Idaho had a serious beaver problem in 1948. There were too many in lowland areas, where they were becoming a nuisance, but a remote high-mountain area had none.
So a bold, simple solution was devised: Capture beavers in areas where they weren’t wanted, then load them into planes and parachute them into the wilderness where they were needed.
A Beaver Named Geronimo
The first test subject was a male beaver named Geronimo by Idaho Fish and Game personnel assigned to the project.
He was the beaver guinea pig in test runs to determine the ideal drop altitude and fine tune the wooden crates in which the beavers would drift to earth.
Then Geronimo and three females became the first beavers parachuted into what was then called the Idaho Primitive Area and is now known as the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area.
More flights followed, until a total of 76 beavers were parachuted overall. All but one survived the air drops, and the area still has a healthy population of beavers.
The beaver drop might have been lost to history had it not been for the 2015 rediscovery of an old Idaho Department of Fish and Game film documenting the operation.
Fish and Game that year posted a restored version of the film on their website, not thinking much of it.
It blew up, drawing national and international attention. And to this day, “parachuting beavers” are Idaho cultural icons — appearing on coffee cups, T-shirts and other merchandise.
Fish and Game historian and archivist Sharon Clark told Cowboy State Daily that she still gets frequent calls about the parachuting beavers.
In 1948, Idaho Fish and Game loaded beavers into wooden crates, attached to parachutes. They were loaded onto planes and air dropped into the remote wilderness. (Courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho State Archives/Idaho State Historical Society) 
In 1948, Idaho Fish and Game loaded beavers into wooden crates, attached to parachutes. They were loaded onto planes and air dropped into the remote wilderness. (Courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho State Archives/Idaho State Historical Society) 
In 1948, Idaho Fish and Game loaded beavers into wooden crates, attached to parachutes. They were loaded onto planes and air dropped into the remote wilderness. (Courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho State Archives/Idaho State Historical Society) 
In 1948, Idaho Fish and Game loaded beavers into wooden crates, attached to parachutes. They were loaded onto planes and air dropped into the remote wilderness. (Courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho State Archives/Idaho State Historical Society) 
In 1948, Idaho Fish and Game loaded beavers into wooden crates, attached to parachutes. They were loaded onto planes and air dropped into the remote wilderness. (Courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho State Archives/Idaho State Historical Society)
Military Surplus Parachutes Used
In 1948, Fish and Game employee Elmo Heter was tasked with figuring out how to transplant beavers to the Chamberlain Basin in the Idaho Primitive Area.
Having worked with beavers previously, he’d determined that moving them overland in crates strapped to mules was difficult.
The beavers had to be frequently soaked to keep them from getting sick from the heat. And the mules didn’t seem to like them, and would get cantankerous over having to haul them, according to Heter’s statements in Fish and Game records.
At the time, just after World War II, airdropping was a popular way to move things, Fish and Game spokesman Roger Phillips told Cowboy State Daily.
It had been used to great success moving troops and supplies during the war. And so, it was thought, it should work with beavers too.
What’s more, there were plenty of military surplus parachutes available, Phillips said.
Geronimo’s Patience Pays Off
Heter came up with a design for hinged crates for the beavers to ride in, which could be attached to parachutes.
The hinged crates were designed to open on impact, setting the beavers free.
It was then a matter of putting Geronimo to work, testing the system.
Records from the time state that Geronimo displayed great patience during the test runs, Clark said.
“The box would open up (upon landing) and he would just go back into the box and sit and wait for them to come get him,” she said.
After the airdrops into the primitive area, Forest Service found and recovered the beaver crates and parachutes, she said.
The operation was largely funded through the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1938, Clark said.
Pittman-Robertson to this day raises money for wildlife-related projects through taxes that hunters and anglers pay on firearms, ammunition, fishing tackle and other gear.
A report from a Game and Fish furbearer biologist, the late Roger Williams, indicates that Colorado also parachuted beavers into a wilderness area a few years after the Idaho operation.
“We will still take credit for being the first (state to air drop beavers), but we’re not the only state to have done it,” Clark said.
Almost Lost To History
Williams retired from Fish and Game in the 1980s. Clark had a conversation with him in the early 2000s, during which he mentioned that he had video (film) from the parachuting beaver operation.
It had been handed over to Idaho State Archives. But when Clark contacted the archives, nobody could find the film.
“Their records showed that the film was in their archives. They had just moved into a new building in Boise” and the film had apparently been misplaced in the shuffle, she said.
Clark had all but forgotten about the parachuting beaver film, until she received an email from somebody in the state archives in 2015, telling her that it had been found.
“It had been mislabled and misfiled, and they found it by accident,” she said.
The trouble was that by then the film was so old, it couldn’t be run through a projector, for fear that it would disintegrate.
Clark said a video company in Utah restored the film “frame by frame” and transferred it into digital form, complete with audio.
Video Goes Viral
The roughly two-minute-long segment covering the 1948 beaver air drop is part of a 13-minute film called “Fur for the Future.”
The audio features a narrator’s voice, in the classic 1940s style.
At one point the narrator states, “The box opens, and a most unusual and novel trip ends for Mr. Beaver.”
After the video was posted by Fish and Game, Clark said she and other agency personnel were astounded by how quickly it gained attention.
Researchers and reporters called from far and wide, she said.
“I talked to people in the U.K. I talked to people in Switzerland,” she said.
Regarding whether the beavers now living in the Frank Church wilderness are the direct descendants of Geronimo and his compatriots, there’s no way of knowing for sure, Phillips said.
Genetic testing wasn’t available in 1948, so there are no DNA samples from the 1948 beavers to compare to beavers living there today, he said.
The current beaver population might have come from beavers that migrated into the area on their own.
Beavers can travel great distances, Phillips added.
The airdropped beavers had ear tags for identification. One of the ear-tagged beavers was later discovered about 100 miles from the drop zone, he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
