June 1, 2004
For Immediate Release
For more information contact: Larry Wagenaar (517) 324-1828

Michigan Historian: Wolverines are Native to Michigan

Michigan historian Larry Massie contests the commonly held belief that Wolverines were never native to Michigan in the latest issue of the Historical Society of Michigan's Chronicle & Newsletter.

The article, "Wolverines in Michigan," is featured in the spring, 2004 issue released today.

"Given the recent sightings of wolverines in Michigan, this article appears very timely," commented the Society's Executive Director Larry Wagenaar. "For years the conventional wisdom was that wolverines were never in Michigan and it appears that understanding is based entirely on the frustrated quest of one individual some sixty years ago."

"No one has ever seriously contended that wolverines existed in large numbers... but no responsible naturalist has ever denied their historic presence in limited quantities" comments Massie in the article. "Considering that the existence of the feisty little relative of the weasel has been confirmed in Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania and even Indiana, for Michigan to have been terra non grata to an animal known to range 50 miles or more in a season is simply ridiculous."

In the article Massie provides a detailed history of the wolverine in Michigan, including a 1909 map by Earnest Thompson Seton published in his classic Life Histories of Northern Animals. The map indicates the range of the wolverine included the entire Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula north of the Thumb area.

The conventional wisdom that Wolverines were not native to Michigan appears to be rooted in a Michigan History Magazine article published in 1943 by juvenile fiction writer R. Ray Baker, collaborating with University of Michigan football coach Fielding Yost. Apparently Yost, frustrated that he could not find a live Wolverine to be his team's mascot, concluded that there "ain't no such animal" and that "the animal which gave the state its nick-name never made the region its home."

In 1980, leading state historian George May undertook a revision of the classic text of Michigan history, Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State, written by Willis Dunbar in 1965. In his revision May cited the article by Baker and Yost as evidence and concluded, "the habitat of this contentious animal was much father north in Canada."

In 2001 Willie the Wolverine, a cartoon character featured in Michigan History for Kids, repeated this incorrect claim rooted in coach Yost's frustrations.

Massie's article takes a comprehensive look at the wolverine's history in the Great Lakes State that goes a long way to refute the coach's claims.

The article also sheds light on recent events. A 2003 U.S. Forest Service commissioned a study to "shed light on whether wolverines lived in the Great Lakes region." As this study was underway, a DNR biologist names Arnie Karr took a picture of a wolverine on February 24, 2004 near Ulby in Michigan's thumb area. While other sightings have also been reported, the Michigan DNR continues to be dubious about the animal's origins in Michigan.

"Larry Massie is a good historian of Michigan's past and I believe this article makes a serious case for the historic presence of wolverines in Michigan"Wagenaar said. "It breaks new ground by bringing together a mass of historic evidence debunking so-called conventional wisdom."

The Chronicle & Newsletter is a quarterly magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan and is provided to all members of the Society. Membership starts at $25. For more information visit www.hsmichigan.org or call (800) 692-1828.

Founded in 1828 by territorial governor Lewis Cass and Henry Schoolcraft, the Historical Society of Michigan is the state's oldest cultural organization. It sponsors educational opportunities, conferences, publications, and other activities throughout the state.