The year was 1881, and Alexander Cromwell found himself in Bradford face to face with a ferocious beast. When he pulled the trigger on his rifle it marked the end of an era. No longer would the beast be prowling the countryside feeding on farmers’ sheep. No longer would the state of Vermont have to pay any bounties. No longer were there catamounts in the Green Mountain State.

Over 150 years ago, eastern mountain lions, or “catamounts” as they are commonly called in Vermont, were found across the state. While never a “common” animal, there were enough of them to justify hunting and trapping them. Many considered them a threat to human life and livestock, which resulted in a bounty’s being placed on each one. After Cromwell shot the last confirmed specimen in Vermont, the cats disappeared out of the White Mountains in New Hampshire in 1885. In Maine, the population survived for a while longer, and it is believed that the catamount trapped there in 1938 was the last one alive in New England.

Today, the catamount has achieved a “mystical” status in Vermont culture. It is the nickname for UVM sports teams, a beer company, healthcare plan, golf course, fence company—and even a dating service. With this much attention, it is easy to understand how people continually think they see catamounts roaming the hills of the state. Sadly, all of sightings—over 50 a year—which are reported to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, lack one common feature: evidence.

The closest thing to hard evidence the state had at one time, was a sighting, in Craftsbury in 1993-94. Two people saw what they believed was a lion with cubs, and tracked it until they found scat, which was collected and turned over to the state. The sample was sent to an Oregon lab where a microscopic evaluation was conducted. The Oregon lab believed the scat had a hair that was thought to be from a catamount. While this sounds like hard evidence the science of 1994 is far different from the science of today, and more tests were sought.

In 1997-98 when DNA testing had made spectacular advances, the scat sample was sent to a lab in Berkeley California, for further testing. Berkeley, believed the hair found in the Craftsbury sighting was canine and not feline. Berkeley sent back results of the test but never returned the sample of scat. Vermont officials wanted to have a second opinion test done on the sample but Berkeley said it had destroyed it, thus adding to the catamount mystery.

So which test should we believe? Since the accuracy of DNA testing far outweighs the accuracy of microscopic tests, that is an easy answer.

Other questions remain. If there are catamounts in Vermont, and if they have been here since 1942 (the date of the first sighting in “recent” times), why is there nothing more substantial for evidence? In over 60 years why hasn’t a specimen been found in a trap, killed by a car, or accidentally shot by a hunter? Comparisons with western states suggest that if there were a population, we would have hard evidence.

In the mid 1990s, South Dakota had 200 mountain lions, which were state monitored. Even with that low number of cats there was annual evidence to give credence to their existence.

Over a three-year period, nine cats had perished to motor vehicles; four died of electrocution; one was shot justifiably in self-defense; five others were hunted; and 16 were removed by state officials. Others were shot and killed illegally. By 2006, South Dakota had recovered 121 carcasses over a 36-month period of which 27 had died over the past year. These numbers clearly show how difficult it is for catamounts to adapt to civilization, and that if they were here, they would leave some visible remains as evidence of their existence.

Yes, it would be nice to believe catamounts still roamed the Green Mountains, but until hard evidence is found, the closest thing to a catamount in Vermont is at Centennial Field in the spring—actually, in hindsight, even there they have become extinct.

Jamie Fallon lives in Rutland.