This Up North Store Has Kept a Captive Bear Since 1947

Hale — Just past the Dollar General and the Fraternal Order of Eagles lives a bear named Sophie.

But Sophie does not belong in these woods, nor does she belong in the metal compound that has been built by The Bear Store to house her and a number of other animals.

There has been a bear in captivity here since 1947, when walls were built around a native bear named Dixie. I don’t know the whole story about Dixie, whether she was hit by a car and saved by humans, or whether she was left behind as a cub and rescued.

But since Dixie, there has always been a bear in captivity at Hall’s Grocery, which is now simply known as The Bear Store. It’s a nice enough convenience store that sells beer, ice cream, pop, and souvenirs for “The Bear Store.”

There are actually two bears: One is a stuffed bear in the middle of the small store with a fish in its mouth, courtesy of an artful taxidermist.

The other, Sophie, is just 15 yards from the store’s front door, behind a gargantuan wooden Adirondack chair that says “CAROLE WILSON REAL ESTATE.”

Sophie is not a native bear, but a Syrian brown bear conscripted into the circus at a young age.

The way The Bear Store puts it, visitors are doing Sophie a favor by taking pictures and gawking at her while eating very large scoops of ice cream from the walk-up window.

“Sophie spent the first year of her life touring the country as a circus bear, children and adults would get their picture taken while feeding her,” a sign on her cage explains.

“After she got too big and couldn't tour with them she came to us! Sophie has a great personality and loves the attention she gets everyday!”

But when I visited, Sophie seemed agitated by the sounds of the highway and the workmen cutting down an oak with their chainsaws nearby.

She was pacing her cage restlessly in a loop without purpose, without anywhere to go. There were paths in the dirt that made her enclosure seem small.

It’s hard to watch, but you want to look because bears are captivating creatures. Maybe that’s why it was so sad to see Sophie in such tight captivity.

Not all enclosed bears are as pitiable. I don’t remember feeling as downtrodden after viewing the bears at the Detroit Zoo.

The bears at the Upper Peninsula’s Oswald’s Bear Ranch are also rescues and in a much better habitat. They have 51 bears, but 240 acres for them to roam.

The bear I saw at the GarLyn Zoo in the U.P. did not seem nearly as agitated as Sophie. Maybe the cage was bigger or it was just farther from the road.

Captivity comes by degrees. There’s a massive difference between the expanses of Oswald’s Ranch and The Bear Store’s prison yard, which also holds three foxes, some goats, peacocks, rabbits, and at least two horses.

We all want other creatures to be happy, and we’re sad when they’re obviously not. If Sophie could speak, what would she say? Would her owners listen?

It’s up to you whether you want to stop and check in on her. But the least you can do is slow down a bit when you see the sign for The Bear Store to make life just a little easier for Sophie.