WOLVES: Look at a little history

The true story of wolves:

I have a book by the editors of Outdoor Life (copyright 1959), "The Story of American Hunting and Firearms - a 400 Year History." The Dutch West India Company that preyed on Spanish gold and silver shipments was also into beaver hides and started a settlement called New Amsterdam. This took place in the 1600s and 1700s and the wolves were so plentiful and bold the settlers had to carry a large club for protection when they went at night to the outhouse.

Wolves are prairie animals, first preying on buffalo, elk and deer. Lewis and Clark with all their hunters could find no game up by Lolo Pass and were eating their horses until the Native Americans gave them fish. In the 1800s and 1900s buffalo were killed off and settlers moving in sent deer and elk to the foothills. Wolves remained prairie animals and changed their diet to cattle and sheep. The ranchers hired trappers to kill off the wolves.

Wolves were never in Idaho hills and should have been restored in New York/New Amsterdam instead of Idaho.

JESS WENIGER

Coeur d'Alene