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National Park After Dark

17: Night of the Grizzlies - Part 1 - Glacier National Park

National Park After Dark

Audioboom Studios

True Crime, Places & Travel, Wilderness, Society & Culture, Sports

4.84.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2021

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week we are taking you deep into the backcountry where the world is still wild and unpredictable. The views may be beautiful but this is no time to get distracted because you never know what might be lurking in the thick brush of Glacier National Park. On this trip you’re going to need to stay alert, bring all of your gear, and bring plenty of protection.

For this episode we will be retelling the story of Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson, A true story that took place in Glacier National Park during the summer of 1967. The events that took place this summer built up to TWO catastrophic incidents that would change the way we look at Grizzly bears forever. And this is just the beginning....

We love our National Parks and we know you do too but when you're out there, remember to enjoy the view but watch your back. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe from wherever you’re listening to NPAD! Become part of our Outsider family on Patreon to gain access to ad-free episode, bonus content and more. Follow our socials Instagram, Facebook , and Twitter. To share a Trail Tale, suggest a story, access merch and browse our book recommendations - head over to our website.

Source: Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The Grizzly needs space, and the continental United States no longer has space to give

0:07.4

him.

0:08.4

If he is denied running room and the human animal continues to bump against him in ever

0:12.7

increasing numbers, the Grizzly will name and kill.

0:16.8

So long as the National Park system continues to permit more and more humans to flow willy-nilly

0:22.4

to all the nooks and crannies of Glacier National Park, no one will need a crystal ball to

0:27.6

see the tragedy that is shaping up.

0:30.7

There may be a summer or two, maybe three or four, without serious injury.

0:35.2

But inevitably standards will slip, complacency and human error will return, and along will

0:41.4

come another Grizzly that is peculiar, or another Grizzly that has been baited by proximity

0:46.8

with humans and has lost its respect and fear.

0:50.5

Then, more human life will be sacrificed, almost as certainly as Tamaracks lose their

0:56.0

needles and beaver's eat aspen bark.

0:59.7

After the next huts front of death in Glacier Park, the Grizzlies will almost certainly

1:04.0

be banded to Canada, and perhaps sent to Alaska to live out his last years as a species.

1:11.7

All the goodwill and understanding in the world, all the good intentions and prized

1:16.4

proclamations will not alter his eventual fate.

1:20.4

Men and Grizzly are at core antagonists, and with the same ingenious tools that fell the

1:25.8

giant redwoods of California, and stripped the top soil of western Pennsylvania, and pollute

1:32.2

the streams of Oregon, man will rid himself of his antagonists.

1:37.2

The planet is man's, he has bent it to his will and made it his to enjoy, his to develop,

1:43.9

and his to destroy.

...

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