/3/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears 

Ranger aversively conditioned a two year old cub after observing two cubs remaining in Brooks Camp.

950142 10/13/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Two year old cub aversively conditioned after being observed near cabin.950143 10/14/1995 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Two year old cub aversively conditioned after being observed near cabin.950144 1995 Brooks Camp Commercial Use Violations

Over the course of the 1995 season there were 25 incidents of CUL violations: one was issued because a CUL holder did not bring clients in for a bear orientation and two were issued for taxiing 100 yards from bears. In addition, 7 incidents were for not possessing a CUL; not informing people of camping permits (2 incidents); operating w/o CUL (9 incidents); no wake zone (3 incidents); and flying low over Brooks Camp & River (1 incident). 

950146 6/9/1995 Brooks Camp Alleged bald eagle poaching

Record of interview with seasonal ranger describing a conversation he'd overheard the year before, which was he believed to be about the poaching of bald eagles.

960002 7/27/1995 Brooks Camp & Denali NP Illegal photography actions

Unethical and illegal photography activities reported. These activities included wildlife baiting and illegal camping.

960021 9/28/1996 Brooks Camp

Operating without a business permit Guide operated in Katmai without a permit.

960031 6/16/1996

Brooks Camp, Brooks River Unbagged fish left on bank Ranger observed group leave salmon, unbagged, on the river bank.

960032 6/18/1996

Brooks Camp, Brooks River Property found

Ranger found cooler containing beer and soft drinks, left unattended in the trees behind the picnic tables at Brooks Lake. Later claimed by owner.

960033 6/20/1996

Brooks Camp, Brooks River

Operating in violation of permit Ranger observed group leaving bagged salmon stacked on the bank.

960034 6/10/1996 Brooks River Fish stealing by bear Bear obtained fish from angler. 960035 6/24/1996 Brooks River mouth Bears -- Fish stealing Bear obtained fish from angler. 

960036 6/28/1996 Brooks Camp, Beach trail Bears -- Hazing

Sow nursing at least one cub observed 20 feet above the beach trail and 20 yards north of the road between the beach and Ranger Station. Three cracker shells were fired at bears.

960037 6/28/1996

Brooks Camp -- NPS Housing Area Bears -- Hazing Bear observed in leachfield, two cracker shells fired at bear.

960038 7/1/1996

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake beach Bears -- Hazing

Two subadults observed investigating plane floats on the Naknek Lake beach. Three cracker shells fired at bears.

960039 7/2/1996 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Property damage Campers observed bears in the campground licking picnic tables. Property damaged.960040 7/3/1996 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Hazing Bear attempted to enter the campground, three cracker shells fired at bear.

Appendices 297
960052 7/2/1996 Brooks River Bridge Fishing violations 

Report of angler killing and attempting to keep snagged salmon, which was the second for the day. Angler admitted to violations but claimed not to have known of the regulations. Violation citation issued.

960053 7/10/1996 Brooks Campground Bears -- Property damage

Bear observed tearing up tent in Brooks campground site #1. Camper chased bear away from tent. Bear entered site 4 and damaged another tent before leaving the area.

960054 7/18/1996 [Falls Trail] Bears -- Hazing Bear was hazed three times along the Falls Trail with two plastic slugs and pepper spray.

960061 7/23/1996 Brooks Lake housing Bears -- Hazing

Subadult had been periodically passing through the Brooks Lake housing area. Two plastic slugs and two cracker shells fired at bear.

960062 7/25/1996 Brooks Campground Bears -- Property damage Bear damaged tent in site 13.960063 7/25/1996 Brooks Lake Picnic Area Bears -- Hazing

Subadult knocked over garbage can by Brooks Lake and was chased away. It returned later and was shot with three plastic slugs and two cracker shells.

960064 7/27/1996 Brooks Lake leachfield Bears -- Hazing

Subadult had been passing through the Brooks Lake housing area, flipping over septic covers. Hazed with plastic slugs and cracker shells.

960065 7/25/1996

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake beach Contact with pilot

Pilot rudely refused to leave area as bear approached, stating the beach was outside federal jurisdiction.

960066 7/25/1996

Brooks Camp -- Outside Brooks Lodge

Interfering with agency functions -- Grabbed weapon

Ranger was attempting to haze a sow with two cubs (who were pulling gear from a boat) and control a crowd of visitor taking photographs when approached by an individual who proceded to grab and shook the ranger's revolver. Violation notice served.

960068 7/27/1996

Brooks Camp -- Naknek Lake Beach

Violation of commercial permit -- Taxiing too close to bears Pilot taxied within 30 yards of two cubs on Naknek Beach

960069 7/27/1996 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Hazing Two cubs approaching campground were hazed with five fire crackers.

960087 7/30/1996 Brooks Lake Picnic Area

Bears -- Property damage/gets food

Subadult had been frequenting Brooks Lake Housing Area, knocked over garbage can and had been hazed three times. Pulled door off food cache, ate food.

960094 9/3/1996 Naknek Lake Beach Bears -- Hazing

Airhorn and birdbangers used to haze two cubs away from plane floats andan outboard motor.

960095 9/4/1996 Naknek Lake Beach Bears -- Hazing

Bear tech attempted to haze two bears off floats by yelling, firing an airhorn, shooting bird bangers, and throwing sticks.

960096 9/7/1996 Brooks Campground Bears -- Property damage Bear slashed tent fly in campground.

[no number] 7/18/1996 [Brooks Falls Trail] Bears -- Hazing Bear hazed three times along the Falls Trail with two plastic slugs and pepper spray.

[no number] 7/25/1996

Brooks Camp -- Naknek Beach Improper Food Storage

Bear tech found food and gear left unattended in a boat on the beach near the visitor center. Secured food items in cache.

[no number] 7/27/1996 Brooks Camp Bears -- Hazing Ranger hazed bears with five cracker rounds.

[no number] 7/31/1996 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Hazing Ranger hazed bear cubs with pepper spray.

298 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
[no number] 7/31/1996

Brooks Camp -- Brooks Lodge Theft

Visitor rented waders at Brooks Lodge Store and left her Bean boots at the store for safekeeping. The boots were apparently taken from the storage room at the store.

[no number] 9/28/1996

Brooks Camp -- Housing Area, Naknek Lake Bears -- Hazing

Ranger hazed a sow with two cubs away from the maintenance building using cracker rounds.

[no number] 9/28/1996

Brooks Camp -- Housing Area, Naknek Lake Bears -- Hazing Ranger hazed a sow away from the maintenance building using plastic slugs.

[no number] 9/28/1996

Brooks Camp -- Housing Area, Naknek Lake Bears -- Hazing Ranger hazed a sow with two cubs away from the maintenance building using bird bangers.

[no number] 9/28/1996

Brooks Camp -- Campground and outside visitor center Bears -- Property damage

Bear-proof trash can by the Visitor Center was destroyed, the Plexiglass covering on the bulletin board in the campground was broken, and a Coleman fuel can was destroyed.

[no number] 10/1/1996 Brooks Camp -- Leachfield Bears -- Hazing Ranger hazed bear from leachfield, using bird banger.[no number] 10/2/1996

Brooks Camp -- Housing Area Bears -- Hazing

Ranger hazed three bears from the housing area using one plastic slug and one cracker round.

[no number] 10/2/1996

Brooks Camp -- Housing Area Bears -- Hazing Ranger hazed a bear from his residence using screamer round.

[no number] 10/3/1996

Brooks Camp -- Housing Area Bears -- Hazing

Ranger and maintenance supervisor hazed a bear from the leachfield using a plastic slug and a cracker round.

[no number] 10/3/1996

Brooks Camp -- Fish freezing building Bears -- Hazing

Ranger and maintenance supervisor hazed a bear from the sewer by the fish freezing building using two bird bangers.

[no number] 10/3/1996

Brooks Camp -- Developed Area Bears -- Property damage

Bears broke open the doors of the incinerator and pulled off manhole cover by the fish freezing building. Damage had also occurred to the pipes inside.

[no number] 6/9/1997 Brooks River Moose kill in river Emergency closure of Brooks River due to bear taking down moose calf in the area.

[no number] 6/25/1997 Brooks Camp -- Falls Trail Bears -- Human charged Woman charged on Falls Trail by a sow with two yearling cubs.[no number] 6/30/1997

Brooks River below the bridge Bears -- Fish stealing Sow with two cubs obtained a salmon from anglers in the Brooks River.

[no number] 7/6/1997

Brooks Camp -- Brooks River Violation of IBP, hazing bears

Two employees of concessioner attempted to chase bears away from their fishing hole. Verbal warning issued.

[no number] 7/10/1997 Brooks Camp Bear obtaining human food

Sow with two yearlings entered Brooks Camp near the oxbow cabins. They got into packs left on the porch of the Skytel and into a pot of coffee left on the porch of cabin 25.

[no number] 7/13/1997 Brooks Camp, Oxbow area Violation of lawful order

Two unguided fisherman failed to follow a lawful order to stop fishing and move away from bears. The failure resulted in a large boar brown bear obtaining a salmon from the anglers and endangering their safety.

[no number] 7/14/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Housing Area Bears -- Hazing Bear hazed from the Brooks Camp housing area using one bird banger fire cracker. 

[no number] 7/15/1997

Brooks Camp, Lower platform Bears -- Hazing A yearling cub was hazed from the lower platform using Counter Assault.

Appendices 299
[no number] 7/15/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Bears -- Hazing

Two yearling cubs were hazed with bird banger but did not respond. Eventually left the area with their mother.

[no number] 7/16/1997 Brooks Campground Bears -- Property damage Bear damaged a tent in the Brooks Camp Campground site #5.[no number] 7/16/1997 Brooks Camp Bears -- Hazing

Bear hazed from the Brooks Camp housing area using two cracker rounds and a close range beanbag.

[no number] 7/17/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Property damage Tent in the campground was damaged by a bear.[no number] 7/18/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Propety damage Tent in campsite #6 was damaged by a bear.[no number] 7/19/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake beach Bears -- Hazing

Sow with two yearling cubs were hazed from the floats of a plane and from a kayak. Two cracker shells, a short ranger bean round and a long range bean bag round were employed.

[no number] 7/20/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake beach Bears -- Hazing

Sow with two yearling cubs were hazed from a camp that was set up near the beach. Food was obtained by the bears.

[no number] 7/20/1997 Brooks Lodge Bears -- Hazing

Sow with two yearling cubs hazed from fish freezing building with a short range bean bag round.

[no number] 7/20/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Hazing Sow with two yearling cubs hazed from the campground with a short range bean bag.

[no number] 7/20/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Hazing

Sow with spring cub entered the campground and was hazed out by a group of campers making noise.

[no number] 7/21/1997 Brooks Lodge Bears -- Hazing

Sow with two yearling cubs hazed from the park housing area with a long range bean bag round.

[no number] 7/21/1997

Brooks Camp, Housing area Bears -- Hazing Subadult bear hazed out of the housing area with a cracker shell.

[no number] 7/22/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Property damage Sow with two yearling cubs damaged tent in site #5 of the Brooks Campground.[no number] 7/23/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Property damage Bear damaged tent in site 18.[no number] 7/23/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake Beach Bears -- Hazing Two bears were hazed from a boat on Naknek Lake beach, using one bird banger round.

[no number] 7/23/1997 Brooks Camp, Auditorium Bears -- Hazing

Sow with two yearling cubs were hazed from the auditorium area using bird banger and one screamer round.

[no number] 7/26/1997 Brooks Lodge Bears -- Hazing Sow with a spring cub entered lodge area and was hazed out with a cracker shell.

[no number] 7/26/1997 Brooks Camp Bears -- Hazing

Subadult bear hazed from area between auditorium and incinerator using birdbanger round.

[no number] 7/27/1997 Brooks Falls Trail Bear encounter, injury

Visitors were walking down Falls Trail when a bear came running down the trail behind them, brushing up against two people and running over a third. The only injuries were small abrasions. The bear was apparently running from another bear.

[no number] 7/27/1997

Brooks Camp, Visitors Center Bears -- Hazing

Sow with two yearling cubs hazed from the visitors center trash cans with a short range bean bag round.

300 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
[no number] 8/2/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Improper Food Storage

Three individuals docked boat at Naknek Beach and told bear tech. there was no food in it. Later, upon noticing coolers in the boat, ranger investigated and found food and garbage on board. Food and gear removed from boat and stashed in laundry room. Citation issued to one of the individuals who had been found in violation of regulations on previous occasions.

[no number] 8/27/1997 Brooks Camp Campground Bears -- Property Damage Three bears were hazed from the campground after being observed tearing a hole in a tent.[no number] 9/3/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Bears -- Food obtained, hazing

Sow with two yearlings hazed from canoe using a birdbanger round. Bears had pulled life jackets and flotation seats from canoe and had also obtained chewing tobacco.

[no number] 9/10/1997

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Bears -- Hazing Bear hazed from the lodge boats using one bird banger and one screamer round.

[no number] 7/18/1998 Brooks Camp, lodge cabins Bears -- Hazing Sow with yearling cub hazed from lodge cabins using a screamer round.[no number] 7/11/1998 Brooks Lake Picnic Area Bears -- Hazing

Adult bear opened a trash can and obtained human food, bear was hazed several times using cracker rounds and yelling.

[no number] 7/25/1998

Brooks Camp -- Freezer building Bears -- Hazing Sow with single spring cub hazed from fish freezer building using screamer round.

[no number] 7/30/1998

Brooks Camp -- Brooks Lodge Bears -- Hazing Sow with single spring cub hazed from Brooks Lodge cabins using a bird banger.

990007 6/8/1999

Brooks Camp (4.5 km 1000 [sic] Smokes Rd) Shotgun qualification Shotgun training.

990008 6/9/1999 Brooks Camp LE in-service training Law enforcement training.

99[00]11 6/15/1999 Brooks Camp beach Commercial operator -- Assist

Commercial boat was turned sideways/grounded on Brooks Camp Beach. Rangers responded and the boat was eventually pushed off the beach.

990017 6/22/1999

Brooks Camp campground site #6

Animals & Wildlife -- Other [Bears] Bear damaged tent and hiking boot near site #6. Incident was not witnessed.

99[00]21 6/26/1999

Brooks Camp, near cabin #23 Bear Hazing Rangers hazed a subadult bear out of the Brooks Camp development area.

99[00]23 6/29/1999 Brooks Lodge -- Cabin #27 Injury/illness

Visitor required medical care for difficulty breathing and feeling weak. Was transported to Camai Clinic.

99[00]25 6/29/1999 Brooks Camp IBP holder without vouchers Apparent guide and clients arrived at Brooks Camp without vouchers.99[00]26 7/3/1999 Brooks Camp Bridge Bear Hazing Rangers hazed a subadult bear off the bridge near the lower platform.

990029 7/3/1999 Brooks Campground Trail Bear Hazing Bear hazed on the campground trail using a plastic slug fired from a shotgun.

99[00]30 7/4/1999 Brooks Camp Bridge Bear Hazing Ranger hazed subadult bear off the bridge near the lower platform.

990031 7/6/1999

Brooks Campground Site #18 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear entered Brooks Campground site #18 damaging a tent and the gear inside. Incident was unwitnessed.

Appendices 301
99[00]32 7/7/1999

Brooks Camp -- Fish freezing building Bear Hazing Ranger hazed subadult bear near the fish freezing building.

99[00]33 7/9/1999

Brooks Camp -- Sky Tel Cabins Bear Hazing Ranger hazed subadult bear near the Skytel cabins.

990034 7/10/1999 Brooks Campground Trail Bear Hazing Bear was hazed in the leachfield using a plastic slug fired from a shotgun.

990037 7/13/1999 Brooks Campground Bear Hazing

Bear was hazed near the fish building with two plastic slugs and a cracker round fired a shotgun.

990038 7/14/1999 Brooks Campground Trail Bear Hazing Bear was hazed near the fish building with a bird banger fired from a 6mm pistol.

990039 7/13/1999

Brooks River, Cutbank & Oxbow areas Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Two separate groups of six fishermen were chased out of Brooks by a bear.

99[00]40 6/13/1999

Brooks Camp -- Weatherport Damaged property -- Bears Rangers witnessed a subadult bear chewing on the right side of the weatherport.

990041 7/13/1999

Brooks Campground Site #13 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear entered Brooks campground, approached and contacted four tents, causing damage to three tents. Six visitors present in the campground witnessed the incident.

990042 7/13/1999

Brooks Campground site #12 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear entered Brooks campground, approached and contacted four tents, causing damage to three tents. Six visitors present in the campground witnessed the incident.

990043 7/13/1999

Brooks Campground site #13 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear entered Brooks campground, approached and contacted four tents, causing damage to three tents. Six visitors present in the campground witnessed the incident.

990044 7/13/1999

Brooks Camp -- Katmailand employee housing Bear Hazing

Bear hazed near the north end of Katmailand employee housing using a plastic slug fired from a shotgun.

99[00]47 7/16/1999

Brooks Falls -- Platform area Death of spring cub

Spring cub killed by large male bear near the falls platform. Two sows were involved in the incident, one sow had one cub, the other had two (one of those two was the cub killed).

99[00]48 7/17/1999

Brooks Camp -- Fish freezing building Bear hazing Ranger hazed a subadult bear near the fish freezing building.

99[00]49 7/18/1999 Brooks Lake Injury/illness Staff member sustained injury while fishing. First aid given.

990052 7/21/1999

Brooks Camp near Visitor Center Bear Hazing

Two bears were hazed near the visitor center with two cracker rounds and a plastic slug all fired from a shotgun.

990054 7/22/1999 Brooks Camp Bear Hazing Subadult bear was hazed from the center of Brooks Camp with bird banger rounds.

99[00]55 7/10/1999 Brooks Campground Trail Fender bender with Gator

Ranger Aurnou cracked the fender of the maintenance gator against a tree on the campground trail.

990056 7/25/1999

Brooks Camp -- Trail next to Katmailand Office Bear Hazing

Subadult bear was hazed from the path next to the Katmailand office using a bird banger round.

990058 7/27/1999

Brooks Camp -- Lodge path Bear Hazing

Adult bear hazed from near the picnic cache in Brooks Camp with a bird banger cracker round.

302 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
99[00]61 7/30/1999 Brooks Lake Road Motor Vehicle Accident

Individual was driving and hit a tree on the Brooks Lake road. Vehicle sustained major damage to the right front end and was not drivable. It was towed by a Park Service vehicle (which got damaged, see CI# 990070) to a parking lot. Incident was not witnessed by anyone. Violation notice issued to driver for unsafe operation.

99[00]70 7/30/1999

Brooks Camp -- Brooks Lake Road

Damage to Government Property

Maintenance worker damaged GM Kodiak truck while attempting to tow the Brooks Lodge Suburban that struck a tree earlier that evening (see CI# 990061). Investigation into GM damage not started until two days after incident.

99[00]75 8/9/1999 Brooks Camp

Operating in violation of permit

Guide used Brooks Camp Campground to support his commercial operation, camping there while his clients stayed at Brooks Lodge.

990088 8/25/1999

Brooks Camp Campground, site #17 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear entered Brooks Camp Campground site #17 and damaged a tent. The damage event was witnessed.

99[00]89 8/25/1999

Brooks Camp -- NPS & Lodge employee housing area Bear damage to property

Bear got some garbage that was left outside a Brooks Lodge employee's cabin, then attempted to or actually broke into a couple of NPS tent frames and cabin. This incident occurred over a 13-hour period.

99[00]90 8/27/1999

Naknek Lake, Brooks Camp Injury/illness Individual sustained injury to pinky when buoy fell on his hand. First aid given.

990098 9/1/1999

Brooks Lake -- Between BL1 and BL2

Damage to Government Property

Government truck backed into a government cushman. No one was injured and the incident was witnessed.

990100 9/9/1999

Brooks Camp Campground, site #11 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear entered Brooks Camp Campground and damaged the tent and a sleeping bag in site #11.

[20]000004 5/30/2000 Brooks Falls Trail Employee injury

Employee injured back while working on Brooks Falls Trail. First aid given, individual transported to Camai Clinic.

[20]000008 6/3/2000 Brooks Camp Commercial Permit Violation

Concessionaire, Katmailand, arranged for flightseeing trip originating and ending in Brooks Camp through an IBP Operator, Katmai Air, for day visitors.

[20]000012 6/11/2000

Naknek Beach at Brooks Camp Assist

Ranger observed a concessioner boat become beached along the Naknek shoreline in front of the Brooks Camp Visitor Center. No injuries or property damage was reported.

[20]000021 6/16/2000 Brooks Camp

Firearms training and qualification Firearms training.

[20]000022 6/11/2000 Brooks Camp

Violation of business permit stipulations

Guide had clients at Brooks Camp who had not received the official bear orientation speech. Violation citation issued.

[20]000026 6/14/2000 Brooks Camp Commercial Permit Violation

Guide brought four clients to Brooks Camp and did not bring day use vouchers and did not bring the clients to the Visitor Center for orientation. Citation issued.

[20]000027 6/22/2000 Brooks Lake

Aircraft -- Other Aircraft Incidents

Two floatplanes collided while under power on Brooks Lake. Both aircraft were damaged and only minor injuries were sustained. The incident was witnessed.

[20]000028 7/1/2000 Brooks Camp ATV accident

Ranger mistakenly drove the Park Service ATV (Gator) down the campground path, which was not wide enough to accommodate it. Rear fender struck a tree. No injuries.

[20]000031 6/28/2000 Brooks River Fishing violation -- Over limit Visitor contacted and cited for possession of fish over the legal limit.

Appendices 303
[20]000032 6/25/2000

Brooks Campground, site #18 Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear damaged tent in site 18 of the Brooks Camp campground.

[20]000033 6/23/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Sow charged individual twice after her cub ran past.[20]000034 6/26/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear slept by bridge >45 minutes, cracker shell used to chase bear off so the bridge could be crossed.

[20]000035 6/30/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Subadult bear hazed with cracker round.

[20]000036 6/23/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained from angler.[20]000037 6/26/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

NPS employees posed as anglers because subadult had gotten fish from anglers earlier in the week. Bear approached within 20 feet and was hazed with two screamers and bean bag.

[20]000038 6/22/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear obtained fish from angler. [20]000039 7/1/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bears hazed with cracker round. [20]000040 6/25/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear hazed with cracker round.

[20]000041 6/25/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear hazed with cracker round.[20]000042 6/24/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear seen near Visitor Center, no response to yelling. Hazed with cracker round. 

[20]000043 6/23/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bears hazed with cracker round.[20]000044 6/30/2000

Brooks Camp, Naknek Beach Injury/illness

Visitor sustained chipped tooth and bloody lip after running into the tail of floatplane upon exiting. First aid given.

[20]000045 7/2/2000 Brooks Campground Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear on beach where fisherman had been present was hazed.[20]000046 7/2/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear hazed with yelling and firing of an empty cap.[20]000047 7/2/2000 Brooks Camp, fish building Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear hazed with cracker round. [20]000051 7/4/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear came into camp several times, not responding much to yelling. Bear hazed with bean bag.

[20]000052 7/4/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Small bear repeatedly came into camp between visitors center and ranger station. Ranger hazed bear with a 6mm bird banger.

[20]000053 7/5/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear airhorned twice, then hazed with bird banger.[20]000054 7/4/2000 Brooks Camp, fish freezer Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Two subadult bears did not respond to yelling, hazed with screamer and still stayed for a period of time before moving back toward beach/point.

[20]000055 7/5/2000

Brooks Camp, Naknek Lake Search, overdue aircraft

Overdue aircraft reported. Aircraft was at Brooks Camp and all aboard were safe, had been delayed by inclement weather.

[20]000057 7/7/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear was in NPS housing area, moved to leachfield after it was yelled at. Bear then hazed with 6mm cracker round.

[20]000058 7/6/2000 Brooks River, Cutbank ARPA

Two bones appearing to be human in nature were found in the cutbank area of the Brooks River. Most likely misplaced during "last year's" incident. Council of Katmai Descendents to be notified.

304 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
[20]000059 7/11/2000 Brooks River, Oxbow bend

Aircraft violation -- violation of wakeless area

Pilot landed plane within the wakeless zone of Naknek beach on Naknek Lake in front of Brooks Camp. Landing was observed and reported as a hazard and unsafe condition by many visitors within the immediate area. 

[20]000061 7/10/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow with two spring cubs were on beach for an extended period of time. Barely responded to airhorn. Hazed with cracker round.

[20]000062 7/12/2000

Brooks Camp, corner/lower platform Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Numerous bears around bridge fishing for an extended period. To move bears so visitors could reach platform, bears hazed with cracker round.

[20]000064 7/11/2000 Brooks River, Oxbow bend Fishing violation

Visitor issued citation for violations of Alaska state fishing regulations. Possession of bag limit within closed waters.

[20]000065 7/13/2000

Brooks Camp, Cornerbridge Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bears were blocking visitor movement through corner. Did not move much in response to air horn, so cracker round was fired.

[20]000066 7/13/2000 Brooks Camp, Falls Trail Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Bear curiously approached goup. Bird banger shot was fired as a result. [20]000067 7/13/2000 Brooks Camp, Falls Trail Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Bear was asleep near Falls Trail preventing group from navigating. Bear woken up with bird banger and ran away. 

[20]000070 7/14/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow was found lying at corner of Brooks Camp. Bear was hazed and was discovered to have cubs in nearby tree. This might have explained why bear did not retreat earlier. 

[20]000071 7/15/2000

Brooks Camp-Fish Cleaning Building Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow with three yearlings settled down next to the trail. After thirty minutes of inactivity rangers and a guide successfully hazed bear to move by yelling and using air horns.

[20]000072 7/17/2000

Brooks Camp-Between ranger station and auditorium Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Two subadult bears found entering camp. Unsuccessful hazing from yelling and airhorn to drive bear out. Bird banger shots utilized. 

[20]000073 7/18/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife -- Bears

Sow with two cubs was sleeping at corner preventing bus to cross bridge. Unsuccessful hazing occurred using yelling, air horn, cracker shot, and a screamer siren. 

[20]000076 7/18/2000 Brooks Camp

Firearms training and qualification Ranger Alan Frazier conducted shotgun training and qualifications for park personnel.

[20]000077 7/17/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

A sow with three cubs was chased by yelling from leachfield and settled into grass. Since prior hazing took place a bird banger was shot. 

[20]000078 7/17/2000

Brooks Camp-Path by fish freezer building Animals & Wildlife--Bears

Subadult bear was near fish building and went to beach. Upon return to the same area a screamer shot was fired and bear retreated to beach. 

[20]000079 7/19/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

A sow with three cubs was observed near the bridge for a timespan of one hour. 2 cracker shells and 2 screamer shells were utilized to haze bears. 

[20]000081 7/20/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

A sow with 3 cubs were sleeping at the "corner." Cubs were in tree. Sow was hazed and eventually called cubs down. Eventually they left. Time span took over 2 hours. 

[20]000083 7/21/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

Sow with three cubs moved into corner area. The cubs entered a tree while the sow moved in and out of area. Multiple shots were used to attempt to deter bears used but not worked. Sow eventually called cubs down. Fence erected around cubs favorite tree as result. 

[20]000084 7/23/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

Two bears were playing/wrestling along beach along the generator trail. Upon meeting bears a screamer siren was shot, successfully detering bears. 

Appendices 305
[20]000085 7/24/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

A bear entered camp. Unsuccessful hazing of yelling , air horning and screamer siren. Numerous people in camp encountered bear and eventually chased out. 

[20]000092 7/26/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

Bear entered camp with a fish. Bear was being hazed/chased with airhorn and yelling. Once camp was clear a bird banger was utilized and bear ran off. 

[20]000093 7/22/2000 Brooks Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

Two subadult bears pulled lids off sewer access in the leach- field and were playing in the pits. Rangers approached and fired 1 screamer shot with a 6mm and bears withdrew quietly. 

[20]000094 8/22/2000 Brooks River-Oxbow Animals & Wildlife--Bears

Bear approached fisherwoman. Fisherwoman allowed bear to catch fish from her line. Once fish was caught, fisherwoman photographed bear. 

[20]000130 8/29/2000

Brooks River-Big River Field Camp Animals & Wildlife--Bears

A bear was found on top of a tent with some sows nearby. A siren and cracker shots used to haze bears and they exited slowly. 3 rubber bullets sped up the process and remained watcing form 100-150 yards. 

[20]000132 9/18/2000 Brooks River (Spit)

Resource Management-BearsProperty Damage

Brown bear family 209 (Sow with two yearling cubs) was observed in a boat parked along the shore line of Brooks river in the vicinity of "the spit". Two life jackets were reported damaged. 

[20]000134 9/17/2000

Brooks CampSkytel/Auditorium Animals & Wildlife--Bears Bear trespass behind auditorium. Successful hazing took place using a screamer siren. 

[20]000136 9/19/2000

Brooks Camp and Brooks River ARPA Patrol

On September 19, 2000 Pavia Wald patrolled Brooks Camp and the Brooks River corridor to examine known historical and cultural resources. 

[20]000137 8/??/2000

Brooks Camp-Cultural Exhibit Vandalism In August, the cultural exhibit at Brooks Camp was vadalized. 

[20]000152 9/24/2000

Brooks Camp-Lower Platform Animals & Wildlife--Bears

313's two 2.5 year olds apporached lower platfrom gate closest to the bridge. Bears chewed on railings and gate for about 20 minutes, splintering wood. Sow looked aggravated but did not particiapte in chewing. Situation was over by the time bear tech responded. 

[20]000153 9/24/2000 Brooks Camp Spit Animals & Wildlife -- Bears Unidentified bear destroyed NPS float.[20]000155 9/21/2000 Brooks Camp Firecrackers

Firecrackers fired in and around Brooks Camp. No evidence was found and no suspects confirmed.

[20]000163 9/4/2000

Naknek beach, west of ranger station access Gator accident

Individual was driving Gator on beach and hit a log which tore off the passenger side rear fender

[20]000164 9/19/2000 Brooks Lake housing Reported gunshots

Ranger and other Brooks Camp residents heard an apparent gunshot from the direction of the Brooks River or Brooks Lake area. Resulting investigation found that bear management round were fired by a Park Service employee. No citations issued.

[20]010007 8/3/2001 Brooks Camp housing Structural fire system start-up Brooks Camp fire hose boxes reviewed.[20]010013 5/22/2001 Brooks Lodge Injury/illness Visitor complained of headache, possibly caffeine induced. First aid given.[20]010014 6/5/2001 Brooks Camp Injury/illness Visitor complained of dizziness. First aid given.

[20]010020 6/12/2001

Brooks -- Generator Building/Utility building Hazardous Fuel Spill

Park employee discovered fuel spill while performing routine check of the Brooks Camp generator/utility building. Hazardous response plan implemented.

306 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
[20]010024 6/6/2001

Brooks Camp to Mt. La Gorce

Overdue party/search (land and water)

Two Brooks Lodge employees reported overdue from kayaking and hiking trip. The park plane located them in a safe area and they returned the next day.

[20]010025 6/20/2001

Brooks Housing/Leach field Bear management action

Rangers performed bear management activities in order to move a sow with three cubs from the developed area of Brooks Camp.

[20]010038 6/28/2001 Brooks Camp Bridge

Visitor management conflict/disorderly

Bear biologist asked a visitor to move to the platform because of bears in the area, visitor refused and verbally abused biologist. No citation issued.

[20]010041 6/30/2001 Brooks Camp Lodge area Bear management

Subadult bear trying to catch ground squirrel trespassed in campground. Bear hazed with yelling and clapping, no response. No response to airhorn. Cracker round caused retreat.

[20]010048 7/3/2001 Brooks River/Naknek Lake

Helicopter in prohibited ara/disturbing wildlife

Helicopter landed at foot of lower platform along the Brooks River. Pilot stated he landed because of low cloud cover and felt it was unsafe to fly. 

[20]010049 7/1/2001 Brooks Camp Campground Theft of personal property

Visitor reported theft of his film from a green duffel he had stored in the gear shed. Stolen film not recovered.

[20]010050 7/4/2001 Brooks Camp Campground Theft of personal property Visitor reported theft of his chest waders from gear shed. Stolen property not recovered[20]010051 7/6/2001 Brooks Camp Bear management

Four subadult bears trespassed through camp between auditorium and ranger station. Yelling, clapping, and airhorn only drove one of them away. Remaining bears hazed with cracker round.

[20]010052 7/8/2001

Brooks Campground/Beach Naknek Lake Property damage/bear

Visitor surprised by a bear from behind and was unable to retain gear. Bear inspected pack and caused minor damage. No injuries reported, bear did not get any food.

[20]010054 7/8/2001 Naknek Beach Injury/illness Visitor struck head on tail of plane. First aid given.[20]010058 7/13/2001 Naknek Beach [Flight near bears] Pilot observed landing plane and restarting engine within 50 yards of sow and three cubs.[20]010059 7/15/2001

Brooks Camp, Fish freezer building Bear management

Sow and three cubs were in vicinity of the fish freezer building. Cubs made several attempts to enter the developed area near the lodge. Two bird banger rounds fired in direction of sow and cubs.

[20]010064 7/16/2001

Brooks, outside wall of Lodge Office Stolen property

Two fishing rods with reels went missing from the back wall of the Brooks Lodge office. Stolen gear not recovered.

[20]010065 7/12/2001

Brooks, outside wall of Lodge Lounge and Dining area Stolen property

Brooks Lodge employee, having heard rods were reported stolen from lodge, reported that he had noticed his fishing rod and reel missing from the wall of the rod holder area immediately behind the lodge bar. Stolen gear not recovered.

[20]010070 7/29/2001

Naknek Beach 200 yds from campground Bear Management Action

Rangers performed bear management actions in order to stop a brown bear sow with three cubs from continuing to damage personal property along the beach of Naknek Lake in the vicinity of Brooks Camp. Plastic bullet shot at and struck the sow in the right rear rump. Bears left without incident.

[20]010074 8/1/2001 Brooks River Fishing license violation Visitor fished in Brooks River without fishing license. Citation issued.[20]010078 8/4/2001 Brooks Camp Bridge

Wildlife viewing -- closer than 50 yards

Visitor was instructed to move away from bridge as bear approached and did not do so. Citation issued.

Appendices 307
[20]010079 7/28/2001 BL-3 Tresspass

Concessionaire pilot/guide entered park housing unit BL3 uninvited early in the morning and proceeded to yell and harrass government employees until told to leave.

[20]010081 9/9/2001

Brooks Camp, Fish freezer building Bear management

Sow and three cubs hazed with two cracker rounds, one screamer round, yelling, and an airhorn.

[20]010085 7/17/2001 Brooks Camp Bear management action

Subadult brown bear observed travelling through Brooks Camp near ranger station. Cracker shell was used to move bear from within the housing area.

[20]010101 9/16/2001

Between Skytel and Oxbow Bear management action

Rangers performed bear management activities in order to move a sow with three cubs from the developed area of Brooks Camp. Bear hazed with several pyrotechnic rounds fired, along with yelling and airhorning. 

[20]010104 9/22/2001

Spit on sound side of the mouth of Brooks River Bear management Cubs of sow 236 got into the landing craft and caused damage to boat cushions.

[20]010107 9/16/2001 Brooks River Too close to bear -- 10 ft Guide issued citation for being to close to a bear (about 10 feet). Citation issued.[20]010109 9/25/2001 Brooks Camp Beach Food storage violation

Concessionaire plane on Brooks Camp beach was left with door fastened open and food inside. Citation issued.

[20]010110 9/26/2001 BL-3 Injury/illness

Visitor sustained laceration to wrist after banging his hand on a window to scare a bear away and putting his hand through the window.

[20]010112 9/28/2001 BL2 cabin Bear management

Sow and two cubs were hazed at BL2 with bean bag rounds, bird bangers, and yelling. This was a planned management action as one of the cubs had been charging NPS personnel.

[20]010113 9/29/2001 Brooks Lodge Bear management

Blond cub hazed beside the Brooks Lodge with BD-100, yelling and a bird banger. This was a planned bear management action as the blond cub had been charging NPS personnel.

[20]010114 9/27/2001 Brooks River

Wildlife viewing/Catch and release -- Rainbow trout

Wildlife biologist reported fishing and bear viewing violations occuring on the Brooks River in the area of the Cutbank. Biologist had taken video of incident. After review of video, violation notices were issued.

308 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006
 Works Cited 309

Work Cited

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(Copies of all government documents are located in the KATM Archives, at the Alaska Regional 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1918. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1924. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1929. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1932. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1933. Washington: United States Government 

 Printing Offi ce, 1934.

_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1934. Washington: United States Government 

 Printing Offi ce, 1935. 
310 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1935. Washington: United States Government 

 Printing Offi ce, 1936), 24; 

_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1936. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1937. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1938. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1939. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1941. Washington: United States Government 

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_____. Th e Canneries, Cabins and Caches of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Washington D.C.: U.S. 

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Archeological Data Recovery Project in Katmai National Park. University of Oregon 

Anthropological Papers No. 64. Eugene: University of Oregon, 2005.

Burger, Carl, James Lundeen, and Anders Danielson. “Biological and Hydrological 

Evaluations of the Fish Ladder at Brooks River Falls, Alaska,” US Fish and Wildlife 

Service, June 1, 1985.

Cahalane, Victor H. “A Biological Survey of Katmai National Monument.” Smithsonian 

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Clemens, Janet and Frank Norris. Building in an Ashen Land: Historic Resource Study of Katmai 

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Cochrane, Tim. “Consultation Trip to Brooks Camp,” May 18-20, 1995.
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Dean, Frederick C. “Brown Bear-Human Interrelationship Study.” NPS PO 126-301. National 

Park Service, 1968.

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Implications to Management of the Brooks River Area, Katmai National Park and 

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Technical Report NPS/KATM/99-004, 1999.

Dumond, Don E. A Naknek Chronicle: Ten Th ousand Years in a Land of Lakes and Rivers and 

Mountains of Fire. Washington, D.C.: GPO, National Park Service, 2005. 

_____. Story of a House. National Park Service, 2008.

Eicher, George, J. “History of the Bristol Bay Investigation, 1938-1956.” Bureau of Commercial 

Fisheries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1967. 

_____. “Th e Eff ects of Laddering a Falls in a Salmon Stream.” 1956. KATM Archives.

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_____. “Factors Infl uencing the Return of Red Salmon to the Naknek-Kvichak and Other 

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_____. “Sockeye Salmon Studies at Brooks Lake Biological Field Station, 1963.” Bureau of 

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_____. “Society Salmon Studies at Brooks Lake Biological Field Station, 1964-65, Bureau of 

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Letter, National Park Service to the Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Fisheries,” May 14, 

 1940. 

Letter, F.A. Davidson Acting Commissioner, Bureau of Fisheries, from Hillory A. Tolson, Acting 

 Associate Director, NPS, April 25, 1940.

Letter, Frank T. Been to Regional Director, Region Four, January 14, 1942.

Letter, Charles L. Peterson [Acting Supt. Mount McKinley National Park] to Alfred Andree 

 [Koggiung, Alaska], February 26, 1946. 

Letter, R.R. Lyons (Captain, US Navy, Commanding Offi cer, Kodiak Naval Operating Base) to 

 Sup. Grant Pearson, Mount McKinley National Park, October 16, 1945. 

Memo, to the Regional Director, from Huge Miller, March 14, 1948.

Letter, Frank T. Been to Regional Director, Region 4, December 13, 1948

Letter, Hillory A. Tolson (assistant Director NPS) to Regional Director 4, April 23, 1948.
 Works Cited 325

Letter, Charles A. Richey to Conrad Wirth, December 19, 1949.

Letter, Secretary of the Interior to E.L. Bartlett, undated 1950.

Letter, Raymond I. Petersen to Assistant Sec. of the Interior William Warne, January 21, 1950.

Letter, William J. Nancarrow to Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Park, “Monthly 

 Narrative Report for Katmai, July 1950, Brooks River Ranger Station,” July 27, 1950.

Letter, Assistant Regional Director, from Alfred C. Kuehl, Regional Landscape Architect, August 

 21, 1951.

Letter, Conrad L. Wirth, Director NPS, to Regional Director of Region Four, April 7, 1952.

Letter, Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Park to Regional Director of Region Four, May 1, 

 1953.

Letter, Clarence J. Rhode, Wildlife Administrator, to Honorable E. L. Bartlett, Delegate to 

 Congress, December 23, 1955.

USDI Information Service press release, April 21, 1956.

Memorandum, from Mount McKinley Superintendent Duane D. Jacobs to Regional Director, 

 Region four, August 27, 1957.

Letter, Th eodore R. Merrell, Supervisory Research Biologist, “Proposal and Justifi cation for 

 Construction of Family Housing at Brooks and A Laboratory at Karluk Lake” July 1958.

Letter, Darrell L. Coe to Oscar Dick, “Subject: Supplement to Monthly Narrative Report,” July 1, 

 1965.

Letter, Ernest Gruening to Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior, July 7, 1965. 

Letter, Paul J. F. Schumacher, Regional Archeologist Region Four, to Superintendent of Mt. 

 McKinley National Monument, July 30, 1965.

Letter, Darrell L. Coe to Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Monument, June 1, 1966. 

Letter, Darrell L. Coe, Katmai Management Assistant, to NPS Superintendent, January 6, 1967.

Letter, Robert Eckdale, National Weather Service, “Trip Report to Brooks River,” Historic 

 Station Records Brooks, Camp Station, July 5, 1967. 

Letter, Gary Lillie, Park Ranger-General, to Darrell Coe, Management Assistant, “Subject: Bear 

 Observation,” July 17, 1967.

Letter, Richard G. Prasil, Research Biologist Alaska Field Offi ce, to NPS Director and NPS 

 Regional Director, Western Region, August 16, 1967.

Letter, George A. Hall, MMNP Superintendent, from Harry Rietze, BCF Regional Director, 

 November 15, 1967.

Letter, Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Monument and Katmai National Monument to 
326 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

 Regional Director, Western Regional Offi ce, September 27, 1968.

Letter, Superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Monument and Katmai National Monument to 

 Regional Director of Western Regional Offi ce, “Annual Bear Report,” January 17, 1969.

Letter, Katmai National Monument Management Assistant to Superintendent, Anchorage Field 

 Offi ce, October 30, 1969.

Letter, General Superintendent, Alaska Cluster Offi ce, to District Director, Northwest Region, 

 November 7, 1969.

Letter, NPS Assistant Director to Regional Directors, January 7, 1970.

Letter, Harry L. Rietze, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, from John Ritter, NPS Regional 

 Director, Northwest Region, March 9, 1970. 

Letter, Gilbert Blinn to Dick Prasil, September 9, 1971.

Letter, Ernest J. Borgman, General Superintendent of Alaska Areas Group, to Mrs. Paul V. Shell, 

 June 30, 1971.

Letter, Park Ranger, Mt. McKinley National Monument, to State Director, Alaska, November 11, 

 1972.

Letter, Gilbert Blinn, From NMFS Michael L. Dahlberg, February 22, 1973. 

Letter, Steve Buskirk, Park Ranger, Katmai, to Dick Prasil, Resource Management Specialist/ 

 Biologist, Alaska State Offi ce, August 1, 1973.

Letter, Park Ranger to Superintendent, Katmai, “Subject: Airplane Accident, July 27, 1973, 

 Geographic Harbor,” August 8, 1973.

Letter, Steve Buskirk, Park Ranger, Katmai, to Dick Prasil, Resource Management Specialist/ 

 Biologist, Alaska State Offi ce, August 1, 1973.

Letter, Park Ranger to Superintendent, Katmai, “Subject: Airplane Accident, July 27, 1973, 

 Geographic Harbor,” August 8, 1973

Letter, Park Ranger to Superintendent, Katmai, “Subject: Bear Relocation,” August 9, 1973.

Letter, Steve Buskirk, Katmai Ranger to Dick Prasil, Alaska State Offi ce, September 18, 1973.

Letter, Park Ranger to Superintendent, Katmai, “Subject: Bear Relocation,” August 9, 1973.

Letter, Don Dumond to John Ritter, August 12, 1974.

Letter, Don Dumond to John Ritter, June 9, 1975.

Letter, Edward J Kurtz to Don Dumond, July 16, 1975.

Letter, Gilbert E. Blinn, Katmai Superintendent, to Area Director, Alaska, December 6, 1976. 

Letter, Gilbert Blinn, From Harry Rietze, January 13, 1977.
 Works Cited 327

Letter, Bruce Jones from Gilbert E. Blinn, August 10, 1977.

Letter, John O. Furuness to Edward J. Kurtz, “Transfer of Property,” June 22, 1978. 

Letter, Bruce M. Kaye, Park Ranger, to Robert A. Riggs, Redwoods National Park Wildlife 

 Biologist, February 12, 1980.

Letter, James Faro, Management Coordinator, ADF&G; From Robert L. Petersen, Acting 

 Director Alaska Area, October 22, 1980.

Letter, Frank Singer, Wildlife Biologist, to Superintendent of Katmai National Monument. 

 “Subject: Review of Case Incident Reports – Bear Incidents,” March 19, 1982.

Letter, from David Morris, superintendent of Katmai, on planning feedback regarding current 

 status of planning activity, January 1983.

Letter, Dave Morris to Regional Director April 15, 1983.

Letter, Warren Smith to Dave Morris, Katmai, September 1, 1982.

Letter, Warren Smith to Dave Morris, Katmai, July 16, 1983.

Letter, Superintendent to Regional Director, 4 November 1985.

Letter, Carl Burgar, Fish and Wildlife Service, from Th eodore Merrell, Jr. Manager, Habitat 

 Investigations, December 20, 1985.

Letter, George Eicher to Dean Paddock, March 21, 1987.

To All Park Employees, from Acting Superintendent, Staff Behavior towards bears at Brooks, June 

 27, 1987.

Letter, John Huckabee, to Dave Graber, Katmai Resource Specialist, “Brown Bear Incident 

 Katmai National Monument, July 21, 1966,” July 23, 1987.

Letter, Acting Regional Director, From Superintendent Ray Bane, April 2, 1988.

Letter, Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane, From Acting Deputy Regional Director, May 2, 1988.

Letter, Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane, From Acting Deputy Regional Director, April 18, 

 1988.

Letter, Deputy Regional Director Richard Stenmark, from Katmai Superintendent Ray Bane, 

 January 19, 1989. 

Letter, Tamara Olson to Superintendent, “Subject: Considerations Relevant to the September 17 

 Closing Date Scheduled for Brooks Lodge in 1992,” October 29, 1991.

Letter, Ron Squibb to Staff Associated with Bear Management, “Subject: Considerations for 

 Bear Management at Brooks River, 1992,” May 11, 1992.

Memo, To Associated Regional Director, Resource Services, from Regional Cultural 

 Anthropologist, Tim Cochrane, Summary of My Meetings With Numerous Bristol Bay 

 Area Native Organizations” December 15, 1993.
328 At the Heart of Katmai: An Administrative History of the Brooks River Area, with Special Emphasis on Bear Management in Katmai National Park and Preserve 1912-2006

Draft Notes, Tim Cochrane, Regional Cultural Anthropologist, Consultation Trip to Brooks 

 Camp, May 18-20, 1995.

Letter, Tom Hawkins, Senior Vice-President of Bristol Bay Native Corporation, to Senator Ted 

 Stevens, September 19, 1997.

Letter, Chip Dennerlein, National Parks Conservation Association, to Senator Ted Stevens, 

 September 29, 1997.

Letter, To Jeanne Schaaf, Cultural Resource Compliance Coordinator Katmai from Janet 

 Sosnowski, reality specialists land resource program center, Subject: AA-7604 Parcel B 

 Native Allotment certifi cate number 50-98-0085. December 5, 1997. 

Letter, To Land Resources Program Center Chief Charles Gilbert from Cultural Compliance 

 Coordinator, Katmai National Park and Preserve Dale Vinson, January 29, 1999.

Memo, To Superintendent, KATM from Chief, Cultural Resources, “Statement of Stakeholders 

 Interest in implementation of Brooks River DCP,” January 20, 2005.

Email, Dale Vinson, Katmai/Lake Clark Historic Preservation Coordinator, to Chris Allan, 

 September 13, 2006.

Memorandum, To Superintendent, Katmai National Park and Preserve, from Regional Director, 

 Alaska Region, Brooks Camp Developed Area Administrative Review, June 1, 2007.

Katmai Superintendent’s Annual Reports

Superintendent’s Annual Report, Alaska Regional Offi ce, 1972.

Superintendent’s Annual Report, Alaska Regional Offi ce, 1982.

Katmai Superintendent Annual Report, 1993.

Katmai Annual Superintendent Report, 1998

Katmai Superintendent Annual Report, 2001.

Katmai Superintendent Annual Report, 2002.

Katmai Superintendent Annual Report, 2004.

Katmai Superintendent Annual Report, 2006.

Katmai Superintendent’s Annual Report, October 2009-September 2010.

Interviews/Correspondence

Gil Blinn, interviewed by William Hanable, August 26, 1988. 

Raymond Petersen, interviewed by William Hanable, November 23, 1988.

George Eicher, interviewed by William Hanable, September 1989.

Ed Stondall, interviewed by William Hanable, September 15, 1989.

David Morris, interviewed by William Hanable, November 2, 1989.

Raymond Petersen, interviewed by Alexandra J. McClanahan, Sept. 16 & Oct. 15, 1998.

Russell Todd, interviewed by Frank Norris, September 11, 2000.

Troy Hamon, Interviewed by Chris Allan, July 10, 2006

Peter Hamel, interviewed by Chris Allan, July 13, 2006.

Frank Norris, interview by Joshua Riley, June 26, 2006.

Larry E. Riley, interview by the Joshua Riley, July 9, 2006.

Richard Sherman, interviewed by Chris Allan, July 14, 2006.
 Works Cited 329

Mark Wagner, interviewed by Chris Allan, December 4, 2006.

Kathy Jope, interviewed by Chris Allan, December 7, 2006. 

Dale Vinson, interviewed by Tim Rawson, June 12, 2008.

Becky Brock, interviewed by Tim Rawson, June 17, 2008.

Deborah Liggett, interviewed by Tim Rawson, June 22, 2008.

Raymond “Sonny” Petersen, interviewed by Tim Rawson, July 8, 2008.

Jeanne Schaaf, interviewed by Tim Rawson, November 11, 2007.

Kellie Peirce, correspondence with Katherine Ringsmuth, April 2, 1010.

Peter Hartman, correspondence with Dale Vinson, April 6, 2010.

Frank Norris, correspondence with Katherine Ringsmuth, February 14, 2010.

Th eodore Merrell, interviewed by Katherine Ringsmuth, March 2010.

Carlton Imes Vaughn, interviewed by Katherine Ringsmuth, June 2012

Websites

www.katmailand.com/lodging/brooks.html

www.royalwolf.com.

www.PETA.org and www.fi shinghurts.com

Offi ce of Concessions Operations, Alaska Region, http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/swan/

vs/hum_visit_use/cua_index.cfm

“Fishing Organizations Unite to Oppose Pebble Mine” Alaska Journal of Commerce, December 3, 

2006; “Sport Fishing Industry Leaders Blast Pebble Mine Proposal,” 11/23/2006 

www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/troutunlimited.pdf ).

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/backyard/backyard0101.html.

Father J. Michael Hornick, J.C.L., “RECARPETING ANILCA: Is it the carpet or the carpet 

layers that need replacing?” A Report to the Peoples of Alaska D (2), Part 2. http://www.

alaskaminers.org/d2ch12.pdf

NPS, “Brooks River Visitor Access EIS: Public Scoping Presentation,” http://www.nps.gov/

katm/parkmgmt/upload/BrooksCamp%20EIS%20public%20scoping.pdf.; 

“Brooks River Visitor Access Improvements,” http://www.nps.gov/katm/parkmgmt/

brooksvisitoraccess.htm.

“Trefon Angasan, “Subsistence is What Connects You to the Seasons and the Land,” nd. uaa.

alaska.edu/café/uplode/Subsistence-trefon-2.pdf.
About the Author

Katherine Ringsmuth spent her childhood summers with her family at a salmon cannery in 

South Naknek. As an adolescent she worked the cannery's slime line to earn money for college. 

In 1997, she moved upriver to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park and Preserve, where she 

worked as an interpretive ranger passionate about sharing the story of the Naknek River with 

visitors from around the world. In 2000, she began working for Lake Clark/Katmai/Aniakchak 

joint cultural resources program, for which she had the opportunity to author three history 

publications: Buried Dreams: Th e Rise and Fall of a Clam Cannery on the Katmai Coast in 2002, 

Beacon on the Forgotten Shore: Snug Harbor Cannery, 1919-1980 in 2005, and Beyond the Moon 

Crater Myth: A New History of the Aniakchak Landscape in 2008. Here latest publication is 

titled Tunnel Vision: Th e Life of a Copper Prospector in the Nizina Country. During her sixteen 

year tenure at NPS, Ringsmuth melded her professional work with her academic aspirations, 

eventually receiving her M.A. in Northern Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1999 

and her Ph.D. at Washington State University in 2005. She currently lives in Eagle River, Alaska 

with her husband Eric and two sons, Benjamin and Th omas.
U.S. Department of the Interiorand Preserve

I believe there is one most important thing that has not been considered in the Katmai bear 

“problem.” Fortunately, for approximately 4000 years humans have lived in the same habitat with bears and they have apparently lived there for the same reason – fi sh!

~George A. Hall, Superintendent, Mount McKinley and Katmai

 September 27, 1968