Manitoba Pageant, January 1960, Volume 5, Number 2
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The following story of early days in Winnipeg is also about a boy and a wild animal. It too has become almost a legend.
Editor's note (24 November 2024): The following article appears to have the same basis as the story “The Winnipeg Wolf” by Ernest Thompson Seton published in 1905 as part of his anthology Animal Heroes.
One summer day in 1880, Paul des Roches was hunting along the Red River north of Winnipeg when he saw a wolf come out of its den in the river bank. He fired and killed it. When he looked into the den, he found eight cubs, and since wolf skins were worth money he killed all of the cubs but one. There was a superstition in those days that it was bad luck to kill all the cubs in a pack so he brought the one cub to town alive and sold it to a hotel-keeper by the name of Hogan who kept the cub chained up in the yard of the hotel. From time to time Hogan would turn dogs on the cub for the amusement of his customers who enjoyed nothing better than to watch the fight that followed.
As it grew up the wolf cub had only one friend. That was the hotel-keeper's son Jimmy. Jimmy had become very fond of the wolf after it killed a dog that had once bitten him. He was the only person who was ever able to get near the wolf. Soon he found he was able to feed it and treat it as a pet. One day when Jimmy's father was angry with him, Jimmy hid in the wolf's kennel which he found was quite a safe hiding place because the wolf wouldn't let his father come near. The friendship between the boy and the wolf grew stronger.
Wolves were always a problem to the farmers who lived on the outskirts of town so one day when a visitor came to Winnipeg claiming that his two dogs could kill any wolf they were delighted. However, they wanted to test the man's dogs first, and decided to use the wolf chained up at Hogan's Hotel.
Without Jimmy knowing the wolf was taken to the open prairie and set loose. Then the dogs were sent out after it. But they were no match for the wolf — they couldn't catch it nor harm it. And just as the men were ready to shoot the wolf, Jimmy rode up on his pony, put his arms around his pet and led him back to the hotel yard.
Not long after that, Jimmy became very sick and was not expected to live. The wolf in the yard seemed to miss his friend and began to howl. When Jimmy asked to see the wolf, it was allowed into the hotel where it sat at Jimmy's bedside. After that the wolf was never kept chained. Three days before Christmas Jimmy died and on Christmas Eve the wolf followed the coffin as it was carried to the cemetery in St. Boniface.
After the funeral, the wolf returned to the hotel yard but wouldn't stay there. It preferred to live in the woods near St. Boniface. Many times at night it came into town and wandered about the streets. Soon it became known as the Winnipeg wolf, and was considered dangerous although people remarked that it never harmed a child. Then two years after Jimmy died, it was killed by hunters along the Assiniboine River. Ever since then the people of St. Boniface said that on Christmas Eve when the bells of the church were rung you could hear the cry of a wolf coming from the cemetery.
See also:
The Boy Who Lived in a Badger Hole by Hartwell Bowsfield
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 5, Number 2, January 1960
David Clee of Auckland, New Zealand reports as follows:
In the Fall of 1955 we lived in Westbank, BC. I was thirteen and we’d lived in Canada for a matter of weeks. My father took me to visit an old man.
The man said he grew up in Winnipeg and was friends with a boy whose father ran a hotel. His friend’s family had a wolf as a pet but everyone considered it the boy’s pet. It was quiet natured and followed the boy around like a normal dog.
A man came to town with several Great Danes. He intended to breed his dogs and sell them to local farmers and ranchers who had an ongoing problem with wolves attacking their stock. It became a matter of debate as to whether a Great Dane could out-fight a wolf and his friend’s wolf was mentioned. The owner of the Great Danes purchased the wolf from the hotel owner. The man telling me the story didn’t mention whether the boy was aware of this as the deal was made.
It was decided the fight would take place in the cattle yards at the railroad. As there were enclosed compartments the animals would have no choice but to fight to the death. It was decided there would be two adult Great Danes against the wolf.
His friend certainly knew of the event the day it happened. He objected but couldn’t change his father’s mind. The man who told me this story accompanied his friend to the yards and they watched the fight through spaces between the boards.
I don’t have any recollection of the actual fight. I don’t know whether I forgot what he said or whether he didn’t say much because he was speaking to a child.
It ended when both Great Danes were dead. The wolf was bleeding all over, howling loudly and trying to jump out of the pen though the wall was too high. Someone said they should get a rifle and shoot it and as the crowd waited his friend walked silently to the gate and opened it. The wolf saw him and immediately stopped howling and stood still. The boy said words that were commonplace and childlike though I’m not certain I remember them correctly. He said something like: “Come on boy, let’s go home.” He turned and walked away. The wolf walked quietly behind him.
My father asked what happened to the wolf. The old man said it healed up and lived round the hotel for a few years until it died.
Page revised: 9 December 2025
