Montana’s Pioneer Naturalist: Morton J. Elrod

History credits Morton J. Elrod not only as instrumental in establishing the Department of Biology at UM, the Flathead Lake Biological Station, Glacier National Park and the National Bison Range but also as the naturalist and scientist who profoundly influenced the scholarly study of nature and brought it into the academic mainstream. Elrod moved to Missoula and joined UM’s faculty in 1897, four years after the school’s founding. Late former UM president and historian George Dennison spent countless hours in UM’s Archives & Special Collections researching Elrod’s papers.