Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-04-13
WINTER WOLF-HUNTING.
MEN WHO HUNT WITH STRYCHNINE
AND PURELY FOR BUSINESS.
Professional " Wolfers That Scour the
Big Horn Misunderstanding Territory
The Cabin-Provisions- The Real
business of the Winter-Results.

Big Horn COuntfy-SeAectkuS AeFEAsory
The Cabin-Provisions = The Real
Business of the winter-Results.
SThere is a class of hunters out in the
Yellowstone basin" said j. 5. Williamson,
formerly in charge of Rufus Hatch's Yel-
lowstone Park hotel, whose only ammuni-
ton is strychnine, and who hunt from No
vember until April without taking day
off. They hunt for the money they can
make, and they make a lot of it. If they
made ten times as much nobody would be
grudge them cent of it, for the only game
they hunt is wolves, and the wolf hasn't
got many friends out there. Iguess there
must be at least 800 professional wolfers
that scour the Big Horn country in the
Yellowstone basin above the Bad Lands,
and probably as many more work the Milk
River region. They are known as wolfers,
and they are different from any other class
of hunters or trappers.
PLENTY OF sTRYCHSINE TAKEN ALONG.
IN the autumn of the year the wolfers
begin TO gather at the frontier posts where
they do their trading. They dispose Of all
the furs they may have on hand, and then
fit themselves out for the winters cam
paign against the wolves They take sup
plies enough to last them a long time, for
they seldom return from the wilderness
before spring. The principal item in their
outfit is strychnine. The wolfers always
travel in parties of half dozen or so, and
before they go into the wilderness they
divide up the entire territory into sections,
the boundaries of which they know as
well as if they were run ont and staked
by q surveyor. Each party is assigned
or draws a section, and on tina. alone he
hunts. One party of wolfers would no
more think of working on another party's
section than they would think Of put
ting strychnine in comrades mess.
They are enabled to keep within their
bounds by landmarks which years of sue
cessive hunting in the same territory
have made as familiar as their own names.
One party. for that matter, hasn't much
excuse for getting over on another's terri
tory, for voting section viii cover as
much ground as the biggest county in the
United States.
THE first thing party of wolfers do on
reaching their section is to put up their
cabin, or repair their old one. These
cabins are chinked with mud, and their
sitos are always in the center of good
~ 'ing-up' locality, so that there will
+ LANCER of scarcity of fuel, for one
winter as they have out there can
one good, able-bodied fireplace eat
up IN area of forest that would keep
whole eastern town in fire wood for a year.
Every cabin has stone fireplace that viii
take in log ten feet long, and so you can
imagine how much of a fire can be built
in one of them. Bonanza Mackay's palace
couldn't house a wolfer for the white.
more comfortably than one Of these mud.
daubed cabins in the very heart OF the
Bad Lands There is no exclusiyeness
about these wilderness shelters. ei' "a.
Every mans cabin is free to his . r. 3r
II often happens that wolfeI
tramp may find himself at nigh- -sarer
some other party's cabin than his own,
and he seeks its shelter just as freely and
with no more hesitation than ne would go
to his owa, But he never asks more than
shelter 1t is wolfer etiquette TO always
carry plenty of provisions and to draw on
your own store wherever You may be.
THE BUSINESS OF THE WINTER
"A good saddle horse and pack horse
or two goes with every wolfer's outfit. If
he does not care to use them for the time,
they are turned out on the range, where
they know how to provide for themselves,
no matter how deep the snow is A large
store of the general provisions of the
wolfers of an entire territory is always
cached, and the location is known to all.
Everything for the welfare and safety of
the wolfers having been done, the real
business of the winter begins Each party
is provided with hundreds Of long, slender
pine sticks, sharpened on the ends. An
III lA1 L. 4,
and the carcass cut up into small pieces.
These are poisoned with the strychnine,
and each wolfer fills a small sack with
them After each snowfall the wolfers
start out They make circuit of miles,
and at intervals sink one of the pine sticks |
in the snow, piece of the poisoned meat |
being placed on the upper end, 50 that it is |
exposed above the snow. Two |
days later the wolfers go over the route |
again with pack horses, skin the wolf car
cases that they pick up by the hundred, |
and fetch them in to the cabins and pre- |
pare them for market.
How many thousands of wolves are thus |
gathered in the Bad Lands by these per
sistent hunters in the course of a single !
season il is difficult to estimate, but the |
wolfers make from $50 to 800 month |
apiece in the sale of the pelts they secure. |
Yet so rapidly do the wolves increase, |
there is no perceptible dminution in their |
numbers 4 wolfer never hunts anything |
else unless he needs game to supply bis |
cabin. A dozen elk, deer, antelope, or any |
other game animal might pass within gun
shot of him every hour and he would pay |
no more attention to them than if they |
were so many crows. He is out after |
wolves for nusipeSs That il all he thinks /