RANGELEY – In January of 1914, Franklin County residents feared that the native black bears were out to get them. In the middle of winter, the local newspaper reported rumors that in the Rangeley area, bears were “so thick that they hunted in packs like wolves.”
Today, few would give credence to such a story.
“Absolutely contrary to bear nature,” observed University of Maine at Farmington biology professor Ron Butler. “Most bears are denned up in January.”
Jennifer Vashon of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife agreed. Bears hibernate in winter, and they just don’t run in packs. In fact, the wildlife biologist said, “You don’t see bears interacting, except in family groups and during breeding season.”
Yet less than a hundred years ago, tales were told of how area residents Jim Mathieson and Jim Stewart were chased by “these vicious and ferocious beasts.”
According to people who study bears today, the animals have historically been victims of bad publicity. We no longer consider bears to be “vicious and ferocious.”
“Sounds to me like the popular mythology that was prevalent,” said Butler. Vashon pointed out that childhood fables like Goldilocks influenced people’s image of bears. “Fear of predators took a long time to go away,” she observed.
As the 1914 story goes, Stewart and Mathieson became alarmed when they saw several bears in the woods near Oquossoc. Stewart shot at one but didn’t kill it.
His story intrigued some of the local hunters, including G.W. Fanjoy who put together a group of hunters and a bear dog to travel to Oquossoc to see for themselves.
In reality, bears don’t eat people. “That’s not an issue,” said Vashon, who works for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. “A bear usually detects you before you detect it,” she said. “People rarely see them, and when they do, it’s usually a positive interaction.”
When the hunting party got to the forest around Oquossoc, the group spilt in two. Fanjoy took the dog and followed bear prints until suddenly, the bear they had been tracking rose up from behind a dead tree. According to the newspaper report, she “drew back her lips in an ugly snarl and just dared them to come on.”
Fanjoy quickly raised his gun and fired, killing the bear instantly. Getting a glimpse of another one hiding behind some brush, he quickly shot that one, too.
“Negative things happen when a bear feels cornered, or you come between a mother and cubs,” said Vashon. This is what had happened to Fanjoy.
After the animals were dead, Fanjoy discovered he had killed a very thin, and already wounded, mother bear, probably the one Stewart had shot earlier in the season. Lying dead now beside her was her 10-month-old cub.
Luann Yetter teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. Additional research for this column by UMF student David Farady.
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