Clark Fork – In 2024, travelers from 18 states – as far north as Edmonton, to Florida, and as far in the south as Hawaii – visited a distant city from northern Idaho of only 600 residents.
The attraction connecting tourists spread to Clark Fork: Scotchman Peak, a path to the top point of the mountains of the cabinet and the house with many mountain goats.
On the Alltrail hiking sharing application, some explorers outside the state tell visits to the death of winter, hardening kilometers of deep snow and steep terrain to have a chance to see a goat at the top.
“People from everywhere come to see them,” said Philip Hough, Executive Director of Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, a non -profit organization for nature conservation. “And they spend money throughout the way. People will stop at Clark Fork for gas and grocery store or dinner or the hotel, and they will stop in Sandpoint or in places like Hope for the old Pizzeria Ice House.”
The economic and cultural value of all fauna in Idaho, not just mountain goats, has been well documented for more than a century.
In the 1950s, the director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, Ross Leonard, was frank of the “aesthetic and recreational advantages of fauna for hunters, photographers and others who appreciate nature.
“Our mountain goats have many important values. Not only do they provide sport for the hunter, but also pleasure for all these fauna lovers who like to observe these animals in natural conditions in their accidental mountains, “he wrote in the forefront of the Dwight R. Smith bookstore in 1955” Mountain Goat in Idaho “.
In ancient times, a meeting with the Woolly Wanderers on Scotchman Peak was a draw, said Hough. But nowadays, because the population has increased and animals have become used to hikers, it is almost a guarantee.
“It is still not absolute certainty, you will see a mountain goat there,” he said. “But people are gaining great satisfaction with the simple knowledge of these places.”
The abundance of fauna near Bonters Ferry is well documented in the memories of the German immigrant from the 19th century Albert Klockmann, who spent years in the rugged Wilderness of Selkirk Mountain in search of a legendary warning of huge silver and lead deposits, which he finally found and transformed into the continental mine.
In the manuscripts of “The Klockmann Diary”, published for the first time in The Bonneners Ferry Herald in 1959, the frontier describes caribou groups large enough to maintain a team of minors all winter with meat and skins, frequent meetings with graying bears, to be “massacred as an animal”.
Some creatures that Klockmann mentioned did not have the same success as the mountain goat. Despite the recent resumption of the population, the grizzly ones remain listed as an endangered species. And in 2019, Caribou died in the contiguous United States
The director of the Idaho Conservation League, Brad Smith, said that in adolescence, a rare observation of caribou in the Selkirks inspired him to pursue a career in conservation.
“The loss of Woodland Caribou is probably one of the largest tragedies in my career as a conservationist,” he said. “They have gone from abundance to rarity to extinction in 100 years. It is important to keep the history of caribou alive, so we do not repeat the same mistakes with grizzly ones or mountain goats or other species that we have. ”
To support fauna experiences in northern Idaho that attract outdoor fans of the United States and Canada, Hough said that a persistent challenge will be the growth and development of cities and cities near wild zones.
“It is a responsibility that we must all recognize an increasing number of people on fauna habitat,” he said. “The hikers remain safe, the goats remain wild, the trails remain open.”
The value of the existence of fauna in the north of Idaho – whether seen or simply known to be here – is sufficient to attract visitors, if only to have the chance to see something unforgettable.
“Go early and entered the clouds that obscured the top views,” said a spokane alltrail user, Washington.
