From the pages of
Sublette Examiner
Volume 2, Number 23 - September 5, 2002
brought to you online by Pinedale Online


The bear ripped six pieces of cedar siding off the cabin at the Red Cliff Bible Camp, with Dick MacGill inside the cabin all the while. MacGill pounded on the walls and yelled at the bear before it wandered off.
Bear strikes camp

by Cat Urbigkit

Dick MacGill had a close encounter of the bear kind last Friday at the Red Cliff Bible Camp in the Upper Green River region and it wasn't a very pleasant one.

It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when, "I was in my cabin and looking out the front, I saw two does run by," between the cabins. Next he saw a blonde bear come through, disappearing around the northwest side of the cabin.

Then he heard the bear begin to tear the siding off the very cabin he was in, MacGill said. The bear ripped six pieces of cedar siding off the wall of the cabin.

"He was trying to get in," MacGill said, even though there was no food stored in the cabin at all and MacGill was making noise trying to get the bear to leave.

The bear eventually came to the front door of the cabin and "he stood right up with just the glass between us" and began biting on the window frame.

Eventually the bear gave up on gaining entrance to the cabin and ambled off, MacGill said.

"He walked off, but he wasn't scared at all," he said.

"I wasn't really scared but after it was all over, I was pretty jacked up," MacGill said. Wyoming Game & Fish warden Bubba Haley was contacted and determined from tracks at the scene that the blonde-colored bear was actually a black bear.

MacGill said while he's had other bears come into the camp before, this was the most aggressive bear yet, with determination to enter a building.

"I bought a bear tag, so I'll probably never see him again," MacGill said.

MacGill's encounter was just one of several that occurred last week in the county.

Last Thursday morning, WG&F warden Brad Hovinga responded to a call in a residential area south of Big Piney, at the intersection of Calpet Road and Highway 189. A yearling black bear had taken up residence in the yard of a home day care facility and had camped out under the porch, Hovinga said.

"The little bugger had no fear of humans whatsoever," Hovinga said. The male bear was mildly aggressive, he said. While the animal wouldn't make an attempt to charge, it would "woof and pop his jaws" when approached. It also got into a neighbor's garbage can of dog food.

Since the animal was showing signs of food habituation, and was obviously going to be a problem, it was euthanized, Hovinga said.

On Sunday, Sept. 1, Sublette County Sheriff's Department Deputy Kenneth Winer was dispatched to the CL Bar Ranch near Cora to check on a sow bear and three cubs, according to a SCSD investigation narrative.

When he arrived, the bears were in a park area near the home, with the sow on the ground and her cubs in the top of a tree.

Haley tranquilized the sow and placed her into a culvert trap, and within about 15 minutes, the cubs came down and walked into the trap as well. WG&F then released the animals on Union Pass, according to SCSD.

That same day, SCSD dispatch was notified by an unknown caller from the Sylvan Bay area who "called in and stated that a black bear was on his deck and around the area." The caller was advised to call WG&F.

Photo credits:  Dick MacGill

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