On the lawn at Baker Lake Resort, the evidence was lying in the grass before anyone had to explain the suspect: dozens of empty Rainier cans, punctured by teeth and claws, and a black bear passed out nearby.[1]
In August 2004, Washington wildlife officials found a black bear near Mount Baker that had raided campers' coolers, opened beer cans with its claws and teeth, drank about 36 cans of Rainier, and left the Busch beer almost entirely alone.
The resort, east of Mount Baker, was the kind of place where cabins, coolers, campers, and bear country could meet in one unlucky afternoon.[1] According to the Associated Press account, the bear apparently got into campers' coolers and used its claws and teeth to puncture the cans.[1] What made the mess memorable was not just that a bear had found beer. It was the brand loyalty scattered across the scene.
Lisa Broxson, the bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort, gave the line that kept the story alive. "He drank the Rainier and wouldn't drink the Busch beer," she said.[1]
Fish and Wildlife enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck later put a finer point on it. The bear did try one can of Busch, he said, but ignored the rest. Then it consumed about 36 cans of Rainier.[1] That single Busch can matters because it keeps the story from being only a cartoon about a hungry animal tearing into anything it could smell. The bear sampled, rejected, and kept going.
The Problem Came Back in the Morning
A wildlife agent tried to chase the bear away from the campground, but the animal did not leave in any hurry. It climbed a tree and slept there for another four hours before agents finally herded it away.[1]
The next morning, the bear returned.[1] For campers, that was where the funny part of the story began to thin out. A bear that has learned coolers can produce food, alcohol, or both is no longer just a strange visitor on the lawn. It has a reason to come back.
Wildlife officials set a large humane trap so the bear could be captured and relocated. The usual bait went in first: doughnuts and honey. Then they added the detail only this case could have supplied, two open cans of Rainier.[1] The trap worked.[1]
Heinck had dealt with bears and cans before, but this episode stood out. "This is a new one on me," he said. "I've known them to get into cans, but nothing like this. And it definitely had a preference."[1]
The story has resurfaced over the years in retellings, including a later Associated Press republication that had to clarify the incident was old and happened in 2004 near Mount Baker.[5] That correction is part of why the exact setting matters. This was not an evergreen campfire rumor about a bear with refined taste. It was a specific Washington incident, on a specific resort lawn, with wildlife officers, punctured cans, and a relocation trap baited according to the evidence.
By the time the bear was captured, the cooler had become something like a field report in aluminum: opened Rainier cans, one rejected Busch, and two more Rainiers waiting inside a humane trap.[1]
