'Journey' wins popular vote for renaming OR-7, Oregon's elusive gray wolf

First wolf west of the Oregon Cascades in decades gets a new name.

The winner is in: Journey is the No. 1 choice to rename OR-7, Oregon's traveling gray wolf who has walked more than 700 miles  from northeastern Oregon into California.

Oregon Wild, a Portland-based conservation group, held a contest to come up with a new name for the 2  1/2-year-old gray wolf whose trek has attracted worldwide attention.

 "Journey" won more than 40 percent of nearly 700 online votes, the group reported today.

The name came from a 7-year-old girl in Mountain Home, Idaho, and an 11-year-old in Dickinson, N.D.

Of more than 250 suggestions, the finalists were: Journey, Arthur, Lupin, Max and Takota.

Oregon Wild also announced the winner of the art portion of the contest out of nearly 100 youth entries: an 8-year-old Portland girl who showed wolves howling into a moonlight night.