Elliott K. Erikson

Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1983, Elliott K. Erikson grew up an avid lover of wildlife and believer in the protection and conservation of their habitats. As a young boy he was heavily influenced by many nature shows, books, and magazines, most notably among them the 1966 movie “Born Free,” syndicated television episodes of the original “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” along with reading countless monthly subscriptions of the children’s magazine “Zoobooks.”

He has fond memories of visiting Omaha’s legendary Henry Doorly Zoo with his family and participating in many of the zoo’s summer classes, even getting the chance to meet one of his childhood heroes, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom host & naturalist Jim Fowler. Elliott used to beg his parents to stay up late to watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson any time Jim Fowler would be on so he could see which animals would be showcased for that evening.

Elliott’s steadfast belief in conservation even led him to start an ecology/environmental club when he was in third grade, where friends would meet at the local neighborhood park each weekend to clean up trash.

The 1990’s was a time where Elliott’s artistic eye for proper composition, color, and detail were nurtured and heavily influenced by his grandmother who was a painter. She would have Elliott pick out his favorite picture from his Zoobook magazines or from some other source, and she would begin to teach him the beginning stages of how to draw/paint, understanding your subject, choosing the proper colors, and being patient with the process. She would be the one to give him his first camera, a vintage Kodak Instamatic 110.

Also, during this time Elliott’s joy of being outdoors was solidified through his participation in Cub Scouts and later the Boy Scouts, eventually reaching the highest rank of Eagle Scout. The Erikson brothers come from a family with a deep history in scouting where their grandfather and father were both Scoutmasters, while their father, and uncle also achieved the rank of Eagle. During the 90’s through the mid 2000’s once a month, Elliott, his brother Jonathan, and their dad would usually be gone on some campout for a weekend while also taking high adventure trips during the summers including hiking the backcountry of New Mexico and canoeing Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness.

The Erikson family would also do annual road trips in the summer to western Nebraska, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Colorado, and many trips to Montana & Wyoming to visit Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. These open road journeys are where Elliott’s passion for the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain west was born. It was also on these trips where Elliott’s father instilled in him and his brother the true value of traveling by car, always saying to his boys; “let’s explore what’s out there and see what the day may bring.”

After bouncing around a few different majors, and even taking some time off from school, Elliott graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bellevue University in 2008.