B&C and our National Parks

The following is a list of some of the Boone and Crockett Club's activities which had significant impact on our National Parks.

Creating a National Park Service - B&C Impact Series

In the early 1900s, national parks were under constant threat from private industry, which hoped to capitalize on those unique landscapes. Two charismatic members of the Boone and Crockett Club worked the halls of Congress to ensure management of those wonders fell to a new agency that would prioritize their protection.

B&C Member Spotlight - Stephen Mather

Even though he suffered from severe mental illness, early Boone and Crockett Club member Stephen Mather led a crusade to create the National Park Service, where he eventually served as the agency's fi...

Yellowstone Turns 150: Why It Took More Than a Signature to Protect America’s First National Park

Officially designating the world’s first national park is a milestone achievement. Conserving and protecting its wildlife for future generations is another story altogether. That mission would become the Boone and Crockett Club’s first major success as North America's oldest wildlife conservation organization.

Grinnell’s Glacier National Park – B&C Impact Series

George Bird Grinnell, co-founder of the Boone and Crockett Club, worked for decades to protect a chunk of northwest Montana we now call Glacier National Park.

Charles Sheldon and the Creation of Denali National Park - B&C Impact Series

How one member of the Boone and Crockett Club (almost) single-handedly established Denali National Park.

About Boone and Crockett Club - Timeline

Nearly devoid of wild game, North America’s landscape in the late-1800s was a very different place. Bison, elk, and even deer were nearly wiped from the continent to supply a growing demand for meat, hides, and heads. To provide feathers for fashionable hats of high-society ladies, migratory birds were annihilated—sometimes by the hundreds with one shot from a massive “punt” gun. Only a handful of bison remained, and even whitetail deer were hard to find. Wildlife populations were spiraling toward extinction until a handful of influential hunters decided to end the slaughter.

B&C Member Spotlight - George Shiras III

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.