A High Rider for the Hornaday
An Elk Valley cowboy, an American conservation pioneer, and the ties that bind.
Home on the Range — Just another day on the ranch for Bill Hanlon and his two best four-legged sidekicks. Jenny Bateman Photo
Elkford’s Bill Hanlon is the kind of person you want to meet in the backcountry. Greying stubble and weathered cheeks tell the tale of a lifetime in the outdoors; his confidence and enthusiasm are revealed in his easy smile and efficient manner. You get the unshakeable sense that anyone who is that relaxed around horses, and so obviously at ease in remote wilderness, is capable of anything. Odds are also good that your boots only made the journey because Bill shared some priceless nugget of his Google-worthy knowledge of Rocky Mountain trails — and that the wilderness you’re exploring and the wildlife you see along the way are still there in part due to Bill’s tireless efforts to protect it.
A retired high school teacher and woodworker, Bill is well-known for his co-discovery of Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi (Person Long Ago Found), a frozen mummy of a young hunter who died over three centuries ago. Bill and his hunting partners first noticed bits of bone and a walking stick melting from a glacier on a 1999 sheep hunt in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. They reported their find to the authorities, and discovered more remains and tools during subsequent hunts. Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi’s ground squirrel robe, beaver skin bag, weapons, and even his stomach contents — which included sea asparagus and other maritime foods — offered an unprecedented glimpse into pre-colonial life in what is now Northern BC. DNA testing has since located 17 of his living relatives in the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.
To say that wildlife and hunting are passions for Bill is like saying Fisher Peak is sorta steep. His love of wild places is matched only by the time he puts into protecting them. In 2014, Bill helped take the US-based Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) international by establishing the BC Chapter, which he chaired for 5 years. BHA advocates for wilderness and wildlife protection, as well as protecting non-mechanized hunting and fishing opportunities.
In addition to a long list of wildlife, recreation access, and land management committees over the years, Bill currently sits on the Kootenay Regional Wildlife Advisory Committee, a Provincial test template for managing wildlife using local values and science, rather than Victoria-driven goals and guidelines that favour industry and economics over sustainability. These processes and meetings might be viewed as purgatory for an outdoorsman like Bill, but he simply sees them as a part of what we all need to do to protect what we love.
“Wildlife populations are continually affected by human activity and a loss of habitat,” explains Hanlon, who laments the replacement of our traditional conservation-based backcountry attitude with a fun-first mentality. “The Elk Valley is the most industrialized valley in BC. In addition to five of the world’s largest open-pit, mountaintop-removal coal mines, we bear the effects of three growing communities, an aggressive forest sector, a large private land holding, and a recreation destination all covered by industrial-strength recreational tourism.”
Bill has witnessed the troubling recent trend of increased illegal and unregulated activity, including a free-for-all attitude towards off-road vehicle use encouraged by BC’s lack of enforceable regulations, and lack of enforcement capacity. Bill cites one obvious culprit in the subsequent decrease in Kootenay wildlife populations: roads.
“These realities are directly related to the growing footprint of linear disturbances into our last wild places. Some recent road reclamation projects to reduce road density in critical habitat is encouraging, but we have a long way to go to address wildlife and habitat needs.”
Culvert Creek — Located in the upper Bull River, this photo offers a glimpse into the rugged beauty that defines the Hornaday Wilderness Area. Dave Quinn Photo
One of Hanlon’s projects has been protecting the Hornaday Wilderness Area, a rare swath of unroaded wilderness in the Rocky Mountains between Sparwood and Elkford, encompassing Hornaday Pass, Brule, Avalanche, Culvert, and Bingay Creeks. Hanlon is co-founder and present chair of the Hornaday Wilderness Society (HWS), a small but effective wilderness advocacy group. “Our mandate is to perpetuate the conservation efforts of William T. Hornaday by managing and stewarding five non-motorized recreation trails into some of the wildest backcountry remaining in the Elk Valley for sustainable, low impact, public recreation,” Hanlon explains.
In 1905, the American conservationists William T. Hornaday and John M. Phillips visited the area on an extended horse-pack hunting and big game specimen collecting expedition. Hornaday is well-known for helping save the plains bison from imminent extinction in the early 1900s by purchasing a small herd, captive breeding them, and releasing bison into protected habitat. He also wrote Camp-Fires of the Canadian Rockies, detailing his adventures and offering a glimpse into life in the Kootenays in the early 20th century.
Looking to the future, Bill Hanlon sees the next frontier as an expansion of existing no-trace wilderness travel rules. “Leave no trace is still a solid mantra,” he says, “but it should now include social media posts about wild places. There are no secrets anymore; everyone wants to know and go everywhere.”
Hornaday’s words from the preface to his 1906 book ring ominous: “We dread the day of the ranch, the road, the railway, and the coal mine — anywhere near the Elk and the Bull Rivers…” While all these changes have since arrived to all but the deepest pockets of the Rocky Mountains, it’s people like Bill Hanlon who stoke the campfires of hope for the wildlife and wilderness that still remain.
~ Dave Quinn
Find this full-length story and more in The Trench’s (Go Cranberley) Winter 2023/24 edition: