The Fall and Rise of Arizona's Elk

Presented by Michael Amundson
One year after becoming a state, in 1913 a Prescott doctor orchestrated an elaborate plan to bring 85 Rocky Mountain elk by train from Yellowstone National Park to northern Arizona to restock its forests after settlers had exterminated the native Merriam’s elk a decade before. This presentation will discuss how this translocation was planned and carried out and then paid for by the state’s Elks Lodges and the significance of this story in understanding Arizona’s environmental, political, and animal histories.