Steve Moseley

What is it, I wonder, about the Newton Creek picnic area alongside the North Fork Highway? Is it some bizarre fatal flaw? There’s no denying ‘fatal’ is what it’s been not once but twice.

The recent fatal shooting (reportedly four bullet strikes) of a massive (500-plus pound) boar grizzly bear at that location is being termed an apparent mistaken identity killing by a local holding a black bear tag. As a personal aside, we saw a slug of black bears in seven years as Powell residents and frequent visitors up North Fork to and through Yellowstone, but never one that approached such size.

The man who killed the bear left it in a bloody heap along the highway near Newton Creek, which caused a sensation when the carcass was discovered, photographed for the social media masses to see and determined not to have been struck by a vehicle as many assumed from its proximity to heavy traffic to and from the East Gate at that location.

This man is yet to have his day in court which means he’s absolutely innocent until proven guilty. The fact he failed to report his awful mistake until the next day will, I suspect, not serve him well when that day comes.

Another man who indeed was convicted of wildlife atrocity at that same location came instantly and sadly to mind when I read of this recent grizzly killing.

Gary Vorhies, from Greybull at the time, killed not one but two magnificent bighorn rams in the same picnic ground on Christmas Eve 2000, not long after I arrived on the staff of this newspaper.

Vorhies was a serial poacher with many other violations to his name who was convicted of shooting Arnold and Big Boy, magnificent rams wintering along the North Fork that year. That he and a companion were caught is a testament to the vigilance of a young family and the dedication of a Wyoming game warden who had given up his family Christmas Eve to patrol the area.

The family went up the hill, stopping to look in on Arnold and Big Boy, who the kids named and visited frequently. On the way back down the hill they popped in to say goodnight to the rams only to be faced with a bloody scene. Both dead and left to rot. One with his head missing.

These rams, which I had observed, photographed and wondered over myself, were completely vulnerable as they lounged about among the picnic tables, passing the winter until their springtime return to the high country. There was zero challenge or honor in shooting them like dogs lounging on a porch.

However, the fortunes of Vorhies, later determined to have killed both sheep, and a co-conspirator who leapt in for the decapitation, quickly began to circle the drain.

The horrified family knew from so many past visits an exact spot nearby from which a rare cell signal could be acquired. They raced to report the atrocity. The next bad break for what some news accounts termed a known notorious poacher came when the dispatcher put the warden, already nearby thanks to devotion to his job and the good fortune of timing, on what was still a very warm trail. He found and stopped the pair before they even had a chance to get off the mountain. Caught them red-handed, the magnificent head and cape still bleeding in the back of their truck.

It was abhorrent and Wyoming folks rose up en masse to shriek in rage.

The last time we visited the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, admittedly many years ago now, both the muscular Arnold (named for actor/governor/body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Big Boy were on exhibit. One was too badly damaged for a traditional skin mount and was thus exhibited as a full-body skeleton.

Is lightning really able to strike twice in the same spot? Clearly the answer is yes; if that spot be the peaceful, mountain shade at Newton Creek.