America's Largest Bear Sanctuary Is in the U.P.

Newberry — My kids love bears. They love all kinds of animals to be fair, though usually the scarier the better, and bears are pretty scary. They read books that pit one animal against another, list off their various attributes, and then detail how a battle might go down. There’s ones with sharks, ones with reptiles, and ones with bears. Since reading these books with them, I’ve learned more about black bears, polar bears, and grizzly bears than I ever knew before.

So when I asked them if they wanted to see some real bears, some not-on-a-page-but-in-front-of-your-eyes bears, they were ecstatic.

So that’s what we did.

On Sunday, we piled in the car and drove over the bridge into the U.P., west through Newberry (pop. 1,446), and out to Oswald’s Bear Ranch where they watch over a bunch of bears residing in peace and (for bears) relative harmony.

I didn’t think there would be too many people out at a bear ranch so far from any great hub on a cloudy and slightly chilly Sunday, but I was wrong. There was a line of cars waiting as soon as we pulled of Luce County Road 407. There was a guy in an orange vest with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth directing traffic in the parking lot. I think it was probably the most cars I had seen in one place since leaving St. Ignace.

Oswald’s Bear Ranch was founded in 1997 by Dean and Jewel Oswald. Hosting 51 bears on 240 acres, Oswald’s Bear Ranch is the largest of its kind in the U.S.

On site, there are three main habitats for these furry creatures. There’s the female habitat, which includes a low valley with shrubs and lots of trees. There’s an observation deck at the top where you can look down at the bears loping along, sitting in the shade, and waiting for apples to be thrown through the fence. A bag of apple slices is $5 at the cashier in the main building and is certainly worth grabbing on your way to the habitats.

On the other side of the complex is the male habitat. It’s shady with a little pond down the hill where we watched the bears wading around in water up to their necks before clomping out onto the mud and scraping their backs against the bushes in a way you might expect a bear to.

In the middle is the yearling habitat where the younger and rather thinner bears ran around a little, played a little, and slept a little. There are wooden platforms they like to scale and then playfully defend, heaps of logs and brush, and a little waterfall down in the back. Next to the yearling habitat is the partially enclosed area where the littlest cubs were sleeping with their snouts poking through the rectangular holes in the chain link fence while my kids snapped photos with their cameras.

On our way from the female habitat, an older woman came up to us and offered a beach towel to our 7-month-old daughter in the stroller for a little warmth on this deceivingly chilly day. It was a very generous thing to do, and it turned out the woman was Jewel Oswald. We talked with Jewel and Dean about Oswald’s for a few minutes. About their love for the bears, how special this place is to them, their son Monte who sold us our bag of apples, and how much our kids loved seeing these massive creatures they had only previously read about in books.

Before we left, Jewel insisted we come to the front of the line and get our picture taken with a cub. My wife, our son, our daughter, our 7-month-old, and I somewhat nervously crowded behind a little bear as a worker snapped two photos to which we responded, “Thank you.”

Dean and Jewel Oswald are good people. They love bears, and they love sharing them with people. There are pictures of Dean holding bear cubs and standing next to big bears all over the walls. They have, sadly, been harassed by the often menacing and always irritating people at PETA over the years. This harassment is entirely undeserved, of course, as the bears they host are rescue bears and are kept well and with love, in large open air habitats as close to the real wilderness as possible.

A great thing about being a parent is getting to show your kids stuff for the first time. It’s fun to be able to show them the world and watch them understand a little bit more about it with every passing year.

Despite black bears living wild in the county where we live, we’ve never seen one up close and personal on our way back from the post office, on a walk in the woods, or on the side of the road.

The best thing about taking the kids to Oswald’s Bear Ranch was turning bears from 2-D pictures on a page that’s been read and re-read too many times into 3-D animals seen in real life with one’s own eyes. Reading about bears is alright, but seeing bears is better.