giant wolf

[jburger57]

Anyone have information whether the giant wolf that was supposedly purchased by the Canadian government in TLN actually was, and if so, is it on display somewhere?

[traplines]

I have spent quite a bit of time trying to verify # 1 did the wolf incident in the book happen and # 2 if it did happen where did the wolf hide end up. Unfortunately I can’t answer either question. I have spoken to a fellow who has lived in Nakina since the early 60’s who says the wolf incident never happened. I also spoke to a fellow who moved to Nakina in 1940 and moved away in the early 70’s who say’s the wolf incident did most certainly happen. Vanderbeck family members have told me have told me the wolf incident is true. We are led to believe the hide was sent to The Royal Museum in Toronto to be mounted. I have spent quite a bit of email time with the curator and assistant curator from that museum as well as the Chief Collections Manager from the Canadian Museum Of Nature in Ottawa. All are in agreement that if the wolf pelt was in the hands of the Government and was to be mounted to be put on display it would probably have been sent to either one of these museums. I have the records from ROM and although there are wolves from that era, none of them are our wolf. We thought we found our wolf at the Canadian Museum of Nature but it turns out this wolf was shot near Montreal. Many of the TLN family have tried to find the big wolf and have pretty much come up with the same results. It doesn’t look like the wolf hide made it to the museum for what ever reason. Now that the holiday season is over I hope to be talking to a women from Nakina who played with the Vanderbeck girls. I’m hoping she will be able to shed some light on this and many more things. I will keep you all posted. If anyone else has anything to add we sure would like to hear from you.

Russ

[jburger57]

Thanks for the information. I just finished rereading TLN over the holidays and it struck me that if that part of the diary was true someone might know. I appreciate the efforts you must have already taken, it really would be interesting to see the actual size of that wolf! Stephen Meader obviously might have taken some literary license with the facts to create a better story, but to be able to see an actual artifact of the story would be something..Thanks again

[47chalk]

Still reading an almost to the wolf story, memory is coming back...here is a thought...it has been so long ago, what could of happened to the wolf pelt that was sent....possiable it was stolen before it got to its destination by a thief that later sold it....the right hands got it, but wasn't properly inventoid, got stuck on a shelf an years later a janitor finds an takes it.....it is easy for me to see so many things that could of happened, unless someone in the family comes out an says it wasn't true, I would tend to believe that it did, an the pelt was simply
stolen at some point an time...remember times were tough back then, an once it left their hands.....who knows....?.....

[BRIAN]

I have exhausted so many leads on this also. I think there is a clue in one of the letters from Meader to Jim ''

" I think I will LET you kill the wolf"

[Phil Mills]

Stumbled across this site accidentally this morning. As a city kid in the '60s, this book changed the direction of life for my cousin and myself. My father, a renowned conservationist , was raised in the north during the time frame of this book - 1920 - '40s before settling in Oshawa to raise his family.  His very large family lived throughout the Lakehead areas mostly in the Wawa/ Michepicoten lands. My great-uncle Jack ran a hugely successful trapping enterprise in the Puckasaw watershed . I grew up hearing many adventure stories of the bush and the TLN big wolf story was one of them. In 1969, my father, cousin Ted and myself went to Toronto ROM to see it - it was only on display for a very short time. I remember it being very dark grey/black with silver highlights. It was said to measure 9ft nose to tail. 
The events in the book inspired my cousin and I to begin trapping , Hunting and fishing as a lifestyle and culture