Legendary outfitter Smoke Elser is being honored this month for his lifetime of work to protect Montana's amazing wild places.
“It's time for Montana to have a wilderness bill. It’s past time.” Those were the words that Smoke Elser recently said to a reporter with the Clark Fork Chronicle in Montana. “Wilderness in Montana is money in the bank because it brings visitors across the nation to our state, and we’d much rather have them coming here than going elsewhere.” Smoke Elser was — along with other prominent Montana Citizens — calling on Montana’s congressional delegation to protect more wildernesses in the Big Sky State. Smoke, along with Former Congressman Pat Williams, retired Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, and others, including outfitters, ranchers, authors, and professors, wrote a letter to their lawmakers in Washington, D.C. reminding them that “It has been 26 years since Montana has permanently protected a single acre of wild country. Since our last wilderness area was added in 1983, the nation has seen 439 new wilderness Areas created, none of them in Montana.”
This is not Smoke’s first rodeo. He has been involved in protecting Montana’s wild places for more than half a century. A part of every effort to protect wilderness since before the Wilderness Act passed in 1964, Smoke worked to protect the Lincoln-Scapegoat wilderness, which was designated in 1972. The Lincoln-Scapegoat was called the "first citizen’s wilderness" in the United States, as it was proposed to Congress largely by Montana Wilderness Association activists — the first time an area was recommended for wilderness protection by anyone other than the U.S. Forest Service.
Smoke’s philosophy about wilderness was formed when he was a wrangler and camp cook for the renowned wilderness outfitter Hobnail Tom Edwards, in the 1950s and 1960s. The way he sees it, “protecting wilderness is not about setting aside land to look at the scenery, animals, and flowers. In a wilderness there may be something more valuable than oil, gold, silver, or copper. In wilderness we may find the soul of mankind, and that is why we need to save it.”
Smoke Elser has spent more than five decades as an outfitter in the Bob Marshall wilderness, and he hasn’t missed a year. He’s there every summer, and this summer will be no exception as he plans to ride the 1,000 to 1,500 miles throughout the Bob Marshall; something he does each summer. Smoke believes that wilderness outfitters have a very special role: introducing people to the wild, interpreting wilderness, and making sure when they leave, they carry the wild spirit of the land — the hush of the land — in their hearts. And he’s seen it many times in many people, including students, CEOs, politicians, and doctors of politicians.
“A lot of my guests had never ridden a horse before, had not walked in grass in bare feet, had never smelled the vanilla of a ponderosa pine, and never seen wild elk or a deer. My guests move through their lives at supersonic speeds and when they come here they move at three miles per hour — the speed of a horse. And at the speed of a horse you can actually experience wilderness at its fullest.” He’s had the CEO of a major corporation tell him he learned more about himself sitting on an old log in the woods for two-three hours than he had in all of his life. “We have to have wilderness to have those experiences,” says Smoke. “We need as much quality wilderness as we can possibly save for future generations.”
Smoke is a legendary outfitter. And for the past forty years, when he’s not in the wilderness, he has taught the course “Outfitting and Packing” to thousands of people, including staff of the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Navy Seals, and FBI and Border Patrol officers. He even teaches a Wilderness Outfitting and Packing Course at the University of Montana. His courses teach the horsemanship and outfitting skills that are rarely taught today, and over the years he has educated countless people about the meaning and values of wilderness.
Smoke’s latest effort to protect the wild land he loves is the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project. Aimed at restoring and protecting the integrity of the Blackfoot and Clearwater watersheds in the Lolo National forest, as well as stimulate and diversify the rural economies of communities located within it, this pioneering proposal combines wilderness protection for 87,000 acres with stewardship planning and restoration projects. It will benefit local economies and biomass production by providing an outlet for excess forest fuels and reducing forest fires. The proposal has received a wide cross-section of support from local governments, individuals, and organizations who agree the with the proposal's worthy goals.
Smoke’s efforts have not gone unrecognized. Last month, he received the Montana Wilderness Association’s Brass Lantern Award, an honor given to volunteers for their leadership and for taking action that promotes wilderness, quiet trails, and responsible management of our public lands by managing agencies. But Smoke does not see himself as a hero. “As a wilderness supporter or person who wants more wilderness, I’m one of the small grains of sand in the wave of people that really want and need wilderness — and some of these people don’t even know they need it,” says Smoke. “Future generations may be smart enough to find true value in wilderness; a value that you can’t sew a button on or make a car out of, but a value that our souls have to have. There’s something a lot deeper in wilderness than there is in oil wells.”
We agree, and this month celebrate all that this outfitter has done to protect Montana’s wild places.
