Evel Knievel Was A Hunting Guide

As most of you know, Evel Knievel passed away last week and millions of people worldwide are mourning his passing. I was never a huge fan of his but I did sit in awe many times as I watched him perform his over-the-top stunts and wondered to myself what a man was made of that would overcome the fear and cheat death on a regular basis.

I never knew much about the man prior to becoming a stunt man but today I learned something about Mr. Knievel that I thought I would share with readers. This is my way of honoring the passing of Evel Knievel.

*Big Hat Tip to David Robert Crews*

The Joie Chitwood experience may have planted the seed that helped Knievel decide he wanted to be a stuntman, but something happened in 1961 that was equally if not more important in forming the persona that would become “Evel.”

During this period in his life when the young man was trying on many different hats in an attempt to find his calling, Knievel started a hunting outfitting service called Sur-Kill. As a man who always insisted on walking the walk he talked, Knievel found himself right in the middle of a conservation debate between Montana’s hunting guides and outfitters and the National Park Service. There had been a long-standing practice of park rangers slaughtering the excess elk numbers in Yellowstone National Park, giving the meat away to regional Indian tribes, homeless shelters and food banks. In 1961, the Yellowstone herd numbered over 10,000, calling for a drastic reduction of some 5,000 animals.

The guides and outfitters were demanding that the excess elk be transplanted to areas in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, rather than senselessly slaughtered in unsportsmanlike fashion and given away.
Knievel made himself his new profession’s spokesman and hitchhiked from Butte to Washington D.C. – along with a six-point trophy elk antler rack – to protest the cause to the Kennedy administration’s top officials. He was amazed when he found himself on the front page of the Washington Post, his name all over the media and eventually, himself, face to face with JFK’s Administrative Assistant, Mike Manatos and then Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall. The Department of Interior called off the elk slaughter in Yellowstone and started to transplant the animals to national forest locations in the area shortly after Knievel’s trip to the Capitol. A massive elk rack and an even greater amount of self-confidence and guts got Knievel into America’s executive offices and his cause the attention it demanded.

Tom Remington