Rob e r t M . A n d e r s on
Eldon L. “Buck� Buckner
Kyle C. Krause
Vice P r e siden t, B&C B ig G a me R ecor ds D i v ision
C h a ir m a n , B&C P ublications C ommit tee
Richard T. Hale
Julie L. Tripp
C h a ir m a n , B&C B ig G a me R ecor ds C ommit tee
D ir ector , B&C P ublications P rogr a m
B oone a nd Cro c ket t Club M i s s o u l a , M o n ta n a | 2 012
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Foreword by L. Victor Clark Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii
1. GOLDEN ALBERTA, 1920–1970
contents
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A H I S T O RY O F B I G H O R N H U N T I N G A L O N G T H E E A S T E R N F RO N T O F T H E RO CK I E S
2. GOLDEN ALBERTA II, 1920–1970
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S OU T H E R N A L B E R TA : B I G H O R N S O F L E G E N D
3. BILL FOSTER
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A ROU G H - H E W N A DV E N T U R E R A N D H I S FA M OU S B I G H O R N R E S TAU R A N T
4. DEATH ALONE
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T H E S T O RY O F T H E S T R A N G E D I SA PPE A R A N CE A N D L O N E LY D E AT H O F T O N Y G R A N ATA
5. DALL DEWEESE 70 A NEW FIR ST GR AND 6. BAJA
SL A M M E R?
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T H E E A R LY Y E A R S , 19 6 4 –19 8 0
7. FIFTY YEARS OF COLLECTING SHEEP-HUNTING PHOTOGRAPHS 8. PHOTO GALLERY
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Appendix A. More Rams compiled by L. Victor Clark
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B. Following the Tracks of the Wild Sheep and Boot Prints of the Sheep Hunter
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I N CLU D I N G T H E T O P 4 0 SH E E P F ROM B & C ’ S R E CO R D S B O O K
B y F r e d e r i c k J. K i n g
Bibliography 301 Colophon 306
OPPOSITE: Alaskan outfitter and guide Frenchy Lamoreaux holds the weathered horns and skull of an absolutely incredible Dall’s ram. The photo was taken in front of a tent, which would indicate that the head might have been a fairly recent winter kill and had been picked up during a hunt. The photograph is probably from the late 1950s or early 1960s. The head is so distinctive that one would think it would be well known, but I have never talked to anyone who could shed any light on it. RMA Collection
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2.
See page 260 for a look at the original B&C score chart for Weiller’s bighorn sheep.
Golden Alberta II: 1920-1970 S o u t he r n A l b e r t a : B i ghor n s of L e g en d
W Boone and Crockett Club official measurers Ed McGuire and Dr. John Hammett scoring the tremendous Fred Weiller bighorn at the 12th Competition held at the Carnegie Museum. The ram was declared the World’s Record with a score of 208-1/8. B&C Archives
hile the eastern front of the Rockies, discussed in the preceding chapter, was undeniably the land of the great packtrain outfitters, southern Alberta offered a bighorn hunting environment of another type. Here bighorn haunts are somewhat smaller in scope and magnitude and offer perhaps a bit more hospitable feel than those farther to the north. This in no way should leave the impression that the hunting grounds of southern Alberta are any less rugged, but these two great sheephunting environments have always had, and have today, different “feels.” While there has always been less outfitting in southern Alberta as compared to the Eastern front, southern Alberta has been the home hunting grounds for some of the best horse outfitters ever to ply the trade. This includes Bert Riggall, who many view as the godfather of Alberta outfitting, to Andy Russell, to the man who just may have been the best ever, the great Bill Michalsky of Lundbreck, Alberta.
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GOLDEN ALBERTA II: 1920 -1970
For the purpose of this chapter, southern Alberta is basically defined as that area extending south from the Livingstone Range to the U.S. boundary. For over 100 years, southern Alberta has been a bighorn utopia for serious Alberta resident bighorn hunters. From the days of heavy wool and open sights, there has always been a small, dedicated group of Alberta residents who cared deeply about these great resources and have hunted them with a burning passion and skills to match. So intense has been this hunting desire that in many cases it has been passed down through families, from father to son, from uncle to nephew, and so on. Examples from a few southern Alberta hunts of some sixty years ago will give some idea of the ram-for-ram quality in those days. In the fall of 1953 veteran sheep-hunting brothers Steve and Joseph Kubasek, along with a friend, Nick Sekella, hunted in the Highwood River drainage of the Kananaskis Forest Reserve and killed three record-book rams. Steve’s ram scored 188-6/8, while Joe’s ram scored a whopping 196-2/8. Nick’s ram scored 190-3/8. These three enormous rams were taken out of the same bunch of rams within the space of a few moments. The given scores are all official B&C scores, and all three rams appear in the 2011 records book. One year later, in 1954, famous big game outfitter Andy Russell and his brother-in-law, Edward Burton, planned a hunt in the Castle River drainage. They set up their camp and located a group of rams in an area of high cliffs. On opening morning, September 1, a complicated stalk worked to perfection, and the two men collected two great rams from the same group. Ed Burton’s ram scored 186-3/8 and Russell’s 176-5/8. On September 1, 1965, opening day of the 1965 season, Cardston rancher and experienced sheep hunter Robert E. Woodward and his sheep-hunting friend E. B. Cunningham
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collected two excellent rams, also in the Castle River area. Woodward’s ram scored 195-5/8 and Cunningham’s 1841/8. Again, the two rams were taken from the same group. Cunningham’s ram was one of those once-in-a-lifetime rams that you hear about but never see, with official 17-inch bases. The seven scores mentioned in the preceding accounts are official Boone and Crockett final scores. Russell’s ram appeared in the 1958 and 1964 B&C records books but was washed out after bighorn minimum scores rose to 180. The other six rams have appeared in every B&C book since and can still be seen in the 2011 book. In big game hunting, as in all things, some strange things occasionally happen. I can’t resist the story of lifelong Alberta resident George W. Biron. George had lived in the Pincher Creek area of southern Alberta all of his life and was a longtime sheep hunter. But Dame Fortune had not ever really smiled on him, and although he had taken rams, the ram of his dreams had never been in his sights. He was getting on in years and had begun to think his sheep-hunting days were behind him. However, in the fall of 1968, he couldn’t resist and bought a license. Just in case. He didn’t really have a plan. Maybe he just liked the idea of having the license, much like a senior citizen not wanting to give up his or her driver’s license. “Just in case” was about to happen. In a big way. Early one day during the sheep season, George was enjoying a frosty Alberta morning as he bumped slowly along in his old pickup on a forest service road a few miles southwest of Pincher Creek. He was passing thorough some thin timber, when a hundred yards ahead, a chocolate-colored monster of a ram ran heavily across the road. George could hardly believe his eyes. He hustled up to the point where the ram had crossed the road and bailed out of the truck with his rifle. The giant ram
KUBASEK BROTHERS
Hu n t i n g t h e H i g h wo o d - K a n a s k i s Fore s t
From 1941 until 1952 the Kubasek brothers spent a futile eleven-year apprenticeship hunting bighorns. Although it was a discouraging process, they slowly learned a few things about sheep hunting. And when it all came together for the Lundbreck natives and their sheep-hunting buddy Nick, it did so in a way that none of the three hunters could have ever believed. In the fall of 1953, they made a long pack into southern Alberta’s Kananaskis Forest Reserve. On opening morning, they split up to glass different areas. Not long after, Steve Nick Sekella’s ram got his glass on a group of four rams of unbelievable size. Although the range was extreme, it looked like Steve’s only chance. He tried to make a good estimate of the range and started shooting. Several of his shots hit high, and two of the rams turned back toward Steve. He felt that he had hit one of the other two, which had gone out over the top of a high ridge. As luck would have it, the two rams that turned back blundered right into Joe and Nick and the two hunters scratched them down. Steve climbed up to the top of the ridge and found his ram down and dead. There may never have been a success story like this in all of sheep-hunting history.
Steve Kubasek’s ram
Jo se ph F. Ku ba se k’s ra
m
A lberta brothers Joe Kubasek (center) and Steve Kubasek (right) and their friend Nick Sekella with three giant southern Alberta rams taken in the Kananaskis Forest Reserve near Highwood in September of 1953. Joe’s ram scored 196-2/8, Steve’s 188-6/8, and Nick’s 190-3/8, all official B&C scores. (Note the incredible 46-3/8-inch right horn on Nick’s ram.) The photo, which originally illustrated Steve’s story in an Alberta hunting magazine that celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of southern Alberta’s famous Willow Valley Trophy Club, may be the only photographic record remaining of the events of that hunt. Photograph courtesy Robert E. Woodward
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This bighorn ram was shot near Dead Man Pass in southwest Alberta by Frank Edl, Jr. He sent the trophy to the Club’s 1949 competition held at the American Museum of Natural History where it was put on display and received second prize.
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Boone and crockett club
Score Chart Archive George Hagglund shot this award-winning bighorn in his home province of Alberta in 1952. The ram has a final score of 193-3/8 points and was recognized with a Second Place Award at the Seventh Big Game Competition held in 1955.
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4.
DEATH ALONE T he S tor y of t he S t ra n g e D i s a p p e a ra nc e a n d L one l y D e at h of Tony G ra n at a
“ Tony’s ram was an excellent trophy, scoring 1632/8 B&C, making it eligible for listing in the B&C records book at the time. Photograph courtesy Tony Granata, Jr.
It is raining, and a little snow is falling. I am having trouble keeping dry.”
These statements, or words to that effect, written in a shaky hand in a small spiral notebook on August 20, 1966, were the last communication from a young man with so many of life’s challenges and joys stretching ahead of him. What really happened to Tony Granata? While on a solitary Dall’s sheep hunt in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska, Tony fell to his death in the hours or days after he made his final journal entry. His disappearance triggered one of the largest searches in Alaskan history. More than two weeks of intense efforts by army, air force, police, and volunteer personnel failed to find any sign of the young hunter. With virtually no leads on which to proceed further, the search was eventually called off. Almost four years were to pass before his backpack, including his journal, and the scant remains of his body were found strewn down an almost perpendicular mountainside on June 11, 1970. This discovery, far from providing any explanations, actually deepened the mystery. (Unfortunately, only secondhand accounts of portions of the original journal entries are available.)
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Tony Granata grew up in Reno, Nevada. He was a star football player for Manogue High School in Reno. His senior year, 1957, he was a high school All-American halfback and that spring accepted a scholarship to play football at Marquette University in faraway Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He married his high school sweetheart, Jeanette Bonnenfant, and their first son, Tony Jr., was born during Tony’s first semester at Marquette. Their second son, Steve, was born in 1959. Tony graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1961, and the family returned home to Reno where he started his new career as an accountant. A third son, Kenny, was born in 1964, a fourth, Jeffery, in 1965. With four young sons, life was hectic, happy, and busy in the Granata household.
A Passion for Sheep Hunting
Young Tony Granata was all smiles over his first wild sheep, a beautiful, self-guided desert ram taken in 1963 in the rugged mountains near Las Vegas in his home state of Nevada. The ram officially scored 160-2/8, making it eligible for entry into the Boone and Crockett records book at the time. Tony had found his hunting destiny. B&C Archives
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In the fall of 1963, Tony received a permit to hunt desert sheep in Nevada and killed a fine ram in the rugged mountains near Las Vegas. The ram received an official B&C score of 1602/8, making it eligible for entry into the Boone and Crockett records book at the time. Tony Granata had found his passion. It is not known if Tony was then aware of the term “Grand Slam” as it applied to North American sheep hunting. There may have been only fifty or so sheep hunters in the entire country at that time. Bob Housholder’s Grand Slam Club did not actually become reality until 1967. The Grand Slam Club Newsletter, published by Housholder, began to appear that same year. But Tony was definitely aware of the other varieties of North American sheep and began to formulate plans for an Alaskan Dall’s sheep hunt. In 1964 and 1965, these plans did not work out. Each year, he tried to get friends to accompany him on the hunt, but, for
whatever reasons, they backed out. In the early summer of 1966, he made the decision to make the hunt by himself. It was still legal for non-residents to hunt sheep in Alaska without a guide, although 1966 may have been the last year that this was the case. At six feet one and 208 pounds, the twenty-seven-year-old Tony was still fit from his football days at Marquette and his regular conditioning program. Although he really didn’t know what the mountains of Alaska would offer in the manner of terrain, he knew it would be rugged country. But he was confident, and he told himself he could do it. He made plans to hunt in the great Wrangell Range in the southeastern part of the state. He hoped to be able to get as far as the tiny, almost deserted mining town of McCarthy by air. From there, he would talk to some locals and figure out his hunting strategy. He spent the early part of the summer working out and getting his gear together. Tony drove from Reno to Seattle, arriving there on the evening of August 11, 1966, where he spent the night. The next morning, he took a Pacific Northern flight to Juneau and then a shorter flight into Cordova, arriving there in the afternoon of August 12. After staying the night in Cordova, he boarded Cordova Flight 62 (a Super Cub) at 7:00 a.m., arriving in McCarthy around 10:00 a.m. on August 13. As the plane approached McCarthy, Tony got a very good look at the country he would be hunting, even seeing some sheep from the plane. Once on the ground in McCarthy, he quickly was able to meet some people in the starving mining village. A young outof-state sheep hunter as determined and personable as Tony must have been big news to folks in McCarthy. A man Tony referred to in his journal only as “Howard” was especially kind and helpful. He offered to give Tony a ride up Bonanza Creek, which was in the direction of the Kennecott Mines. From there, Tony
Scenes in tiny, almost deserted McCarthy. Tony estimated that perhaps only fifteen to twenty people lived in the community. He probably took these photos on the afternoon of August 13, 1966. The next morning, August 14, he left to pack over Bonanza Peak and into the McCarthy Creek drainage in the heart of the Wrangell Mountains. A few days later, he would backpack back into McCarthy, a hike of some eighteen miles, with a load of 75 pounds, apparently to give the town residents the meat from the ram he had taken. Photo courtesy Tony Granata, Jr.
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6.
baja T he E a rl y Ye a r s: 19 6 4 -19 8 0
I
n March of 1963 a young doctor and international hunteron-the-way-up by the name of Bob Speegle found himself marooned in the Rottman Hotel in Kotzebue, Alaska, during a ten-day-long whiteout. He was there for a polar bear hunt.
A pile of pick-up desert sheep horns lie in the blistering heat near a dry creek bed in Baja’s Sierra San Borja, ca. 1965. RMA Collection
Also there to hunt polar bear was another young medical doctor, Francisco Ucero “Paco” Alduchens from Mexico City. Sadly, Paco died while still a very young man, but he was, by all accounts, one hell of a neat guy with a fabulous personality, a great outlook on life, and a tremendous amount to offer the world. I have known Bob Speegle for over fifty years and I couldn’t begin to count the times I have heard him mention Paco and lament his passing. It takes a lot to impress Bob, and Paco Alduchens obviously did so in every way. After a couple of days of thumb-twiddling (which Doc ain’t very good at!), Bob had read everything in the hotel, including the labels on all the cans, and it was only natural that the two young, ambitious hunters should get together to talk hunting and things in general. It must be remembered that, at that time, the Grand Slam of North American sheep and the pursuit of this goal was essentially still nothing more than a term and
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7.
Fifty Years of Collecting Sheep-Hunting Photographs
P The ram of George W. Parker’s lifetime, a 1876/8 Alberta bighorn, lies on a lonely slope on the Ram River on a cold, dreary afternoon in October of 1961. A photograph of Parker with the 44” × 15-2/8” ram is a famous kill photo and has appeared in numerous sheep-hunting books. The photos were taken with an old Kodak 620 box camera with eight-exposure roll film. The camera had a lens fixed at f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/125. When all the stars were in line, as they were with Parker’s ram, photos were great. Parker’s outfitter is unknown. Possibly it was Jim Babala, who would have been a perfect fit for the old Arizona gunfighter. Jackie Parker Anderson Collection
hotographs have fascinated me for my entire life. The very fact that they carve out a little chunk of time, figuratively freeze it forever, and, given proper care, transport that moment in time forward for future generations to enjoy has never ceased to amaze me. These old photos do not move around, appearing differently from one time to the next, as everything else seems to do these days. You can count on them to be just as you remembered them from the last time you looked at them. Because of this they are, to me at least, a kind of insulation and comfort from the daily batterings of our too-much-with-us lives.
One of the very first sheep kill photos I ever received came my way from elderly Dallas internist Dr. John Ridings Lee, who had killed a bighorn ram on a hunt in Wyoming in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I never learned anything else about the hunt. Of course, the photo was small, taken from too far away, and not in sharp focus. But it planted the seed.
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PHOTO GALLERY | 2010S
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OPPOSITE: An excited and relieved Tim Shinabarger with his 180-3/8 final official B&C bighorn, taken in Area 500 of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains on September 18, 2010. The taking of the ram marked the end of a threeyear odyssey for Tim and his wife and sheep-hunting partner, Roxane, who was with him every step of the way. Tantalizingly close looks at the ram on winter range over a two-year period, a great deal of map research, and excellent hunting plans mixed with literally days of glassing produced only one quick glimpse of the ghost ram over the course of two previous seasons. In the end, there was a 416-yard shot down into an almost inaccessible hole, a terrific storm with lightning and hail, scary moments in finding the ram, a night out on the mountain, and a tremendous amount of work to get the ram in the packs. The story of this ram represents an absolute landmark in sheep-hunting achievement in North America over the last forty years. Photograph courtesy Tim Shinabarger
ABOVE: An great look at the unusual, non-typical bighorn habitat of the Missouri Breaks. The photograph was taken in the Dog Creek area, looking west-northwest toward the Judith River. For hunters lucky enough to have a Breaks tag in their wallet, the junipers, sagebrush, prickly pear, and occasional alkali mud are tiny prices to pay for a chance at the largest bighorn rams in the lower forty-eight. LEFT: Dale Hislop’s second bolt of 2010 Lightning Luck arrived in his mailbox in the early summer in the form of a Montana non-resident permit for Hunt District 482-00, or as many sheep hunters would simply call it, a Breaks tag! Dale hunted with Matt and Jamie Wickens, who owned Dog Creek Outfitters and lived locally near Winifred, Montana. Also pictured is Matt’s father-in-law, Jake Jacobi. Between September 15, opening day, and September 20, Matt and Dale had to contend with rain and snow flurries. Still, Matt showed Dale plenty of rams before Dale selected this 37-7/8” × 43-6/8” bruiser, which came out with an official B&C score of 190-2/8. Photographs courtesy Dale Hislop
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PHOTO GALLERY | 2010S OPPOSITE: Jeremy Page with the largest ram killed in Colorado in the last decade. Jeremy was the winner of the 2011 Colorado Bighorn Raffle Tag, drawn at the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society banquet in April of that year. Although a newcomer to sheep hunting, Jeremy is challengeoriented, upbeat, and a fun guy to be on the mountain with. He even warmed up for his Colorado hunt by taking an excellent bighorn ram on the slopes of New Mexico’s Wheeler Peak a few weeks before his Colorado adventure! For his Colorado hunt, Jeremy had the services of off-the-chart Colorado sheep men Tim Rushing and Dan Larkin. A lot of scouting went into locating this ram, but when things began to happen, they did so pretty quickly. Jeremy killed the ram at 515 yards with Tim’s long-range .257 Weatherby Magnum. The ram was 41” × 40-4/8” × 15-1/8” and scored 191-2/8 B&C. Eastern Culebra Range, Colorado, October 3, 2011. Photograph courtesy Jeremy Page and Tim Rushing
BOTTOM LEFT: John Clader with his rugged old Colorado ram, taken on September 26, 2011, in Area S-66 near Mount Elbert, the highest mountain in the state. John is flanked by sons Kyle (left) and Curtis. He also had the assistance of Horn Fork Guides’ Joe Boucher and Dr. Jim Atwood. Very late in the afternoon of the 26th, John was able to take the ancient, near-toothless leader of a band of eleven rams in a slide area at an elevation of 11,500 feet. John made it look easy with a clean, one-shot kill at 344 yards with his Rifles Inc. 300 Winchester Magnum Strata. It was an already great experience made priceless by having Kyle and Curtis along to be a part of the memory making. John had promised the boys pizza and beer in Buena Vista, Colorado, if they were able to nail a ram. So when they had closed in and John was setting up for the shot, Kyle reminded his dad: “Pizza and beer, baby! Pizza and beer!” TOP LEFT: Character cracks on John’s ram. Photographs courtesy John Clader
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A happy Seth Campbell poses in the cold mountain shade of a late Alberta afternoon with his Rocky Mountain bighorn. The ram was step three on Seth’s journey to his Grand Slam. Seth killed his ram on September 28, 2011, in the Berland River drainage of Alberta’s Wilmore Wilderness. Seth’s hunting crew had something of an international flavor to it. Joining in the celebration with Seth (left) are wrangler Adam Diviani (center), who hails from Olde London Town in the United Kingdom, and guide Billy Wanyandie. He was outfitted by Kipp Kelley, owner of George Kelley Outfitting. Photograph courtesy Seth Campbell
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S he e p C ou nt r y
Eleven Stone’s sheep hunts over almost as many years. But as much time spent in the mountains before the opening of the season as during the season. Cutting trail, with the only sounds being the crack of axes or the occasional staccato bark of a chain saw. Endless rain and mud. Trying to set up camps in downpours and unbelievably miserable conditions. Foul-ups with horses, second-guessing, exhaustion. All in the hope of lining up on a jaw-dropper that has never seen a man on the shoulder of some distant, blue, untrodden mountain. Result: two rams harvested. Photograph courtesy L. Victor Clark
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B
FOLLOWING THE TRACKS OF THE WILD SHEEP AND THE BOOT PRINTS OF THE SHEEP HUNTERS Fre d er i c k J. K i n g
O
vis canadensis canadensis,
Ovis canadensis nelsoni, Ovis dalli dalli, and Ovis dalli stonei. The bighorn, the desert, the Dall’s, and the Stone’s sheep. These four species of wild sheep can be best described as a “four-footed ATV wrapped in a hide of hollow hair.” With eyesight as sharp as a peregrine falcon, hearing that is comparable to a communications dish, and a nose for scent detection that would put a bloodhound to shame.
Bighorn rams in west-central Alberta. Photograph copyright Donald M. Jones
Four species of North American sheep. Delicate looking, nimble on foot, and sensitive to every sound, movement, and smell that is around them. Wild sheep are the persona of adaptation to some of North America’s harshest environments.
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APPENDIX B
TOP 10 Desert SHEEP B&C Final Score
Location
Hunter
Date
1. 205 1/8
Lower Calif., MX
Native American
1940
2. 201 3/8
Pima Co., AZ
Picked Up - Owner: Greg Koons
1982
3. 197 4/8
Lower Calif., MX
Gift of H.M. Beck
1892
4. 197 1/8
Graham Co., AZ
Arthur R. Dubs
1988
5. 192 5/8
Baja Calif., MX
Javier Lopez del Bosque
1979
6. 191 6/8
Baja Calif., MX
Lit Ng
1968
7. 191 3/8
Mexico
Picked Up - Owner: Snow Museum
1952
8. 191 2/8
Baja Calif., MX
Claude Bourguignon
1982
9. 191 1/8
Baja Calif., MX
Bruno Scherrer
1981
Unknown - Owner: Bruce R. Kemp, Sr.
1903
10. 190 3/8 Arizona
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Photograph by Chris Lacey
No. 1 – 205-1/8 points 1940 – Native American Desert sheep hunter Carl Scrivens of Jackson, Wyoming, discovered this desert ram, currently the number one desert sheep, while hunting the Baja Peninsula of Mexico in 1940. All that he could find out about this current World’s Record ram was that it was killed by a Native American meat hunter and that this head and horns were tossed aside. Scrivens successfully bartered for the trophy, had it officially measured, and declared the World’s Record. The trophy is now part of the Boone and Crockett Club’s National Collection of Heads and Horns at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.
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