When Wyoming won the wolf war

The state’s 30-year campaign to remove wolves from the range

Long before wolves became symbols of wilderness preservation and Yellowstone tourism, they were viewed across Wyoming as enemies of the state, predators blamed for killing livestock, reducing game herds and threatening the fragile ranching economy that sustained families across the West.

More than a century ago, private bounty clubs, ranchers and government agents all took part in a long campaign to reduce, and eventually eliminate, wolves from the Wyoming landscape. For decades, they were hunted, trapped and poisoned for cash rewards.

The conflict began in the mid-1800s when the earliest settlers brought their cows and sheep trailing behind wagons. As more homesteaders settled into the mountain valleys and trains brought carloads of cattle and sheep, wolves found an easy opportunity for prey in tough times.

A January 22, 1885, article in the Rawlins Tribune explained a seasonal pattern that worried stockmen. During warmer months, wolves and coyotes could survive on small game. In winter and early spring, when prey became harder to catch, they turned their attention to livestock.

As larger domestic herds were  moved into the territory during the late 19th century, predators became part of the economic struggle of ranching in the West. Wolves were blamed for killing calves, yearlings, sheep and, at times, full-grown cattle.

As wolves and coyotes continued preying on livestock, they were called the “pirates of the prairies,” and a literal “war on wolves” soon began. For years, it was largely a private war, rancher versus predator, man versus beast – consisting of watchful eyes and hopeful prayers. Sometimes, it included financial disaster.

A rancher’s greatest fear came on a dark night, when a pack of wolves might isolate a small group of calves and kill them. By morning, ranchers sometimes found bloodied carcasses scattered across the range. To them, it was clear that the wolves had killed more animals than they could immediately eat, and were carrying portions of the meat back to their pups hidden in nearby dens.

Even as cattlemen and sheep herders fought range wars in Johnson County, the Big Horn Basin and beyond, they shared a common enemy in the wolf.

Private ranchers and livestock companies sought help. An 1895 Sheridan Post article reported that John Kendrick had spent at least $1,000 trying to exterminate wolves in eastern Sheridan County. He hired men, supplied horses, traps, guns, provisions and poison, paid wages and offered a bounty for every wolf killed. Yet despite the enormous investment, the wolves remained plentiful, underscoring how difficult they were to eliminate.

By the turn of the century, American bison were beginning a remarkable comeback in Yellowstone after being pushed to the brink of extinction in the 1880s. In those early years, Yellowstone National Park was more than Old Faithful and scenic mountain vistas. For many visitors from the East Coast, it was a living zoo, one of the few places where they could see iconic western wildlife in its natural habitat.

Visitors came expecting to see bison, elk, deer, beaver ponds and perhaps a grizzly bear. Wolves and other predators were elusive and largely went unseen. Protecting the elk and bison calves became a priority, and the conservation of some species outweighed that of others.

Ranchers and hunters generally agreed with Yellowstone’s approach, they chose to focus on preserving animals that could be admired by visitors, while viewing wolves almost entirely as threats. Few discussed preserving them.

As losses spread beyond isolated ranches, in 1897 Wyoming lawmakers passed Wyoming House Bill 74 “An act to encourage the destruction of predatory wild animals and to provide for the bounties of the killing thereof.” In 1901, Wyoming created a state bounty fund paying $5 for wolves and $2 for coyotes. County commissioners were also allowed to add local bounties. Although some worried about the expense, the first year’s $20,000 appropriation was quickly exhausted.

By 1905, wolf hunting had become both a public campaign and a private business. Skilled hunters and trappers, often called “wolfers,” could earn money from several sources at once. A wolf might bring a state bounty, county bounty, livestock association payment, rancher’s reward and the value of the pelt – the hardest part was collecting from every source.

In 1907, the Sheridan Post published an article titled “Wolf hunting as a business.” By then, even the federal government was hiring hunters and trappers to help stockmen living near national lands. The article reported that two men hired near Big Piney would receive $60 per month from the government in addition to local fees and bounties.

Until this period, wolves had rarely been killed inside Yellowstone Park, but reports of wolves attacking bison calves and alarming tourists pushed park officials toward a more deliberate elimination effort. Park employees were instructed to kill wolves when possible.

Across Wyoming, trappers who understood wolf behavior could make up to $10,000 a year during good times, or roughly $300,000 today.

Wyoming state records show that by 1910, 20,819 wolves had been killed and $67,866 paid in bounties, yet many believed it still was not enough. Wolves continued moving deeper into forests and traveling farther to hunt.

The money offered for wolves kept increasing. In 1910, the Casper Tribune reported that the West Big Horn County Wolf Bounty Association offered $30 for a male wolf, $40 for a female wolf, an additional $20 if she were pregnant and $10 for each pup killed. Those rewards came on top of the $5 state bounty.

The paper said the program would make “trapping in that section an attractive proposition.”

Another announcement from the Lost Cabin District said that, with all local and state bounties combined and the value of the pelt included, a hunter could earn $90 for a single adult wolf.

Every Western state was engaged in a similar campaign. The McMillan Fur Co. of Minneapolis urged hunters to “kill the brute!” and ship wolf skins, furs, hides and pelts to the company. The advertisement ended with the phrase, “There’s money in it.”

Expert wolf hunters patiently studied their prey. Killing a male brought some money, but tracking a female in early spring and locating her den brought the greatest rewards. Hunters often killed the female, and then killed or captured the pups, sometimes selling them to Eastern zoos or roadside attractions.

Slowly, the campaign began achieving its goal. Hunters became so successful that they eliminated much of their own source of income.

More often, only isolated wolves were spotted. Without packs and mates, wolves struggled to survive.

According to Hank Fischer’s book “Wolf Wars,” the last Wyoming wolves likely survived inside Yellowstone Park. Between 1914 and 1923, government agents killed at least 136 wolves in the park. More than half were pups killed after dens were located. The last known wolf den in Yellowstone was destroyed near Tower Falls in 1923.

Within a few years, wolves had effectively been eliminated from nearly all of the lower 48 states.

An October 1923 Laramie Daily Boomerang article declared,“Wolf at last pays the penalty for his many crimes.”

By the standards of the time, the campaign had succeeded. Ranchers, stock associations and government agencies had spent decades working together to remove wolves from the range. The bounty system paid skilled hunters and trappers to systematically destroy entire packs.

For nearly 60 years, Wyoming was essentially free of wolves. A few may have wandered through remote areas, but for most ranchers and sheepmen, the problem had largely disappeared.

Then history moved in a different direction.

In 1995 and 1996, 31 gray wolves from Canada were reintroduced into Yellowstone Park as part of a federal recovery effort. The decision became one of the most controversial wildlife actions in modern Western history, leading to years of legal, political and cultural debate.

Today, century-old newspaper clippings show that Wyoming’s earlier campaign against wolves was neither hidden nor accidental. It was public policy – local fundraising, private enterprise and government action all working toward the same goal.

For decades, the lives of Wyoming stockmen, skilled hunters and trappers and the wolves they pursued remained intertwined across the state and throughout the West, each struggling in its own way for economic and physical survival.

More than a century later, all of their complicated stories are still being told.