Big Hole Valley, SW Montana

Copyright © Ralph Maughan

Looking across the Big Hole Valley from the Beaverhead Mountains on a rainy July day. The photo is near the Big Hole Battlefield

The Big Hole is a large, sparsely populated valley in extreme SW Montana. The private land present is primarily devoted to livestock.

Numerous wolves have entered this valley and begun to form packs, but  illegal killing and government "control" of most of them shows that low human population density is not sufficient protection for wolves if livestock are present.

In 2004, however, the Battlefield Pack was discovered, which before the inevitable "control" had 13 members, and still persists near the end of 2005 with 5 members after numerous government control actions.