The Gray Owl Cabin - an unusual person with a kind heart (20 photos + 1 video)

Here, an English trapper, posing as a member of the First Nations, lived and raised beaver cubs.





At Ajawan Lake in Prince Albert National Park in Canada, a conservationist calling himself Grey Owl lived in a hut from 1931 to 1938. He claimed to be a member of the First Nations. But in reality, the former trapper was an Englishman named Archibald Belaney, although these details were not revealed until after his death.



Grey Owl moved to Canada from England in 1906. As a child, he had already become fascinated with American Indians. He read about them and drew figures in the margins of his school books. After moving to North America, his interest only intensified. He even began signing his name with a made-up Indian name. Eventually, he created a completely new identity, telling everyone that his father was Scottish and his mother was Apache.





After working as a fur trapper, wilderness guide, and forest ranger, he eventually delved into the world of conservation. His third wife (he had already had two failed marriages by age 37), a Mohawk woman named Anahereo, helped convince him to switch from trapping beavers to protecting them.



One day, Anahereo accompanied him when he set a trap to catch a female beaver. The baby beavers' squeaks, like the cries of a child, made the woman beg him to let the animal go. Gray Owl did not listen to her pleas, since the pelt was worth money. But the next day he returned and found the abandoned babies. He and his wife raised them in their cabin.



Grey Owl

Grey Owl has written several books on conservation, mostly focusing on the negative effects of commercialization of the natural world. Among them are People of the Last Frontier, Pilgrims of the Wasteland, The Adventures of Sajo and Her Beaver People, and Tales of the Empty Cabin. Grey Owl also illustrated them with his own drawings.



The couple starred in documentaries about their conservation work and became well known among 20th-century conservationists in the United States and Canada. After Grey Owl died of pneumonia in 1938, details of his fictitious story came to light, tarnishing his reputation. But public opinion later rehabilitated Grey Owl. He is widely recognized in Canada as an early champion of both Indian rights and wildlife conservation.



His cabin has been restored. It was originally elevated above the water to provide a more suitable habitat for beavers. Gray Owl, Anahereo, and their daughter are buried nearby in a quiet wilderness area frequented by deer, moose, bears, and, of course, beavers.





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