An Anecdotal History of the Sage Grouse

The iconic sage grouse. The gamebird of the American West. A bucket list quarry for wing shooters to experience. Many folks who chase the spiny-tailed bird are unaware of the rich and colorful history the grouse has had with those who have crossed its path. Its vast living space is the brittle sagebrush country that once thrived and dominated an expansive region. It was here, through travel, exploration and hunting that men experienced the sage grouse. In the wake of its current plight and threats to its continued existence, now might be a good time to better understand the bird’s interaction with man by taking note of a timeline of sorts that shows how intertwined the largest grouse in North America has passed through history.

A mid-1800s eyewitness reported “flocks of the birds darkening the skies.” This brief description is no doubt part of a much bigger tale, but it gives an impactful image of just how vast the numbers of sage grouse were present. Sage grouse (greater and Gunnison) numbers have declined dramatically from pre-settlement estimates of almost 16 million birds. This almost unfathomable number of grouse from the early 1800s filled the plains and high deserts of 13 western states and Canada. The sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) or sage hen is a large chickenlike bird with a speckled black, white and brown chunky, round body, small head and long, pointed tail feathers when fanned. The birds once flourished in untold numbers and outnumbered North America’s inhabitants.

Time and human advancement have not been kind to the bird’s fragile sagebrush steppe habitat, where the bird thrives on the tender buds and bitter aromatic leaves of the delicate sage. Suffering tremendous widespread loss, alteration and fragmentation, this vast landscape, that was once a thriving ecosystem, now covers only about half of its original area. The sage grouse’s range has been devoured by land development, ranching and farming, as well as invasive grasses and wildfire, which have led to the bird’s current population being estimated to be between 200,000 and 400,000 and fewer than 5,000 Gunnison sage grouse.

From the time of exploration, adventure and study comes the following anecdotes, captured by men who were taken with the strange beauty and sheer numbers of sage grouse that seemed to be scattered about the land. Some of these recitals are commonly known, others are not — as they were found buried in journals and obscure papers. Follow the historical distribution and eyewitness accounts for an indication of just how amazing and abundant the sage grouse was.

In the early 1800s, renowned ornithologist John J. Audubon noted, “This, the largest grouse of North America, was called the ‘pheasant-tailed grouse’ often runs under the horses of travelers when disturbed.”

U.S. Army surgeon, historian, ornithologist and author Elliott Coues (1874) related, “The bird was very plentiful and was well known to nearly all explorers and early settlers of the western prairies.”

Franciscan friars Silvestre Velez de Escalante (Spain) and Francisco Atanasio Dominguez (Mexico) arrived in the Utah Valley on September 25, 1776. They were part of a Spanish expedition to establish a new northern route from Santa Fe de Nuevo México (New Mexico) to newly established missions in Monterrey, Alta California (present day California). Upon reaching Lake Timpanogos (Utah Lake, part of Lake Bonneville), the monks chronicled in their journal “wild hens of which there are many around here,” thus becoming the first explorers to describe sage grouse in Utah. The “large fowl that wandered about” were regularly hunted and a common food source for the local Indigenous people.

Two days later, the monks beheld in a nearby village “numerous hens, of the kind we have already mentioned in this diary.” These nondescript accounts from the adventurous men of the cloth precede the more famous descriptions of Lewis and Clark.

The goal of the famed Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition was to explore the newly acquired western portion of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. Throughout their quest, they recorded a variety of flora and fauna, both previously known and unknown at the time. During their quest, the duo is generally credited with presenting the first historical accounts of sage grouse.

On June 5, 1805, near the confluence of the Marias and Missouri rivers in what is now Montana, Capt. Meriwether Lewis described in his journal: “I saw a flock of the mountain cock, or a large species of heath hen with a long pointed tail which the Indians informed us were common to the Rockey Mountains. I sent Shields to kill one of them but he was obliged to fire a long distance at them and missed his aim.”

Upon arriving west of Lemhi Pass, in what is now Idaho, near the Montana border, Lewis’ close friend Lt. William Clark wrote on August 20, 1805: “Capt. C. killed a cock of the plains or mountain cock, it was of a dark brown colour with a long and pointed tail larger than the dunghill fowl and had a fleshey protuberant substance about the base of the upper chap, something like that of the turkey tho’ without the snout … and are in Great abundance.”

The strange bird was new to the explorers as they refer to it as the Cock of the Plains. It is encountered at least nine times, and the natives the explorers interact with repeatedly tell them the birds are plentiful throughout the area, the western part of the United States. The detailed field notes from the expedition’s observations of sage grouse have provided modern interpretations for understanding the bird’s decline, habitat and delicate ecosystem.

Ornithologist John K. Townsend described flushing hundreds of grouse from the sagebrush as he rode through the Green River Valley in 1834. He reported that he and other early explorers couldn’t resist shooting them.

At the encampment, Townsend said, “We have seen also another kind of game, a beautiful bird, the size of a half grown turkey, called the cock of the plains (Tetrao urophasianus). We first met with this noble bird on the plains, about two days’ journey east of Green river, in flocks or packs, of fifteen or twenty, and so exceedingly tame as to allow an approach to within a few feet, running before our horses like domestic fowls, and not unfrequently hopping under their bellies, while the men amused themselves by striking out their feathers with their riding whips. When we first saw them, the temptation to shoot was irresistible; the guns were cracking all around us, and the poor grouse falling in every direction; but what was our disappointment, when, upon roasting them nicely before the fire, we found them so strong and bitter as not to be eatable. From this time the cock of the plains was allowed to roam free and unmolested, and as he has failed to please our palates, we are content to admire the beauty of his plumage, and the grace and spirit of his attitudes.”

U.S. Army Capt. Charles Bendire noted in 1877 the sage grouse is “unquestionably the most comical-looking bird I have ever seen.” He tells of these birds spread across the American West that were hunted for food and feathers by both the natives and Anglos alike. He further shared in his diary: “Early one morning in the first week of March, I had long wished for opportunity to observe the actions of a single cock, while paying court to several females near him, and I presume he did his very best. His large pale yellow air sacs (of the neck) were fully inflated, and not only expanded forward but apparently upward as well, rising at least an inch above his head, which, consequently, was scarcely noticeable, giving the bird an exceedingly peculiar appearance. He looked top-heavy and ready to topple over at the slightest provocation.”

“The Father of American Conservation,” George Bird Grinnell, was so moved by the “great numbers” of sage grouse he witnessed in 1886 near Casper, Wyoming, that he relayed the following: “Looking up from the tent at the edge of the bluff above us, we could see projecting over it the heads of hundreds of the birds, and, as those standing there took flight, others stepped forward to occupy their places.”

He later continued, “The number of Grouse which flew over the camp reminded me of the old-time flights of Passenger Pigeons that I used to see when I was a boy. Before long the narrow valley where the water was, was a moving mass of gray.”

As was the case with the American bison, commercial and sport hunting also had an adverse effect on sage grouse numbers. Unchecked killing throughout the 1800s negatively impacted the population. U.S. Forest Service records include an interview in which the subject described sage grouse hunting conditions in Utah at the tail end of the 19th century: “Sage chickens were so plentiful in the 1890s … they clouded the sky. I can remember killing them with a stick on many occasions …”

In 1903, American artist and avid bird hunter Dwight W. Huntington spoke very highly of the sage grouse as a game bird. He was one of the few who valued the bird as table fare. “These birds, like others, often receive a flavor from their food, and when the wild sage is their exclusive diet, they have a more or less bitter taste. When, however, the birds are young and have been feeding on grasshoppers, their flesh is as good as that of the sharp-tails or prairie-grouse.”

Huntington wrote in detail his method for hunting sage grouse: “My shooting of these birds was mostly done from the saddle while on the march. When we flushed a covey of birds I took a shot at them, and marking those that flew away to the particular bush where they settled, rode at once to the spot and sometimes dismounted to shoot at the scattered birds. Upon several occasions I went out with a friend especially to shoot them, riding here and there (we had no dog) until the horse flushed a covey, and following them so long as we could make them take wing. Birds often escaped by hiding in the sage and refusing to fly. The most likely places seemed to be depressions where the water evidently flowed in wet seasons and little knolls adjacent, but we stumbled upon the birds almost anywhere in the sage, and often made very good bags. It was next to Impossible to miss one, since the shots were always in the open and the marks large. The birds required hard hitting, however, to bring them down, and I would not advise the use of shot smaller than number 5 or 6. A wounded bird is difficult to recover without a dog where the sage grows thickly …”

No particular story explains how or why Hemingway was introduced to hunting sage grouse. It wouldn’t be surprising that the great American writer had read about the grouse’s vast numbers throughout history which led him to sage flats in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to shoot sage grouse or native prairie chickens as he called them. Those stories and tales set in the past may have provided an allure for Hemingway to hunt them. From Theodore Roosevelt’s journal entries, to quotes and diary accounts from those who paved the way to exploring America’s frontier, to men who gave birth to conservation who witnessed the great birds prior to their drastic decline. We simply do not know.

What is known is Hemingway wrote several letters to family and friends about his sage grouse hunting prowess, as well as sharing his thoughts on the magnificent sage grouse. In August of 1932, Hemingway drove his wife Pauline four hours to Powell, Wyoming, so she could attend Mass. He had packed his rifles to shoot “grouse.” Traveling home, they experienced car problems. They found refuge in Cooke City while repairs were made. While waiting, Hemingway hunted for four days. On August 8, the couple returned to the ranch “with a carload of sage grouse” he wrote. Hemingway would say that it had been some of the best shooting of his life. One flush alone produced over a hundred sage grouse.

“Then there are the sage hens, wild as hawks that time, the biggest grouse of all, getting up out of range, until you came around an alfalfa stack and four whirred one after the other at your feet almost and later walking home, in your hunting coat they seemed to weigh a ton.”

Such anecdotes describing scenes of huge flocks of sage grouse that filled the sky and traipsed through the sagebrush in masses are but a distant memory. These once common scenes are difficult to believe today. This spectacular bird no longer flourishes in the millions as it once did. Less than 10 percent of the sage grouse’s original population remains, fewer than half a million birds, scattered across two Canadian provinces and 11 western states. (Arizona and New Mexico no longer have them.)

Sage grouse require undisturbed sagebrush; the tough, drought-resistant shrub both feeds and shelters the birds. Unfortunately, the aromatic green plant is in retreat everywhere. The bird serves as an indicator species, its population dwindling as the sage lands have been reduced. Massive overgrazing a century ago has diminished the bird’s natural range. The lands have subsequently been broken with roads, subdivisions, transmission lines, farms, ranches, gas and oil fields and wind turbines — what was once an unbroken sea of sage and home to millions of sage grouse is slowly writing the birds’ final chapter.

Rachel Carson drives home this final point in Silent Spring (1962): “The sage and the grouse seem made for each other. The sage … is all things to these birds of the plains.”