Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-06-12
NO MORE HERDS OF BISON.


Hide-Hunters and Sportsmea Have
Wiped Them Out at Millions
of Them Killed In Seven Years-No,
Even Their Bones LeI on the
Plains.
Less than nine years ago this spot,
writes a Miles City. Montana, CORES
pondent to The New York Sun, was
covered with the tepees and lodges OF
Sitting Bulls warriors, then at war
with the United States. In those
days this region was the very heart of
the buffalo country. l remember ac-
companylng. the military expedition
of 1877 up the Yellowstone river to
the mouth of Tongue river, and en-
countering on the jurney more buf.
falo than it would be possible iutelli-
gently to describe on paper. Figures
carry but little idea of the vast mum
Der of animals, and were to say that
one herd we passed through, travelling
for three days without being out of
sight of bison during daylight, num-
bersd far up into the hundred thous~
ands. it would perhaps be falling short
actually composed that mighty mass
When We had passed through this
herd at the close of the third day,
about o'clock in the afternoon, the
scouts reported another trem endous
herd in the distance, coming directly
toward us at full speed. Quickly our
PARTY sought the protection of the
neighboring buttes. while few Of us
climbed a rocky eminence on the open
prairie and awaited with interest the
approach of the rushing mass. On
they came, helter>skelter, pell,mell.
and when the leaders reached the
mound or hlllock upon which we were
perched the great herd divided into
two parts and swept by us like the
wind, half on either side. We gazed
in wonder and awe at the sea of black,
shaggy life rolling like pillows at our
feet. Far as the eye could see was an
ocean of buffaloes, surging aud sway
ing like the waves, while the awful
sound and shaking of the
earth made our heads little dizzy.
Ali that afternoon the animals kept
up their flight, and it was not until
the sun sank behind the tall noun
tains that their numbers began to les
sen, and left us free to escape from
our temporary prison.
The herd which we travelled through
for three days was not in motion, but
was encountered In small, scattered
bands, and lined every foot of the
road we travelled. Nevertheless, it
was one single herd, as it was contin>
uous. though broken; but the last
herd, which was moving at high
speed, was packed so thick that | be-
lieve it contained fully as many ami.
mails as the first herd. They flew by
us for several hours or q dead run,
and the horizon of our sight was
bounded by nothing but the dark,
black hides OF the noble animal them
selves.
In 1877 the plains and prairies of
of Montana were the home of the buff
alo. AS long as the Indians remains
ed hostile and at war with the whites
Just so long was the salvation of the
buffalo assured. When the Indians
were captured and corralled upon res.
ervatiops it left the bison to the
mercy of white pot~hunters and dead
II repeating rifles, aud the two together
have done the business for them.
In 1915 the buffalo ranges extend
ed as far east as Illinois, Minnesota,
and Iowa; IN short, the NJ isssissippi
river marked the eastern boundary OF
their grazing grounds.
The buff 4loes were all right dntil
about seven years ago, when the In
dians were conquered, which opened
up the country aud let the hide hunt
ers in. 1t took about seven years, be-
ginning with 1870, to exterminate the
buffalo along the line of the Union
Pacific railroad, which in ths good
old times could have been blackening
the Platte river bottom for miles.
These poor silly beasts were SO easily
killed, and, from their abundance,
offered so rich a reward to the hide
hunter, that every idle fellow in that
pat of the country could make good
wages by butchering them. The
Union Pacific railroad split the herds
in half, and left a moiety to the north
and moiety to the south. Those In
Texas were soon used up by sports
men and professional hunters; but The
great northern herd f1ed to Wyoming
and Montana, where Sitting Bull and
his followers took charge of and
protected them until Uncle Sans sol
diers began chasing him around the
country as well as the bison. From
1875 TO 1880 fully 100000 OF these
brutes were killed by soldiers and
other white men. / heard Of one en-
pot hunter on the Yellow
stone who actually lad Gatling gun
to help the slaughter along. He en-
ployed no less than thirty skinners to
tear the hides from the poor animals
as soon as they dropped, and each
skinner received 81 for every hide he
brought In at night. The skinned
carcasses. as well as numberless un
skinned, were left to rot where they
fell. In short, the manipulation OF the
artillery kept ahead Of his employees
and provided them with more than
they corld attend 10.
In those days the hide-hunters be-
gan to pay attention to other brutes
besides bison. In 1880 the number of
buffalo bagged on the Yellowstone
aggregated about 100, 600 Ga the
Missouri river and It's tributaries the
same number were secured, maxim :
about 200, 600 in all. Sixty thousand
antelope and deer skins wer secured
the same year on the Yellowstone and
100, 600 on the Missouri. In 1881 the
Yellowstone country yielded abuut
140, coo buffalo robes and 5000 an
telop e and deer skins. The Missouri
river districts sent nearly 100, 200
buffalo robes to market during the
season of 1881, besides seventy -odd
thousand antelope and deer skins.
From January 10 December. 1882,
about SO, 600 buffdloes were killed near
Miles City and Glendlve in eastern
Montana. The whole territory yield
ed somewhere in the neighborhood of
1S5. 900 robes. The number of aBtel-
ope, deer, and elk slaug ntered that
year is not accurately known, but as
it was a great year for professional as
well as unprofessional sportsmen, tie
actual number OF game animals that
either bit the dust of the prairie or
Welded up their lives among the
mountains must be something awful
To calculate. In Idaho aud Montana
that season there were not less tLan
FIVE thousand hunters scattered along
the line of the Northern Pa iic.
In 1888 there yas q marked falling
off in the sxpply Of robes and skins