“Smoke Elser is a legend not only in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana but throughout the Rocky Mountain West. . . . Hush of the Land will be read for years by those who want a saddle-high view of a unique and adventurous life well lived.”

—C. J. Box, New York Times best-selling author of Storm Watch

Based on hundreds of hours of oral history and archival research, HUSH OF THE LAND tells the captivating story of Smoke Elser’s early days as a packer in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Bitterroot Mountains. Share the joys and thrills of summer rides, harrowing grizzly bear encounters, fishing in clear mountain streams, and many nights around a campfire within some of the West’s last wild lands. In this lively narrative, Elser recounts how his testimony for the Wilderness Act, and the fight to preserve and expand Montana’s wilderness lands, influenced his career as an outfitter and educator and gave him a voice at the center of Montana’s conservation movement.

ARNOLD "SMOKE" ELSER is a legendary packer, author, teacher and U.S. conservationist who traveled each trail of the 1.5 million acres Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Western Montana on horseback for sixty years. As a professional wilderness outfitter, he provided a once-in-a lifetime experience deep in the mountains for thousands of people of whom many sat on a horse for the first time. The U.S. Navy Seals, U.S. Army, U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service as well thousands of civilians and college students took his famous “Horse and Mule Packing Class”. He is co-author of the leading textbook on horse and mule packing “Pack’in on horses and mules”. His skills, life and persistent work to preserve our public lands and wilderness for future generations was featured in the PBS documentary “3 miles an hour”, National Geographic, the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post among others. Smoke is the recipient of many awards among them the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award of the University of Montana, Distinguished Citizen Award of Boy Scouts of America, the Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award by The Conservation Roundtable and the Backcountry Horseman of America. He is honored to be the only inductee of both the Montana Outdoor and Cowboy Hall of Fame. He lives with his wife Thelma, dog Spunky, horses and mules in Missoula, MT.