Way back in '73...
'twas a sparkling June
.. with a cultural resource survey crew
.... lodged on an ancient campsite
...... near Buckhorn Lookout
Mari Watters was hanging in camp
.. near mid-day when she was met
..... an unexpected visitation from the past
...... a grizzly visitation at close range.
A mere week and a half later,
.. on the next ridge to the west,
.... June Colony had a grizz visitation
..... to her bedded band of sheep.
Close range, with sheep mortality,
.. June actually put her rifle down
.... rather than risk exacerbating
...... a historic visitation.
Four weeks later and three ridges east,
.. Mike Leonard spent several hours
.... interviewing several hunters,
...... recently from big bear Alaska.
They had just spent a long time
.. watching a grizz digging squirrels
.... 'n' such from a Broady Creek hillside,
..... where they had thought they were safe.
Despite the un-official records,
.. Old Gray, the last official Oregon grizzly,
.... gave her all in '38 near Chico,
...... not far from these same locations.
A Wallowa county visitation,
.. without hard evidence in hand,
.... will simply have to remain
..... a rumored dream of the old days.
--r.anderson 9Feb2011
