HOMESTEADING IN ALASKA

CHASING A WOUNDED BEAR

By Albin Covington
Guest writer

In 1960 my brother Tom and I dismantled a building at Elmendorf Air Force Base at Anchorage, AK. It came apart in 4 by 8 feet wide panels. Our intent was to build three cabins - for Tom, our sister Marie, and for me. These were to be built on 5 acre tracts we had homesteaded on near Caswel railroad station. We shipped them to the sites on the Alaska Railroad.

In the summer of 1961 Mom and Dad and my small family went out to the sites. Mom and Dad had a cabin just across the railroad track from our sites.

I had borrowed a large army tent and set it up on Dad’s lot. My son, my wife, and I slept in it. After I woke up one morning and found very interesting tracks all around the cabin, I slept with a shotgun loaded with Slug until we moved onto our cabin.

A mile or so from our cabins, the military set up a cabin site. The soldiers were stationed on the mountains around Anchorage, where they often spent days or weeks. At times they could come down for “R and R” at the Army’s expense. They had food, drink, and games. There was a soldier stationed there all the time to run the camp. 

One day when he had no one there, he got bored. They had a pit dug near the cabin to throw their trash, (although it was illegal), but they were the Army. He looked out the window and saw a female bear raiding the pit. So he took his rifle, loaded it with armor piercing shells, and shot the bear. She didn’t fall dead, but took off into the brush. He started to track her, but decided the brush was too thick. So he drove over to our cabin and asked for help. Dad told me to take my shotgun and slugs and help him track the wounded bear. He didn’t like the idea of a wounded bear running around there. I didn’t either, since my family was living in a canvas tent.  To add to the situation it was getting toward evening, maybe and hour or so of daylight.

So I got in the jeep and we went bear hunting. Down a hill there was a river. That was the way the bear ran. So, with guns at the ready, we went after that bear. The further we went, the thicker and higher the brush got. Soon we were about 30 yards (estimate) from the river and we heard the most horrible growling and the sounds of brush being torn up.

Suddenly, my "partner" did a quick about face and took off for his cabin. That sounded like a very big and angry bear. Since I was now alone, I decided that going back to the cabin was a very good idea. Can you guess what I did? You are right. I made tracks back for the cabin.

That night I did not sleep very well. The next day about six solders came there for R and R. The first thing that man did was take all those men on a bear hunt. They found the female bear down by the river side-very dead. They also found other bear tracks. They determined they belonged to a larger bear, most likely a male, and possibly her mate. And he had destroyed a lot of brush around her body. The moral of this story is: don’t shoot a beat with armor piercing ammo, and a good idea is- do not shoot one when you are alone----that is if you can help it.

Albin

---30---
For Mil's
Dr. Albin Covington, guest writer
CHS '51
12/16/13