Wilderness Trails and a Dream; The story behind the Olympic Game Farm

Forks, WA: Olympic Game Farm, 2005. Third Edition [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. Maggie O'Hara (Cover picture). [6], 188, [2] pages. Illustrations. Signed by author and Catherine Beebe on title page. The Olympic Peninsula is a national treasure of wildlife and natural landscapes. For the past 40 years, the Olympic Game Farm has offered an opportunity for visitors to learn, observe and experience wildlife at close range. The Olympic Game Farm's main attraction is a drive-through tour that is open year-round. During the summer, the tour also includes access to the petting farm, aquarium, duck pond, pheasant aviary, raccoon enclosure, reptile house and Historic Studio Barn. The Barn features the entire, fascinating history of the Olympic Game Farm and its connection to the early 20th-century Hollywood film industry, particularly its connection to Walt Disney! Lloyd Beebe, the ex-logger who raised animal stars of the big and small screen at his Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, died at age 94. His wife, Catherine, who handled many of the ranch's operations, died two days later at age 88. Lloyd Beebe, the ex-logger who raised animal stars of the big and small screen at his Olympic Game Farm in Sequim.The game farm continues to attract thousands of visitors, and it is trying get back into the movie business, a half-century after Mr. Beebe helped Walt Disney film documentaries and feature films.As a young man, Mr. Beebe logged the North Cascades, but after the couple had children, he decided the job was too dangerous, so he moved to the Olympic Peninsula. He tried mink farming, then started a dairy in 1942, supplying milk to the armed forces, said a grandson, Robert Beebe.During the Depression, Mr. Beebe hunted deer for food and cougars to collect a bounty."He says he really never liked it. He was hunting to provide for his family," said Robert Beebe. "If he ever came across orphans, he'd bring them home. He would go hunting and come home with baby cougars."It became second nature to observe wildlife, so Mr. Beebe took a loan to buy a camera. He collaborated with a state wildlife photographer to make "The Little Archer," about a boy who befriends a bear cub instead of shooting it.Walt Disney later hired him for an 18-month project in Antarctica, to document an expedition led by Admiral Richard Byrd.Mr. Beebe filmed penguin rookeries and brought cameras on coastal flights. He offered beer to Navy Seabees to join him touring crevasses. He made a ladder that allowed him to descend 100 feet, where he compared the view to diamonds, or a glass-bottomed boat. He was nearly killed by falling ice, according to an Ohio State University polar-history archive. "Oh, it was worth it," he said.Back in Sequim, Mr. Beebe opened the game farm to visitors and worked on Disney films. For "Charlie the Lonesome Cougar" in 1967, he supplied several tame cougars for different scenes - one happy-go-lucky cat liked to swim, and played on some floating logs, a scene that was added to the script. Mr. Beebe furnished animals for "The Vanishing Prairie," "The Incredible Journey" and "Grizzly Adams," as well as television's "Northern Exposure.""Until Beebe arrived, animal training was limited to how well you snapped a whip," said Greg Heberlein, a Disney enthusiast and former Seattle Times reporter and business columnist. Mr. Beebe helped popularize gentler methods, such as rewarding bear cubs with honey or sweets.