April 24 – On this day in Montana history in 1895 the Yellowstone Journal in Miles City carried a story on a controversy involving wolves. It seems that many people were upset because a new law required “the full pelt from nose to tail” when collecting the state bounty on wolves. For one thing they said wolves sometimes traveled a ways after taking poison before dying, and often the only part that could be recovered later was the scalp. They reasoned that the scalp should be proof enough. But Montana changed the old scalp rule because some enterprising people were getting scalps from furriers in Chicago and elsewhere -- who used the rest of the wolf pelt for clothing -- and turning them in for bounty. “If all men were honest it would be the fair thing to pay on scalps, but they are not,” the paper said.