My buddy Joe Want

[mark knapp]

When I first moved to Alaska 40 plus years ago to become a big game guide I met and ultimately went to work for my friend Joe Want. Joe ran a horse and mule, multi-species, operation in the Brooks Range for sheep moose and caribou. Also a brown bear outfit on Kodiak. All of the guiding was done by him and on foot.

That began one of the most rewarding and informational relationships of my life. The first year I worked for him, five of the eight brown bears he took were in the B&C all time record book.

One of the things he taught was, the importance of working with both federal and state departments of game on game management programs.

Though Joe dropped out of high school to work in guide camps at age 15 (Pinnell and Talifson as well as a few other notables) he is one of the most intelligent people I know. He taught himself to speak a couple of languages for fun and maybe most notable was having taught himself to run statistics programs at such high levels that he has been instrumental in a lot of what we know about game management today.

This summer he retired from his job at the ADF&G and they had this to say about it.

ADF&G Wildlife Conservation - Interior and Eastern Arctic Alaska

Joe Want has retired from working with ADF&G today. Read the recognition and honors that he received from the Alaska State Legistlature.

www.facebook.com

I value my friendship with Joe as much as anything else.

Some people think guides are greedy, and take what they can from Alaska's resources with no thought or care for anything else. Think again I say.

MPO.

 

[4merguide]

For years all F&G had for identifying a full curl ram was that ridiculous drawing in the reg book. Now there is a very nice detailed page available showing a number of different ways to determine full curl status. Do you know if Joe was a part of that? I would surely think so. It really was such a great addition for sheep hunters.

 

[mark knapp]

For years all F&G had for identifying a full curl ram was that ridiculous drawing in the reg book. Now there is a very nice detailed page available showing a number of different ways to determine full curl status. Do you know if Joe was a part of that? I would surely think so. It really was such a great addition for sheep hunters.

Yep, exactly. As well as other projects. For many years, know one knew how big brown bears got. He weighed almost every bear we got. He was the "bear guard" on many brown bear studies and kept men safe while they put radio collars on bears and tattooed lips. He helped on son many studies, too numerous to count.

He routinely shares his knowledge, we sit around his kitchen table and talk about hunting issues for hours.

It's a pleasure to be his friend.

Thanks.

 

[str8shot805]

I knew Joe whan he was going to UofA in Fairbanks. That was in the late 60's. I was best man at his wedding. I moved to Valdez not long after that and only saw him on the rare occasion I made it back to Fairbanks. I remember one night he came knocking on my door and wanted me to see what he had in the back of his panel truck. Told me to look behing the drivers seat..wow I came face to face with a wolf he trapped and it was still alive...He was one of a kind then and I'me sure he will never change.

 

[gunner]

I recall decades ago LaCrosse ran adds promoting their hip boots featuring Butch King and Mel Gillis. No disrespect meant to those 2, but I always felt they should have used " hip boot Joe" in their adds.

 

[pops2026]

I valued everything he posted. Wisdom can't be bought . The writings of the old timers made me who I am today at the age of 64.