Unfortunately, these elk were never able to establish a breeding population and eventually disappeared from the area.Īnother re-introduction, this time in northern Beltrami County at the Red Lake Game Preserve in 1935, brought 27 elk into the area. As the years went by, the Itasca herd grew to 25 animals and, in 1929, eight elk were translocated from the herd to the Stony River Ranger District in Superior National Forest. However, only 13 elk survived that first year in the park. The Itasca State Park animals were intended to be a source herd for future “transplanting” into other areas of Minnesota. Those translocated animals came from Jackson Hole, Wy., and from a private farm in Ramsey County in Minnesota. As soon as the following two years, 1914-15, seventy elk were introduced into a holding facility in Itasca State Park. Nonetheless, the absence of elk was concern enough and, in 1913, the Minnesota Legislature allocated $5,000 dollars for a plan to bring back elk to the state. Yet the large cervids (bulls can reach weights of more than 800 pounds) weren’t absent from Minnesota for long maybe they never entirely were. In a very short period of time as Minnesota’s timber was being logged and prairie sod plowed, elk began disappearing as settlers began appearing. And it was in 1932 that the last verified sighting of a wild elk in the Northwest Angle occurred. But by 1900, elk only existed in the extreme northwest corner of the state in a few isolated pockets.īy then, beginning in 1893, elk were protected in Minnesota. Market hunting for elk was still occurring into the early 1890s. In 1840, elk ranged throughout most of Minnesota. The animals are not escaped, captive-bred elk, but, rather, are wild and free-roaming elk staking out only partial claim of what was originally a much more expansive range across Minnesota and the Great Plains. We do indeed have elk inhabiting woodlands and open landscapes of Minnesota. Yet, despite this esteemed acknowledgment by an organization that has done much to promote elk and preserve elk habitat, few Minnesotans know much about our elk. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recognizes Minnesota as an official elk state. I had surprised a bull elk - my first wild elk - while hunting solo on a secluded Montana mountain slope I had never been before. It was such a brief encounter, no exertion on my part, yet my heart raced as I stood listening to rocks being dislodged, brush cracking and large hooves thumping in dull thuds across the hard forest floor.įollowing his appearance and immediate departure, my pulse began to mellow while an overwhelming sense of awe swept over me as it became clear what I had just observed. In only a few crashing leaps he had crossed the trail before me and was blazing a new trail through even heavier timber as he barreled down a deep gorge. Suddenly, a great animal burst from the trees and snow - head riding high, tipped back - with enormous antler beams and long tines gracing each side of his body. I studied the area while standing completely motionless. At first I couldn’t identify what I was looking at in the shadows of dense fir and spruce. I was alone, walking a rugged and steep mountain trail some 6,000 feet above sea level, when a movement caught my attention. It was within the Cabinet Mountain range of extreme northwestern Montana near the Idaho border where I saw my first wild elk.
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