Rick arrived in May 1994, less than a year before the first wolves were scheduled to be released, and found a community deeply divided about the wisdom of reintroduction. Over time he came to know which gas stations, restaurants, motels, and curio shops were run by pro-wolf proprietors, and which were anti-wolf. The downstairs gift shop at the airport in Bozeman, Montana, where most Yellowstone visitors landed, stocked all things wolf—stuffed animals, knickknacks, calendars, posters—while the upstairs shop near the gates had nothing. A wolf-loving friend of Rick’s had once asked the woman at
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