National Park Service Photographs

Walker Grizzly Incident - 1972

From the private collection of Ken Reardon, Walla Walla, Washington

On June 25, 1972, Harry Walker and Phillip Bradberry of Anniston, Alabama were camped illegally at a crude campsite located near Grand Geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin.   Upon returning to their site in the middle of the night, they encountered a sow grizzly bear in the darkness.  Walker, who apparently was holding their lone flash light, was savagely attacked and killed by the bear.

The next day, after National Park Service personnel discovered Walker's body, a snare trap was set up near the campsite.  The following day, when Park Service rangers entered the area, they immediately recognized that the bear had been caught in the trap.  Old Faithful Ranger Ken Reardon was dispatched to shoot and kill the grizzly with a high-powered rifle.

The following photographs are from a collection of slides that were taken when the dead grizzly was removed from the area.  Later tests on the grizzly's stomach contents definitively proved that it was the bear that killed Mr. Walker.  At the time, this was the four such fatal grizzly incident in Yellowstone National Park history.

NOTE:  To view large versions of the pictures below, please click on the thumbnail versions of each picture

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