Rex Trulove
This is a true story of an event that happened about 50 years ago at Crater Lake National Park. It shows what happens when a person disengages their brain and thinks only of themselves and the moment. It is an object lesson about why people should think about what they are doing and saying. They should also understand that everything isn’t just about them and they should be a lot more humble than most people are.
It happened when a family was driving at the park, on the way to see the lake, in their solidly built car. There wasn’t much traffic since it was early in the year and when the man who was driving saw the bear walking along the side of the road, he immediately thought of the photo opportunity and how a closeup picture of a bear would be sure to impress his friends back home.
He pulled to the shoulder of the road and stopped. He then grabbed his camera and ordered his wife to hand him one of the peanut butter sandwiches she’d made for the kids. He rolled the window down about two inches, held the camera up against the window, and held the sandwich up by the opening, hoping that the bear would smell it.
Bears are tremendously fond of sweets and they have a sense of smell that is so good that they can smell a candy bar from a mile away, literally. Being early in the year, the bear was hungry, too. It could definitely smell the sandwich and came over to investigate.
The man took several pictures of the bear from extremely close range as the bear did his best to get to the sandwich. It stuck its nose in the opening, sniffing. It tried to reach the sandwich with its very long tongue. All the while, the man was laughing and taking pictures.
The bear had no bad intentions, of course. It simply smelled food and wanted it. The man felt safe behind the closed car door and was having fun at the bear’s expense.
People sometimes forget that a fully mature black bear often weighs well over 300 pounds. That is 300 pounds of solid muscle.
The bear, prevented from quite reaching the sweet sandwich, did the only thing it could think of doing. It reached up with one massive paw and casually ripped the door off the car as if it was made of cardboard.
The man suddenly found himself face to face with a hungry bear with nothing at all between him and the bear. The wife and kids were already screaming, with the man adding his own voice to the mix. The guy threw his camera at the bear, which naturally didn’t do anything. It merely bounced off the bear, shattering when it hit the ground.
The man only had one other thing in his hands, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and he threw it as well. That had a better result. The bear was totally disinterested in the people. It simply wanted the sandwich. When the sandwich sailed over the head of the bear, the bear turned, went over to the sandwich, ate it in a couple of bites, then looked back at the carful of silly humans and foolish husband. Then it turned and strolled off in search of dining accommodations that were a bit quieter.
The man, recovering from his fear and shock, surveyed his destroyed camera, the wreckage of his car door, and back at his wife, who stood with hands on her hips scowling at him. In his mind, of course, it was the bear’s fault.
It was at that time that a ranger pulled up. The man immediately launched into a huge tirade about how he was going to sue the National Park System for millions of dollars for damages and for endangering his family by having dangerous animals in the park that were prone to unprovoked attacks.
The ranger called the incident in and calmly listened to the man’s ranting and raving, after making sure that everyone was unhurt. A photographer arrived and took pictures of the scene from various angles.
The man did attempt to sue the park service. The case was thrown out of court immediately. Why? Because one of the pictures clearly showed that not more than 20 feet in front of the car was a sign that read, “DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS“, in big, bold letters.
I’ve very little doubt that the man went on to tell all his friends how he and his family barely escaped from an unprovoked black bear attack that destroyed his property. He probably believed it. It is hard to say if anyone else believed him, but the fact is that they didn’t ‘barely escape’ since the bear wasn’t after the family, it was after the food. It also wasn’t an unprovoked attack. The bear was teased, which is a definite provocation, and it didn’t attack, it merely removed the obstacle that was between it and the sandwich, namely the car door. The camera was destroyed by the man, himself.
The truth is that most bad bear-human interactions aren’t from unprovoked attacks by bears. Eventually, it is hoped that more people learn what the kids that grow up in national parks learn from a very young age; bears are wild and they should be treated with respect, caution, and common sense.
If more people learned that lesson before traveling through bear country, there would be far fewer bad bear-human encounters.
Very well put, Rex, and I enjoyed reading it but got awfully mad at the man for being cruel to an animal, and especially acting like that in front of his kids.
I firmly believe that this is precisely what teaches kids to misbehave. As one of our pastors once said, you can tell the qualities and values of people by observing their kids.
If only they would pay attention to the signs, we could all be safer and less laws suits in courts.
I doubt that the tourist would have won the lawsuit even without the sign. It is posted on virtually all the literature a person gets when they enter the park. However, you’re right. It could have cost thousands of dollars before the park service would have won and the taxpayers are the ones who have to foot the bill.
Yes Rex I believe what you said in this comment. great post
I just hope that more people start applying common sense. Unfortunately, it seems like common sense is anything but common.
I don’t know why people can not follow the rules.
I agree, especially since the rules are so very common sense.
Well done! Nice post!
Thank you very much!
Oh I believe that this man did something as foolish as this. Most humans do. I mean look at us drinking, smoking, not eating right. Heck we do it to our own self. But the poor bear never asked to be taunted and defamed like that. I pity the poor bear and not the man at all. Very interesting story that should make people think carefully.
The outcome could have been far worse and unfortunately, the bear would probably have been blamed if it had been.
Every year, people get hurt in Yellowstone National Park because they try to take closeup selfies of themselves standing next to a bison. Apparently, they haven’t a clue about what “wild animal” means.