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The Beaver in Itasca State Park 



By D. Lange 



I'n-pitnd I'nclci- Direction of \V. T. Cox, 

 From the Annual Report of the Forester 



THERE are now about four hundred beaver in Itasca Park. 

 These animals are all descended from one male and two 

 females, brought to Itasca from the Algonquin National 

 Park in Ontario in the spring of 1902. 



The story of re-stocking the forest of Itasca with beaver 

 and the life history of these remarkable animals will be told 

 in the following pages. 



In 1901, Hon. John Lind, then Governor of Minnesota, fur- 

 nished the Premier of Ontario some information about the 

 twine plant at the State Prison at Stillwater. The premier 

 asked Mr. Lind how he could show his appreciation of the 

 couitesy Minnesota had rendered to her neighbor, Ontario. 

 At the suggestion of Mr. W. B. Douglas, then attorney general, 

 who has always taken a keen and active interest in game 

 preservation, it was arranged that Ontario furnish some beaver 

 for the new state park of Itasca, and the Premier of Ontario 

 promised to ship the animals the following spring. 



In the spring of 1902, Tim O'Leary, chief ranger of Algon- 

 quin Park, appeared at the state capitol before Governor Van 

 Sant, and stated that he had brought three beaver from the 

 province of Ontario for the state of Minnesota. Governor Van 

 Sant, who did not know about the arrangement his predeces- 

 sor had made with the Premier of Ontario, did not at first 

 know what to do with this live gift of our neighbor. He con- 

 sulted Attorney General Douglas, and a telephone message 

 to Mr. Lind cleared up the situation, and the three beaver 

 were accepted with thanks. Ranger Tim O'Leary explained 

 that at Chicago, while waiting for a train, the two male beaver 

 originally in the shipment had begun to fight, with the result 

 that one of the combatants had killed the other; one female 

 had also died on the way to Minnesota; so the original num- 

 ber had dwindled from five to three. 



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