Gray wolves once roamed the continent from as far north as the Arctic to as far south as Mexico. Today they occupy about one percent of their former range in the contiguous United States. More than 1,000 gray wolves live in northern Minnesota. Small populations live in Wisconsin and Michigan. Ten to 15 more live in Michigan's Isle Royal National park and about 30 in or near Montana's Glacier National Park.
Gray wolves are common, however, in Alaska and parts of Canada.
Since about 10,000 years ago when the last ice sheets retreated. Wolves migrated from the southern Great Plains into the Cascades. For thousands of years, wolves and humans lived in harmony with each other. Extensive trapping of wolves for their pelts began with the arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company in the American Northwest in 1821. From 1827 thru 1859, buyers at the company's forts around the North Cascades purchased 7,761 wolf pelts from trappers.