A timeline of wolf history in Michigan from 1838 to 2002.
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1838 – Michigan's legislature enacted a bounty on wolves.
1840 – Wolves disappeared from the southern Lower Peninsula.
1910 – Wolves disappeared from the northern Lower Peninsula.
1954-56 – Last verified production of pups in the Upper Peninsula.
1960 – Wolf bounty was repealed in Michigan.
1965 – Wolf was legally protected in Michigan.
1970's – A few dozen wolves remained scattered in the Upper Peninsula, but no verified breeding occurred; population approached extirpation.
1974 – Wolves were added to Federal Endangered Species List.
1974 – 4 wolves were translocated to Huron Mountain area in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. All 4 were killed within a year.
1975 – Wolf packs migrate along the Wisconsin border from Minnesota.
1980's – Biologists begin to verify wolf sightings in the Upper Peninsula.
1989 – Tracks of 2 wolves traveling together were verified in Dickinson Co. (Upper Peninsula county bordering Wisconsin)
1991-92 – This pair of wolves produced pups in 1991 and again in 1992. These were the first verified pups produced in the wild on the mainland of Michigan since the 1950's. This pack is known as the Nordic Pack and currently has 7 members.
1993 – Michigan DNR begins formulates a wolf recovery plan.
1996 – Wolves are believed to be present in all counties in the Upper Peninsula.
1997 – Michigan DNR adopts the "Michigan Gray Wolf Recovery & Management Plan"
2000 – US Fish and Wildlife Service begins a process of reclassifying the wolf from "federally-endangered" to "federally-threatened"
2002 – Michigan DNR considers reclassifying the wolf from "endangered" to "threatened" in Michigan.