JACKSON (WNE) — From Town Square to the Virginian marquee to the roadside where she died, memorials have taken many forms as people mourn the loss of a beloved wildlife icon.

Jackson Elementary students added drawings, letters and photos of Grizzly 399 to Day of the Dead altars honoring departed loved ones.

A makeshift memorial sprouted up near the Snake River Canyon milepost where a driver swerved to miss her yearling cub but collided with 399 instead. The two bears and car had little room to maneuver in a part of the canyon where the highway is pinched by steep slopes on one side and the river on the other.

“399 I am so sorry you got hit by a car,” read a handwritten note left by a child beneath a wooden post now covered with flowers. The note had a drawing of a bear and a cross. Another note had a watercolor painting of a bear wearing a purple crown.

Local photographer Anna Knaeble’s daughters, Isla, 8, and Aria, 5, didn’t hesitate to give their teddy bear and toy grizzly to another impromptu memorial set up under one of the antler arches on Town Square. Knaeble left a 399 and cub photo she took earlier this year with “A mother like no other” scrawled on the frame.

“Rest in peace. Queen of the Tetons. A true legend,” read the marquee at the Virginian Lodge, marking the moment in block letters and bright lights along Jackson’s main thoroughfare.

Visiting from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, George and Terri Ballard watched a documentary about the world-famous bear on the plane ride to Bozeman, Montana, en route to Jackson.

“It was the photographer’s connection to her that drew us in,” George Ballard said as the couple wandered downtown Jackson on Monday looking for Tom Mangelsen’s gallery. The Jackson wildlife photographer has been chronicling Grizzly 399 since 2006 and is featured in the PBS documentary, “399: Queen of the Tetons.”

The Ballards compared the community’s collective enthusiasm for 399 to Crimson Tide football in Alabama.

Connie and Emma Green, of Salt Lake City, often visit Jackson and brought a small green heart to add to the Town Square memorial Monday.

They recalled spending an afternoon in Grand Teton National Park watching 399 teach one of her cubs how to handle a herd of elk.

Carolina Calderon lived near Pilgrim Creek in Teton Park where she often was one of the first people to see the celebrity bear emerge from hibernation in the spring. She recalled how special it was when 399 came out with “her quads” — four cubs in one season — in 2020.

“Losing 399 was like losing a family member,” she said while visiting the Town Square memorial.

Mourners also asked the governor to lower flags to half-staff in the bruin’s honor.

“While saddened by the death of Grizzly 399, the Governor follows specific, published protocol when flags should be lowered to half-staff,” read a reply from the governor’s constituent services. “The death of wildlife, no matter how famous, does not fall under recognized flag protocol. Half-staff flag honors are typically reserved to honor the passing of elected officials and first responders.”

Last Wednesday, Lisa Robertson and artist Helen Seay had just wrapped up a photo shoot of a mural on the wall of Hatch Taqueria and Tequilas aimed at raising awareness about wildlife as sentient beings. They were celebrating finishing the mural, which had been Seay’s vision to bring awareness to the stories of individual animals, including but not limited to Grizzly 399, Robertson recalled.

Robertson has lived in Jackson for 33 years.

Grizzly 399 “has been a major part of that,” since Robertson is among wildlife watchers who followed the life of the 28-year-old bear for nearly two decades.

As the sun shone on a towering Grizzly 399 and her four cubs, painted to look directly at onlookers, Robertson received a text that 399 had been killed.

“(Seay) made 399 bigger than life,” Robertson said, reflecting on the loss of a wildlife icon. “I wondered why. Now I know.”