The Rumor Proves True

Story and Photos by Sheila Newenham

Word was there were mountain goats at Bernard Peak on Lake Pend Oreille. Supporting the rumor, Farragut State Park across the bay had permanently set up spotting scopes to look for them. Every time I went out in my boat on the lake, I cruised Echo Bay around the peak, looking, scanning, searching.

Excitedly, I’d bring my binoculars to my eyes, only to once again mistake sun-bleached boulders for goats way up high. Several times, I heard rocks tumbling down the slopes as if kicked loose by footsteps, and I spun around to scan for a woolly white form. No goat.

According to Idaho Fish and Game’s Mountain Goat Management Plan, from 1960-1968, twenty mountain goats were brought to Bernard Peak from a population on Snow Peak near Bonners Ferry. This mountain goat population supposedly has remained relatively stable ever since and is currently managed for “non-consumptive wildlife viewing.” That means hunting them is illegal.