Let's Talk Wyoming - Weather, Cowboys, Luke, Toby Keith & Echoes of Wildlife Conservation

Wyoming's skies have been kinder than usual this February, and I, Mark Hamilton, can't wait to recount the unexpected blessings brought forth by the serene weather. Not only have our local cattlemen reaped the benefits, but the ski trails at Metalark and Antelope Butte are witnessing a remarkable season. While the weather plays nice, the same can't be said for the Wyoming Cowboys on the basketball court. But it's not all lost; there's a spark of hope for a grand showing in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. And as we cheer from the stands, my heart shares a tale of resilience closer to home—Luca, my rescue dog, his battle with injury, and the incredible journey to his new leash on life. And the passing of Toby Keith!

Our state's history resonates with the echoes of figures like Stephen Nelson Leake, a man whose life reads like a novel, filled with twists of fate from trapper to a herald of wildlife conservation. It's his story that takes us back to the grassroots of the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole and reminds us of the complex dance between human ambition and nature's chorus. While we ponder the moral questions that his legacy poses, we can't help but admire how his actions carved out a sanctuary for wildlife amidst the rugged landscape of Wyoming. No tale in our state is simple, and Leake's involvement in a grim conflict, which some labeled as murder, reveals history's thorny texture.

Completing our journey through Wyoming's past, we reflect on the intertwining fates of Stephen Leake and George Eastman, whose pioneering spirit in photography became a catalyst for wildlife preservation. Their stories culminate in a contemporary call to action, to continue the stewardship of our natural wonders and the creatures that call them home. From the historical challenges that almost stripped us of our elk, deer, and antelope, to the triumphs of the National Elk Refuge, we link arms with the Code of the West and reaffirm our enduring commitment to the land that shapes our identity and the values we hold dear. Join me as we honor the spirit of Wyoming and the legacy that we strive to uphold for generations to come.  If you have any comments, please contact us at mark.hamilton@letstalkwyoming.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be looking at our beautiful Wyoming weather with a little snow sprinkled in. We'll look at the Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls, we'll talk about a couple other items on the desk and we'll talk about Luke and we'll talk about a loss of an icon and then we'll learn about the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, wyoming. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy the show. Now taking a look at Wyoming weather. They're on the ninth day of February, super Bowl weekend up ahead.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Our weather here has been just nothing really out of the ordinary. It's been just nice, I guess. We've had no cold weather, no real warm weather. We've been staying in the 30s, which is definitely doable here. On Friday we've got some snow. It doesn't look like it's going to last much. I really can't see any type of weather in our future right now Nothing that I see reported. So we are definitely enjoying our Wyoming February weather. All of us keep thinking there's got to be something big out there lurching around. Nobody's going to get away without a little bit more suffering here in the wintertime. But this is the big plus for our cattlemen in the state. They're busy calving. Right now I see a lot of calves down. Couldn't ask for better February weather to be calving. So there's always a positive with everything and I even see a little bit of snow up in the mountains. Up at our two ski runs in the area, up at Metalark and Antelope Butte, there have been people going up and getting a little bit of ski time in. So every day we get closer to spring, our spring of 2024. Really looking forward to that.

Speaker 1: 2:22

In Wyoming Cowboy News. The Wyoming Cowboys after I talked I'm up. Last week. The basketball team They've had a little rough stretch here, losing to UNLV and to New Mexico in the last two games. Just haven't looked like the same team, like we lost that team that was doing so well. Now the Cowgirls they did lose their big match up against UNLV. They had a pretty good game. They just late because couldn't score points and so they dropped into second place behind UNLV. But they've won their game since then and continuing to look good. I think they're surely getting better. So we'll look forward to another match up with UNLV and also we'll be looking forward here. Real quick, right around the corner is going to be the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Vegas and that's when the Cowgirls get an opportunity to maybe run into UNLV again and then maybe get a chance to go to the big dance and see what they can make happen.

Speaker 1: 3:30

In other news, just in the process of running kind of a rehab center here for dogs, I had said last September that I had adopted from a rescue a 12 month old well, I guess he was older than 12 months, 14 month old Belgium Malwa. His name is Luca. When we adopted him we knew that he had shattered his back right leg when he was three months old and so we know that might be a problem. And sure enough it did become a problem. About a week ago we were out in the yard and playing with the ball and up he went and snapped that back leg snapped. So it was a sick feeling Went into our local vet and then referred us up to Billings to a surgeon up in Billings.

Speaker 1: 4:23

He got operated on last week, on Thursday, just picked him up yesterday and got him back home. So he is back among us. He's walking around with that leg. They have directions that he can't do any activity for 60 days. That's going to be rather interesting Having a little difficulty with that, trying to keep him calm down. He's taking a lot of medication, a lot of pills, so it's rather fun when it's spill popping time. But hopefully he'll get mended and we can get him back out and do what he really loves to do. That's like running, jumping, acting crazy Along with our Doberman so he's kind of little curious and why he doesn't want to play anymore. My dad won't let him play. So what we do for our dogs, at least here at our house, got to love our dogs and we got to take care of them. Hopefully he'll be ready to go by the time summer gets here.

Speaker 1: 5:24

And finally we lost a real icon, a real icon in the music industry, someone that had performed here in the state of Wyoming at Cheyenne Frontier Days numerous times and that's Toby Keith, at the age of 62 to stomach cancer. Toby had so many great songs that it's just hard to say what would be your favorite songs. How do you like me? Now there's just his songs. That he performed for the troops is what I enjoyed. He has such a patriotic heart and he cared about people so much and I know he brought a lot to those young men and women that were serving. There'll be a lot of people that will remember Toby for one thing or another, but his music will live on. Toby will live on. And one thing with Toby he always talked about his faith. He was a Christian man. That that's what got him through his battle with the stomach cancer, that damn cancer. And he's up in heaven today and I'm sure he's writing a new song ready to welcome everybody up for his next concert Again.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Toby Keith lost too early, at the age of 62. Don't you be if you didn't know the day you were born. When he rides up on this horse and you feel that cold, bitter wind, look out your window and smile. Don't let the old man die. Look out your window and smile. Don't let the old man die.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Today we want to take a look at a story from Wild Historyorg and it's on Stephen Leake, the father of the elk, and this is by Mr John Clayton. And if you've been to Jackson Hole you are very familiar with the National Elk Refuge and what they do there with feeding the elk. And this is the story about that refuge and how it came about. Stephen Nelson Leake, 1858 to 1943, was a founder of Jackson Wyoming. He was an early wildlife photographer. His nationally recognized images of starving elk helped establish the National Elk Refuge near Jackson. In his times Leake was an intelligent, passionate and committed.

Speaker 1: 8:25

Today is an example of the difficulty of judging historical figures. The more scientists learn about ecology, the more concerned they became about Leake's cause of artificially feeding elk in the winter. Leake was also a radical extremist and, in acting on those views, participated in an event even some of his contemporaries labeled murder. The function of history is to report and to understand, not to participate in cancel culture or, conversely, to venerate. Who was Stephen Leake? What did he do, how and why, and what has been the effects of those actions? History provides facts to answers those questions so that moral debate and judgments can be more informed, rational and useful.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Leake was born in 1858 in Turkey Point, ontario, canada. In his youth he lived in Illinois, nebraska, utah and Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains. In 1888, at the age of 30, he homesteaded a ranch three miles south of today's town site of Jackson, in an area known as the South Park. One of his descendants later said he knew this was to be his home and took to his heart the beauty of the scenery and the wonder of the abundant wildlife White people had only recently permanently settled in the remote high elevation valley, leake soon became a leader of the community where then consisted of about 50 people scattered throughout Jackson Hole. Leake married Ada Wilson, a niece of Elijah Nicholas Wilson, who soon founded the nearby town of Wilson. Leake recruited his half brothers, hamilton and Charles Wart, to join him in Jackson Hole. Charles's sons later built the famed Wart Hotel in downtown Jackson. Leake established the Valley's first sawmill, a water-powered mill on Trail Creek in 1893. He had the material shipped 120 miles from Nerris-Ray Road Station at Market Lake, now Roberts, idaho. Leake was the first area resident to irrigate his ranch and plant grains. By 1895, his ranch boasted one of the biggest barns in the county, capable of holding 50 head of livestock and 200 tons of hay. In 1907, he served as a state representative. In 1919, he arranged to show the Valley's first movies.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Like many in the area, leake's jobs and hobbies were tied to wildlife on the outdoors. When he arrived he was a trapper. Later he raised cattle, hunted and guided other hunters. In 1889, he established a clubhouse on Leedalake in today's Grand Teton National Park where he hosted hunters from all out of town and from everywhere, making him one of the area's first outfitters, as guiding and outfitting gradually evolved into the industry of dude ranching. Leake is one of the several people sometimes called Jackson Hole's first dude rancher. In the late 1800s Leake built a hunting and fishing camp at a particularly scenic spot on the shores of Jackson Lake north of Coulter Bay. In 1927, leake designed and built a rustic lodge of native logs and stone at the site. He and his son Holly and Lester ran a summer boys camp and hosted hunters in the fall, although a chimney is all the remains of the lodge after a 1998 fire, the chimney, which was the most dramatic feature of the lodge's main room, is listed on the National Register of Historical Places. The adjacent boat launch with private boat services and a lakefront pizzeria are still operated by the National Park Service as Leakes Marina.

Speaker 1: 12:15

When Leakes arrived in Jackson in 1888, area elk populations were at a high point. By some estimates the area heard had reached 50,000 following several mild winters. Leakes later wrote that he calmly sought tens of thousands of elk leaving Jackson Hole for the Green River Basin in the fall. There is some scientific debate about whether elk that summered in the high country around Jackson Hole traditionally wintered in the hole itself. Lower elevations in the Green River Basin and Red Desert would have been warmer and less snow covered Before the 1870s. Many elk must have migrated there, although some may have also wintered in Jackson Hole. But white settlements gradually disrupted migration patterns. Then the harsh winter of 1889 to 1890 killed as many as 20,000 elk.

Speaker 1: 13:05

Jackson residents were concerned with agricultural difficulties in the high elevation valley. Many hunted game for food all year long. Several, including Leakes, were also making a living guiding hunters. Loss of elk threatened both their lifestyle and their livelihoods. Leakes in particular is aware that wildlife populations could be decimated quite quickly. In his youth he had seen Midwestern skies blackened by passenger pigeons and the Nebraska Plains blanketed with bison. By the time he arrived in Jackson Hole, the entire continent held just over a thousand buffalo and maybe a few thousand passenger pigeons.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Now, once he had been a trapper, a later-day mountain man, leakes, came to see that saving wildlife would require laws and enforcement to limit the activities of hunters and trappers. Thus he became what we call today a conservationist. His first targets were the roaming bands of indigenous people. Bangkok and Shoshone had hunted in Jackson Hole for centuries and those hunting rights were guaranteed in the tribes treaty with the federal government. But Leakes and other leaders targeted them for a rest. One such attempt to rest in 1895 led to a war. In that war Leakes joined a posse that killed two Bannocks, an infant and an unarmed, nearly blind elderly man. Although the 1890s were in general a more racist era, even the US Attorney for Wyoming called the deaths murder. In memoirs that Leakes wrote in 1930, he referred to the dead elderly Indian as a good Indian. He expected people to be so familiar with the saying the only good Indian is a dead Indian that he could allude to it without explanation. He also accused, almost surely incorrectly, the black buffalo soldier sent to protect the whites of Jackson Hole at Thievery. Jackson settlers won the war, which also led to the US Supreme Court's 1896 racehorse decision ending all Indian Treaty reserve rights to hunt off the reservation.

Speaker 1: 15:12

But Wyoming's elk population continued to decline. Blame ship to wolves, mountain lions and other predators. But Leek also criticized tuskers. The 1890s saw a fad for wearing elk teeth as jewelry. It may have begun with the elk lodge, officially the bevelant protective order of the elks, whose members considered an elk tooth on their watch chain a status symbol. To fill this demand, teeth could run as much as $100 a pair.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Hunters fluttered northwest Wyoming. They are called tuskers. The tuskers ignored game law. They were poaching. They built remote cabins on public land, often hiding the structures in the heavy timber or beneath overhanging ledges. Some tuskers used the cabins to smoke meat into jerky which they would sell. However, jackson residents accused the tuskers of wanting slaughter of elk solely for the teeth, leaving the meat to waste. One gang of tuskers was said to have killed 1,600 elk. Another was accused of driving elk into snowdress, where they became immobilized, and taking their ivies without bothering to kill them. One source said that the tuskers massacred and left to rot More elk in a single winter and were killed in 10 years of normal hunting.

Speaker 1: 16:25

As with the Indians, it's possible Jackson residents were condemning outsiders for practice that they condoned among themselves and their clients. For example, when a 1901 party of 800s with two guides killed 59 elk, did they use that meat or waste it? The following year, william L Simpson, then living in Lander, noted that he'd seen elk teeth trafficked at Jackson Lake in the presence of Deputy Game Warden in 1902. Local rancher Harvey H Gilden wrote that elk teeth are the coin of the realm. We could see parallels to early wildlife tragedies such as bison being slaughtered for their tongues. Elk-like bison had once populated the plains and were now hard to find outside the greater Yellowstone area, where they too headed for near extinction.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Jackson guides and outfitters organized an association to help Game Wardens enforce Wyoming's anti-poaching laws. In doing so, they helped bring law enforcement to this once lawless country, because the cause of conservation demanded it. In 1905 to 1906, residents of Jackson organized vigilante parties to target the tuskers. Leek is not named as an organizer, but he probably participated. In 1906, he was elected to his single term in the state legislature and helped pass a law that made it a felony to kill big game pertussed antlers or heads. In 1907, the Wyoming legislature, surely again propelled by Leek, asked members of the elk lives to denounce the wearing of elk teeth. Although they were six years behind, president Deodore Roosevelt, along with other conservationists, began publicizing the issue in 1901. Although some elk-like members expressed skepticism that the elk's peril was related to tusking, the lodges nevertheless discouraged the practice and encouraged other steps to preserve the elegant wild namesake.

Speaker 1: 18:22

The tuskers gradually faded away, but the elk were still in trouble. In 1905, wyoming created its first game reserve to protect elk. This Teton State Game Preserve banned hunting and grazing an area from Yellowstone Park southern border south to the Buffalo Fork River, which joins the snake at today's Moran Wyoming, and from the Continental Divide west to the Idaho border. Its boundary were later adjusted but this land, already regulated as a national forest, was largely summer range. The elk's problems came in the winter. For example, in March of 1907, 200 elk became snowbound on Willow Creek near Pinedale, wyoming.

Speaker 1: 19:03

A Teton National Forest Supervisor collected contributions to provide hay to feed them. In 1909, the state has set aside $5,000 for such feeding. That year at least 20,000 elk went into Jackson Hole. Some estimated suggested 50,000. The elk population may have become inflated because of the settlers success at killing wolves and other predators. But now the settlers had to feed the elk to prevent starvation up to seven pounds of hay per day. In several winters those efforts required private funding before the state appropriations became available. In their hunger, elk would raid ranchers haystacks. When their feed is cut off by heavy snow, the elk swarm over the ranches by the thousands, tearing down fences and devouring the ranchman's stock feed. Some ranchers would sleep armed in their haystacks to keep the elk away. However, many of them understood the economic importance of elk.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Jackson residents appointed a committee of Leake, james N Simpson and L B Hogland to develop a permanent organization to feed and protect the elk. Then the winter of 1908-1909 proved especially severe. Several thousand elk died. Area sediment settled on the need for some sort of winter refuge. In 1906, game Warden D C Nolan had suggested setting aside a winter refuge in the gross ventry valley east of Jackson. In 1909, the Wyoming State Legislature asked Congress to give the state 36 square mile townships of the valley land for elk refuge. But the proposal would have displaced homesteading ranchers and public opposition killed it.

Speaker 1: 20:48

George Eastman was the inventor of rolled film and founder of pioneering photography company Eastman Kodak in Rochester, new York. In 1905, he vacationed in Wyoming. Although neither man recorded the date, it was probably on his trip that Eastman met Leake and gave him a camera. Lessons suggest that with this gift Leake suddenly discovered his talent for the new art of photography. That's probably exaggerated. Photos attributed to Leek date back as far as 19. Photos attributed to Leek date back as far as 1891 and an account of the February 8, 1904 Wyoming Tribute noted that his Elk photos would be featured in an upcoming state pamphlet. But Eastman's device was certainly easy to use and the connection also helped Leek acquire a motion picture camera in 1907.

Speaker 1: 21:42

Through these painful winners, leek photographed the starving elk throng around the Jackson area. He would dress in white and paint his camera white to sneak up on the elk in the snow. He took large formatted glass plated photographs of starving elk and dead elk In 1908 he also took movies of the elk, including scenes of them being fed from a hay wagon. Leek uses photographs to illustrate articles that he wrote for outdoor life in the open and many other publications. He assembled photos in a small illustrated book that he published under various titles, most important he went on tour in 1909 to 1910 in a Voderville circuit. Of theaters throughout the West he showed lantern slides and movie footage of starving elk. The elk he showed resembled pets, domesticated but with personality. His pictures showed graphically the needless suffering and death among those noble animals. One reporter wrote publicity for his lectures, billed Leek as the father of the elk.

Speaker 1: 22:45

His efforts built sympathy across the nation for the plight of the Jackson Hole elk. Meanwhile, sympathies within the Jackson Hole area also started turning. Support shifted to the idea of having the federal government buy out local ranches to establish a wildlife refuge. He would be grown on the property all summer and fed to the elk in the winter. On August 10th of 1912, congress appropriated $50,000 for three purposes to purchase 1,760 acres in the Flat Crick area north of Jackson, to set aside an adjacent 1,000 acres of public land and to purchase additional hay. At this point, elk occupied only 10% of the original wintering range. By feeding these elk through the winter, the biological survey, the predecessor of today's US Fish and Wildlife Service, could ensure that the elk didn't go extinct, while also separating them from haystacks and people Refuge would prove successful. It added adjacent lorange lands to eventually reach 24,000 acres. The Jackson elk herd remains one of the largest in the country and a tourist attraction.

Speaker 1: 23:54

For many decades, elk from Jackson and Yellowstone were shipped to 37 states, plus Canada and Mexico, to reestablish elk herds across their former range. Biologist Olas Murray studied Jackson's elk herd for 18 years, leading to landmark advances in ecological science. The refuge is also notable in political history because Jackson Hole residents supported federal government ownership of land for conservation. Although in coming decades many of those same people would resist the creation of Grand Teton National Park, that effort was arguably more about preservation than conservation. Beginning with the state appropriations in 1909, people have fed Jackson's elk herd in all but 10 winter scents. Early exceptions include 1915 and 1926 and, most recently, 2018. The feeding traditionally took place from January through March, when deep snows covered Jackson Hole. Under a plan adopted in 2019, feeding activities will slow considerably, with a volume of alfalfa-based pellets distributed each winter, cut in half and eliminate entirely during average winters.

Speaker 1: 25:10

Ecological science has demonstrated problems with feeding, hence this change, for example, the free food and accelerating decline of traditional migration routes. Soon after establishment of the refuge, elk that suffered in the nearby high country completely seized winter migration to the Green River Valley in the Red Desert Area. Elk started wintering exclusively in Jackson and concentrated their foraging near the feed grounds. Concentrating elk populations can lead to disease. Most other western states have abandoned winter feeding programs amid concerns about chronic wasting disease that destroys the brain and central nervous systems of animals in the deer and elk family. Environmental groups have sued the National Elk Refuge on the US Forest Service for moving too slowly and discontinuing feeding, although the federal feeding practices are better known.

Speaker 1: 26:01

The state of Wyoming runs 22 additional feed grounds across Teton, sublet and Lincoln counties. These facilities help elk live through difficult winters. However, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department sees today's elk population is too high. Among other things, overpopulation of elk out compete mule deer, upsetting natural balances. Artificial sources of winter forage disrupt the complex natural process called ecosystems. For example, wolves are attracted to elk feed grounds. Elk respond by moving unpredictably sometimes. Vast number of elk move across the geographical boundaries set by the Game and Fish, complicating the allocation of hunting permits. Elk that winter on the National Elk Refuge can now be classified in two populations. Suburban elk have thrived by summering on the private ranches and subdivisions in the southern part of Jackson Hole, while elk to the north have struggled, probably due to comparatively higher predation from Yellowstone area wolves and grizzlies that avoid settled suburban areas. On the other hand, closing feed grounds would be painful. It could mean fewer elk and Wyoming to hunt and more conflict with livestock. Most importantly, it could mean that Wyoming residents would have to watch thousands of elk die each difficult winter to precisely see the problem Stephen Leake so effectively demonstrated.

Speaker 1: 27:28

After establishment of the refuge, leake continued to tour with his images. He continued to speak on behalf of the elk and of Jackson Hole. His reputation grew In 1920, an article by William T Hornaday in Scribner's magazine on masterpieces of wild animal photography said Mr Leake has made so many stunning elk pictures that it's difficult to choose the masterpiece. The 1920s were a heyday of dude ranching and Leake lived in comfort. He spent the rest of his life as a community and industrial leader.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Leake's view of wildlife was very much in tune with his times. Like the writer, illustrator Ernest Thompson Seton, he built sympathy for the animals, making them seem accessible, cuddly and almost human. Like the pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson, he used the new medium to make the wonders of Wyoming feel real, even for people who had never visited. Like the artist Charlie Russell, he used visual imagery to capture the tragedy of animal starvation in a difficult winter. Leake both built sympathy for wildlife and helped translate that sympathy into a sense that humans had obligations to those creatures. Because of his work, the national elk refuge could be seen in the words of one of the commemorative our gift to this majestic species. That courage and vision should not be under-emphasized. Leake helped lead one of the biggest humanitarian efforts of his day. At the time he was easy for people to shrug off the potential extinction of the species like the elk and bison as a small price to pay for progress. Leake's efforts helped change these philosophies. Yet in part because of Leake's accomplishments.

Speaker 1: 29:19

We now have different views of wildlife. We highlight their wildness, not their tameness, their difference to humanity, rather than their pet-like accessibility. We know much more about how they survive in the wild. This is a great story talking about the elk. There's just something about the elk. They're just so wild, so majestic and it's good to know that we still have the elk. They still feed over there.

Speaker 1: 29:47

I know it might have presented some problems that was brought up in the story, but I think ultimately the idea was that we made that attempt to save the elk and from another podcast that we had back a couple of podcasts we talked about the issue we had here in Wyoming in the late 1800s where we were just arbitrarily harvesting large amount of antelope and deer and elk and almost wiped out our herds before changes were made similar to what happened over at Jackson Hole. But if you get a chance, stop by in the wintertime and take in the sight of the elk herd at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, wyoming. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As for the Code of the West, we ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. Three, two, one, three, two, one go.