Part IV: The Milottes Settle in Bonney Lake, Capture Its Beauty

Today’s part IV of our blog series on the Milotte Wildlife Film Festival (MWLFF) is a collaborative effort between Winona Jacobsen, Author of “Bonney Lake’s Plateau”, and me.

GBLHS wishes to recognize and celebrate the historical life works of two very unique people that lived in Bonney Lake for over 30 years. Alfred and Elma Milotte were pioneers in wildlife cinema photography and with the showing of the three films scheduled: Seal Island, Bear Country, Beaver Valley, there will also be artifacts from the Milotte collection that were donated this year and have not as yet been seen in public.

The Milotte Wildlife Film Festival will take place between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 20th at the Justice Center, 9002 Main Street in Bonney Lake. Remember, admission is FREE!

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Milotte Roots Run Deep in Bonney Lake

Alfred and Elma Milotte had finally returned in 1957 after filming for the Walt Disney Studios in Australia for two years. They spent years of living in the wilderness areas of Alaska, the lower 48 states, the bush of Africa, and the outback of Australia, and were ready to trade camp living for a permanent home with walls and a roof over their heads. Following twenty years of the nomadic existence of the wildlife photographer, the Milotte’s decided to buy a home. They chose to return to the Pacific Northwest, bought a house in Auburn, but quickly realized that it wasn’t adequate for their dreams. Within the year they were searching for land on which to build their home and a studio to pursue their passion for art and film.

With every clear day that the mountain was out, they would search for the perfect parcel of land. In 1958 they found the ideal place. Situated at the top of Elhi Hill, they had a commanding view of Mt. Rainier, the Puyallup Valley, Tacoma, and Commencement Bay. Although it was right on the edge of Bonney Lake and just four miles from Sumner, it felt as though they were on a remote island in the sky.

With Elma’s meticulous note taking and record keeping and Alfred’s photography, they documented the new adventure of building their first home. At the highest point on their hill, they built a four thousand square foot home and studio. Alfred had the idea of using a portion of his forested hilltop and its amazing mountain view to build a small log cabin that he could use as a set for future films. It gave the illusion of being surrounded by wilderness, complete with quite an array of wild animals that would sometimes wander by.

Having retired from the motion picture business, the Milottes did not completely abandon film making. They formed a production company and did some limited commercial work, including a scene for Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds.  They spent time touring the country lecturing about their years of filming with the Disney Studios, authored children’s books on the hippopotamus, the strange platypus, and the grizzly bear, proposed and wrote scripts for television shows, and created a series of puppets and a puppet show. Alfred and Elma were busy and frequently had to turn down requests to appear before some group or judge some film or art show, yet they found time to give talks to children at the local schools. They were rewarded with a multitude of thank you letters from the classes of school children they visited over the course of many years.

Alfred continued to advocate the importance of depicting wildlife in a natural setting, and he became one of the founding board members of Northwest Trek, a Pierce county jewel. His artistic talents blossomed during this time in the arena of oil painting. He became a prolific painter and held gallery showings of not only his art, but also his collections of artifacts gathered during his days of filming in Alaska.

Both Milottes continued to be involved in their local community. They joined various groups and clubs, like the arts and crafts club, book club, and an  investment club. They were involved in the democratic process by serving as precinct committee persons and would follow local politics. When the Town of Bonney Lake approached Alfred and Elma about purchasing ten acres of their property near Grainger Springs, they negotiated a deal over time. One of the things the city offered to do, which was written into the contract, was to rename Grainger Springs. From that time in 1975, it was to be noted on all maps and documents as Milotte Springs. I think this one fell through the bureaucratic cracks.

Before Alfred and Elma Milotte settled in Bonney Lake, they had become known as world famous wildlife photographers and earned six Academy Awards for their documentary films. They died within five days of one another twenty-three years ago in 1989. Earlier this year the Greater Bonney Lake Historical Society was the proud recipient of sixty boxes of items from their estate.  In order to preserve this remarkable collection, the historical society is accepting donations for the work it must do to make everything archival safe and to allow public viewing if a permanent location can be found.

To date the 60 boxes of material from the estate of Alfred and Elma Milotte have consumed about 300+ hours of volunteer time, sorting, inventorying, and attempting to catalog the material, and we’ve barely made a dent. We estimate that we’ve got a few thousand more hours of work ahead of us, and our biggest concern is that we do not have a permanent home for this priceless donation. As Winona stated above, “in order to preserve this remarkable collection, the historical society is accepting donations for the work it must do to make everything archival safe and to allow public viewing if a permanent location can be found.”

Bottom line folks, Bonney Lake needs a museum.

More on the early years of the Milottes in the next edition of this blog.

For more information check us out at www.mwlff.org or check the Greater Bonney Lake Historical Society facebook page.