Passages From Thorofare
Book i:
Building the Thorofare Patrol Cabin
One of the Great Summers of My Life
The Thorofare Cabin Construction
Book ii:
A Month in the Yellowstone Backcountry
My Intermittent Home, 1962–1970
Book iii:
Wilderness Fisheries Biologist
Book iv:
Maintaining the Thorofare Cabin
Book v:
Patriotism in the Teton Wilderness
Deep Snow, Elk Migrations, and ...
;)
Banding Elk
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Rex Corsi crossing Mountain Creek, June 1962
Elk Distribution Study
By Rex M. Corsi
The Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WGFD) trapped elk during the early 1960s at wintering areas within the drainages of Gros Ventre River and North Fork of Shoshone River. The elk were fitted with ear tags and neckbands for the purpose of determining their distribution at other times of the year. Especially there was a desire to learn if some of these elk spent time in Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Red neckbands and green neckbands were used respectively at Gros Ventre and North Fork of Shoshone River elk traps. Observations were then made during other seasons from both the air and on the ground to locate banded elk.
Jim Oudin and I were assigned to go horseback and look for banded elk and determine elk movements based on tracks during the month of June 1962. We were to cover the area within YNP south of U.S. Highway 14, 16, 20, and east of Yellowstone Lake and Yellowstone River , plus the area outside YNP which drains into Yellowstone River . Bill Barmore, a YNP employee, was to work with us within the Park when he could. YNP authorities agreed to allow us to use their Park Point and Cabin Creek cabins while in those areas. Otherwise we were to camp in a tent or use the WGFD Thorofare cabin. Jim was game warden of the Sunlight District, and I was game warden at Tensleep.
On June 1, using four horses, Jim and I packed up along U.S. 14, 16, 20 near Yellowstone Lake and traveled south along the east side of the lake to Park Point cabin. From the cabin we rode the areas we could reach. On June 9, we moved on to the Cabin Creek cabin and worked from there. During early June, the vegetation had not grown enough to adequately support our horses, so WGFD District Supervisor Ronald Bell brought hay to us in a boat across Yellowstone Lake . We used this hay while we worked from the cabins at Park Point and Cabin Creek. Our next move was June 16 when we set up our tent at Mountain Creek. We worked from there until June 21 when we moved to the WGFD Thorofare cabin. From there, we covered the upper Yellowstone River drainage outside of YNP.
Within YNP, we saw 16 green-neckbanded elk and five red-neckbanded elk. Most of these were close to Yellowstone Lake or Yellowstone River. Within the drainage of Yellowstone River outside of YNP, we saw four green-neckbanded elk and two red-neckbanded elk. It is probable that we observed some of the banded elk more than one time; however, it was obvious some elk from both the Gros Ventre and North Fork of Shoshone Rivers moved to the areas we studied. Our observations of elk tracks also indicated elk moved into the study area from both the east and the south.
The study involved elk, and we saw many of them, but we also enjoyed seeing lots of other wildlife. We saw moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, both black and grizzly bear, coyote, many species of birds, cutthroat trout spawning in creeks, and, finally, a very wild black house cat near the Hammet cabin on Thorofare River . The cat had apparently spent the winter there.