Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame

Jim Bridger was born in Virginia. In 1804, he moved to Missouri with his parents. After an apprenticeship as a blacksmith, he hired on with William Ashley in 1822 and headed to the Rocky Mountains after fur.

Jim was an accomplished trapper and mountain man who became an expert scout for the Army. He was one of the first Americans to see the wonders of Yellowstone. In  1824, he followed the Bear River south into the Great Basin  where he discovered the Great Salt  Lake. In 1843, he established a fort and trading post (Fort. Bridger) on the Black's Fork of the Green River in Wyoming Territory. In 1859, he guided the Raynolds expedition into Montana  and in 1861, showed army engineer E.L. Berthoud into Colorado. He assisted  with the surveys for the transcontinental railroad and the campaign against Red Cloud. As much as any other man, he opened the American West and many places in Wyoming and the West are named after him.

He lived long enough to see the Yellowstone region set aside as a national park and must have been pleased to know that a corner of the wilderness he knew had been protected from development. In 1867, with failing eyesight, he returned to Missouri, and in 1881 he died penniless and forgotten by all but a few old friends.

William Barlow was born to Marion and Lewis Barlow on October 1, 1936 in Sheridan, Wyoming. He graduated from Campbell County High School in 1954 and went on to earn a degree in Agriculture at the University of Wyoming in 1958. After graduation he was a delegate for an International Farm Youth Exchange program and spent six months in Burma. In 1960, he joined the International Voluntary Services and spent the next two years in Cambodia, where he met his future wife, Bernadette, who was attending law school. When he returned to the US, Bill got his teaching certificate and taught Vocational Agriculture and Social Studies in high school before returning to the family ranch where he continued the tradition of conserving grassland for livestock and wildlife alike.

In the early 1970s, the huge coal deposits under the Powder River basin became a valuable commodity. He and his neighbors watched with growing concern as strip mines opened across the landscape, and proposals for coal-fired power plants emerged. In 1973, this group of landholders organized and began calling itself the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

Over the decades, Barlow and the council spoke upon spectrum of issues affecting land and landholders in the region. It pressed for passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, opposed the construction of coal-fired power plants in Wyoming, and was instrumental in passing the state's Industrial Siting Act. One of Bill's most significant contributions was his role in the Cow Creek-60 Bar Land Exchange with the BLM that eventually formed the 20,000-acre Burnt Hollow a rea for public use. The whole process took almost five years, and BLM has described it as one of the biggest, most complicated land exchanges in Wyoming. Bill didn't see this project come to fruition as it was dedicated in March, 2002 one year after his death in March, 2001.

Fred was born to Fred and Anna Wise man in Pearl River, New York on  October 24, 1923. After graduation from Pearl River High School he joined the armed forces during World War II. After service in the  European and Pacific theaters and subsequent discharge, he went on to  receive his degree in wildlife management with  a specialty in fisheries at Utah State University in 1950. That same year he began his career as a  fisheries biologist with the Wyoming Game and  Fish Department and eventually was promoted to the positions of district fisheries supervisor and fisheries management coordinator over a career that lasted 28 years.

Fred was instrumental in developing the first stages of inventorying and surveying fish habitat. He served as a member of the Wyoming Legislative Interim Committee for stream preservation, chaired the first "Instream Flow Needs and Specialty Conference" and participated in the development of Wyoming's Stream Classification map. Before DEQ and EPA, he worked with the State Sanitation Engineer to remove wastewater from streams and had a major responsibility for the 400 mile chemical treatment of the Green River prim to the flooding of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

He served as President of the Western Division of the American Fisheries Society. In  1969, was named to the Hall of Excellence by the Society in 1977 and was recognized as the outstanding worker for 1976 by the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. He also receive d the Wildlife Conservation Award from the Wyoming Wildlife Federation  and the Sears Roebuck Foundation. He has been a member of the American Fisheries  Society since 1950, a member of the American Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists since 1970, was a founding member of the Great Plains Fisheries Workers Association and has been registered with the American  Fisheries Society as a fisheries  scientist since l 970.

After leaving the Department, Fred was employed by industry as an environmental compliance person working in Alaska. Mo re recently he is serving as an aid at the Casper College Werner Wildlife Museum and as a recorder a t the Western History Archives. He is also an active participant in the Library of Congress veteran's interview program and has served for more than 20 years on the Platte River Parkway Board of Trustees. Fred has also written several publications dealing with fisheries and environmental issues.

Finis Mitchell was born on November 14, 1901 in Ethel, Missouri, son of the late Henry Reece and Faye Troutman Mitchell. He traveled by wagon with  his parents from Missouri to Wyoming's Wind River Mountains, arriving on April 26, 1906. The family seeded on 160 acres in the sagebrush desert under the Wind River Range. His formal education ended after the 7th grade; however, he later served two terms in the House of Representatives and was honored with an honorary doctorate from the University of Wyoming.

In 1909 he climbed his first mountain on an elk hunt with his father. What he saw shaped the rest of his life. "From the first time I saw them, I felt the mountains were my real home. Where else can a man get so close to Heaven  - to his Creator - with both feet on the ground?" He  went on to travel more than 15,000 miles of Wind River Trails and climbed in excess of 250 peaks. In 1975, the US  Geological Survey named Mitchell Peak after Finis, elevation 12,842, and erected a plaque noting that he had climbed the peak 11 times. He went on to climb it another 10 times after the plaque was in place. Many other peaks, glaciers, and lakes in the Wind  River Range have names suggested by Mitchell.

Finis married Emma Nelson on June 4, 1925. They had two children, Anna M. Dew and William R. Mitchell. He worked for Union Pacific Railroad and guided fishermen in the mountains. During the Depression, they set up the first recreation area on the Pacific side of the Wind River Range and called it  Mitchell's Fishing Camp. The only problem was, out of 319 lakes accessible from the camp, only five contained fish. To remedy a the problem, Finis, along with his brother and father, horse -packed  trout into the range to stock lakes. The Game and  Fish  Department  furnished, the fish in five-gallon milk cans, and over a period of eight years the Mitchells took them into more than 300 lakes. In essence,  they took a fishing desert and turned it into a sportsman's paradise.

In 1975, Fin is wrote the definitive guide  to hiking in the Wind River Range, Wind River Trails. He helped mark trails and update maps for both the National Park Service and the US Forest Service. His efforts opened the backcountry of  "the Winds" to many. In 1920 he bought his first camera and accumulated well over 100,000 photos, as part of his legacy.

He received many awards and citations during his lifetime, including special recognition from the Bridger-Teton  Forest on their 75th anniversary. He was also recognized by both the California and Wyoming legislatures, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the dining hall at Western Wyoming Junior College was named for him and Emma. In addition, he has been the focus of countless articles in  scores of magazines and his photographs have appeared in many publications, including some in the Soviet Union.

Until his death November 13, 1995, one day before his 94th birth day, Fin is lived by the philosophy "Take only pictures, leave only footprints, kill nothing but time."

Hans Kleiber was born August  24, 1887 in Jaegersdorf, Austria, on the eastern slope of the Sudeten Mountain Range. His parents love for nature inspired Hans to learn about, love and appreciate the beauty of the outdoors. He was an avid reader and was intrigued by the American Frontier. At the age of 14, Hans quit school to work to help his family through a financial crisis. In 1900 he and his family immigrated to the US where his father, a textile designer, found work in Massachusetts.

He was quickly disillusioned with the north east as it was not the "America" he dreamed of experiencing.    Being fluent in German as well as French, Hans quickly learned the English language and immersed himself into read­ing outdoor magazines featuring the forests and mountains of the west. In  addition, he had short- lived, informal art training by way of a brief apprenticeship and time spent with friends in New Jersey, where he learned the principles of art and the use of paint. When he learned of the government's plan to establish a Forest Service, he made a personal decision to eventually become a part of this national project.

In 1906 , Kleiber moved west and joined the McShane Timber company, based in the Bighorn Mountains, as he was too young for a Civil Service position. In 1908, he became a Forest Guard and finally, after the long task off finalizing his American citizenship, he was appointed  Forest Ranger in 1911. In 1920, he was designated as a Ranger at Large.

Kleiber laid out many of the Bighorn Mountain roads and trails still used today, as well as exploring and map­ping unknown areas in the Big Horn, Washakie, Wind  River and Bridger National Forests. He became an expert firefighter, and was a trusted Forest Service Firefighter crew boss in Minnesota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Kleiber built and rebuilt telephone lines connecting Bighorn  Mountain Ranger stations to aid in fire control.

Hans resigned from the US Forest Service in 1923 to pursue art full- time. His love of the Wyoming outdoors and his time spent  there as a Ranger showed through in his poetry, stories and artwork. He was soon "discovered" by an Eaton Dude Ranch guest, who arranged for his first big show in Boston. Largely self- taught, Kleiber became a nationally known etcher. His work was shown around the US, including the National Museum in Washington, DC in 1944. Etchings that once sold for $10 are now worth hundreds. He also published  a book of poetry called Songs of Wyoming and a book of fanciful forest animal short stories called Daydreams and Fantasies.

Hans Kleiber died at his home in Dayton , Wyoming on December 8, 196 7. Kleiber's family donated his rustic 1920's log studio, along  with art, furnishings, photos and art supplies to his "hometown" of Dayton at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. His love for the outdoors and wildlife lives on in the art he left behind.  It continues to inspire  people  to find  the places  he stood and  travel the trails he blazed as an early outdoor pioneer. Preservation and enjoyment of our mountains were his life's work, and his artistic exploration grew from this need to express his love for the outdoors.

Chuck Ward was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, April  15, 1926 to Joe and Helen Ward. He attended school in LaGrange, Wyoming, graduating in 1944. He served in the US Air Corps until 1946 and then went on to attend  the University of Montana, graduating with a BS degree in Wildlife Technology in 1950. He worked a short time as a Research Biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana, and then in 1951 Chuck began his thirty-one year career with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Initially, Ward worked in Cheyenne as an Education Assistant where he influenced the lives of many young people, by sharing the conservation message. Many of these young people went on to pursue careers in the  conservation  arena. Chuck later became the game warden in Casper. Over the next 20 years he became the voice for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, doing radio programs five nights a week on KTWO and KVOC radio stations. In addition, he became "Mr. Game and Fish" to nearly everyone in the state through his bi-weekly game and fish reports on KTWO TV

As a game warden, Chuck was tenacious. He was known to be out checking hunters and  fishermen when they least expected to encounter a warden. As a  warden he had his finger on the pulse of both wildlife and  the public, and he applied that knowledge to  merge the management of the resource with public demands within his district. At every opportunity he continued his education efforts,  including providing a conservation program for all  ninth grade students in the Natrona County School District. He also presented  a program to all Casper fourth graders on fur-bearing animals and trapping in conjunction with a chapter in  their Wyoming History book on mountain men. One of the students in these classes was the current Chief Game Warden, Jay Lawson.

Chuck was an active member in The Wildlife Society, The American Society of Ecologist and Herpetologists, Phi Sigma Biological Honoree, Wyoming Peace Officers Association, Casper Red Cross Water Safety Commission, Casper Community Board of Recreation Directors, Boy Scouts of America as Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, District and Council Camping and Activities Chairman, Explorer Post Advisor and  the Wyoming Game Wardens Association. Chuck was a certified Casting Instructor for the National Angling and Fly Fishing Organization, NRA Police Firearms Instructor, and Wyoming Hunter Safety Instructor.

Following his retirement in 1981, Chuck continued in the education field as a science and computer science instructor in the Torrington school system, Eastern Wyoming College, and Darby School District, Darby, Montana.  Following retirement from his second career, he and  his wife, Wilma, moved to Puyallup, Washington to  be near their family. Since living in  the  Puyallup  area, he has received  the  President's Volunteer Service Award for volunteer service to the community. This included six years assisting first and second graders improve their reading skills and helping judge the Puyallup School District science fair. 

Bert  Raynes was  born  in  New Jersey, and his wife,  Meg, was born in  Pennsylvania. The two met while attending Penn State. They vacationed in Jackson Hole in the 1950s and made the decision to move there permanently upon retirement in the 1970s. Bert credits Meg for introducing him to the world of nature. The two of them complement each other's talents and have worked as a team to make significant contributions towards the awareness and conservation of Wyoming's natural resources.

Bert, with  Meg as editor, has written five books, as well as a weekly natural history column for the Jackson Hole Nest for the past 28 years. His books include helpful guides to find and identify birds in the Jackson area such as Birds of Grand Teton National Park and Surrounding Areas, Finding the Birds of Jackson Hole, and Winter Wings. Other books, Valley So Sweet and Curmudgeon Chronicles, focus on area history and include gleanings from his column. They were also the authors of the first valley bird checklist, which continues to be revised and updated every few years.

Meg discovered a historic hunting blind site on the Jackson Hole Elk Refuge that archaeologists acknowledge as Raynes Site 1. Together, Bert and Meg founded the Jackson Hole Bird club in the 1970s that still meets monthly and provides a forum for residents and visitors to exchange information on bird observations. Bert has taught classes at the Teton Science School for many years. Bert and Meg have provided support to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Nongame Bird Program through educating the public and providing records over the years on bird occurrence, distribution, and natural history. In recognition "of the extraordinary contributions to the public's awareness of wildlife and the habitat necessary for its survival," Bert was awarded the prestigious Rungius Medal from the National Museum of Wildlife Art in 1999.

Although Bert is no longer able to lead birding trips, he still answers numerous phone calls and e -mails  requesting information on identification of birds and/or conservation. Meg, in support of their life long partnership, continues to edit and critique Bert's writing.

Frank Cooper Craighead, Jr. and  John Johnson Craighead were born  in Washington, D.C. on August 14,  1916.  Their par­ents were Dr. Frank C. Craighead, Sr. and Carolyn Johnson Craighead. Frank, Sr. was a forest entomologist working for the Department of Agriculture, and Carolyn was a biologist technician. As youths, the boys developed a keen fascination with falconry, helping to pioneer the sport in the United  States and honing what would become their lifelong interest in wildlife conservation. In the summer of 1934, just after high school, Frank and John drove west in a 1928 Chevrolet with several of their friends,  photographing and capturing  hawks and falcons. They drove on dirt roads all the way, pulling over at night to camp.  During this trip, they first  saw Jackson Hole and visited with world renowned naturalists Olaus and Mardy Murie. The  spectacular beauty of  Wyoming remained with them through subsequent travels,  and they promised themselves they would return someday to live near the Tetons.  Parts of this trip were described in their first magazine article, “Adventures with Birds of Prey,” penned for National Geographic  Magazine in 1937.

 

Frank and John graduated with A.B. degrees in Science in 1939 from Pennsylvania State University, where they both excelled on the wrestling team. They went on to the University of Michigan for M.S. degrees in Ecology and Wildlife Management in 1940. That same year, an Indian Prince named K.S. "Bapa" Dharmakumarsinjhi read their falconry article in the National Geographic Magazine and invited them to visit him in India. They wrote another National Geographic article and made a film about this visit, both titled, " Life With an Indian Price." These were the last days of the rule of Maharajahs in India, and the last  days of Indian falconry on a grand scale .

 

With the outbreak of World War II, the brothers organized and conducted an outdoor living course for training military pre-inductees. Frank and John were commissioned as Lieutenants in the U.S. Naval  Reserve Aviation Training Program and stationed in Pensacola, Florida. The Navy had taken keen interest in the brothers' outdoor skills course at the university, and as naval officer they were thus tasked with the unique assignment of pioneering survey techniques for military aviators and other personnel in the South Pacific. One outcome of this service was publication of their oft-reprinted Navy manual, "How to Survive on Land and Sea." While on a short military leave, Frank took a train to Illinois and married Escher Stevens.

 

After their wartime service, the brothers returned to Jackson Hole, where they bought 14 acres of land from John Moulton on Antelope Flats near Moose. They also completed their Ph.D studies at the University of Michigan. John Craighead married Margaret Smith and the two couples built identical cabins on their property in Moose and began families.

 

Frank and John went their separate ways in the early 1950, when John accepted a permanent position with  the University of Montana.

 

John spent most of his subsequent career at the University of Montana, serving for many years as the leader of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit there. Similarly, Frank served in several li:de ral and academic positions and in 1955 formed the nonprofit Outdoor Recreation Institute. In 1959, Frank and John careers merged again. At the request of Yellow­stone National Park, they began a 12-year study of grizzly bears. One of their greatest contribution to this study, and to the science of wildlife ecology, was their leadership in developing and using radio transmitters.

 

If there is one recurring theme in the lives of these remarkable individuals, it is the fact that these brothers repeatedly pioneered so many frontiers, from falconry to wildlife cinematography and immobilization, radio and satellite telemetry, and large scale satellite mapping of habitats. Perpetuating their legacy, many of the Craigheads' students, co-researchers, and children went on to pioneer the ir own new frontiers in science with other wildlife: species including mountain lions, wolverines, Arctic grizzlies, Alaskan brown bear, and peregrine falcons, among many others.

 

Although Frank and John retired in the mid- l980s, neither ever gave up their lifelong devotion to outdoor recreation, scientific research, and interpretation of the natural world. At age 89, John continues to remain as active as possible, fishing, writing, and organizing a life's worth of paper, files, photographs and artifacts.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Sybille Wildlife Research Unit wouldn't be what it is today, or where it is today, if it were not for Floyd Blunt. He was responsible for establishing the Research Center at  its present location, and his forward-thinking resulted in one of the nation's finest research facilities.

 

Floyd was born to Newton and Mabel Blunt January 24, 19l6 on a homestead near Yoder. He graduated from Guernsey High School in 1937. Putting himself through college by working full-time as a mechanic and gas station attendant in Laramie, he graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1941 with a B.S. in Agriculture. After Pearl Harbor, he joined the Army where he served 4 1/2 years in the South Pacific. Floyd was discharged in 1945 as a decorated Master Sergeant.

 

His career with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department began in 1946. He took leave to attend graduate school in 1947 but was called back that fall. Floyd's  work on large game resulted in an increase in antelope quotas due to improved aerial survey techniques in 1949-50 that showed there were more antelope available

for harvest than previously thought. He worked on an improved deer, elk, and antelope trap design, and these species were subsequently transplanted to new areas. He was instrumental in transplanting the Merriam's Turkey to the Bear Lodge area of the Black Hills.

 

Floyd became Coordinator of Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration in 1950. He was released from his duties in 1955 so that he could oversee construction of the Sybille Wildlife Research Unit (now designated the Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center).

 

Sybille was the first of its kind, and Floyd had to design chutes and pens for animal handling.  Many of his innovations would  be copied in later years. Floyd led by example, encouraging every researcher to emulate  his calm demeanor, steady voice and slow, deliberate actions to avoid exciting captive wildlife. His  philosophy was to "let the animal figure out what you wanted." His unique personality and calming influence on animals was amazing. When asked about  that ability,  Floyd  said  you had to develop "simpatico" or mutual interactions and understanding that allowed  you to gain their confidence.

 

His relationship with animals evokes Rudyard Kipling's description of King Solomon's mythical ability to communicate with beasts and birds.

 

There was never a king like Solomon Not since the world began

Yet Solomon talked to a butterfly 

As a man would talk to a man.

 

Tom Bell has dedicated his life to the conservation of wildlife and wild lands. His induction into the Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame recognizes a full lifetime of achievement.

 

Tom was raised on a small ranch near Lander and attended one-room schools through the 8th grade. He graduated from Fremont County High School in 1941 where he was president of the student body. With the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the U.S.  Army Air Force and was assigned to the 455th Bombardier Group in Italy. In May of 1944, he lost his right eye to German flak but completed the combat mission he was on despite his injuries. At age 20, he was a 1st Lieutenant with a Silver Star, Purple Heart, and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. Following the war, he returned to the University of Wyoming where he majored in wildlife management, reactivated the Rodeo Club, found the Ski Club, and served as student body president, earning a bachelor's degree in 1948.

 

After graduating, Tom ran a sawmill and later worked at a trout hatchery. Having married, he worked for a time in the oil and gas industry and then returned to the University of Wyoming to complete a master’s degree in zoology. He also received the first Aven Nelson Fellowship in Botany and conducted research for the Rocky Mountain Herbarium.

 

After teaching junior high science in Lander, he worked for the  Wyoming Game and Fish Department as a  bi­ologist and habitat manager. He was appointed manager of the Ocean Lake Game Management Unit in 1957. Elected president of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation in 1965, he was instrumental in revealing thousands of miles of illegal fences on public lands. He also founded the Wyoming Outdoor Council in an effort to foster cooperation between outdoor interests.Tom Bell founded High Country News in 1970, feeling the public needed to be educated as to what was happening to our land, water, air and wildlife. The paper is still in existence, with a circulation of over 20,000.

 

In recognition of his many achievements, Tom Bell received the Shikar-Safari International Award for Wyoming Conservationist of the Year in 1970, the American Motors Conservation Award for 1973, and the National Wildlife Federation's J.N. "Ding" Darling Conservationist of the Year Award in 2001.

For the Great Outdoors to be a true asset, people have to get out into it.  Sam Mavrakis can be considered one of Wyoming's premier advocates for making that happen. Born June 18, 1918, in Monarch, Wyoming, to Greek immigrant parents Harry and Georgia  Mavrakis , Sam graduated from Sheridan High School in 1937. He attended BYU on a football scholarship, where he was a varsity football player and wrestler.  In January 1942, Sam was drafted into the Army and spent WWII in the Pacific Theater where  he served as a Staff Sergeant with the 211th  AAA Battalion.  He was honorably discharged in December 1945. He and his older brother, Paul, opened the Ritz Sporting Goods Store in Sheridan in 1947. The store closed in December 1998. Sam married Goldie Williams in 1953 and they had two children, Tami and Sam Paul.  Goldie passed away in 1980. In 1990 Sam married Lynn Borg  Burnham; they still reside in Sheridan.  Sam recently retired from operating Sam's Flies and Rods out of his home.

 

From 1947 through 1998, Sam not only sold hunting, fishing, and camping equipment; he also dispensed enormous amounts of professional advice, encouragement, and personal goodwill. He genuinely want ed  people  to have as good a time as possible while they were out enjoying Wyoming. Whether it was equipment, a lesson in how to use it or use it better, or directions to a new place to use it, Sam was always ready to help.  He conduct­ed  fly tying and casting classes and demonstrations at the store on a  regular  basis. It was  not  unusual to see him in the alley and occasionally on  Main Street  helping a customer with casting techniques.  Over the years, his customers ranged from the  kids down  the  street  to  Wyoming Governors, U.S. Senators and  Representatives, Presidents and Vice -Presidents, and the Queen of England .

 

Sam was far-sighted enough to  know that simply getting folks outdoors  wasn't enough.  The outdoors had  to be enticing and suitable for people to use. To  that end, he was a staunch advocate for Wyoming lands, fish, and wildlife. Sportsmen came into the store to discuss legislation and  policy with Sam, who  in turn  rallied support for or against the various issues. Many petitions had origin in the Ritz, and Sam initiated several letter- writing and phone-call campaigns to legislators. An all-around advocate for wildlife in the state, Sam was active for years in organizations that supported big game, small game, and fish.

 

His generosity was as well known as his willingness to help. He personally contributed to many causes , among them Trout Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Wyoming Wildlife Federation, Foundation for  North  American Wild Sheep, and  Pheasants  Forever. He also  regularly donated his custom built fly rods to various organizations for their fundraisers. On a more personal level, local kids who came into the Ritz with broken hunting or fishing equipment always left with  more than they brought in, and  they were seldom charged. This was not just a goodwill gesture  on Sam's  part.  He was  building the next generation of hunters and anglers.

 

Jim Simon was born in North Platte, Nebraska, in 1908 and moved  to  Riverton, Wyoming, with his family when he was ten. He became an amateur naturalist wh ile in his teens and decided to pursue a
degree in zoology. Studying under Dr. John Scott at the University of Wyoming, he obtained a master's degree, then stayed on to teach zoology for two years.

In 1936, Jim took an assignment as a ranger and naturalist in Yellowstone National Park where he studied distribution of fish species in the park and published his book, Yellowstone Fishes.

In 1937, Dr. Scott appointed Jim as Wyoming state fish commissioner and state fish warden. Jim undertook a complete inventory of Wyoming fishes and disposed of several obsolete hatcheries.

With the outbreak of World War II, Jim joined the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater, leaving naval service with the rank of lieutenant commander. After the war, he returned to Wyoming and the Game and  Fish Department where he published his definitive Wyoming Fishes 1946.

Jim  had  honed his skills with both still and motion-picture equipment, and upon his return to Wyoming, he began filming wildlife. One of his first film productions, Wyoming's Big Game, revealed his artistic talent and his eye for photographing wildlife.

In 1947, he became director of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Park and the New York Zoological Society's Field  Station near Moran where he perfected his filmmaking skills, and his work soon came to the attention of Walt Disney. Disney later offered Jim a contract as field director and cinematographer.

His Vanishing Prairie and The Living Desert both won academy awards, as did Bear Country, Water Birds, and White Wilderness. His jaguar documentary, Jungle Cat, won filmdom's Famous Fives Award.

Following an African expedition to produce documentary for the New York Zoological Society, Jim brought  his family back to Wyoming. He was  hired as special projects director by the Wyoming Travel Commission and immediately created a series of publications and  television spots promoting Wyoming's outdoors. In  1971, Jim received the prestigious National Press Photographers Association Television News  Film Award.

Jim Simon's life would be cut short by lung cancer in 1973. In a personal note a year before his death, Wyoming Senator Clifford Hansen wrote to Jim, Few people have done more unusual things than you, and fewer still  have contributed so much to a state and nation. -Jay Lawson

Born in 1908, Paul Petzoldt faced difficult times as a child. His family lost its Iowa farm and moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, when Paul was eleven.

He began his climbing career in the rock bluffs overlooking  the Snake  River near Twin  Falls. At sixteen, he climbed the Grand Teton with a  friend -  they  were only the fourth party to make  the ascent. The adventure led him to other climbs in North and South  America, Europe, and Asia. Guiding tourists in the Tetons, he developed new techniques for safe climbing,  many of which he refined during his service with the Tenth Mountain Division in World War II.

In 1961, Petzoldt launched a climbing school in Lander, Wyoming. At about the same time, he testified in favor of the Wilderness Act, which became federal law in 1964.

The creation of the wilderness system fueled a growing interest in the American backcountry. Thousands of people flocked to the wilderness with great enthusiasm and remarkably little training. Petzoldt saw both the interest and the lack of experience and decided to open a school of his own. The National Outdoor Leadership School opened for business in Lander in the summer of 1965.

The classes spent a month in the Wind River Range, backpacking, climbing, fishing, and botanizing. Petzoldt and his colleagues emphasized the need to minimize the impact of wilderness activities: The basic thing to remember is to camp and pass through an area and leave no trace of your being there, he told the  students. The school and its charismatic leader rapidly gained an international reputation. More than 75,000 people have been through NOLS courses, learning backcountry techniques and, at the same time, a reverence for the backcountry itself.

Not satisfied with this contribution to ethical outdoor recreation, Petzoldt launched an even broader program- the Wilderness Education Association. Beginning in  1977,  the association built a curriculum that stresses  low -impact  use of the backcountry.

In 1994 at the age of eighty-six, Petzoldt climbed to the moraine of Middle Teton Glacier at an altitude of 11,000 feet on the Grand Teton. Hand ic a pped by his vision-  he had lost most of his eyesight to glaucoma- he called a halt.

I've been teaching judgment for sixty years, he said. I was afraid if I tried the final pitch, I'd step on a rock that wasn't there.

He came back down to  the valleys unbowed. In 1999, he died at the age of ninety-one. -Chris Madson

George Bird Grinnell was born in Brooklyn in 1849. When he was about eight years old, his family moved to Audubon  Park, where the widow of John James Audubon ran a small elementary school,
which the young George attended. This childhood contact with the Audubons kindled a lifelong interest in natural history and conservation.

In 1870, he volunteered to go to Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah on a collecting expedition with the paleontologist, Othniel Marsh. He returned to the plains in 1872, accompanied the Custer expedition to South Dakota's Black Hills in 1874, served as chief naturalist on the Ludlow expedition to Yellowstone Park in  18 75, and  made several other western  hunting trips between 1876 and 1880. In 1883, Grinnell bought a ranch in Wyoming’s Shirley Basin.

In 1880, he took over the editorship of Field and Stream, a sporting publication that, under Grinnell's leadership, became the leading voice for conservation of big game and wild land in America. In 1881, he took up the fight to preserve the remnants of the bison and, in 1882, began a campaign to protect Yellowstone's wildlife that ended with the passage of the Yellowstone Park Protection Act in 1894. At about the same time, Grinnell began a drive to end spring shooting of waterfowl, an effort that culminated in the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918.

In 1884, Grinnell called for an association of men bound together by their interest in game and fish, a suggestion  that led  to  the formation of  the  Boone and  Crockett Club, a  major force in early conservation. Grinnell worked behind the scenes as he so often did, serving as a member of the executive committee. In 1886, he organized the National Audubon Society. Inspired by Grinnell's strong views on the sale of wild game and plumes, his close friend, John Lacey, introduced a bill that supported state game laws by making the interstate shipment of illegally killed game a violation of federal statute. The Lacey Act is still a crucial part of American conservation.

Grinnell was stalwart in the struggle to protect the nation's forests, advocating government system of forest conservation as early as 1883, an idea that led to the establishment of our national forests. He championed the idea of  protecting Glacier Na tio na l Pa rk. An avid  hunter and angler, he was one of the most influential advocates of sportsmanship  and ethics in the blood sports. When he died in 1938, The New York Times remembered him as the father of American conservation. --Chris Madson

Beth Williams earned her D.V.M. at Purdue University in 1977. While working on her Ph. D. in veterinary pathology at Colorado State University, Beth earned fame for providing the first scientific description of chronic wasting disease and cont in ued to be a leading expert on CWD throughout her career.  She was involved in many wildlife organizations and was frequently recognized for her accomplishments. She served on United Nations, National Academy of Scie nce and the National Institutes of local committees concerned with animal health issues. During her career, Beth worked on diseases affecting a host of wildlife species in the West.

In 1980, Beth married Tom Thorne, and in 198 2, she joined the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Wyoming, beginning one of the most productive husband-and-wife collaborations in the history of American conservation.

Tom Thorne earned a bachelor's degree in zoology and D.V.M. at Oklahoma State University. In 1968, he started work as a wildlife veterinarian with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, where he researched  brucellosis in elk and bison, a disease that threatened the economy and ecological integrity of western Wyoming. As a  prominent expert on brucellosis, tuberculosis, chronic wasting disease and many other wildlife health issues, he worked on diseases in most of Wyoming's big game animals and edited and co-wrote Diseases of Wildlife in Wyoming, one of the indispensable texts for wildlife veterinarians in the West. Tom was respected internationally, was a sought after speaker and received numerous awards. He was also deeply involved with a variety of wildlife organizations.

In 1983, Thorne supervised the difficult effort to return black-footed ferrets to the wild and later supervised the captive breeding program that saved the rare Wyoming toad from extinction.

With his wife, Beth, Tom worked tirelessly to solve the problems of disease in game animals and other wildlife. If there was a sick animal anywhere in the Rocky Mountain West, the chances were good that Tom and Beth we're trying to make it well. -Chris Madson