Below is a reprint from an early issue of the Wapiti newsletter. Clint Mills joined the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation on March 1, 1985. As RMEF’s first life member, he also donated to the mission over the years. Mills passed away on December 11, 2012. His ashes were spread on, appropriately enough, Bugle Mountain in Montana.
In early 1985, Clint Mills – who was then working for a ranch and outfitting business in Montana’s Yaak Valley – remembers a visit from RMEF Executive Director Bob Munson.
“The Foundation was in a bind at the time,” Mills says. “They needed to put another BUGLE out.”
Munson talked with Mills’ employer – the ranch owner – about a donation.
“My boss and I talked about this thing quite a bit,” Mills remembers. “I said I think these people are really doing some good. I called Bob back and my boss gave me a check.”
Shortly after his boss made that donation, Mills signed up as RMEF Life Member No. 1. His initial faith in the Foundation continues today.
“I just love elk. I’ve been into elk all my life,” Mills says. “I thought they were doing some great things pick up land and making it into wildlife habitat.”
Mills has retired and bought his own place in Eureka in northwestern Montana. When he was living in the Yaak, Mills says, elk didn’t come around as often as he’d like.
But now, watching elk is one of the greatest benefits of where he lives and a constant reminder of why he believed in the young Elk Foundation.
“My place borders a 1,500-acre wildlife refuge,” Mills says. “I see elk almost every day, as many as 100 head, on my property and on the hills around my property.”
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)