California's last solitary wolf was reportedly killed in 1924 in Lassen County. Once a widely distributed species throughout the Pacific Northwest, the settlement of European Americans brought the eradication of the Gray wolf from California.

Bounties on wolves had been established in Europe dating back to ancient Greece, so consequently European settlers came to America with this plan in mind. An early Plymouth Colony established a fine from "whoever shall shoot off a gun on an unnecessary occasion, or at any game except at an Indian or a wolf" (Hampton 63). Settlers believed that wolves were the embodiment of evil - endangering human life and well being, killing livestock, and depleting game animals. The government placed bounties on the wolf, encouraging hunting, trapping, and poisoning. The few California wolves that survived were trailed by bounty hunters for months until they were captured and killed.

Strychnine was the poison of choice...