February 25, 2024 • 24 mins
When we think of outlaws and bounty hunters of New Mexico, we probably don't picture a London-trained artist who authored the Boy Scout Handbook, or a pack of wolves who evade all pursuit, including that of a Texas Ranger, in Northern New Mexico. But that's just the beginning of a tragic story that began to change the narrative of wolves in America, a story that is still unfolding today in the wilds of the Gila and Western Colorado.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bienvenidos.
This is the EnchantmentChronicles.
I am the man of enchantment,and with me is Drew Cedral.
Today, we're gonna be talkingabout Lobo, the last Lobo.
Drew, what do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, you know, when you think of outlaws and bounty
hunters, these might not be whatoccurs to you.
First, a band of wolves thathave established such a
reputation that they get abounty of Wasn't a thousand
(00:41):
dollars set upon their headafter Various Wolf hunters had
tried to capture them, um andfailed, including a Texas Ranger
and and others.
This band was led by thenamesake Lobo, the original Lobo
(01:04):
himself, I guess, andConsistent of just a few wolves,
but they certainly had anoutsize impact on the cattle
ranchers of Little Texas, andyou've got a good sense of that
geography, right, johnny.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Little Texas is.
We would say it's the easternpart of New Mexico.
But specifically here the Lobois up near the.
I'm near Clayton, up near now.
If you drew, if you know, themap of New Mexico, there's a
little slit of New Mexico upthere north of Clayton.
It's a few miles wide.
(01:45):
That's kind of where theCorumpo Valley is.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I'm in.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And yeah, and the Corumpo Valley, is it?
There's a lot of tribute, smalltributaries and it goes.
Goes kind of into what northernTexas, maybe Oklahoma, the
northern Texas area, and that'swhere this guy used to hang out.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, and that watershed coming through the
mountains and Lobo, as Was notedby more than one bounty hunter,
was very successful at evadingcapture by working through those
Arroyos he'd cut away from Downpaths that horses couldn't
(02:30):
follow and in at least one case,in the case of the Texas Ranger
that came out to hunt his pack,they separated through the
arroyos and and then rallied.
They gathered again Once thethe dogs this guy had had had
(02:51):
gotten themselves separated, andthen they turned and when they
outnumbered them, killed severalof his dogs and Wounded several
others and left him, you know,bereft of his wolf hounds.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So that was why he had had to turn away Come so
there were a lot of a lot offolks that got called in and so
who was lobo, why?
Why was lobo and his pack aproblem?
I remember correctly it was arelatively small pack.
You know few, a few a number,but lobo was a special, special
kind of guy and and hisgirlfriend that we'll get to
(03:25):
later.
We we know her as Blanca.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
But, what?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
what was going on with lobo and Blanca in the pack
?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
well they were.
They were extraordinary intheir time.
They were some of the lastsurviving wolves in that
northern part of New Mexico.
Um um.
The Khrompar ranchers estimatedthat more than 2,000 of their
finest stock had been killedover the years by this pack.
(03:55):
There were some exceptionalwolves.
In the words of Ernest ThompsonSeton, he had five wolves that
followed him.
One was a yellow wolf ofremarkable swiftness which,
according to some of theranchers, had been seen
capturing an antelope, runningdown an antelope on its own.
And these wolves, possibly moreimpressively than their ability
(04:18):
to hunt, was their ability toevade capture.
Lobo was known to dig out trapsand was known to cut out
unpoisoned meat from carcasses,after some cowboys, you know.
(04:39):
One of the things they weretrying was Stricknein, and later
he would even be known todefecate on poisoned carcasses
as a warning to his pack to stayaway.
So he certainly had observedall the methods they had to
eradicate these wolves andevaded them.
And, in the words of ErnestThompson Seton, who would
(05:04):
eventually be sent out there,lobo had been educated by
gunpowder to let man alone, likemany wolves.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And so we'll get into this.
But Ernest Thompson Setonwrites a little short story
called Lobo, the King of Krumpov, in here.
In his little short story hetalks about how this pack of
wolves allegedly kills up to oneanimal or one livestock a day
(05:38):
approximately.
And so what had happened wasthese ranchers were getting
tired of losing so many animalsand they called in many
different people.
And Ernest Thompson Setoncalled, accepted the challenge
of $1,000 in the late 1800s,which today's value, just for
(06:00):
what it's worth, isapproximately $30,000 to $35,000
a bounty on this Lobo.
So he comes out in the late1800s, ernest Thompson Seton
comes out and says he's going totake over.
Take out, mr Lobo.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Right.
So he is considered thepreeminent wolf hunter at that
time.
His background is he was bornin England.
Ironically, he was named afteran ancestor of his mothers from
Scotland, ernest Evans, who hadsupposedly helped eradicate
(06:41):
wolves in Scotland.
That he, his family, moved toCanada when he won a gold medal
from the Ontario College of Artand Design in 1879 at 18.
And so he was sent to London tostudy for $25 a month at the
(07:01):
Royal Academy of Arts andScience and there he would get
permission from, among othertrustees, the Prince of Wales,
to study famed naturalists likeAudubon's Art and others.
And he realized that peoplecould make their money off this.
(07:24):
And he only gets to study inLondon for about three years
before he has to head back.
I guess $25 a month you figuredit out earlier, a thousand
dollars was significant and $25a month was still pretty
significant.
So he heads back and with $3 inhis pocket he connects with Jay
(07:50):
Fraser and becomes anillustrator, Buddies encouraged
to continue his scientificstudies and publishes some books
in 1896 and the Art Anatomy ofAnimals and others, briefly
returns to Paris and studies artat the Julian Academy in 1890.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So in the meanwhile, this guy comes from Thompson
Seton, comes from a relativelywell off family.
At the time England has to moveto Canada.
He grows up kind of on thefrontier of Canada, if you will,
and so he's kind of caughtbetween two worlds.
(08:38):
And in 1893, he jumps on atrain.
He accepts the call for $1,000and jumps on the train to come
out to and goes through FortWorth, texas, and gets off at
Clayton, new Mexico, to try totake out Lobo and his pack.
He heeds the call, if you will.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yep, he, he does.
They agree to provide him ahorse and they, they would pay
for ammunition, poisons, trapsand travel expenses 80 dollars,
you know, just to just to hunt.
When he stays there and inClayton at a Boarding house that
(09:25):
is, and that they hasten to add, is is run according to the
highest standards, probablymeaning that it wasn't a brothel
, that's a Clayton.
At the time, clayton was apretty, pretty, pretty rock in
town.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I guess at the time there was a bunch of stuff going
on and we've been talking aboutFolsom and the different areas
and people were moving in andthat was actually a stop on the
Santa Fe Trail Before that andso people had been moving in and
out for the previous, you know,60, 80 years or so.
Blackjack catch him was upthere at some point.
(10:01):
That will, I'm sure, and getinto it at some point.
But he gets off and he getsinto Clayton, new Mexico, and
says let's go.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, and, and as we already learned from a
previous episode, that that areais Kind of the home to some of
the largest cattle stations inNorth of Texas at the time.
So it's, it's a big, it's abooming economy and there's
enough money to be gathered thatyou could bring in the best.
And that was Ernest Thompsonseat.
(10:31):
He was not unsympathetic to thewolves.
In fact he kind of Comes tobelieve that they've.
The part of the reason they canevade traps is there.
They're communicating with eachother, they're passing on
information, and he's alsokeenly aware that their natural
(10:52):
prey had been Decimated.
Thing in, the buffalo were gone, a lot of the Deer and elk and
antelope were Fading, and sothey didn't have a lot of
choices besides to hunt cattle.
And he, he, his sympathies,however, did not prevent him
(11:18):
from doing his best to Eliminatethese wolves, and for quite a
while his best was, like others,simply not good enough.
They they tried various methodsat first, including poisoned
(11:43):
carcasses.
Again, that's where LoboRevealed himself to Thompson
Seton by Defocating On thosepoisoned carcasses as if to warn
the other animals away.
That's certainly not a usualwolf behavior around around meat
.
So there was some, there wassome communication going on
(12:03):
there, and Thompson Seton had nodoubt about that.
But eventually he finds aweakness in Lobo.
He finds that one of the wolvesSeems to be Running alongside
(12:27):
and running in front and runningaround with smaller footprints,
and, and he concludes that Lobohas found a mate I think his
words were the marauder hadfallen in love, right, and so he
resolved to go back and trysomething that he tried before,
(12:50):
which was traps.
But in this case he thinks hecan trap Lobo's mate because
she's scampering around with him.
She's running ahead, she'srunning back as he's reading
these tracks, which isIncredibly impressive to me,
johnny, I don't.
I get out hiking and you knowI'm excited if I could tell a
(13:10):
deer track from a horse and he'sreading these tracks and
understanding what they're doingas they're playing right.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, and I think it was a different time.
There, you know, there wasn'tYouTube or TV or cell phone, so
we understood the world a littlebit differently.
And I think at one point I readthat this animal Lobo Was and
the reason why you could tell itapart.
This animal was so large thathis paw was about five inches in
(13:39):
diameter, which is prettyremarkable, for for a wolf, he
was about a hundred pounds.
But his buddy, his friend, hisgirlfriend, blanca, was a little
bit, was a little bit smaller,and Blanca had gotten her name
from the Spanish.
Obviously, in the area becauseof her coat she looked different
(13:59):
.
But these, these wolves for allintents and purposes and will
come to learn through his, hiswriting, what was it called?
The Lobo, the king of thecarumpa, which is just a
remarkable piece because he ishow do you say?
He flips the script a littlebit and he's the bad guy in it.
(14:20):
He, being Ernest Thompson Seton, is the bad guy, but he learns
in this and he writes in thishow he, the Lobo, just had this
undying or dying, rather,whichever love for his mate,
which ultimately Was hisdownfall.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, it's, it's truly tragic and it's remarkable
how he tells that story.
You're right, and it'savailable online and from the
Google Books archive.
It's.
It's the first chapter of abook called wild animals.
I have known and he is veryexplicit that that in that story
he is not deviated from thetruth one bit in any
(15:06):
embellishment or anything.
He Talks about a lot of variousanimals in the book.
He's a remarkable writer.
It becomes.
It becomes a bestseller kind ofsits around many a nursery and
child's Reading room, I guess inthe 1900s.
(15:27):
So it shapes a lot of peopleand it it shifts the narrative
of wolves in general frombloodthirsty and emotionless
killers, which is what he's beenbrought to pursue in the in the
valley there, to one of socialanimals capable of love.
Right, he Is his mate.
(15:50):
Blanca is captured by thosetraps.
She does run ahead and Lobo isstaying with her when Ernest
Thompson Seton arrives with hisgun.
But at that point Lobo followsyou know his protocols, I guess
and runs away.
(16:10):
He knows he can't stand againsta gun.
He flees.
So Thompson Seton kind ofbrutally drags Blanca's corpse
along a trail, thinking that hecan lure Lobo back in the hopes
(16:31):
that he'll be able to find andsomehow rescue is made or
accompany her in some way, andthat works.
He sets more traps alongBlanca's trail and Lobo winds up
captured not in one but fourseparate leg traps.
And that's kind of when ErnestThompson Seton has this turn.
(16:55):
He comes and he sees this wolfand there's a remarkable
photograph of the wolf and youcan see how big it is.
But he kind of resolves he'sgonna, he's gonna not kill it,
he'll put it on display.
But Lobo refuses to eat andjust kind of wastes away.
(17:16):
He dies there and ErnestThompson Seton maintains that he
died of a broken heart.
So it's a truly tragic story,but one that really shifts,
begins to shift the world'sperceptions of wolves as it is
popularized and spread out, andthey begin to be seen more as
(17:40):
loyal animals that are worthy ofrespect and protection.
So, johnny, do you want to talka little bit more about Ernest
Thompson Seton and hisconnection to New Mexico?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Well, after this he decides to stick around.
If I remember correctly, hecame out and this was obviously
in Union County, there nearClayton, which is the county
seat.
But he decides to stick out,stick around here and he becomes
an environmentalist Afterwardsbecause of Lobo and he starts
(18:21):
writing essays and he ends upliving in Santa Fe for a long
time, buys a ranch out near, Ithink near the Picos, builds a
big old house and I think heends up dying out there.
I could be wrong, but ErnestThompson Seton, he was how do?
(18:47):
you say he was a big New Mexican, important New Mexican, assumed
Mexican for a long time and hedied.
He is cremated.
He was cremated in Albuquerque,new Mexico, and he died in
Seton Village, new Mexico, whichis outside of Santa Fe, because
(19:09):
of Ernest Thompson Seton, heand, by the way, the the the
Pelt of Lobo, is on display onsome level at the Filmont Scout,
ranch Boys Scout, which is inColfax County, in their museum.
(19:30):
So I haven't seen it.
I'd like to go but it's upthere somewhere.
But Seton built a castleoutside of Santa Fe.
I haven't seen that.
It was run down for a while.
I think an art institute boughtit and redid it on some level.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
But yeah, he was a successful writer for many years
.
He wrote his autobiography inthe 1940s and it was being
released, and he wrote theoriginal Boy Scout Handbook
which might, it might, be theconnection to the Filmont Ranch
there he's, you know, alegendary, I guess, figure in
(20:11):
his own right Right.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, and from what I've read he was friends with
all the big name artists at thetime, I think George O'Keefe and
all those those types of typesof folks.
He at least knew them, theywere, they were hip to each
other.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
No, but but that's who he was.
He, he was an interesting catand he he, like many New
Mexicans who don't originatehere, he came here with intent
and he lived his life the wayNew Mexicans do, with intention,
and made a, made a life andname of himself because of his
(20:57):
experiences here.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, one of one of the most striking examples of
someone who falls under theenchantment of the land of
enchantment.
Right, johnny, I agree, yeah,and and today we still see that
impact, you know, in in placeslike New Mexico and Colorado,
and that that might be a subjectfor a future episode.
(21:22):
Right, johnny, that the, thereintroduction of the Lobo and
and some of the reintroductionprograms going on throughout the
West these days.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Certainly, and we've.
We've been seeing on the newsrecently references to wolves
and we've been doing it sincethe 70s, I think, down on the
Gila.
But we have, I don't know, 150,170, 200, some packs of wolves
running around and and hopefullywe'll get into the impact, the
impact of the wolves, and it's apretty controversial subject.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
But, but?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
but there there's a documentary out on the
reintroduction of the wolves inYellow Stone.
I don't know if you've seen it,but it's pretty, pretty
remarkable.
And if you've ever been down, Ilike to go down to the Gila and
I've heard the wolves howlingat night.
It's just a, it's a anexperience.
It's an experience that youdon't get to see much in the
(22:21):
city.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, no, I've, I've, I've not heard the wolves when
I've been in the Gila.
The last times I was camping inthe Gila was shortly after
their reintroductions, and yeah,they are, you know they're apex
predators.
They we reintroduced them backin 98.
The Fish and Wildlife Serviceconducted a reintroduction with
(22:46):
various rules and there's thoseare still changing to this day.
But it certainly has beencontroversial.
It hasn't been without itsconflicts.
At one point One of the packswas led by two, three legged
wolves.
But that's enough for another.
That that's a whole otherepisode, johnny, don't you think
(23:06):
?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I think.
So let's wrap this up and okay,and for today.
But today, yeah, was all aboutLobo, the enchanting Lobo of New
Mexico, the last Lobo, whichreally wasn't last, but for the,
for all intents and purposes,the the the last Lobo of New
Mexico.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
There you go, there you go, certainly the Crumpaw
Valley, and, and certainly theone to be the one that inspired
the reintroduction.
I will say that there is a, Ithink, a nature documentary
available on PBS that coversthis, and we'll we'll post some
links to that on the website,right, johnny?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I hope so.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Okay.
All right, all right.
Have a good one.
All right, take care Bye.
Bye.
Bienvenidos.
This is the EnchantmentChronicles.
I am the man of enchantment,and with me is Drew Cedral.
Today, we're gonna be talkingabout Lobo, the last Lobo.
Drew, what do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, you know, when you think of outlaws and bounty
hunters, these might not be whatoccurs to you.
First, a band of wolves thathave established such a
reputation that they get abounty of Wasn't a thousand
(00:41):
dollars set upon their headafter Various Wolf hunters had
tried to capture them, um andfailed, including a Texas Ranger
and and others.
This band was led by thenamesake Lobo, the original Lobo
(01:04):
himself, I guess, andConsistent of just a few wolves,
but they certainly had anoutsize impact on the cattle
ranchers of Little Texas, andyou've got a good sense of that
geography, right, johnny.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Little Texas is.
We would say it's the easternpart of New Mexico.
But specifically here the Lobois up near the.
I'm near Clayton, up near now.
If you drew, if you know, themap of New Mexico, there's a
little slit of New Mexico upthere north of Clayton.
It's a few miles wide.
(01:45):
That's kind of where theCorumpo Valley is.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I'm in.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And yeah, and the Corumpo Valley, is it?
There's a lot of tribute, smalltributaries and it goes.
Goes kind of into what northernTexas, maybe Oklahoma, the
northern Texas area, and that'swhere this guy used to hang out.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, and that watershed coming through the
mountains and Lobo, as Was notedby more than one bounty hunter,
was very successful at evadingcapture by working through those
Arroyos he'd cut away from Downpaths that horses couldn't
(02:30):
follow and in at least one case,in the case of the Texas Ranger
that came out to hunt his pack,they separated through the
arroyos and and then rallied.
They gathered again Once thethe dogs this guy had had had
(02:51):
gotten themselves separated, andthen they turned and when they
outnumbered them, killed severalof his dogs and Wounded several
others and left him, you know,bereft of his wolf hounds.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So that was why he had had to turn away Come so
there were a lot of a lot offolks that got called in and so
who was lobo, why?
Why was lobo and his pack aproblem?
I remember correctly it was arelatively small pack.
You know few, a few a number,but lobo was a special, special
kind of guy and and hisgirlfriend that we'll get to
(03:25):
later.
We we know her as Blanca.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
But, what?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
what was going on with lobo and Blanca in the pack
?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
well they were.
They were extraordinary intheir time.
They were some of the lastsurviving wolves in that
northern part of New Mexico.
Um um.
The Khrompar ranchers estimatedthat more than 2,000 of their
finest stock had been killedover the years by this pack.
(03:55):
There were some exceptionalwolves.
In the words of Ernest ThompsonSeton, he had five wolves that
followed him.
One was a yellow wolf ofremarkable swiftness which,
according to some of theranchers, had been seen
capturing an antelope, runningdown an antelope on its own.
And these wolves, possibly moreimpressively than their ability
(04:18):
to hunt, was their ability toevade capture.
Lobo was known to dig out trapsand was known to cut out
unpoisoned meat from carcasses,after some cowboys, you know.
(04:39):
One of the things they weretrying was Stricknein, and later
he would even be known todefecate on poisoned carcasses
as a warning to his pack to stayaway.
So he certainly had observedall the methods they had to
eradicate these wolves andevaded them.
And, in the words of ErnestThompson Seton, who would
(05:04):
eventually be sent out there,lobo had been educated by
gunpowder to let man alone, likemany wolves.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And so we'll get into this.
But Ernest Thompson Setonwrites a little short story
called Lobo, the King of Krumpov, in here.
In his little short story hetalks about how this pack of
wolves allegedly kills up to oneanimal or one livestock a day
(05:38):
approximately.
And so what had happened wasthese ranchers were getting
tired of losing so many animalsand they called in many
different people.
And Ernest Thompson Setoncalled, accepted the challenge
of $1,000 in the late 1800s,which today's value, just for
(06:00):
what it's worth, isapproximately $30,000 to $35,000
a bounty on this Lobo.
So he comes out in the late1800s, ernest Thompson Seton
comes out and says he's going totake over.
Take out, mr Lobo.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Right.
So he is considered thepreeminent wolf hunter at that
time.
His background is he was bornin England.
Ironically, he was named afteran ancestor of his mothers from
Scotland, ernest Evans, who hadsupposedly helped eradicate
(06:41):
wolves in Scotland.
That he, his family, moved toCanada when he won a gold medal
from the Ontario College of Artand Design in 1879 at 18.
And so he was sent to London tostudy for $25 a month at the
(07:01):
Royal Academy of Arts andScience and there he would get
permission from, among othertrustees, the Prince of Wales,
to study famed naturalists likeAudubon's Art and others.
And he realized that peoplecould make their money off this.
(07:24):
And he only gets to study inLondon for about three years
before he has to head back.
I guess $25 a month you figuredit out earlier, a thousand
dollars was significant and $25a month was still pretty
significant.
So he heads back and with $3 inhis pocket he connects with Jay
(07:50):
Fraser and becomes anillustrator, Buddies encouraged
to continue his scientificstudies and publishes some books
in 1896 and the Art Anatomy ofAnimals and others, briefly
returns to Paris and studies artat the Julian Academy in 1890.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So in the meanwhile, this guy comes from Thompson
Seton, comes from a relativelywell off family.
At the time England has to moveto Canada.
He grows up kind of on thefrontier of Canada, if you will,
and so he's kind of caughtbetween two worlds.
(08:38):
And in 1893, he jumps on atrain.
He accepts the call for $1,000and jumps on the train to come
out to and goes through FortWorth, texas, and gets off at
Clayton, new Mexico, to try totake out Lobo and his pack.
He heeds the call, if you will.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yep, he, he does.
They agree to provide him ahorse and they, they would pay
for ammunition, poisons, trapsand travel expenses 80 dollars,
you know, just to just to hunt.
When he stays there and inClayton at a Boarding house that
(09:25):
is, and that they hasten to add, is is run according to the
highest standards, probablymeaning that it wasn't a brothel
, that's a Clayton.
At the time, clayton was apretty, pretty, pretty rock in
town.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I guess at the time there was a bunch of stuff going
on and we've been talking aboutFolsom and the different areas
and people were moving in andthat was actually a stop on the
Santa Fe Trail Before that andso people had been moving in and
out for the previous, you know,60, 80 years or so.
Blackjack catch him was upthere at some point.
(10:01):
That will, I'm sure, and getinto it at some point.
But he gets off and he getsinto Clayton, new Mexico, and
says let's go.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, and, and as we already learned from a
previous episode, that that areais Kind of the home to some of
the largest cattle stations inNorth of Texas at the time.
So it's, it's a big, it's abooming economy and there's
enough money to be gathered thatyou could bring in the best.
And that was Ernest Thompsonseat.
(10:31):
He was not unsympathetic to thewolves.
In fact he kind of Comes tobelieve that they've.
The part of the reason they canevade traps is there.
They're communicating with eachother, they're passing on
information, and he's alsokeenly aware that their natural
(10:52):
prey had been Decimated.
Thing in, the buffalo were gone, a lot of the Deer and elk and
antelope were Fading, and sothey didn't have a lot of
choices besides to hunt cattle.
And he, he, his sympathies,however, did not prevent him
(11:18):
from doing his best to Eliminatethese wolves, and for quite a
while his best was, like others,simply not good enough.
They they tried various methodsat first, including poisoned
(11:43):
carcasses.
Again, that's where LoboRevealed himself to Thompson
Seton by Defocating On thosepoisoned carcasses as if to warn
the other animals away.
That's certainly not a usualwolf behavior around around meat
.
So there was some, there wassome communication going on
(12:03):
there, and Thompson Seton had nodoubt about that.
But eventually he finds aweakness in Lobo.
He finds that one of the wolvesSeems to be Running alongside
(12:27):
and running in front and runningaround with smaller footprints,
and, and he concludes that Lobohas found a mate I think his
words were the marauder hadfallen in love, right, and so he
resolved to go back and trysomething that he tried before,
(12:50):
which was traps.
But in this case he thinks hecan trap Lobo's mate because
she's scampering around with him.
She's running ahead, she'srunning back as he's reading
these tracks, which isIncredibly impressive to me,
johnny, I don't.
I get out hiking and you knowI'm excited if I could tell a
(13:10):
deer track from a horse and he'sreading these tracks and
understanding what they're doingas they're playing right.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, and I think it was a different time.
There, you know, there wasn'tYouTube or TV or cell phone, so
we understood the world a littlebit differently.
And I think at one point I readthat this animal Lobo Was and
the reason why you could tell itapart.
This animal was so large thathis paw was about five inches in
(13:39):
diameter, which is prettyremarkable, for for a wolf, he
was about a hundred pounds.
But his buddy, his friend, hisgirlfriend, blanca, was a little
bit, was a little bit smaller,and Blanca had gotten her name
from the Spanish.
Obviously, in the area becauseof her coat she looked different
(13:59):
.
But these, these wolves for allintents and purposes and will
come to learn through his, hiswriting, what was it called?
The Lobo, the king of thecarumpa, which is just a
remarkable piece because he ishow do you say?
He flips the script a littlebit and he's the bad guy in it.
(14:20):
He, being Ernest Thompson Seton, is the bad guy, but he learns
in this and he writes in thishow he, the Lobo, just had this
undying or dying, rather,whichever love for his mate,
which ultimately Was hisdownfall.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, it's, it's truly tragic and it's remarkable
how he tells that story.
You're right, and it'savailable online and from the
Google Books archive.
It's.
It's the first chapter of abook called wild animals.
I have known and he is veryexplicit that that in that story
he is not deviated from thetruth one bit in any
(15:06):
embellishment or anything.
He Talks about a lot of variousanimals in the book.
He's a remarkable writer.
It becomes.
It becomes a bestseller kind ofsits around many a nursery and
child's Reading room, I guess inthe 1900s.
(15:27):
So it shapes a lot of peopleand it it shifts the narrative
of wolves in general frombloodthirsty and emotionless
killers, which is what he's beenbrought to pursue in the in the
valley there, to one of socialanimals capable of love.
Right, he Is his mate.
(15:50):
Blanca is captured by thosetraps.
She does run ahead and Lobo isstaying with her when Ernest
Thompson Seton arrives with hisgun.
But at that point Lobo followsyou know his protocols, I guess
and runs away.
(16:10):
He knows he can't stand againsta gun.
He flees.
So Thompson Seton kind ofbrutally drags Blanca's corpse
along a trail, thinking that hecan lure Lobo back in the hopes
(16:31):
that he'll be able to find andsomehow rescue is made or
accompany her in some way, andthat works.
He sets more traps alongBlanca's trail and Lobo winds up
captured not in one but fourseparate leg traps.
And that's kind of when ErnestThompson Seton has this turn.
(16:55):
He comes and he sees this wolfand there's a remarkable
photograph of the wolf and youcan see how big it is.
But he kind of resolves he'sgonna, he's gonna not kill it,
he'll put it on display.
But Lobo refuses to eat andjust kind of wastes away.
(17:16):
He dies there and ErnestThompson Seton maintains that he
died of a broken heart.
So it's a truly tragic story,but one that really shifts,
begins to shift the world'sperceptions of wolves as it is
popularized and spread out, andthey begin to be seen more as
(17:40):
loyal animals that are worthy ofrespect and protection.
So, johnny, do you want to talka little bit more about Ernest
Thompson Seton and hisconnection to New Mexico?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Well, after this he decides to stick around.
If I remember correctly, hecame out and this was obviously
in Union County, there nearClayton, which is the county
seat.
But he decides to stick out,stick around here and he becomes
an environmentalist Afterwardsbecause of Lobo and he starts
(18:21):
writing essays and he ends upliving in Santa Fe for a long
time, buys a ranch out near, Ithink near the Picos, builds a
big old house and I think heends up dying out there.
I could be wrong, but ErnestThompson Seton, he was how do?
(18:47):
you say he was a big New Mexican, important New Mexican, assumed
Mexican for a long time and hedied.
He is cremated.
He was cremated in Albuquerque,new Mexico, and he died in
Seton Village, new Mexico, whichis outside of Santa Fe, because
(19:09):
of Ernest Thompson Seton, heand, by the way, the the the
Pelt of Lobo, is on display onsome level at the Filmont Scout,
ranch Boys Scout, which is inColfax County, in their museum.
(19:30):
So I haven't seen it.
I'd like to go but it's upthere somewhere.
But Seton built a castleoutside of Santa Fe.
I haven't seen that.
It was run down for a while.
I think an art institute boughtit and redid it on some level.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
But yeah, he was a successful writer for many years
.
He wrote his autobiography inthe 1940s and it was being
released, and he wrote theoriginal Boy Scout Handbook
which might, it might, be theconnection to the Filmont Ranch
there he's, you know, alegendary, I guess, figure in
(20:11):
his own right Right.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, and from what I've read he was friends with
all the big name artists at thetime, I think George O'Keefe and
all those those types of typesof folks.
He at least knew them, theywere, they were hip to each
other.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
No, but but that's who he was.
He, he was an interesting catand he he, like many New
Mexicans who don't originatehere, he came here with intent
and he lived his life the wayNew Mexicans do, with intention,
and made a, made a life andname of himself because of his
(20:57):
experiences here.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, one of one of the most striking examples of
someone who falls under theenchantment of the land of
enchantment.
Right, johnny, I agree, yeah,and and today we still see that
impact, you know, in in placeslike New Mexico and Colorado,
and that that might be a subjectfor a future episode.
(21:22):
Right, johnny, that the, thereintroduction of the Lobo and
and some of the reintroductionprograms going on throughout the
West these days.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Certainly, and we've.
We've been seeing on the newsrecently references to wolves
and we've been doing it sincethe 70s, I think, down on the
Gila.
But we have, I don't know, 150,170, 200, some packs of wolves
running around and and hopefullywe'll get into the impact, the
impact of the wolves, and it's apretty controversial subject.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
But, but?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
but there there's a documentary out on the
reintroduction of the wolves inYellow Stone.
I don't know if you've seen it,but it's pretty, pretty
remarkable.
And if you've ever been down, Ilike to go down to the Gila and
I've heard the wolves howlingat night.
It's just a, it's a anexperience.
It's an experience that youdon't get to see much in the
(22:21):
city.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, no, I've, I've, I've not heard the wolves when
I've been in the Gila.
The last times I was camping inthe Gila was shortly after
their reintroductions, and yeah,they are, you know they're apex
predators.
They we reintroduced them backin 98.
The Fish and Wildlife Serviceconducted a reintroduction with
(22:46):
various rules and there's thoseare still changing to this day.
But it certainly has beencontroversial.
It hasn't been without itsconflicts.
At one point One of the packswas led by two, three legged
wolves.
But that's enough for another.
That that's a whole otherepisode, johnny, don't you think
(23:06):
?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I think.
So let's wrap this up and okay,and for today.
But today, yeah, was all aboutLobo, the enchanting Lobo of New
Mexico, the last Lobo, whichreally wasn't last, but for the,
for all intents and purposes,the the the last Lobo of New
Mexico.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
There you go, there you go, certainly the Crumpaw
Valley, and, and certainly theone to be the one that inspired
the reintroduction.
I will say that there is a, Ithink, a nature documentary
available on PBS that coversthis, and we'll we'll post some
links to that on the website,right, johnny?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I hope so.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Okay.
All right, all right.
Have a good one.
All right, take care Bye.
Bye.
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