This week I thought I would revisit a wonderful and special place in Cocalalla Idaho that Teryl and I visited back in the early Spring of 2007. It's called The Wolf People and quite frankly there is no place on earth like it.
Nancy Taylor started this venture back in 1993 as a way of sharing her love of wolves with the general public. Prior to that, Nancy lived with wolves for more than 20 years, so she was more than qualified to take on such a special project as Wolf People.
As we drove up to the store and facility there was a large logo'ed sign which had the paw print of a wolf, located in the palm of the hand. Nancy told us that symbolizes a promise she made to care for her wolves and to help others clearly understand the vital roles wolves play in our ecosystems around the world.
Originally, Wolf People acquired two purebred Timberwolves from the state of Montana. They were named King Cyrus and Cherish, followed by a year later, another Timberwolf named Cochise. The pack's Arctic wolves came from Northern Minnesota at first.Over the years Nancy's volunteers have taken in foster wolves but most of them in the pack today were born and raised right here at the facility and compound.
The wolves here are not considered exactly wild but then they are not really domesticated like house pets either. It's kind of a cross section of both facets as they stay outside in large enclosures about 365 days of the year as well. They enjoy regular feeding and receive the best veterinary care available to them.
Obviously, the Wolves here do spend their entire lives living comfortably in captivity. I really hate that word because these wolves were injured from hunting incidents, rescued from poor living situations, or moved to a safer location. Here they are allowed to rehabilitate themselves with very limited but also some direct contact with other people during their new lives.
By contrast, Nancy's program affords citizens the opportunity to get up very close to her wolves.
When we were there, which was on numerous occasions, not only did we get to pet these magnificent animals, but hold, hug, touch, and even fed them once or twice. I'll never forget the moment that Teryl held a wolf pup, it was something special and very touching to see. In fact, many of the wolves in their pack have grown up around people and are accustomed to regular interaction with them.
The wolves here usually live from 12 to 15 years of age and weigh between 75 to 110 pounds for females plus males weigh 120 to 140 pounds. They eat a diet of raw meat and bone mostly and are fed three times each week. With a feeding each wolf receives about 15 pounds of a mix of turkey, chicken, lamb and beef. However, meals are substituted occassionally with venison and bison.
When not at the Wolf People store you can find the Wolf People Habitat in the nearby mountains south of Lake Cocalalla in Idaho. There are 10 large enclosures covering about 5,000 feet. They are fabricated from chain link fencing and are 3 feet below the ground plus 8 feet above the ground. Adjacent to the enclosure is an area referred to as the "picture pen." This is an enclosed 5 acre area where still photography of the various wolves of the pack are taken here periodically. They also have documentaries that have been filmed here as well. There is another special area honoring the wolves that Nancy has owned as a "Wolf Cemetary."
Wolf People is really a wolf education facility and gift shop. It is here that you can sponsor a wolf, as Teryl and I did on many occassions. In fact, if you visited my home, you would many framed pictures of real wolves that we watched grow up as we visited Wolf People many times in my long hauling career.The wolf we sponsored was in memory of my stepson's and stepdaughter's Father who died in a tractor trailer accident around that time.
Coco Cabe was a spectacular black wolf. As she aged her colors changed to white. She became a light gray, almost ghostly in color. Her dad, Konna Hi was black and her mother Waka was a snow white Arctic Wolf. In time she resembled a white Arctic Wolf with tinges of black and grey.Her head shape had always been Arctic instead of Timberwolf.She was very much like a blend of her father and mother.I am proud to say, we met this wolf, and a large picture of her is positioned up our stairwell in our home.
Nancy's goal is to educate the general public about the true nature of wolves. Her aim is to see that wolves can live safely in the wild one day without the threat of persecution, being hunted and left extinct in some species of the wolf.
They also have tours at varying times of the year to see the wolves at the main facilty where they really live. There is always a couple of wolves at the Wolf People store backyard facility brought there each day as well. Nancy takes her ambassador wolves to schools, car shows, motorcycle rallys and other local events too. She has also been a surrogate mother to 25 special four legged furry offspring. These wolves trust her expicitly and demonstrate their affection for her whenever she is close by. They truly have a special bond with her as she takes care of them like a pet owner does for their house pets. It requires a great deal of trust on the part of the wolve's handlers to be able to control and maintain these beautiful creatures and their fragile emotions at times. Among our numerous visits, Teryl and I could plainly see that these wolves are loved, nurtured, respected with kindness and admiration too.
Sometimes the wolves will interpret people's clothing as a toy. I mean it's no different with your pet dog in your home. They like to play "tug of war" with a rag, stealing a pillow, or a piece of clothing to claim as their own. These wolves are not bad or gone roque suddenly but are doing what comes naturally. Human error is usually to blame in most situations as what happened there one day. If a pillow, shirt, blanket, purse is lying about or within their reach some wolves will try to claim it as their own.
A few years ago one older lady didn't listen to the wolf handler's instructions and paid the price for her stupid ignorance. In doing so a wolf called Hanta Yo nipped her arm. Was Hanta Yo a villianous wolf or considered bad? No he was not. In fact Wolf People have only had a couple of non-serious injuries to the thousands of people that have visited their wolves over the last 21 years. Considering the number of reported dog bites that occurred in Idaho in the same period of time that is quite alarming. Both incidents were clearly caused by human visitors not following the rules.
Wolf People are located on Highway 95 approximately 12 miles south of Sandpoint Idaho on the left side of the highway. Not, but an hours drive from the Kingsgate BC border as you travel through Idaho on your way to Spokane too. If your ever going through this way, make it a point to stop there, because you'll be glad you did. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something about the wolf?
Again, another excerpt of when we first discovered Wolf People taken from my 3rd book "Road History" enjoy your week.
When we arrived in Vancouver, the directions I received from my dispatch were not exactly clear, so I relied on their Satellite GPS system. Unfortunately this system was not quite up to date. It was a tool to use if I couldn’t find my destination and that mainly applied to places in the United States. Furthermore, if I tried to find a destination in Canada, well, that seemed quite foreign to this GPS device that Dial had installed. I swear they must have got some good volume deal on these systems, maybe from a “Rug Dealer in Bangladesh” was my guess!
So I’m driving down some industrial back-street section suburb of Vancouver; I shouldn’t to be in. I executed a right turn into what I thought, was a wide road, but its narrow coming to a dead end! There is one building on my left-hand side, which looks to me like there were leftover picket signs left near the fence, just laying there on the ground. Next thing, I did was tell Carol to get out of the truck, and just try and guide me. I was going to jackknife the whole truck and trailer around in a tight circle! As I was cranking on the steering wheel to make a tight man-euver, my trailer doesn’t have enough space to clear the fence. Yup, you guessed it, I completely took out the fencing with the back side of the trailer, fence posts and all. I ripped up those boundary markers so bad, I couldn’t even tell a fence had once been there. When Carol saw what I did, she immediately burst out laughing, but I was worried somebody was around to witness the whole event. Things got even worse when I drove over, what was once a tree stump in the road! Ok, now that’s good, we take out a fence first, and for an encore let’s just see if we can take out our front axle shall we? Somehow, I managed to get out of there pretty much unscathed, and the front end was ok as well. I recall Carol laughing hysterically, stating a fact as she smiled up at me.
“When those people returned to work whenever that is, they might chalk up the whole damaged fence thing to picketers, Brian” she surmised.
Someone was looking after me again because nobody was around to witness what I had done. After my drop, I managed to get another trip the next morning. Our next trailer load was that of frozen fish heads destined for somewhere in Kansas. Actually, they used these for ingredients for the manufacturing of “Dog and Cat food!” I think I may have made it as far as Spokane when all of sudden that yellow light came on, beeping at us, meaning a switch was coming once more. I was heading back through to Eastport Idaho and obviously back to Calgary again. Furthermore, a real special thing happened on our way to the US Border that day that has literally left an imprint on both of us for the rest of lives, even to this very day! We had stopped in a place just outside of Cocallalla Idaho called Wolf People.
This is a Wolf Education Facility where the owner Nancy Taylor, teaches people about real live wolves! They even go out into the public with their wolves to schools, parks, businesses as well as have tours come to their store. Speaking of tours, you can actually visit these wonderful animals at their very own compound, as well as meet the other rest of the pack! Here you can bear witness to them in their natural habitat, such a thing as one rarely ever gets to do. Not only is it fun, educational but enlightening and cameras are definitely encouraged. In point of truth, even some of Nancy’s wolves have been in movies, such as “White Wolves 2, Legend of the Wild” and Wolf with Jack Nicholson. They have also been in Short Documentary’s, and commercials on the education of the species of the wolf. The best part of visiting Wolf People that day for us was that we actually both got to hold a real live wolf pup! There sure is something to be said when you pick up one of these magnificent looking creatures in your arms, as they lick your face. I took many videos of these wonderful animals showing their sheer curiosity, as well as the innocence of being a one year old wolf cub. The pup we held that day was named “Legacy” and I am proud to say we watched that little girl grow up into a stunning white wolf. Nancy had this giant old gray washtub where Legacy and the other pups would frolic and play with one another, especially on the hot days. It was in this place that you could witness first-hand wolf-pups feeding and being petted as they blended into their wolf family. Every time we passed by that way, I made it a point to stop into visit Nancy Taylor and Wolf People.
If you walked into my home, you would see real pictures of those wolves we had visited in our time long hauling on the road. I am proud to say that we know each of these wolves somewhat intimately, their names, their lineage and their offspring as well. Another thing I should mention here is I was completely blown away by the people’s ignorance or lack of education regarding wolves. In fact, so many people actually were frightened by them, when we picked them up to hold the pups. I still remember my Carol, just looking at her hands after she had held a wolf pup saying she couldn’t believe she actually got to do that. Tears started rolling down her eyes like it was a picture, I will hold in memory forever!
