In the summer of 1967, Glacier had broken attendance records with over one million park visitors. In the 57 years of the park’s existence, since its opening in 1910, there had never been a fatal grizzly bear attack in the park, and many park employees and officials considered the level of danger from bear attack to be very low. But, this illusion would be shattered by two horrific bear attacks that took place in one night over 8 miles apart by two different bears.
One of the sad ironies of the tragedy is that the two women who were attacked by separate bears miles apart that night were friends. Julie Helgeson was a 19-year-old college student from Minnesota and was spending the summer working in the laundry of East Glacier Lodge. Also 19 years old, Michele Koons was working at Lake McDonald Lodge near the park’s west entrance. That weekend the teens would be going hiking and camping, as many of the young seasonal park employees did every weekend. Michele Koons and a group of friends had invited Helgeson and her boyfriend, Roy Ducat, to join them on an overnight hike to Trout Lake. But, Helgeson and Ducat had just visited Lake Trout the weekend before and instead chose to head out to Granite Park Chalet. Ducat and Helgeson also invited a friend, Paul Dunn, to join them on their hike to Granite Park Chalet. But, he instead chose to join Michele Koons and her party at Trout Lake. It is strange to look back at it now and consider that no matter Dunn’s choice, he would be encountering an attacking grizzly bear and the tragedy that ensued.
It was known at the time that grizzlies had been frequenting Granite Park Chalet, and park rangers suspected that the bears were being fed. In that same summer of 1967, park rangers visited the chalet to investigate and were shocked to find that the managers of the chalet had been dumping food and trash into a “viewing area” in an attempt to lure in bears for guests to observe. The chalet managers were given a stiff warning, but no enforcement occurred. Rangers discussed with their superiors and amongst themselves that this was a tragedy waiting to happen, but no official report was made. As for Helgeson and Ducat, on that evening of August 12, 1967, they would be walking right into this dangerous scenario, completely unaware of the danger that awaited them.
That weekend the chalet was overflowing with guests, and the couple was forced to camp outside at a campsite that was being developed about 500 yards from the chalet. The couple learned of the bears feeding in the area upon arrival, but the feeding site was on the opposite side of the chalet and down a small ridge. They were undeterred and set up to sleep in their sleeping bags under the stars.
The two fell asleep next to each other and slept undisturbed for several hours. Then, in the early morning hours, around 3 am, Roy Ducat awoke to hear Julie Hegelson whispering to him, “Play dead.” All park employees were given this life-saving advice when beginning work in Glacier National Park, as to what to do if attacked by a grizzly bear. This would prove to save his life. The bear initially bit Ducat but moved on to Hegelson whose survival instincts did not permit her to play dead. That attack would prove more severe and Hegelson would later die from her wounds.
After the attack, Ducat made his way towards a group of other campers for help. The other campers were able to signal the staff and guests of the chalet by screaming and flashing the S.O.S. signal with their flashlights. A naturalist guide staff at the chalet called other rangers by radio and a daring nighttime helicopter mission was organized to fly to Granite Park Chalet for a rescue. Ducat was evacuated and would recover from his wounds.
Earlier that afternoon, eight miles away at Trout Lake, Michele Koons and four friends had arrived at the lakeside campground after an alarming encounter with two hikers. The two hikers were on their way out, very agitated, saying that they had been chased up trees by a menacing grizzly bear. They warned Koons and her party of the bear activity in the berry patches around the lake, but the group of young campers decided to press on and set up camp at lakeside regardless. This would prove to be a fatal mistake.
The bear that had chased the two hikers up trees would turn out to be an aging female, emaciated and starving. At the time, the “pack it in, pack it out” philosophy had not been widely adopted by park visitors, and the lakeside campground was littered with discarded trash and food. This cache of unwanted refuse had turned into a lifeline for the aging bear. This information was of course unknown to anyone at the time.
During the afternoon, the campers were sitting around their campsite, frying up rainbow trout they’d caught earlier in the day when something big came ambling from the woods. “There’s a bear,” said Michele. The bear fearlessly strode into their camp, flushing the five friends from their food and equipment. They ran down the gravel banks of the lake to a safe distance and watched the bear ravage their bags, consuming all their food. The bear then disappeared back into the woods.
The group was beyond alarmed and discussed whether or not to head back. But, the sun was setting. Furthermore, to get back to the trailhead, they would need to traverse the berry bush patches where they feared there were more bears. They decided to stick it out. The group moved camp down the beach, built a large bonfire, and attempted to barricade the campsite with fallen logs, but to no avail.
It was in the early morning hours when the bear returned. No one knew it at the time, but just as Julie Hegelson was taking her last breath at Granite Park Lodge, a second bear was attacking Michele Koons and her group of friends over eight miles away, an unprecedented coincidence, or perhaps an inevitability created by humans’ carelessness and lack of understanding of bear behavior.
The bear first went for Paul Dunn. He was half-wrapped in his sleeping bag due to a stuck zipper, a coincidence that would save his life. He sensed the bear, and he swung his arm around violently, startling the bear. The animal recoiled long enough for Dunn to scramble up the nearest tree. He began calling out to his friends, warning them “It’s back!”
In an interview with PBS years later, Dunn recalled the attack. He said from his treetop perch, he was telling his friends not to play dead, but to run and get out of the situation any way they could. All of his friends did this, all except Michele Koons apparently. She was bitten, and would eventually die from her wounds, just as her friend Julie Hegelson had, just moments before over eight miles away.
The remaining four campers spent the night in treetops, waiting for sunrise. Upon daybreak, they sought help from park rangers who evacuated them from the area and set out to recover the body of Koons. In the immediate aftermath, both bears would be put down, autopsied, and confirmed to be the offending bears. But, the legacy of Glacier Park’s night of the grizzlies would live on.
That night in 1967 was one of tragedy, and many people called for the eradication of grizzlies from Glacier National Park as a result. But, the true legacy of that night is our enhanced understanding of bear behavior, and how those lessons have taught us how we can peacefully coexist with grizzly bears.
Glacier National Park would go on to create new policies on how to deal with bears that would eventually be adopted by all U.S. National Parks where bears live. The first was to separate bears from trash permanently through the use of bear-proof trash cans and dumpsters. Feeding of bears by visitors or park concessionaires was outlawed with grave consequences. Strict viewing distance limitations were enforced, and slowly but surely, bears forgot the association of humans as food sources. And since then, new technologies have been developed, such as bear sprays and other deterrents, as well as electric camp fences which further deter curious bears.
Today, bear behavior is one of the most intensely studied subjects by scientists, rangers, and researchers in U.S. national parks. And people from around the world come to Yellowstone, Teton, and Glacier with hopes of glimpsing one of nature’s greatest predators, a true giant, and a miracle of evolution. Today, bear attacks are few and far between in the U.S., primarily due to the policies that were developed in response to the deadly attacks and loss of life that occurred that night in 1967 in Glacier National Park, a lasting legacy left behind by the loss of two young women in the prime of their lives.