Black Bear Creek

The fictional town of Black Bear Creek lies tucked in a remote hollow of the Coal River Valley in West Virginia, a region reliant on and devastated by the mining industry. The people in these stories struggle to survive against rampant poverty while their drinking water is poisoned and the mountains around them are stripped away. But amongst this bleak backdrop, they find ways to love and hope and fight. Cross's raw, spare prose reflects the barren landscape his characters inhabit as they put their bodies and lives at risk just to feed their families.

In describing the true events surrounding a series of frightening bear attacks in l980, a bestselling nature/adventure author explores our relationship with the great grizzly. Many citizens of Banff, Alberta, valued living in a place where wildlife grazed on the front lawn; others saw wild bears as a mere roadside attraction. None were expecting the bear attacks that summer, which led to one man’s death. During the massive hunt that followed, Banff was portrayed in the international media as a town under siege by a killer bear, and the tourists stayed away. The pressure was on to find and destroy the Whiskey Creek mauler, but he evaded park wardens and struck again — and again. When the fight was over, the hard lessons learned led to changes that would save the lives of both bears and people in the coming years. Sid Marty’sThe Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creekis an evocative and gripping story that speaks to our complex and increasingly combative relationship with the wilderness and its inhabitants. From the Hardcover edition.