January 2022 - 14

A LOOK BACK CASE FILES
An elk hunt on
Two-Ocean Pass
Former President Theodore Roosevelt recounts a memorable time
in northwest Wyoming
By Robert Gagliardi
T
heodore Roosevelt was the 26th
president of the United States from
1901-09. He also was vice president,
governor of New York and assistant
secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt accomplished
a lot as a politician, but he also was a wellrespected
conservationist and naturalist whose
outdoor legacy remains.
Roosevelt established the U.S. Forest
Service and created five national parks and
18 national monuments. He also created 51
bird reserves, four game reserves and 150
national forests.
Roosevelt had a passion for hunting, and
the New York native's first hunt out West
was in the 1880s for bison in the Dakota
Territory. In September 1891 Roosevelt
came to northwest Wyoming to hunt, and
he documented that adventure. Titled " Elk
hunt on Two-Ocean Pass, " the January 2002
issue of Wyoming Wildlife ran the story over
nine pages. There wasn't room in this issue
to run the full story, but here is a look back
at some of the highlights.
Roosevelt's hunting party consisted of
two other hunters, a packer who doubled
as a cook and a boy who took care of 20
horses that packed gear, people and harvested
animals. Roosevelt wrote about the love-hate
relationship he had with the horses.
" After having been laboriously driven
up a very steep incline, at the cost of severe
exertion both to them and the men, the
foolish creatures turn and run down to the
bottom so that all the work has to be done
over again, " Roosevelt wrote. " Some travel
too slow; others travel too fast.
" Yet one cannot but admire the toughness
of the animals and the surefootedness with
14 | January 2022
President Theodore Roosevelt dressed for a hiking trip. (Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library)
which they pick their way along the sheer
mountainsides, among boulders and over
fallen logs. "
On the third day of the hunt - in the
rain - Roosevelt shot a bull elk. Two bulls
were bugling in a small valley. His description
of the harvest read, " It was very exciting as we
crept toward the great bull, and the challenge
sounded nearer and nearer. ... I saw the tips of
the horns through a mass of dead timber and
young growth, and I slipped to one side to get
a clean shot. Seeing us but not making out
what we were and full of fierce and insolent
excitement, the wapiti bull stepped boldly
toward us with a stately, swinging gate. Then
he stood motionless, facing us, barely 50 yards
away, his handsome, 12-tined antlers tossed
aloft as he held his head with the lordly grace
of his kind. I fired into his chest and as he
turned I faced forward and shot him in the

January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2022

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