You might say that Olive Fell was to Yellowstone National Park what Ansel Adams was to Yosemite, but with a sketchbook instead of a camera. Fell maintained a strong connection with the Yellowstone environment and its wildlife, beginning with her first visit to the park in July 1922 until her death in February 1980. Best known for her Little Bear Cub illustrations and souvenirs sold in the park in the late 1940s and into the 1960s, Fell also produced etchings, paintings and sculptures of the wildlife and scenery of the American West. Olive Fell was born a few years after Montana and Wyoming gained statehood, and she spent her early years in both states. Her rural upbringing contributed to her appreciation of nature and animals. Fell studied art in Chicago and New York before returning to Cody, Wyoming, and living in the Cody area for the rest of her life.
For much of her life, Fell lived in isolation on a 1,200-acre ranch high in the Absaroka Mountains between Yellowstone National Park and Cody. For almost 20 years she lived and worked from a small, isolated studio cabin along Jim Creek. She was inspired by the chickadees, brown creepers, red-breasted nuthatches and Canada jays living along the creek, with which she would share her lunch. Sometimes her avian friends would sit on her shoulders or hat as she rode her horse.
Fell managed her property as a wildlife sanctuary and fended off trespassing hunters every fall. She loved the winter season the most, when she could ski over the hills tracking and watching deer, moose and bear. She would sketch dozens of legs, paws, ears and heads and was occasionally marooned for hours after climbing trees trying to catch just the pose or expression she wanted. Fell would state, “I made my best etchings over there.”1
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