Seeking Elk

"Seeking Elk," South Dakota Review 58, no. 3 (2024): 92-98.

Bear with me. I know this is abstract and maybe a little boring. But my idea had potential. A normal history—like many I’ve written—tells stories about the past in a straightforward way. And the history of the National Park Service triumphantly, or critically—depending on the decade you are writing, your temperament, or your political commitments—marches forward through eras and policies. But telling a story of an institution through a species, I thought, might reveal something unique. That’s why I traveled to Jackson Hole, I might have claimed.

But if I really trusted you, I would have told the simpler truth: I wanted to hear elk bugle.