92 years in the Selway Wilderness with Jim Renshaw

It was the late spring of 1932 when Idaho outfitter Jim Renshaw first saw the upper Selway River from the back of a horse. The packstring was led by his father, Alvin, who had been working for the U.S. Forest Service since he was 13 and had bought the Pettibone Ranch, deep in the wilderness, where Bear Creek drops into the Selway River.

Jim Renshaw was two months old at that time. For the next 16 years, he, his mother and father, and two sisters lived at the Pettibone Ranch, guiding hunters in the fall and fishermen and wilderness wanderers in the summer. Jim would become one of the most famed and skilled horsemen and wilderness mule packers in the history of the Selway country, as well as an elk and mule deer guide with few equals. Today, at age 93, he remains actively engaged with his horses and mules and in his home wilderness country.

This interview was recorded live at Jim's home near Kooskia, Idaho, during a visit in June 2025. The stories kept coming, the maps stayed on the table, and the coffee remained on the stove for the better part of two days. Hal was able to capture much of it in this podcast episode—nine decades of weather and work, triumph and tragedy, wildlife and even wilder people, family, camps, crashed planes, and horse wrecks—a life writ large in some of the finest and most remote country left on Earth.