Black bears are near and dear to North Carolina

Once, there was “a bear who didn’t know she was a bear.” Her name was “Mildred,” and she had the run of the entire nature preserve at North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain near Linville. 

“She was the nicest bear that has ever been…” wrote the legendary Hugh Morton, who was Mildred’s keeper, “best friend” and biographer. 

Hugh Morton inherited Grandfather Mountain from his grandfather in 1952. More than 3,000 acres of the property are protected for perpetuity – to benefit mankind, wildlife and nature. 

Journalist Allison Wonsick said Morton bought two “surplus” black bears for $100 apiece from the Atlanta Zoo in 1967. His intention was to increase the population of black bears on Grandfather Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Basically, the site straddles Avery and Watauga counties.

The bears were 2-year-olds when they arrived from the zoo. The male was released first in 1968, and he promptly rambled off into the woods to live happily ever after in the wilderness. 

The female was detained until Arthur Smith’s television crew arrived to film an episode of his famous televised country music show. 

Ralph Smith, Arthur’s brother, was going to sing the 1904 novelty song “The Preacher and the Bear.” (The lyrics recount the story of a church pastor who went out hunting on the Sabbath while God was watching.)

 

Arthur Smith is front and center. Ralph Smith is on the accordian.

The cameras were cued to zoom in as the female bear was freed. She didn’t scamper off. Rather, the female bear cozied up to make friends with the television crew. Ralph Smith called the bear “Mildred,” and the name stuck. 

It was later revealed that Mildred had been bottle-fed since birth and “raised” by the zoo’s office workers. 

North Carolina Wildlife Commission officials said Mildred had lost her “natural bear nature.” She craved human interaction. 

“Every day after that, Hugh Morton and Mildred bonded. Early on, they would picnic together, sharing Fig Newtons and grape sodas,” Wonsick reported.

 

Morton constructed an entire “bear friendly environmental habitat” at Grandfather Mountain to ensure Mildred’s safety. She had nine cubs of her own, the first being twins Mini and Maxi, born in 1970. Three others were adopted. Mildred died in 1993, at age 26. Hugh Morton died in 2006, at age 85. 

The man and the bear are certainly iconic figures in the history and development of the Old North State. 

A bill introduced in late April in the N.C. House of Representatives seeks to install the black bear as the official “state mammal.” The idea brought back wonderful memories of good times at Grandfather Mountain and countless stories about Mildred and her descendants. 

The legislators who introduced the bill were not thinking of Mildred, however. They were thinking about the black bears that inhabit coastal North Carolina. 

There is a complication, however. North Carolina already has a state mammal. It gave the crown in 1969 to the ubiquitous gray squirrel. Can the black bear muscle in? 

Hugh Morton was a public relations wizard with seemingly magical powers. What would he do to resolve this conundrum? 

He might have suggested to the politicians that they can have their cake and eat it, too, by being “more inclusive” to have a small state mammal as well as a large one. 

Squirrels and bears are known to coexist rather well. Squirrels are smart enough to know not to get too close to bears. 

Bears are smart enough to know squirrel-chasing is not worth the effort. The squirrels are too speedy.