B&C Member Spotlight—Olaus J. Murie

By PJ DelHomme

When Professional Member Olaus J. Murie joined the Boone and Crockett Club in 1953, he brought with him three decades of groundbreaking field research that would forever change how America understood and managed its wildlife, earning him the unofficial title of the father of modern elk management.  

Left: Olaus and Mardy Murie in 1956 near their Jackson Hole, Wyoming, ranch. Right: The couple in 1924 on their honeymoon. 

Olaus Johan Murie's journey to becoming one of America's most influential wildlife biologists began on the prairies of Moorhead, Minnesota, where he was born on March 1, 1889, to Norwegian immigrants Joachim Murie and Marie Frimanslund. His parents had arrived from Yavick, Norway, in 1888, married almost immediately, and purchased a homestead along the Red River with Marie's brother, Henrick. Sadly, when Olaus was just seven years old, Joachim died, leaving Olaus and his five siblings in the care of their mother. She remarried a Swedish immigrant.  

Presumably, growing up in the backwoods along the Red River helped foster Olaus's connection to the land and wildlife. His education eventually took him to Pacific University in Oregon, where he studied zoology and wildlife biology, graduating in 1912.

Murie's Fieldwork and the B&C Connection

When he began his career with the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey (now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) in 1920, Murie entered a scientific community where Boone and Crockett Club members were already establishing new standards for wildlife research. Dr. Edward W. Nelson, another B&C Professional Member, served as chief of the survey during this time.

Murie's first major assignment took him to Alaska for a six-year study of caribou, from 1920 to 1926. This exhaustive research involved mapping migratory routes and estimating populations across vast Arctic territories. During this period, he also met and married Margaret (Mardy) Thomas, who would later become a prominent spokesperson for parks and wilderness preservation, creating a conservation partnership that would influence American environmental policy for decades.

The Club's direct involvement in Murie's most famous research project began in 1926 when the President's Committee on Outdoor Recreation created a special elk commission to address critical elk management issues. Boone and Crockett Club member Charles Sheldon served as chairman of this commission. In the early 1900s, various Club members, including George Bird Grinnell, grew increasingly concerned about massive elk die-offs in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Yellowstone National Park. Despite emergency winter feeding efforts to the tune of $20,000 ($673,000 in 2025 dollars), elk continued to die on the National Elk Refuge.

Of the elk commission’s findings, they recommended that the Biological Survey undertake a comprehensive scientific study of elk to build a firm foundation for long-term intelligent elk management. In 1927, the Survey appointed Murie to lead this groundbreaking study. Having just returned from his six-year caribou research in Alaska, Murie was uniquely qualified for the task. What followed was 14 years of intensive field work in Jackson Hole. This research would establish him as the unofficial “father of modern elk management” and produce his monumental 1951 publication, “The Elk of North America,” considered one of the most important works in conservation wildlife biology of the 20th century.

Murie's work documented not just elk behavior and population dynamics, but also the complex relationships between elk herds, their habitat, predators, and human activities. The research provided the scientific foundation that allowed wildlife managers to make evidence-based decisions about hunting seasons, habitat protection, and population management—principles that remain central to modern wildlife conservation today.

Left: Olaus and Mardy Murie in 1956 exploring what would be become the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Right: Aldo Leopold and Olaus Murie  at the annual meeting of The Wilderness Society Council, 1946.  

From Elk to Wilderness

When Olaus Murie officially joined the Boone and Crockett Club as a Professional Member in 1953, he was already transitioning from field biologist to conservation leader. In 1945, he had resigned his position with the Biological Survey to become director of the Wilderness Society, an organization created in large part by the Club’s very own Aldo Leopold in 1935. Murie’s dual role as president of the Wilderness Society and a member of the Boone and Crockett Club created a powerful bridge between scientific wildlife management and wilderness conservation advocacy.

In 1951, the Boone and Crockett Club sent Murie to Big Bend National Park to investigate possible areas for restocking desert sheep—a project that reflected the Club's growing involvement in species restoration efforts. His favorable report led to extensive planning involving Club Conservation Committee chairman Richard Borden, Dr. Clarence Cottam of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and representatives from multiple agencies. Although the specific Big Bend project faced challenges due to Park Service policies regarding predator control, it illustrated how the Club was using scientific expertise to guide conservation efforts across diverse ecosystems.

Perhaps most significantly, Murie's connection to the Boone and Crockett Club provided crucial support for his role in establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Fun fact: The Club played a pivotal role in the establishment of our National Wildlife Refuge System at the turn of the 20th century. When Olaus and Mardy made their critical 1956 expedition to Alaska's Brooks Range to document the ecological wonders of the upper Sheenjek River, they were building on decades of scientific credibility established through their Boone and Crockett Club-supported research. The successful campaign that led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to establish the 8.9 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Range in 1960 represented the culmination of Murie's career-long integration of rigorous field science with conservation advocacy.

Through his observations and research, Murie demonstrated that effective wildlife management required not just regulatory oversight but deep scientific understanding of ecological relationships. His work showed that hunters and conservationists could be partners in wildlife protection when their activities were guided by rigorous research and ethical principles. Most importantly, he demonstrated that local wildlife studies can inform landscape-scale conservation efforts, helping establish the scientific foundation for modern ecosystem management.

Olaus Murie died in 1963, just months before the Wilderness Act was signed into law. His career demonstrated that the Club's commitment to ethical hunting, scientific wildlife management, and habitat protection could support conservation achievements that benefited all Americans, not just hunters. Through his research, advocacy, and leadership, Professional Member Olaus J. Murie helped transform landscape-scale dreams into conservation reality, creating a model for science-based wildlife management that continues to guide American conservation policy today.

Member Spotlights

Boone and Crockett Club members have come from a cross-section of famous, accomplished people whose lives and careers have written and recorded the history of this country since the late 19th Century. They have been naturalists, scientists, explorers and sportsmen, writers and academicians, artists, statesmen and politicians, generals, bankers, financiers, philanthropists, and industrialists. Their diversity of ideas and activities during their careers have made the Boone and Crockett Club rich in its fellowship and achievements. To read more member spotlights, just click here. 

PJ DelHomme writes and edits content from his home in western Montana. He runs Crazy Canyon Media and Crazy Canyon Journal.