I remember so many great things while vacationing with my family in the Northwoods when I was very young.  I have done and seen things that most kids today will never get to do or see. One of those things was going to the garbage dump to see bears. Back in the day, garbage dumps were a big tourist attraction in the Northwoods.  Once or twice a week my family would drive to the garbage dump right before dusk and pick what my father thought would be a good spot to park, and we would scan the dump for a chance to see a bear.  There were times we didn’t see a bear, then there were nights we would see 4 or 5.  This for a little kid, hell even an adult, seeing bears walking around and sometimes coming within 20 feet of our car was awesome.

While a bears diet mostly consists of vegetation, insects, berries and nuts, they are considered (OMNIVOROUS), meaning they will eat anything, hence the dumps.  Even though bears territories don’t overlap, there was enough food at the dump for all, so territory wasn’t an issue and even though I never witnessed this, I was told that fights between bears were common.  Also, back when there were local dumps, the bears grew faster and weighed more heading into their winter dens.  Over the years, I have heard many reasons why the dumps were closed.  A few old timers told me, a man from a local meat market was dumping scraps and was mauled to death.  After that, the meat markets sent two men.  While one man was shoveling scraps the other stood guard with a rifle.  I also heard it was for safety. In years when natural food was low, bears frequented the dumps more often and overcame their fear of people.  This is when the DNR closed the dumps to the public, because they didn’t want bears to associate humans with food.

I was also told, some idiots were getting out of their cars to take pictures and trying to feed the bears.  Are these stories true?  Probable not.  I’m thinking these are the sit around the campfire tails or stories that the old timers would tell tourists in the local bars.  Personally, I think it’s more about the environment like recycling, and the handling of hazardous waste.  Then again, the mauling story was pretty cool, wasn’t it?  It wouldn’t surprise me if some idiots were getting out of their cars.  Whatever the reason, it’s too bad people will never get the chance to experience the garbage dumps like I did back in the 1960’s. I will say this, now that I live in the Northwoods I get to see bears coming into my own back yard at times and that is really cool, but also scary.