The Craighead Family
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
The farmhouse on Old York Road in South Middleton Township looks like the kind of place that inspires quiet lives. For the Craighead family it sparked something larger. Two brothers, Frank and Eugene, became leading entomologists. Frank's sons, John and Frank Junior, grew up to be conservation legends.
The Craighead twins, John and Frank Junior, spent decades studying grizzly bears in Yellowstone, pioneering radio-collar wildlife tracking and generating the scientific data that helped inform grizzly bear conservation. They popularized falconry as a discipline and contributed research that shaped the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of nineteen sixty-eight.
Meanwhile their sister Jean Craighead George became one of the most beloved nature writers of the twentieth century. Her novel My Side of the Mountain and her Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves introduced generations of young readers to wild landscapes and the idea that nature is not a backdrop but a partner. One family, one farm, and a legacy that runs from Yellowstone to children's bookshelves nationwide.
