Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Jim Harrower

I was looking through my " Great Ram book collection" and see Jim throughout. Just wondered if he's still kicking. What a sheep hunter.

Ask Art (Sitka Deer), he use to work for the man.

He moved to the mountains of California, roughly twenty years ago. He was my dentist 50 plus years ago. I visited with him the week he left Alaska. He was a good Polar Bear Hunting Guide.

He must have been a heck of a sheep guy. I spent a week or so with Frank and sue Entsminger. There are some legends in the sheep hunting world.

Anyone hunted with Jim or Frank? I'd love to hear stories or see pics. Larry Rivers is another I've missed over the years. Anyone know how they're doing?

Frank Cook belonged to the Athletic Club that I managed. I spent some time with the man who was with Swank when he got that monster. He had some nice sheep mounts, I was looking at buying his house on the river in Cooper Landing, I think his name was Parker, but not super sure on the name, that would have been late 70's.

Frank Cook was business and hunting partners with Jay Muller, and Moose-meat Moore. They would only carry one rifle and one sleeping bag, for two men. They traveled light; one guy sleep, while the other guy hunted.

Moose "meat" Moore was a Alaskan Hunting Guide, he used horses. He homesteaded, the corner or Tudor Road and Lake Otis Blvd. He kept two black bears in fenced enclosures, F&G came out and asked him to insert a thermocouple in their rectum, while they were hibernating, Moose suggested they do it, and he would watch. That was not yet part of Anchorage, so my hunting partner and I would shoot there on Moose's rifle range, the Anchorage Police would out, and give us hell, but Moose was in The Alaska State House. So, it was never an issue, I think they just liked to come see the two bears.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36551287/mortimer-marshall-moore

I guided for Jim from the mid 80's until he left Alaska in 2000,, he was literly driven out of business by Tony Knowles and his stinking libtard ways. The moose hunting was the best ever with a few people keeping an eye on they're #s,, the population explosion of wolves reached the Mulchatna Caribou herd as well and we know how that ends.
Some tremendous rams were taken in the Lake Clark Preserve by not shooting many rams and seeking the biggest ones no matter where they lived.
I used to talk with Jim pretty regular, not so mush anymore,,he's in assisted living in Nebraska,, his good looking and much younger latin wife took care of his spare change and vamoosed!!!

It was sad being with Jim Harrower, the week he departed Alaska. He was totally 100% defeated, life had been pretty awful for him, he had sold the lodge, and was living in a warehouse in south Anchorage. He and Moose Moore both competed in powerlifting and bodybuilding contests in the 70's and Moose was in his sixties at that point.

I guided for Hoppy several years in the late '80s and filled in a few other times. He claimed (and I have no doubt about the truth of it) to have killed, guided to, or been there when over 25% of the Dall's sheep in the B&C book were killed. He killed some monsters and his ability to judge sheep from the air was amazing. Not so much on moose, but incredible on sheep. He just wanted to cowboy... He was solid gold to work for.

Jim had problems with wives... during my tenure Dee was not my best friend. She had a reputation for sneaking off with guide tip money...

After he left he came back up to speed a summer documenting plane crashes in the Pass and found several decades-old wrecks that had never been found. They had been laying in plain sight for a very long time and the families had not known.

Hearing the story of Tony O. and Hoppy in college in Mexico with both in the room is still about the funniest story I have ever heard.

Stopping predator control slammed that area unbelievably. Total predator pit so fast it was unreal. Sitting on the rim of the Bonanza Hills and watching thousands of caribou passing for weeks is still some of the most incredible stuff I have ever seen. I see Macen every once in a while, Ben G and John McD I talk to regularly, Sheets and Bob B not so much though Bob lives lives just around the corner...

I stopped retelling about the Bonanza Hills, to tell how that country was in the 70's and 80's is simply not graspable. I guided and flew for Curley Warren, for years. Actually, Rick Halford originally filed for that Federal T & M site, and flew me out there in the early 70's to build a rough runway with hand tools. We did four species hunts (Brown Bear, Black Bear, Caribou, Moose) for $6,500.00 with near 100% success.

Last I heard Curley is still going. Who has Hoppy's place now ?

I know a little about Hap, Howard and Toney but I was very much too young to have guided with them. They will be in my book someday. i have interviewed all of them extensively.
If anybody out there knows where his Pre64 Model 70 Westerner in 264 Win is please let me know. That gun was legendary.

Larry Rivers died in a motorcycle accident some time ago.

Sorry to hear that. It would’ve been cool to hunt with all of those guys.

Jim is still alive and doing well.

He has told me some great stories so I decided to research him a bit and found this forum.

I think Jim was one of the last of the Polar Bear Guides. That closed 71' or 72'

He has lived a hard life, but a life most men can only fantasies about.

Ask him if remembers competing in Alaska State Weightlifting Championships, and Mr. Alaska Championships.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the 'Fire Timmy.

I am reminded that there some really krusty Sourdoughs hanging out here with threads like this.

Did he tell you about Tony riding motorcycles with him to the Mexican bullfight? The pillow incident?

If it’s the story when they his buddy threw something and hit the bull fighter and had to stay in jail and he tossed his buddy some clothes up to him so he had something in jail which I believe was a pink dress then yes he told me that story.

I will ask him tomorrow about this.

Thank you.

I remember him killing giant rams.
I just couldn't afford to hunt sheep back then. ..😪

Larry is still doing fine in Talkeetna , still flies ane and has a daughter instructing and flying commercially

It was Larry’s Wife.

I would love to catch up to Hap’s rifle. There was a lot of mystique attached to it.

I remember it well where it rested in camp...

But it was "Hoppy's" rifle, not Hap's.

By the time I worked for Hoppy I had more than two dozen custom stocks behind me and picked up on, understood what I was looking at...

Most everybody called him Hoppy except Jack Wilson and Howard Knutson. They both called him Hap. I conversed with both of those guys many a time. The rifle in 264 Winchester Mag had a string that it had not missed on a game animal for 40 or 50 hunts. It supposedly was borrrowed by several of Harrowers hunters for hunts in Tajikstan and in the Wakan Corridor. A lot of guides dote on their rifles and others see them as simple tools. Jim Harrower felt that the rifle had some kind of spirit in it that was lucky.

It would have sucked to be the poor hunter that broke that string of success with a miss.

I hunted with Hoppy several times from the late 80's up to 2000. Killed a heck of ram (40"+) on my last with him in 2000. That year I was about to book a sheep hunt with another outfitter and called Hoppy. He had a recent cancellation on a sheep hunt and I went on that hunt. When I asked him what the hunt would cost, he just told me that he would treat me right. So I left home to go on that hunt not knowing what the price would be. He did treat me right! Hoppy and I got along great. He asked me to stay in camp to be a packer for him. I wish my job at that time would have allowed me to take a long vacation every Aug. and Sept. so that I could have done that. My last contact with him was when he was still in Calif.

waterrat, you mentioned that he is in assisted living in Nebraska. I live in Nebraska. Do you know where he is? Please PM me if you don't want to post the info here.

Timmyt509, you mention talking to him. Is he in Nebraska? Please let me know where. I would really enjoy visiting him. I haven't talked to him for nearly 20 years. Timmyt, also PM me if you don't want to post the info here. If Jim is in NE I will go see him. I would like to relive some of my hunts and flying adventures with him. He was one heck of a bush pilot. The flights in his yellow Otter from Anchorage to camp were fun, but the flights in his Super cub were the best. One heck of a guide and and a great man.

Tommy Sheets passed away about 2 years ago I worked with him at AWWU wonder what happened to his Ram

Rickshaw and JeffP,

I just joined the forum to check on Hoppy and was certainly alarmed to learn of my untimely demise on a motorcycle long ago! In fact that report is somewhat overstated. I affirm that I, Larry Rivers, currently reside in Talkeetna, Alaska and am still ridding that motorcycle and still flying my cub. About 35 years ago I learned at the SCI convention that I had passed in an aviation accident! Let me report that that was also in error. On another topic, I did just hear that Jim "Hoppy" Harrower has recently passed away, which saddens me. Hoppy, Howard and Tony all gone. Not too many of the old crowd still around.

-Larry Rivers

How is your son Shane doing. You might remember me as I was one of the Kenny Lake Wrestlers.

He is doing well. His boys just graduated from University and moved to Texas. Shane is still living in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has not gotten any shorter. ;-)

Thanks for posting Larry. Sorry to hear that Jim passed away. Glad to hear that you are doing well. I remember you from the George Klucky hunting videos.

I wrote or emailed you years ago after reading a story about you sharing the gospel with one of your hunters that changed his life. It was a great story. I don't remember if it was on your website or a magazine or where I read it.

Anyway, glad to hear from you and that you are doing well!

Happy to hear you got better….lol

Do you remember that guy George Clucky? He made the video of your sheep camp in the brooks range?
IIRC he gave the obit in an interview or he mentioned it on an later video.

Trying to PM you but your box is filled. Would like to ask you a question