The roarings of bears and mountain lions have echoed through the Black Hills for centuries. Some claim these mighty predators still roam the Hills.

    In 1874 George Custer shot a grizzly bear near his Army camp 10 miles north of present day Deerfield. Later he immodestly wrote to his wife about the accomplishment, saying, "I have reached the hunter's highest round of fame."

    There were many other written and photographic records attesting to the former existence of Black Hills bears and cougars. Most people now agree that both species are extinct in the Black Hills. But in the last decade there have been some intriguing eye witness reports of bears and cougars.

    A few years ago Dr. Sven Froiland authored Natural History of the Black Hills, in which he lists both black bears and cougars in the "extremely rare" category.

    Over the years an occasional cougar or bear has escaped from local zoos or tourist attractions. For Ted Schenck, wildlife specialist with the Game, Fish and Parks Department, these fugitives merely muddle the issue. He is convinced that we have a small and native reproducing population of Hills cougars but doubts the claims for Black Hills bears.

    Bear Country, U.S.A. owner "Doc" Casey agrees that wild bears in the Hills are, "a possibility but not probability."

    Nonetheless, Casey tells some stories that are hard to explain. In one incident, in 1973, a man living on Iron Mountain Road phoned Casey to complain about what he said was a bear tipping over the garbage cans. Casey listened to the man's detailed description of the animal, then dispatched an employee to count his Bear Country inmates. The bear censuses showed that none of Casey's animals were missing. So what was the big animal on Iron Mountain Road?

10/01/03