Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-04-08
WINTER W%OLF-HUNTING.
MEN WHO HUNT WITH sTRYcHNlNE
AND PURELY FOR BUSINESS.
Professional "wolfers" That scour the
Big Horn Country-sslecting Territory
The Cabin-Provisions The Real
Buslness Of tho winter-Results.

"There is a class Of hunters out in the
Yellowstone basin, " said j. S. Williamson,
formerly in charge of Rufus Hatch's Vel
bwstone Park hotel, whose only ammuni-
ton is s.rychnine, and who hunt from No
vember until April without taking a 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 a cent of it, for the only game
they hunt is wolves, and the wolf hasn't
got many friends out there. / guess 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 sTRYCHNINE TAKEN ALONG.
aIn 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 q 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 a dozen or so, and
before they go into the wilderness they
divide up the entire territory into sections,
the boundaries of which they know "a
well as if they were u out and staked
by e surveyor. Each party is assigned
or draws u section, and on that 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 q comrades mess,
They are enabled to keep within their
bounds by landmarks which years of sue
| cessive hunting in the anne 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 a woling section will cover as
much ground as the biggest county in the
United States.
"The first thing a party of ,wolfers do on
reaching their section Is to put up theil
cabin, or repair their old one. These
cabins are chinked with mud, and theil
sites are always in the enter of a good
| swooding-up' locality, so that there will
be no danger of a scarcity of fuel, for one
| such winter as they have out there car
make one good, able-bodied fireplace cal
up an area of forest that would keep 9
whole eastern town in fire wood for a year.
Every cabin has a stone fireplace that will
take in a 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 winter
more comfortably than one of these mud.
daubed cabins in the very heart of the
Bad Lands. There is no exclusiveness
about these wilderness shelters, either
| Every mans cabin is free to his neighbor
1t often happens that q wolfer in q days
| tramp may find himself at night nearer
some other party's cabin thar his own
and he seeks its shelter just as freely and
with, no more hesitation than he would &c
to his own, 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 ~BusINEsssoF H WINTER.
"a good saddle horse and a pack horse
or two goes with every wolfer's outfit. Il
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. Ar
elk, or as many as are needed, is killed
and the carcass cut up into small pieces
These are poisoned with the strychnine,
and each wolfer fills a small, sack with
them. After sach snowfall the wolfers
start out. They make a circuit Of miles,
! and at intervals sink one of the pine sticks
in the snow, a piece of the poisoned meat
being placed on the upper end, SO that it is
temptingly 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.
aHow many thousands of wolves are thus
gathered in the Bad Lands by these per
sistent hunters In the course of q single
season it is difficult to estimate, but the
wolfers make from $3.50 to $500 q month
apiece in the sale of the pelts they secure.
Yet, so rapidly do the wolves increase,
there is no perceptible diminution in their
numbers. A wolfer never hunts anything
else unless he needs game to supply his
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 business. That is all he thinks
of, and all he wants. New York Sun.
Description of an American Dandy.
Ellis dark-colored, cutaway frock coat
writes a novelist describing an American