A Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History

12. A Grizzly in the Mail

12 A GRIZZLY IN THE MAIL The wonderful power of life which these animals possess renders them dreadful; their very track in the mud or sand, which we have sometimes found 11 inches long and 7¼ inches wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming. —Meriwether Lewis One summer day in St. Louis a large box arrived at the Missouri Historical Society addressed to me. I was gathering a collection of fur samples to include in the exhibition. We wanted to feature animals that Lewis and Clark saw for the first time, and we had managed to secure samples of sea otter, antelope, and coyote. The final hide on our list was the grizzly bear’s. Obtaining a sample proved more challenging than we had expected because the animal is federally protected in the lower forty-eight states. Our expert researcher, Jeff, had spent months searching for a grizzly hide. He finally contacted 144 A Grizzly in the Mail the Alaska state game commission, and a staff member promised to send us grizzly fur and a few claws. This delivery from Alaska represented a labor of determination and perseverance, so with great excitement the exhibition team gathered around. Jeff and I ripped open the box and immediately staggered back, gagging as a pungent stench spread throughout the room. Once recovered but still holding our breath, we carefully unwrapped a plastic bag filled with what appeared to be a whole grizzly skin, paws and claws attached, minus the head. We had expected a tanned hide, but this thing’s strong odor made us wonder just how fresh it was. We quickly closed the box and I decided to find a taxidermist who could tan the hide for us. So, under the category “other duties as assigned” I set out to locate a taxidermist, careful to rewrap the stinking package before throwing it in the trunk of my car. The enduring stench would linger many days both in the office and the car. Having never set foot in a taxidermist shop, I was curious to see what reaction the skin would bring. Not every day someone takes a grizzly bear hide to a taxidermist in the St. Louis area. The man behind the counter directed me to spread the hide on the floor, garnering an instant crowd. A grizzly pelt was a rare thing to the folks in Arnold, Missouri. A part of me wanted to say, “Yep, got a big one here. Found it out in the Ozarks, I did.” The taxidermist agreed to the work, and we were pleased with the results. The exhibition featured a beautiful bear claw necklace. Lewis wrote of the Shoshone, “[B]rave men wear collars made of the claws of the brown bear which are also esteemed of great value and are preserved with great care.” The team wanted to give visitors an opportunity to touch a claw, and Jeff volunteered to work on the claws. Jeff stunk up his kitchen first cutting the claws from the fur and then boiling them for hours in water and Borax to clean them. He arrived the next day at work with clean and very sharp grizzly claws, quite proud of his efforts. A Grizzly in the Mail 145 Respect the Grizzly Mandan Indians had warned the men of the Corps that they would encounter fierce bears. Lewis wrote, “The Indians give a very formidable account of the strength and ferocity of this animal.” Northern Plains Indians greatly respected the grizzly and hunting the animal was just as much a spiritual experience as it was physical. Elaborate preparation preceded the hunt, including dances and songs to the Bear Spirit. Large hunting parties of up to ten Indians tracked grizzlies . The warrior who successfully killed a bear earned the right to wear a bear claw necklace and received adulation and honor from his tribe. Lewis and Clark had never seen grizzlies before, but were familiar with the smaller and less aggressive black bears of the East. They were confident in their guns and their abilities as hunters, so they could not imagine that the bears would cause them problems. Lewis wrote, “The Indians may well fear this animal . . . but in the hands of skillful riflemen they are by no means as formidable or dangerous as they have been represented.” However, he changed his mind after only a few encounters. The size and roar of the animal “staggered the...