Defense Against Pursuing Black Bear and Man Fishing in Michigan in the 1960s

AmmoLand ^ | March 29, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

James Albert Maierle was a well-known educator and sportsman born in 1942 in Calumet, Michigan. He was an enthusiastic hunter, fisherman, and woodsman. He is well known in his local area and published a few stories in hunting magazines. He died in 2022. His son related the circumstances of his father’s shooting of a black bear in self-defense in the early 1960s on the Montreal River in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The location is only a few miles from where Maierle grew up. The area was pretty wild in the early 1960s. After the major copper mine shut down in 1967, the population dwindled further. From Jim Maierle:

It was some time in the early 60s from what he told me, I don’t remember him saying what year specifically. This was somewhere on the Montreal river up in Keweenaw county where he was stream fishing alone.  I believe it was in the spring.  He said he was walking along the river when he noticed a small cub.  He stopped and looked around and immediately realized he had inadvertently ended up between the cub and the sow.  He started backing away from both of them and the sow started advancing on him.  He put some distance from them but she wouldn’t stop despite him yelling and waving his arms to warn her off.  

When he realized she wasn’t backing down he drew the Ruger and waited until it was quite close before he fired.  He was a very good shot so I have no doubt he wanted to make sure he could hit where he was aiming.  The bear went down as I described. [dead right there with a brain shot] He then took the cub and wrapped it up in his jacket and put it in the trunk

[Joe 6-pack]

About 15-20 years ago, I was shopping at Cabela's for Christmas gifts. I got my father a weathered plaque with an image of a black bear which read, "An old bear lives here with his honey." He liked it a lot and displayed it prominently above the door at the top of the steps leading into the house from the front door.

My wife, daughter and I went to stay with my mom and dad in Pennsylvania when he went into a steep decline a few years back, and he ended up passing in February 2021. A couple months after the funeral, my family was preparing to move back to Alabama and one night my mom told me she wanted me to have that plaque.

The next morning I went out on the back porch for my morning coffee and smoke, and as though God was giving me some kind of message, this fella stepped out from behind a trellis, about 15-20' away from me. He huffed a few times, then sauntered off into the woodline...

[riverrunner]

That is a good sized bear.