The Explorations & Discorveries of George Bird Grinnall

Mr. Hugh Grinnell, distant cousin of George Bird Grinnell, impersonates his cousin in period costume and tells his story in a live presentation using projections of historical photos, maps, and quotes to provide a living, firstperson presentation of Bird Grinnell’s story. The presentation derives its authenticity from George Bird Grinnell’s own field journals, published books, his editorials over 35 years from Forest and Stream sportsmen’s newspaper, his letters, and letters to him from his contemporaries who figure prominently throughout the 60-minute presentation. You don’t “hear about” historical events: you experience them. The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes. Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration than George Bird Grinnell who lobbied State and Federal Congressmen to implement legislation for the protection of what would become national parks. He befriended Teddy Roosevelt whose conservation policy when President was greatly influenced by “Bird” Grinnell. Grinnell is called the “Father of American Conservation” and the “Father of Glacier National Park.” He founded the first Audubon Society to protect non-game birds from extinction. Travel back in time to the 19th century, listening to Grinnell’s own words as taken from his field journals, memoirs, personal correspondence, and newspaper editorials. Hugh Grinnell received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arizona. Since his retirement in 2004, Grinnell has studied the history of the great American West. After discovering an old Great Northern Railway (GNR) passenger car named “Grinnell Glacier,” he researched the car’s name, only to learn that the glacier was named in honor of the efforts of George Bird Grinnell, a distant cousin of Grinnell’s who was a naturalist and explorer. This presentation is funded by the Humanities Montana Program.