The man who played the man I wanted to be when I grew up has died…Dan Haggarty (11/19/1941-01/15/2015

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GRIZZLY ADAMS!  In the late 1970’s he was everything I wished I could be! A man living in the wilderness, happy to be on his own. Friends with the animals, and just to keep from going insane, he had a gnarly old prospector who popped in on him from time to time.

There was nothing I didn’t like about him. His voice was soothing. His accent was clean, and fascinating to a boy who had lived around Mainers all his life. His mountain home looked cozy and inviting…He had many animal friends, that made him laugh…And then there was the bear! I mean COME ON! The man had a bear of his very own!

When I am having adventures in the woods, to this day, it is his voice that narrates the inner monologue inside my head. When I first started growing my beard, a long time friend asked me when I was going to shave. He said I was beginning to look like Grizzly Adams. It was a compliment I will never forget.

In 2013, the guys from “American Pickers” paid him a visit, and I was happy to see that the man I remembered from the Grizzly Adams movies, and TV programs was pretty much the same guy in real life.

Now TMZ is reporting that he is gone. Dan Haggerty has died at the age of 74 after a short battle with cancer, but every time I am in the woods, I know his voice will continue to guide me!

Doug Alley

About Doug Alley

I grew up in Bath, Maine in an upper lower class family with 3 step sisters, a step brother, and a little sister. After high school I spent 3 years serving in the USAF at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage AK. I've competed in, and won, demolition derbies. I've competed in, and never won, stock car races. I am the 47-year-old father of an 11-year-old boy who is pretty sure he is smarter than I ever was. We live on a little less than an acre of land in a 1973 mobile home in Stetson with my wife Jen, some cats, a few chickens, and rabbits, and a couple of goats. I hunt, fish, camp out, dabble in photography, gardening, and I cook in variable degrees of near success.