Title: Night of the Grizzlies

Author: Jack Olsen

Release date: February 1st, 1969

Jack Olsen was a leading crime fiction and non-fiction writer in his time. His name alone was enough to garner interest in a story some may not care about otherwise, and back in 1969, when he wrote ‘Night of the Grizzlies’ it drew national attention on the incident that had occurred back in the summer of 1967.

I bring that up, to say – thankfully, thankfully – this book didn’t sway people enough to have them head out into the woods to try and kill each and every bear. Bears themselves are already dealing with over-hunting issues, as well as population crowding as humans continue to push into and build on their lands.

While this book hasn’t aged well, especially when you consider how poorly the reports were taken into consideration by the authorities and Rangers, but also with how humans acted around the bears. Sure, it was a different time, but it’s frustrating to read an account regarding people heading into the wilderness so poorly prepared.

What I liked: The book follows the escalation over the summer as bears become humanized and programmed to come to the same place each day, so that they can scavenge on garbage being thrown into the forest from a Chalet. The humans crowd around and watch the spectacle and not surprisingly, one night, two women are brutally attacked while they camp.

I did enjoy the re-telling of the night in question. While things leading up to the events were dumbfounding and completely neglectful that these bears were first groomed to come eat for the tourists, Olsen does a great job of keeping things fairly even and stable, limiting anything that reads like embellishment or over-dramatization.

What I didn’t like: Taking into the book’s year of publication is key with this release. There is a lot of ‘extra’ stuff at the beginning and throughout. Long descriptions of the mountains and weather and each character has a detailed background which only appears to be necessary for a few of them. As an example – it’s pertinent to know someone has outdoor medical training. It’s not if someone grew up somewhere else, went to school and never went hiking. It would’ve been easy enough to say – this character, though, had no previous wilderness experience.

As well, on the factual side – this book wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for so much incompetence and mishandling leading up to the events. And those aspects, are so incredibly frustrating to read and to know they directly caused loss of life.

Why you should buy this: If you like outdoor/wilderness non-fiction reads, this book is solid and definitely goes through the how’s and why’s of these events happening through the pen of a masterful writer. It may not be a read you’ll want to check out if you’re a seasoned outdoors lover, as you’ll become hugely frustrated.

For those looking for a gripping back-woods story, this one will do the trick.

3/5