A Boone and Crockett Club member for 54 years, Lee Merriam Talbot was the primary author of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. That alone is a lifetime achievement, but there is so much more to the man who dedicated his life’s work to conservation—and humbly averted death numerous times. 

John A. McGuire was a pioneer of outdoor journalism and an early member of the Boone and Crockett Club. As the founder of Outdoor Life magazine, he encouraged readers to ditch whatever responsibilities they had and take to the hills in search of life in the open.

McGuire was born in 1869, but little is documented about his early life.

Artist, Explorer, Hunter, Writer, Mountaineer – “The game’s up: we’ve got to get down.” With these words to his two companions, Belmore Browne conceded defeat only 125 feet from the summit of Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak at 20,335 feet. A fierce gale, 55 miles per hour, along with blinding visibility and the temperature at –15° made it impossible to continue. They came so…

George Shiras III was a member of the Boone and Crockett Club, and a member of the governing board of the National Geographic Society for 25 years. He helped write legislation creating Olympic National Park. George also discovered several species of wildlife, including Alces americana shirasi, the “Yellowstone” moose.

Sidekicks never get the accolades they deserve. Boone and Crockett member Horace Albright is one of them. As the second director of the National Park Service (NPS) and assistant to the agency’s first director, Stephen Mather, Albright was an honest and devoted employee of the newly created agency.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, aviator James Doolittle led a daring bombing mission over mainland Japan, earning him the Congressional Medal of Honor—one of three Boone and Crockett Club members. When he wasn’t serving his country, Doolittle often could be found hunting big game, his self-professed favorite sport.

More than anyone, George Bird Grinnell influenced, directed, and solidified the conservation movement during its early years. He also orchestrated the activity of many other conservation leaders, some of whom will be topics of future biographies. His avoidance of self-promotion, and his desire to often work “behind the scenes,” has left him largely unheralded today.   

The son of a wealthy industrialist, Childs Frick could afford to explore—first with a rifle, then with a pick and shovel. The early Boone and Crockett Club Member was initially attracted to hunting big game specimens for museums. Eventually, he shifted his sights to big bones from prehistoric times.

By PJ DelHomme

Before spearheading international conservation efforts as director of the World Wildlife Fund, this member was busy gathering secret intelligence during World War II.

By PJ DelHomme 

A Voice and an Artist for Conservation — In the early 1930s, the Bureau of Biological Survey was so poorly reputed that there were calls for its dissolution. One man saved it, a man who was a most unlikely candidate. He had no prior administrative experience, had never worked in a bureaucracy, had never run for public office, and was not even a biologist. He was, amazingly, a political…