Yellowstone Once Staged Bear Shows on Its Garbage Dumps

For decades, one of the biggest evening attractions in Yellowstone National Park was watching bears eat garbage. The National Park Service says park staff estimated that 80,000 people attended the bear feedings during the 1937 season alone.

Dinner for the Bears

The feedings grew out of the park's garbage dumps. A 1919 annual report describes dumps within walking distance of the Upper Basin and Canyon areas, where bears of all kinds gathered every evening just before dark, and it was a regular practice for people from the hotels and camps to go and see them.

The park strung a wire to keep people from crossing a danger line, and a ranger was placed on duty with a rifle.

A Sign Over the Platform

At Old Faithful, the spot got a name. A sign reading "Lunch Counter for Bears Only" stood over the feeding station.

A National Park Service photograph by George A. Grant, taken in June 1932, shows Ranger Martindale standing guard at the Old Faithful bear feeding station.

A New High at Canyon

Near Canyon, the Otter Creek feeding ground became the biggest stage. Big Sky Journal reports that hotel garbage was dumped on a feeding platform 18 by 40 feet, with hillside bleachers that seated up to 250 spectators. One report counted more than 600 cars in the lot.

The Park Service records that a new high was set at the Canyon feeding grounds on August 6, 1937, when 70 grizzly bears came for the feast.

The Shows Come to an End

The shows did not last. In 1942, according to the Park Service, artificial feeding of bears was stopped to remove the inducement for bears to concentrate in specific areas. The open-pit garbage dumps stayed open for decades more. In 1970 the park began an intensive bear management program that included closing them.

Visitors had also fed bears along the roads, and in 1960 the Park Service started a bear-management policy to cut visitor injuries.

Today the rules are the reverse of the old show. Feeding wildlife in Yellowstone is against the law, and visitors must stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves.