American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

by Nate Blakeslee

In an effort to rein him in, the Park Service assigned Rick to the visitor center near Old Faithful, seventy miles from the Lamar Valley. The main attraction in that part of the park, of course, was the geyser itself. It could be counted on to go off every ninety minutes or so, and the park kept visitors apprised of the estimated time of the next eruption on a chalkboard in the viewing area. If they had a little time to kill, families might get ice cream or wander into the auditorium during Rick’s slideshow on wolves. The pictures were interesting, but there would be a great deal of watch checking in the audience, and periodically a mass exodus would occur to get a good spot to watch the eruption. It was like trying to do stand-up comedy at a nightclub with the Super Bowl playing on the TV above the bar. Rick could have had slides of an alpha female giving birth in a den while her mate wrestled grizzlies outside in an ice storm, and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Old Faithful was Old Faithful.