Archives West Finding Aid

Olaus Johan Murie was born in Moorhead, Minnesota, on March 1, 1889 to Joachim and Marie Murie. His brother, Adolph, was born ten years later in 1899. Olaus subsequently worked for such prestigious institutions as the Carnegie Institution and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He was President of the Wilderness Society from 1950-1957 and was active in a variety of conservation societies and biologists’ professional organizations. He received numerous awards for his environmental efforts, including the Aldo Leopold Memorial Award, which he received in 1952, and the Sierra Club’s highest honor, the John Muir Award, received just a few months before he died. He wrote several books, including The Elk of North America and a Field Guide to Animal Tracks. Olaus died on October 21, 1963, after a year long hospitalization.

Margaret E. Thomas met Olaus in Alaska while he was working on a study of caribou. A native of Seattle, Washington, Margaret was born in 1902 and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, during her childhood. She married Olaus in 1924 and became an outspoken advocate for the environment in her own right. Soon after their marriage, the two moved to Moose, Wyoming, where they spent the rest of their lives. Margaret bore three children, Martin, Joanne, and Donald. The first woman graduate of the University of Alaska, she helped to found the Teton Science School in Jackson, Wyoming, and was instrumental in the designation and protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. She and her husband were also active participants in the designation of Grand Teton National Park in 1929. Along with Olaus, Margaret (Mardy) was credited with preparing the way for the passage of the Wilderness Act, and she was frequently called to give testimony on environmental issues before Congress. She received numerous awards over the course of her life for her work, including the Audubon Medal and the John Muir Award. President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. Mardy Murie died in Moose on October 19, 2003. She was referred to by many as the “mother of the modern conservation movement.”

Adolph Murie was another distinguished environmentalist. An award-winning author, he wrote The Wolves of Mount McKinley and the Ecology of the Coyote in Yellowstone. He was an employee of the National Park Service for most of his adult life, which enabled him to study wildlife in a variety of pristine settings. The U.S. Department of the Interior recognized him with its Distinguished Service Award. Adolph married Margaret’s sister, Louise, and the two subsequently moved to Moose as well. They had two children together. He died there suddenly, on August 15, 1974.