Monte Wolfe

Monte Wolfe (April 20, 1886 – c. April 20, 1940), born Archey Edwin Wright, was an American outdoorsman, outlaw, cowboy, soldier, and fur trapper. After a turbulent early life characterized by repeated run-ins with the law, Wright abandoned his wife and children, took on the pseudonym Monte Wolfe, and retreated into the Sierra Nevada mountains. There, in the remote canyons of the upper Mokelumne River, he built a series of cabins and lived off the land, completely separated from wider society, for the rest of his life. In 1940, he suddenly disappeared. The circumstances of the disappearance remain unclear, and the tale of Monte Wolfe's life has become something of a local legend. He has been described as "the last mountain man of the Sierra Nevada".

Biography

Early life

Archey Edwin Wright was born on April 20, 1886 in North Dakota. Little is known of his early life. In 1902, when he was 16 years old, his family migrated west by covered wagon along the Oregon Trail, settling in California. It did not take long after this for his long record of run-ins with the law to begin; early that decade, he was arrested and jailed in Modesto for a minor robbery.

In 1909 Wright married Goldie Fay Coolidge, a relative of future President Calvin Coolidge. Marriage did not dampen his inclination for crime. Later that year, he was convicted of second-degree burglary and sentenced to 18 months in the infamous Folsom State Prison. Upon release he reunited with his wife, and the couple produced four children: Goldie Ina, Edwin, Glenn, and Norman. In 1916, needing steady income to support his wife and children but struggling to find work due to his rap sheet, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. A year later, due to financial strains and Wright's long absences while on Army service, the couple separated, and Goldie moved with the children to Stockton. After the couple's separation, Wright moved to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he soon found work as a cowboy and prospector. Upon the arrival of the World War 1 draft, Wright registered as "Monte Wolfe" – his first known use of the name he would keep for the rest of his life.

Retreat from society

In the Sierras, Wolfe worked a number of jobs to earn the income he needed, including trapping, prospecting, and working as a fishing guide. At this point, he had not yet withdrawn from wider society altogether. That would change in 1927, when Wolfe had another run-in with law enforcement – he was arrested for felony burglary and spent 75 days in a Tuolumne County jail. In his trial that took place after this delay, the jury found Wolfe not guilty; however, upon acquittal, the county sheriff drove him to the city of Angels Camp in nearby Calaveras County, "unceremoniously dumped" him there, and told him to never again set foot in Tuolumne County.

According to historian Eric Jung, this series of events made Wolfe "finally decide ‘I've had enough of people’". For the rest of his life he would live off the land in a rugged area deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Life in the Sierras

In the canyon of the Mokelumne River, Wolfe built himself two log cabins, where he lived for the rest of his life. Friends came to visit from time to time, and he occasionally ventured into the bars along the highway about ten miles away. Aside from that, he lived as a hermit, and was entirely self-sufficient.

Disappearance

One day late in the spring of 1940, three of Wolfe's friends – the brothers Art, Harry, and Reuben Schimke – set out to visit Wolfe in his cabin. Upon their arrival, they found the cabin empty, and could not find Wolfe. The last date crossed off on his calendar had been April 20 – his birthday – of that same year. It is unknown what caused Wolfe's disappearance and presumed death, but the surviving Schimke brothers believe it was unintentional. Wolfe had been suffering from some chronic health problems, which could have made him more likely to fall victim to an accident.

Cabin preservation dispute

Monte Wolfe's first cabin was destroyed by Forest Service workers sometime before 2009. His second cabin remains standing to this day. This cabin, one of the last surviving pioneer structures in California built by one person entirely by hand, has become embroiled in a dispute between wilderness protection and historic preservation. After passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the ground upon which the cabin sits became part of the newly designated Mokelumne Wilderness. Wilderness area regulations generally prohibit the maintenance or construction of any buildings or structures not necessary to patrolling and maintaining the wilderness itself. As a result, rangers have at times sought to speed up the natural decay of the cabin, while preservationists have attempted to maintain it. The two groups at one point reached an agreement to leave the cabin as is in a state of "arrested decay", but both sides have accused the other side of violating this agreement.