george melendez wright · intense, but always with pleasure. at night, he was very self-disciplined...

Celebrating George Wright: A Retrospective on the 20 th Anniversary of the GWS

14 The George Wright FORUM

Jerry EmoryPamela Wright Lloyd

George Melendez Wright1904-1936:

A Voice on the Wing

I arrived at Cracker Lake shortly after ten. Over the west wall great shafts ofsunlight from the breaking clouds shot downward through the purple haze.Some angles of the rocks reflected the light dazzlingly.... Some goats posing onrocky prominences were illuminated from behind by these beams so that theylooked twice natural size. Radiant pagan gods framed in silver halos they gazedat lower earth from their high thrones.

George Melendez WrightField Notes, September 1, 1931

Cracker Lake, Glacier National Park

eorge M. Wright’s professional accomplishments and his views onwildlife and park management have been written about by severaldistinguished authors (see “Writing on Wright,” below). This arti-cle hopes to illuminate Wright’s life beyond the professional di-

mension. We hope to offer an insight into Wright as a keen naturalist, ener-getic field biologist, loyal friend, and loving husband and father. That is,George M. Wright as a person. We do so by relying heavily on excerpts fromWright’s unpublished field notebooks (both authors read 716 pages of his1924-1933 notes), personal papers, a 1987 interview with Ben Thompson,and family remembrances.

This is not simply an exercise innostalgia for two people for whomthe life of George M. Wright stilllooms large more than six decadesafter his death. Instead, it is clear tous that Wright’s intense dedication towildlife biology and the nationalparks, his friends, and his familywere so inextricably intertwined, that

by painting a more complete pictureof Wright—albeit somewhat infor-mal—we might more fully under-stand his thinking and his accom-plishments.

Unfortunately, much is still un-known about Wright’s childhoodyears. What we do know is thatGeorge Melendez Wright was born

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on June 20, 1904, in San Francisco,California. His mother, MercedesMelendez Wright, was born in ElSalvador and died in 1906; his fa-ther, Captain John Tennant Wright,a native New Yorker, died in 1912.His great aunt, Cordelia WardWright, helped raise the young boyfrom an early age and officiallyadopted him in 1913. George M.Wright had two brothers, Charlesand John, who returned to El Salva-dor to live with relatives. His broth-ers also died relatively young, buttheir families, and some of the rela-tives of Mercedes Melendez, still livethroughout that country—living re-minders of George M. Wright’s LatinAmerican heritage.

Cordelia Wright, fondly referredto simply as “Auntie” by George(and later by many rangers in Yo-semite and the wildlife survey team),might be responsible for his earlyinterest in nature. Apparently theyoung Wright was allowed to hike allaround the San Francisco Bay Areawhere he undoubtedly developed thelove of birds and bird songs thatpermeated all his work. After gradu-ating from San Francisco’s LowellHigh School in 1920 (where he wassenior class president and presidentof the Audubon Club), Wright andAuntie moved to Berkeley, where heattended the University of California.

While at U.C. Berkeley, Wrightmajored in forestry, but it is welldocumented that he was heavily in-fluenced by the teachings and per-sonage of Professor Joseph Grinnell,

one of America’s leading zoologistsand wildlife researchers. Knowledgeof Wright’s non-academic activitiesfrom 1920 to1925 is rather sketchy,not unlike his early years. There isno question, however, that his in-tense interest in wildlife biology wasdeveloping and maturing quickly. Itis believed that during summers andschool breaks he often took to theroad and backcountry, visiting Yo-semite and other parks on the WestCoast. In the summer of 1922, forexample, Wright helped lead stu-dents during a Sierra Club “HighCountry Trip” as an instructor ofnatural history.

Wright’s first known recorded“field trip” lasted nearly two monthsduring the summer of 1924. Alongwith fraternity brothers Robert Shu-man and Carlton H. Rose, he ven-tured throughout the West visitingnumerous national parks and wildlifeareas (see “Chronology of George M.Wright’s Field Notes” elsewhere inthis issue). Wright recorded this tripin a journal he titled “The Perils ofPonderous Peter.” “Peter” was hiswell-seasoned Model T Ford, andmany of his entries discuss the mostrecent mechanical failure of the agingvehicle (such as the 72 flat tires theyfixed). Other entries are quite re-vealing.

In Yellowstone National Park onJuly 14, Wright—not knowing wherethe future would take him—both ex-pressed an interest that would oc-cupy the rest of his life while show-ing us his humor.



George M. Wright, young Forestry student, U.C. Berkeley, early 1920s.



I like the country very much. It isreported full of wild game. Whilecooking supper in the dark I madethe grave mistake of warming thepeas in a pot containing our dishrag and washing soap. We could notmake a go of the soapy peas—quiteimpossible to keep them on theknife.A few weeks earlier, at Montana’s

Flathead Lake, his love of the out-doors comes through clearly. “Isthere anything on this earth that ap-proaches the heavenly state moreclosely than a night spent at the footof a noble pine beside a beautifullake? So endeth the longest day ofthe year.” And, when visiting CraterLake National Park on June 30 withhis occasionally reluctant travelingmates, it becomes clear that Wrighthad covered some of this territorybefore. “It is wonderful to see CraterLake once more. I hope that Carl andBob find it worth the risk.”

Wright graduated with a degree inforestry in 1925 and eventually be-came a field assistant to Joseph Grin-nell. In the summer of 1926, Wrightand Joseph S. Dixon (an economicmammalogist on Grinnell’s staff)were sent to Mount McKinley (nowDenali) National Park to collectspecimens and conduct natural his-tory studies. These field notes, heldby the Museum of Vertebrate Zool-ogy (MVZ) at U.C. Berkeley, notonly show that Wright was using thenow-legendary journal system taughtto all Grinnell students, but that hisobservational and writing skills werebeing honed.

As fortune would have it, theMcKinley trip would also helpWright establish himself in the orni-thological world as the discoverer ofa nesting surfbird—a bit of knowl-edge coveted by Grinnell and otherornithologists. On May 28, 1926,Wright recorded the following.

Mr. Dixon stayed home with astrained ankle while I went pros-pecting for specimens in generaland a hoary marmot in particular....While following the contour of thehill at approximately 4,000 feetthrough sheer good luck I happenedto make the find of my young life....A quick movement some five or sixhundred feet away attracted my at-tention to a grayish bird that wassneaking hurriedly along.... Herewas a surf bird in the nesting sea-son....When Mr. Dixon heard thegood news he was inclined to thinkit some sort of a bum joke but wassoon convinced and eager to be onthe firing line.

In Dixon’s notes of the same day,also held by the MVZ, he recountswhat happened when Wright re-turned to fetch him, bad ankle andall. “Wright came on to camp to tellme the good news and by 6 o’clockwe packed up and left camp to in-vestigate the nest.... The surf birdwas on the nest when we arrived andMr. Wright was correct when he said‘I’m sure it is a surf bird.’ To Mr.George M. Wright then belongs thecredit of finding the first nest of thisspecies on May 28, 1926 at 4 p.m.He is, so far as we have record, thefirst white man to set eyes on the eggsof this bird which hither to have beenunknown.”



Wright and Dixon then retreatedto a nearby knoll to observe the surf-bird into the twilight of the nextmorning. Here Wright discloses thathe could be moving and eloquent inhis observations while hunkereddown against the rain and cold.

Shelter provided by a small rockoutcropping, along with a smoky fireof alder dragged from the littlecreek basin some distance away,helped to make our storm vigil moreendurable. Hardly a scant half hourhad passed before it commenced torain with an accompaniment of chillwind that fairly froze.

Misty clouds would come driftingslowly up the cañon and over therocky ridge tops in great whiteswirls. They moved on with a relent-less sureness until finally they hungat dead level over the valley fromthe North mountains to the mainAlaskan Range. All underneath thisheavy gray mist from foothill slopesto the winding shallow river lookedmysteriously unreal in the Northerntwilight.

Sometimes the rain would let up asa shifting wind turned back theclouds. Then a little light filtereddown to show us whole troops ofmist ghosts rise right out of the tun-dra and go chasing away up the val-ley. No doubt they were on their wayto join the cloud ranks again.

Beginning with Wright’s 1927 to1929 Yosemite field notes (held bythe Yosemite Research Library at thenational park), and continuingthrough 1933, we can begin to findthe seeds of his formal scientificwritings and the ideas contained inthe Fauna Series. Clear thoughts andconcerns illuminate the pages. Butthere is more. In addition to his con-

tinuing sense of humor, we can nowbegin to read about his disgust(Wright’s term) with a variety ofwildlife situations in the nationalparks, his amazing ear for the soundsof nature, accounts of his arduoushikes into the backcountry (oftensolo hikes), and an intense dedica-tion to classic field work.Field people know that field notesare typically rewritten at the end ofthe day in a formal journal, such asthose used by Wright. In a 1987 in-terview with Ben Thompson at hishome in Glenwood, New Mexico,Thompson made the followingcomment regarding Wright and hisfield notes. “His observations wereintense, but always with pleasure. Atnight, he was very self-disciplinedabout writing his notes. You know,when you’re by a campfire, andmaybe you’re tired, and maybe it’scold, and damp and so on. It takesself-discipline to make yourself writethose notes. He was very conscien-tious about that.”

For the two years that Wright wasin Yosemite working as an assistantnaturalist for the Park Service (No-vember 1927 to October 1929) histravels seemed to be confined to theback country of Yosemite, the Sierrafoothills, Berkeley (where he main-tained a home), and the Californiacoast. The vast majority of his obser-vations, mostly short entries, tookplace in Yosemite Valley where healways noted and listed the birdlife(he often went out all day solely forbirdwatching trips), but he was also



George M. Wright, Yosemite Valley (photo by Carl Russell)



possessed with the status of largemammals: deer, bear, elk. In additionto his duties as assistant park natu-ralist (Carl Russell was head natural-ist at the time), he wrote many natu-ral history pieces for the YosemiteNature Notes, taught field classes,and cared for his Auntie. CordeliaWright moved into the newly fin-

ished Ahwahnee Hotel to be close toGeorge. She died in Yosemite onDecember 19, 1928, at the age of 88.From all reports Auntie was an ex-traordinary person. For CordeliaWright, George was “My Boy,” andsurely she stood behind him for atleast 16 of his most formative years.

Carl Russell and George M. Wright, Yosemite Valley, September 26, 1928



Before Cordelia Wright’s death,in September of 1928— approxi-mately a year into his stay—there is abrief entry that, like many early ob-servations, foreshadows an issue thatwill preoccupy him for years. “Theelk problem bothers me very much.There are many sides to the ques-tion.”

Ironically, one of his most de-tailed species observations duringthis period concerns the rather mun-dane brown towhee from a hospitalwindow in Oakland (we don’t knowif Wright was in the hospital for anailment or if he was visiting a friend).

Birds are not numerous in thisthickly populated part of town. Abrown towhee is very evidentlysinging for joy that he is the fatherof a family or at least a prospectivefather. The song appears to be

certain definite arrangement of aseries of notes almost exactlysimilar to the usual call note.Spacing them to give time intervalthey are somewhat like this:[drawing of song]. There are aboutfifteen notes to the song but thelast are so rapid that it is difficult tocount them. All are pitched alikeand the variation comes in intensityand spacing. The song gives aneffect almost depressing in itsmonotony.

After conceiving the plan for awildlife survey of the national parksin 1928, and receiving the approvalof Director Horace M. Albright thefollowing year (see accompanyingbox, below), Wright assembled histeam. For the next three years he wasalmost always accompanied in thefield by Ben Thompson and JosephDixon, either together, or separately.

George M. Wright interviewing Maria Lebrado, “The Last YosemiteIndian,” July, 1929 (photo by Joseph S. Dixon)



Berkeley, CaliforniaAugust 17, 1930

To All Park Superintendents and Managers of Park Operations—Hotels, Lodges, Stores, Etc.:

One of the most important of the newer activities of the National ParkService is our wild life research branch, the work of which is being carried onby Mr. George M. Wright, Mr. Joseph Dixon, and Mr. Benjamin H. Thompson.Mr. Wright is personally carrying a major portion of the financial burden of thiswork, owing to the fact that Congress has not yet provided adequately for it.Because of Mr. Wright’s generosity and public spirit, we have been able tomove ahead much more quickly than would have been the case had we had towait until full recognition was given by Congress to the needs of this division.

All Superintendents and others connected with the national parks arerequested to extend all practicable courtesies and assistance to Mr. Wrightand his associates as they go from park to park. They are entitled to receivethe benefits of all special rates as well as the opportunity to have work done inour shops, obtain gas and oil, etc.

Messrs. Wright, Dixon, and Thompson are just now starting on animportant trip that will keep them out in the field until November, and, in viewof the lateness of the season and the danger of encountering bad weather, it isespecially important that all available National Park Service facilities be placedat their disposal, in order that their work may be carried on with the utmostexpedition and efficiency.

Finally, let me say that there is no work going on in the National ParkService today that interests me more than the undertaking of Mr. Wright andhis associates. Therefore, any assistance and courtesies extended to thempersonally, as well as officially, will be appreciated by me.

Sincerely yours,

Horace M. AlbrightDirector

HMA: RNcc Mr. Wright

Wright’s field notes during thewildlife survey are far richer than hisprevious notes. His entries are longerand more detailed. During this three-year period the wildlife team madeseveral circular trips through theWest, typically starting with parksand wildlife areas in the Southwest

then moving north, back out to thecoast, then home to Berkeley and thewildlife office on the University ofCalifornia campus.

In addition to the team’s personalobservations, Wright interviewed asmany park superintendents, rangers,and employees as possible regarding



Wildlife Survey Team, George M. Wright, Ben H. Thompson, Joseph S. Dixon, MonoLake, California, July 24, 1929



wildlife and range conditions. Healso sought out local ranchers andother residents who lived near theparks, many resident from as early asthe 1880s. After talking with the lo-cals, and recording their comments,he would often note their reliabilityas informants.

Below are selected excerpts fromthe wildlife survey field notes, inchronological order, with an occa-sional comment by the authors orothers regarding aspects of Wright’swork and his personal life. It soonbecomes apparent that Wright wasfocusing in on a number of issuesdiscussed at length in the Fauna Se-ries: wildlife species (particularlytrumpeter swans, deer, elk, antelope,

grizzly bears, black bears, badgers,martens, wolves, coyotes, andmountain lions), the “frightful” rangeconditions he observed, predatorcontrol, and hunting in and aroundparklands.

1930The following is Wright’s intro-

ductory page to his 1930 notes.

A Survey Of Animal ProblemsIn The National Parks Of The

United States

April and early May have been spentin preparation. After numerousdelays which have delayed ourstarting nearly three weeks we areon the way. No one can know howglad we are.

“Joseph S. Dixon and Ben H. Thompson in field car used for animalsurveys in the national parks. Taken at Lake Merritt, Oakland,California, May 23, 1930” (photo by George M. Wright)



May 24 (most likely in Berkeley):

This is the first official field seasonof ‘was,’ wild animal surveys in Na-tional Parks. This party consists ofJoseph Dixon, economic mammalo-gist at the University of California,George M. Wright, scientific aide,U.S.N.P.S., and Benjamin H.Thompson, field assistant. We startin a car of the latest vintage (regis-tering 160 miles only) which themembers of the party have had builtfrom an idea of their own.

In Thompson’s 1987 interview, hetells a bit more about the researchvehicle. “It was a Buick Roadsterand three could sit comfortably inthe front seat. They cut the conven-tional back off, and built a truck bedon the back, like today’s trucks.There was a water-tight compart-ment built right behind the frontseat for camera equipment, books,and other things you needed to pro-tect. Camping gear, pots, and bed-ding and everything else was undera tarp in the back.”

March 30, Yosemite Valley to Merced,California:

Wild flowers too are at their heightin the Merced Cañon particularly asregards the poppies which swept upthe steep slopes in glorious tonguesof flame.

June 1, VT Ranch, Kaibab National For-est, Arizona:

I believe that the Kaibab will yieldmore over a long period of time indeer hunting than it ever wouldfrom the few cattle that could rangethere. As it is now the deer will godown. Then there will be a cry tostock more cattle on the extra rangeand there will be a temporary in-crease of revenue from these graz-ing fees. We saw about 8 head ofcattle feeding near the road abouthalf way in from Point Sublime. Thisis within the park boundaries.

Ranger Brown reported trapping forcoyotes and wild cats on the northrim last winter. He said thattrapping was good. When other ani-mals were caught he releasedthem. He spoke of badgers andthree red foxes, said

Many miles later, Survey Team research vehicle, Pipestone Pass,Continental Divide Montana, n.d.



that he ‘tapped them on the nose’making them unconscious until hereleased them from the traps andthat they later recovered and ... off.I think this practice very question-able. He also said that occasionallyhe had to take animals that heshould have released because theywere too greatly injured.

It must be remembered that al-though Wright became a leading op-ponent of predator control and un-regulated hunting in and aroundparks, he was not opposed to hunt-ing in general. In fact, it is not sur-prising to realize that as a field biolo-gist he had collected dozens, possi-bly hundreds, of specimens (manyare still held by the MVZ in Ber-

keley). More than once Wright noteshow, during field trips in a variety ofparks, local rangers would stop thecar he was riding in, or get down offtheir horse, in order to shoot at acoyote. There is no hint of repri-mands. Wright simply observed andtook notes (when Wright cameacross coyotes on his own, he wouldstalk them for as long as possible,detailing their behavior.) This is alsotrue when he is told by park employ-ees how they trap coyotes (and bymistake take the occasional eagle),and when Yellowstone’s “BuffaloKeeper” informs Wright that he hasbeen dynamiting badger dens.

George M. Wright and rubber boat for observing trumpeterswans, Yellowstone, n.d.



Trumpeter swan observations inthe greater Yellowstone area take upmany pages of Wright’s notes. OnJune 11, at Yellowstone’s Tern Lake,we find his first entry regardingswans and two other species. “Mr.Thompson and I crossed the outletof the lake took off our clothes andcrossed the tules toward the nest.The nest was right on the open water& was separated from the main bodyof tules by a stretch of water twenty-five feet across. I went in up to myneck in crossing to the nest whichwas floating & was anchored to a fewtule stems.... This association of thesandhill crane, canada geese, andtrumpeter swans is very thrillingwhen one considers the desperatestatus of two of them and the acutecase of the third.”September 30, Mount Rainer NationalPark:

Hornquist at the Mt. Rainier Na-tional Forest headquarters said incommenting on the hunting seasonfor elk that it was necessary toclean them out as they were takingthe range from cattle and sheep.He [an unnamed ranger] said thatgrouse were scarce largely due tothe large hawks which I took to begoshawks. He stated that he shotas many of the latter as possible.

November 11 to 14, Mesa Verde toKaibab Plateau:

These four days were spent as hap-pily as any I have ever known. Thedesert scenery, for color, and fan-tastic formation surely must be asfine as any in the world.

1931The year began with the marriage

of Wright to Bernice “Bee” Ray on

February 2, 1931, in a Phoenix hos-pital. Wright apparently was suffer-ing from a bout of malaria. He soonrecovered, and returned to work. Forthe next two years Bee often accom-panied Wright into the field to helpwith observations or record specieslists (particularly bird lists). He oncedispatched Bee to the YellowstoneRiver to watch a pair of swans whilehe stayed at Tern Lake observing apair to make sure they were two dis-tinct pairs. His newlywed status mayhave influenced the following entry.

April 26, Carlsbad, New Mexico; Mr. J.Stokely Ligon’s game farm:

Once during our several visits Iheard the ‘chiming’ song of theMearns [Montezuma] Quail. Theseveral notes, all of the same qual-ity and equally spaced are silveryclear and totally sweet, soft and yetpenetrating. The song came from nodirection. It was just on the air.About it there was a timeless qual-ity. There was no beginning andnever an end, just the voice of eter-nity in the wind on the desert.

I fight strongly against the naturalinclination to interpret the actionsof other animal species in terms ofhuman emotions. But I could notwatch the two mated pairs ofMearns Quail at Ligon’s for verylong without being convinced thathere were the perfect lovers. Theywere constantly together. The malenever letting his lady get more thana few inches from him. When theywere perched out of their hidingplaces they nestled right againsteach other in the most peaceful sat-isfied manner. If it was cold it actu-ally looked as though the male par-tially covered the female with hisfeathers while she crouched lowunder shelter of him. When hiding in



George M. Wright and Bee Wright, newlyweds on the road, March 1931



George M. Wright and Bee Wright, Yosemite Valley, n.d.



their little protection nests theysnuggled so close that in theshadow it was almost impossible todistinguish that there were twobirds.

May 27, Yellowstone National Park;interview with Chief Ranger GeorgeBaggley:

In reference to the trumpeter swanshe stated that he would have re-moved the otters from TrumpeterLake last fall but for the fact thatthe whole thing had had too muchpublicity. He said that those things

had to be done quietly and that iscertainly true of any control meas-ures practiced in a national park.

May 30, Trumpeter Lake, YellowstoneNational Park:

In the mud & grass about 5 feetfrom the water lay an elk calf. It didnot act so jumpy as the other. Aftertaking its picture lying down Beetried to coax it to rise but evenpushing with her hand was ineffec-tual.

Bee Wright with baby elk, Yellowstone, May 30, 1931 (photo by George M. Wright)



So intense was Wright’s interestin trumpeter swans that he spentcountless hours tracking down po-tential nesting areas, feeding sites,and recording general observations.On May 31 of this year he stayed in asingle location observing swans from5:15 AM to 8:40 PM.

May 31, Trumpeter Lake, YellowstoneNational Park (mistakenly recorded asApril 31 in field notes):

This day have kept a continuouswatch over Trumpeter lake to recordthe actions of a pair of Trumpeterswans during a typical day in the in-cubation period. I watched them en-tirely from a distance where theytook no note of me in order thattheir movements should not be al-tered by human presence.

June 2, Trumpeter Lake, YellowstoneNational Park:

Several times we have heard coyo-tes howling in the distance. Lastevening we heard them just beforedark and previously it was aboutnine in the morning. At 11:45 lastnight one howled many times fromthe immediate vicinity of camp. Ameadow lark sang twice. Strangeduet, I thought, and turned over.

June 14, Yellowstone National Park:

This day (a long one lasting from 6AM until 9 PM) I walked from a pointon the east entrance road 2 1/2miles beyond Squaw Lake up Peli-can Creek towards its source,thence west to Tern Lake, along theeast shore of White Lake, andthence down Astringent Creek fromit source to where it joins PelicanCreek and down Pelican Creekagain to the point of starting.

At 8:10 PM while walking down Peli-can Creek I was startled by a loudwailing which could only have beencoyote. They are evidently abundantin this section.

While looking for the source of thissound I spied a black form movingthrough the sagebrush across theCreek. It was a large grizzly bear,the first I have ever seen away fromthe immediate vicinity of a feedingplatform.

The grizzly did not see me, thoughmoving leisurely it covered groundat a rapid rate.... The large size, thegrizzly cast to the dark coat, thehump & dish face made identifica-tion exceedingly simple and certain.

July 7, Grand Teton National Park:

This day I walked from parkheadquarters to Taggart Lake,Bradley Lake, Teton Glacier, JennyLake store and back down thevalley to headquarters. Distancetraversed was about sixteen milesand the elevation from 6,500 to11,000 feet.

July 25-28, Yellowstone National Park:

The Heart Lake fire covered an areaof approximately 20,000 acres andburned approximately 11 days.... Incompany with Chief Ranger GeorgeBaggley for a large part of the timeand by myself, I covered the entireperimeter of the burn, a distance ofover fifty miles. Sometimes wewalked right through the heart ofburns, often right at the line, andoccasionally over stretches un-touched by the devastating enemy. Itook pains to discover everything Icould relative to the effect of thefire upon the fauna of the area.Several observations were of un-usual interest.

Wright continues this entry not-ing the curious behavior of night-hawks, meadow mice, chipmunksand marvels that “animals and birdsalike went about their daily routinemuch as though nothing had hap-pened.”



Betty Russell (Carl Russell’s wife), George M. Wright, and Bee Wright, BechlerRiver, Yellowstone, 1931 (photo by Carl Russell)

August 27, Glacier National Park:

This grazing and poaching [in thepark] are harmful but to eliminate itwould really mean starving theranchers out. The only fair thing willbe for the government to buy outtheir holdings. Glacier Park haspoaching from ranchers on thewest, railroad riff raff along thesouth, and Indians on the east. Un-doubtedly this is why the game re-mains as wild as it does.

September 5, Red Eagle Lake, GlacierNational Park:

Horned Owl. We saw one along thehighway driving back toward Two-Medicine last night. The ranger toldDixon that they were hated by theIndians because they frequently

made away with their pet cats. Hoo-ray for the horned owl.

1932When the 1931 season wrapped

up in November, Wright apparentlyreturned to Berkeley and the wildlifeoffice to begin writing Fauna Series#1 with Thompson and Dixon, andprepare for the next season. He re-mained in Berkeley until early April,then traveled directly to Yellowstone.

The following disturbing entryregarding white pelicans on Yellow-stone Lake’s Molly Islands, marked“do not type” by Wright in his notes,was mentioned in far less detail in



Fauna #2. Wright includes no com-mentary after this entry, but thepractice of killing pelicans to im-prove fishing soon stopped.

April 28, Yellowstone National Park:

American White Pelican. The confi-dential report indicates that controlwork began in 1923 and has re-sulted in reduction of the colonyfrom about 600 to 250. In ‘23 everyyoung pelican was destroyed; in ‘24& ‘25 all eggs were destroyed; in‘26 83 young were destroyed &about half escaped; in ‘27 all youngwere destroyed; ‘28, ‘29, ‘30 nodata available; in ‘31 75 young re-ported but only 43 could be found.Estimate is of 175 killed each yearof control.

May 13, Yellowstone National Park:

Last summer for the first time twogrizzly cubs became tame and werefed by hand around Old Faithful.This will not do and must bestopped before it is well started orthe bear problem will be worse thanever.

On May 19, Wright relates thestory of Mrs. Wright and Francis L.Chamberlain driving from OldFaithful to Mammoth Hot Springs.An osprey flew in front of their carwith a large fish and proceeded toland on the road. The bird aban-doned the fish, and flew away. Beeand Francis stopped their car, pickedup the fish, and brought it to Wright.The keen biologist studied themarkings on the fish left by the os-prey’s talons, weighed the specimen(two-and-a-half pounds), then pro-ceeded to fry it up for dinner!

June 11, Red Rock Lake, Montana:

Lower Red Rock Lake is the bestlake I have ever seen for trumpet-ers.

July 7, Grand Teton National Park:Interview. Al Austin is chief me-chanic in Teton Park. He first cameto Jackson’s Hole in 1900 andamong other things was a rangerwith the forest service for 14 years.His hobby is the study and photog-raphy of game.... Mountain Lion. Li-ons were abundant when Austinfirst came here. Over two hundredwere taken out. He believes theymay be gradually returning.

In the following passage from aletter dated August 9, addressed tohis friend and colleague Carl Russellin Yellowstone, Wright doesn’tmention why he is absent from thefield, but it was undoubtedly becausehis first daughter — Charmaine“Sherry” Wright — was born in Ber-keley five days later. The reason forthe letter is that Wright had justheard that Russell wished to leave hispost in Yellowstone. Although thereis no mention of the impending arri-val of his child (he sent Russell ahumorous telegram after her birth),we learn about his relationship withBen Thompson. Wright returned tothe Yellowstone area on November7.

Ben is back like a fresh gust of windand with lots of news for us. It wasso sad a thing to me to have to goaway from the park during theheight of the season and while allour projects were the mostinteresting. But next to being theremyself it is nearly the same havingBen there. We think and work so



nearly along the same lines that it islike one person divided.

November 13, Gallatin Station, Yel-lowstone National Park (along theGallatin River during hunting season,with “Ranger LaNoue”):

With one possible exception all themen we saw were meat hunters andwere not concerned with thoughts

of sport. Most of them had come upfrom Bozeman.... To us the wholelooked like a scene from other days,the era of the market hunter.... Inthe camp on Buffalo Horn Cr. wecounted 39 elk and 52 cars at 4:30PM. A number of cars had gone outthat day with their elk and othershad only just come into camp. Ofcourse the camp was without orga-

George M. Wright and Ben H. Thompson, in snowdrift, Yellowstone, n.d.



nization. It clung together by virtueof being where car travel ended.The location was a little lodgepolecovered flat by the creek. The treeshad beauty and order and dignitybut they roofed a jumbled ugly hu-man community. Tents, big and lit-tle, cars and trucks. Men and boys,and elk in the trees and on theground all huddled together on thecold snow. Our gov’t license andranger hats were viewed with suspi-cion at first but in a short time wereaccepted along with other distaste-ful features of the place in an amaz-ing spirit of equanimity. Here wasan elk heart speared on a deadlimb, there a sprawling liver hard-ened by cold to the consistency ofthe front tire toward which itseemed to flow and yet never reach.This same kindly cold rendered in-nocuous for the time elk legs, andhead, and quarters and whole car-casses and tent interiors and hu-man refuse. All was in a refrigeratorbut a thaw would have driven outthe hardiest man in camp.

1933-1936During 1933 Wright’s itinerary is

less than clear. According to hisnotebook he begins the year in Ber-keley with a few brief entries throughearly March. On March 2 two para-graphs, apparently written in Yel-lowstone, record winter movementsfor trumpeter swans, as reported toWright. The next entry jumps to theend of July at Platt National Park(now Chickasaw National RecreationArea), then a prolonged stay back inYosemite through September. Hislast entry for the year—regardingAmerican pronghorn—is on Sep-tember 24.

Wright was probably working onFauna #2 with Thompson during

1933, and his second daugh-ter—Pamela Melendez Wright—wasborn on October 17. He might havealso made a trip to Washington,D.C., during this period. After thewildlife survey Wright and his familymoved back and forth betweenWashington and Berkeley before set-tling in the nation’s capital in late1935.

He had also taken enthusiasticallyto family life with two young daugh-ters during this period. In a letter tofriends on December 19, 1933,Wright alludes to his unfolding do-mestic scene. “You would think I’dhave my hands full with four womenon my hands [Wright’s wife, twodaughters, and maid] ... but not me!I still have room in this ample heartfor you poor lambs so far away....Anyway & again, Merry Xmas &Happy New Year. Togo.”

“Togo”? What is that? Wright,apparently, was rarely referred to as“George” by his friends but insteadby the nickname “Togo.” BenThompson tried to explain. “I askedhim once how people came to callhim ‘Togo.’ He said he thought itwas from some fraternity and sororityparty ... so he was ‘Togo’ or ‘Tog’the rest of the way through college.That’s about the best I can do. Wenever called him ‘George.’”

September 5, 1935; letter from Wrightto his father-in-law, William F. Ray:

Dear Dad:Ever since our arrival I have wantedto write but the old hurry and flurrycaught up with me before I caught



Bee Wright with daughters Sherry (L) and Pam (R). Florida, 1934,while George M. Wright was researching the proposed EvergladesNational Park (photo by George M. Wright)



Researching proposed Everglades National Park, via the blimp “Resolute,”December 7, 1934. L-R: Roger W. Toll, John B. Ricker (co-pilot), George M. Wright,Capt. J.A. Boettner (pilot and manager of airship operations for the GoodyearCompany), O.G. Taylor, Dr. H.C. Bryant

up with Washington.... I am prettylucky to have a wife so perfect andin-laws that I can love so muchtoo.... Bee & the babes are in thevery pink of good health. You mustbe sure to come see them and uswhen we get settled in our newhome. You are good travelers sodon’t hesitate.

Lots of love,George

With his wildlife survey field workbehind him (but never far from histhoughts), Wright turned to con-vincing the powers-that-be inWashington that the proper man-agement of wildlife in the nationalparks and elsewhere was a criticalissue. He did, however, visit the Vir-gin Islands and Puerto Rico withHarold Bryant in the summer of1934 and was appointed by Presi-

dent Roosevelt to head up the Na-tional Resources Board. Later thatyear, and in early 1935, he venturedto the Florida Everglades (once withBryant, Roger Toll, and OliverTaylor ). All these trips were under-taken to research the possibilities forestablishing parks.

Wright’s life soon became veryhectic as he found himself in thethick of “the old hurry and flurry” ofWashington. In a letter dated January22, 1936 (one month before hisdeath), Beatrice Newcomer(Wright’s secretary) wrote to BenThompson’s wife-to-be, Matilda JaneRay (Bee Wright’s step-sister), re-garding a job possibility.

... In these rather wild moments,however, he [Wright] is trying to hold



George M. Wright and daughters, Pam (L) and Sherry (R), November 1935.



Group shot in Puerto Rico, Summer, 1934. George M. Wright and Harold Bryant,far right.

Group shot, International boundary park survey: Near Boquillas, Texas, along theRio Grande, February, 1936



quietly in his lap: the NorthAmerican Wildlife Conference, theconference of the AmericanPlanning and Civic Association, theprogram for the assembled wildlifetechnicians, and the reorganizationof the Wildlife Division itself underthe new ECW set-up. You mayimagine it’s an armful.... At any rate,and this is what is of particularinterest of course to you, Mr. Wrightwill do his darndest—and you knowthat is a darn good darndest—to seethat the position in the westernoffice is available, open, and readyfor you if and when your namecomes up on the Secretary’s list ofeligibles.

The last known letter Wrightwrote, but never finished, waspenned just before his departurewith Roger Toll to the newlyauthorized Big Bend National Park.The previous fall, Dr. F. M.MacFarland of Stanford Universityhad made a visit to Wright and dis-cussed the possibility of his becom-ing the director of the CaliforniaAcademy of Sciences in San Fran-cisco. In his letter, Wright apologizesfor being “unprepared” to considerthe offer, although he was greatlyhonored. The last sentence reads:“My chief interest, apart from myfamily, lies in giving such....”

We have no idea what he wasthinking, but it is unlikely he wouldhave left the Park Service at such animportant and exciting time.

In 1987, when Ben Thompsonwas asked what made George M.Wright special, he paused, and said:“People reacted positively to him. Idon’t think he had any enemies.

Wherever he went, very quickly hewas welcomed. And, I think that hassomething to do with it. Also, goingahead with his ideas, they weren’tuniversally accepted in the parks atthat time. There were a number oflongtime employees, superinten-dents, chief rangers, and others, wholiked the good ol’ days of predatoryanimal control and corralling the un-gulates so the public could see someof them, like the buffalo, and feedingthe elk so they’d concentrate forviewing, feeding the bears at feedingstations and making a big show of it.There was all of that to overcome.And to make progress with that, andhave them still like you, was quite anaccomplishment. Joe [Dixon] and Ididn’t have that kind of personality.We knew it. But George did have it.It was a gift of his character. He likedpeople, was outgoing, and generous,and honest, and motivated, and peo-ple sensed that. And they reacted toit.”

In a letter postmarked March 13,1936, from Denver, Marguerite Toll,widow of Roger Toll, wrote BenThompson that she received a notefrom her husband written on themorning of February 25, the dayWright and Toll left from Big Bendand their meeting with Mexican parkofficials. “We’ve a new name forGeorge,” Roger Toll wrote. “‘Chap-per’ meaning shorty.”

What Toll probably heard was“Chapo,” which indeed is a Mexicanterm of endearment for a short per-



George M. Wright, “The Wright Warplane Costume” for surveying Big Bend region,February 18, 1936 (photo by Roger Toll)



Togo, or “Chapper,” Rio Grande, Texas, February 22, 1936. Last knownphotograph of George M. Wright (photo by Roger Toll)



The account of the accident which claimed the lives of Wright and Toll. Deming(N. M.) Graphic, February 27, 1936.



son. George M. Wright stood tall at 5feet 4 inches, and he had no doubtimpressed his Mexican counterpartswith his personality and knowledge.If time had been kind to Wright, thenew nickname might have replaced“Togo.”

Of course, we will never knowwhat might have been if Wright—andToll—had lived. As Ben Thompsonsaid in 1987, “History does not re-veal her alternatives.”

What did survive from the briefyet amazing life of George M. Wrightis an enduring legacy and a “convic-tion that wilderness still lives.” Thisconsummate field biologist, hus-band, and father is also rememberedby two mountains named after him,one in Denali National Park, and an-other in Big Bend National Park(where there is also a Mount Toll).

However, for his family—andperhaps for field professionals to-day—it is George M. Wright’s com-pelling writing that keeps his mem-ory alive, as with the following quo-tation from Fauna #2, one of our fa-vorites.

But it is the birds of the water,beautifully wild birds by the thou-sand, that are encouragement andinspiration to the man who prays forconviction that the wilderness stilllives, will always live.... Sometimeswhile I am watching these birds onthe water, the illusion of the un-touchability of this wilderness be-comes so strong that it is stronger

than reality, and the polished road-way becomes the illusion, the mi-rage that has no substance.

Writing About WrightGeorge Melendez Wright’s influ-

ence on the early days of wildlife bi-ology and management in the na-tional parks has been written aboutfor many years, beginning with thenumerous detailed obituaries thatappeared after Wright and RogerToll (superintendent of YellowstoneNational Park) died in an automobileaccident in February of 1936. BenThompson, a close friend and col-league from the winter of 1928 untilWright’s death, profiled Wright inthe first issue of THE GEORGE

WRIGHT FORUM (Summer 1981; re-printed in the Tenth AnniversaryIssue, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990). LowellSumner’s FORUM article, “BiologicalResearch and Management in theNational Park Service: A History”(Vol. 3, No. 4, Autumn 1983), alsohighlighted Wright’s career and in-fluence on NPS (Sumner was an-other colleague of Wright andThompson). Additionally, Alton A.Lindsey, Alston Chase, AlfredRunte, and Richard Sellars eithermentioned Wright at length or pro-filed the young wildlife biologist intheir respective books (see Refer-ences). Sellars’ tribute to Wright inthis issue is an eloquent addition tothis body of work.



ReferencesChase, Alston. 1987. Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of Amer-

ica’s First National Park. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Chap-ter 14, “Gumshoes and Posy Pickers,” includes a lively rendering ofWright and his influence.)

Lindsey, Alton A. 1983. Naturalist on Watch. Goshen, Ind.: Merry Lea Envi-ronmental Learning Center, Goshen College. (Chapter 10, “The Pioneerin National Park Wildlife Management,” is a short account of Wright’slife.)

Runte, Alfred. 1990. Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness. Lincoln and Lon-don: University of Nebraska Press. (Wright mentioned throughout book.)

Runte, Alfred. 1997. National Parks: The American Experience. 3rd ed. Lin-coln and London: University of Nebraska Press. (Fauna #1 is briefly dis-cussed in Chapter 7, “Ecology Denied.”)

Sellars, Richard West. 1997. Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A His-tory. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. (This is the most thor-ough treatment of Wright’s abortive influence on the National Park Serv-ice.)

Sumner, Lowell. 1983. Biological research and management in the NationalPark Service: A history. The George Wright Forum 3:4, 3-27. (Wright’sformative role is stressed.)

Thompson, Ben H. 1981. George M. Wright, 1904-1936. The George WrightForum 1:1, 1-4. (Invaluable brief account of Wright by his colleague andco-author.)

Some quotations in this article are from field notes in the collection of theMuseum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, and are usedwith the permission of the MVZ.

Jerry Emory, 740 Summit Avenue, Mill Valley, California 94941; [email protected]

Pamela Wright Lloyd, 30 Beverly Terrace, Mill Valley, California 94941;[email protected]

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george melendez wright · intense, but always with pleasure. at night, he was very self-disciplined...

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