The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-09-08
INACCESSIBLE ANIMALS.
Herds Beyond the Reach or Venture
some Hunters.
Wild Progeny or the Plunder or Nor
mon Cowboy Assassins.

mon Cowboy Assassins.
MHHKER, Col.-Seventy. five miles north
west of this place is the most wonderful
cattle ranch in the world. Within II
space of five miles in length and a half
mile in width roam a herd upon whose |
sides the branding iron has never been
placed and around whose horns the iariet
has never been frightened. But score
or even fewer of them have ever seen a
man or horse or other animal of their
kind, and in truth, their kin, except at C.
distance of nearly GOO feet high above
them. The Ute Indians call them ''p' 'chek
up or red buffalo. And yet il an Indian
who has seen them should be asked about
it, he would laugh and shake his head, and
all tho information obtainabie woniG 5e:
"P'chek-up; 'em red; no ketch EN-"
There are more than GOO of this herd, and
yet no man owns them; nor Is there
man, white or black or copper -coiored,
who has ever been able to possess a single
noof of these fat and tempting beevcs.
The cattle are in a prison. Out of it
there ia one method of escape, but TO
travel that road means death to the ad
ysnturesome one. There is no way TO get
in except it be by the use of rope
thousand feet in length. AS the Indians
say:
"Heap see IN; no ketehum; no come
away"
On the two long sides of the Cblong
space in which these cattle roam rise
precipitous and even conceived rocks for
500 or 600 feet, yawning, black and in
surmountable. At either end seethes and
rushes the Yampa or Bear river. For
miles above and for miles below it plum
ges and stumbles on in its headlong haste
to reach the arms of its parent, the
scarcely less tumultuous but deeper Green
river Like the wonderful flat.top noun
tains of Colorado, this
HOME OF THE IMPRISONED HERD
has no likeness in the world. 1t recalls
in its accessibility the marvellous stories
OF the valley of verdure into which
Mayne Reid's adventurous only found
their way by the assistance OF the bal
Ion.
The story of the way in which these
cattle came there is as strange ss their
existence is curious. Fifteen years ago
when the government troops were pur-
suing the Mormon Inurderers of the in.
nocent victims of the Mountain Meadow
massacre, the Danites, or avenging angels
of the Mormons fled for their lives into
what was then literally the wilderness. A
few OF those who had been the blindes,
followers OF Lee, the Mormon fond in
carnate, whose hands we're red with the
blood of women and children, found III
their wanderings pretty valley ON a
stream which flows from the Wasatcl
range into thu Green river. They stuci
their stakes, built their camp fires, ant
, during the night their sagacious leader
, had vision which told him there to stay
, They could hardly have chosen in al Usai
: more fertile or more isolated spot
i They called it Ashley, and about then
, have since gathered more of their sect
, until where the refugees posted thei
r picket of guards on the lonely nights o.
, the frs. summer mas grown u thriving
, village. It is 40 miles from the Unioi
Pacific railroad south and 1A5 miles nortl
| of the Rio Grande Western. Until within
Q five years il has been isolate entirely, b j
: now It is but 30 miles from the Utal
= reservation, and furnishing supplies fo
: the agency forms qaite q business for tn
f community.
t 1t Is a tenet of the Danites, that robb
= ing or theft from gentle is no crime
@ SO il was thought to be only cunning
I trick, when John Wyckliffes, one of IN
t Mormon settlers of the new town. and hi
d three sons made pight sortje on Henry
:, Ford, in Wyoming, and carried away So
Q head of cattle ranging the-e. This wa
y in 1877. The owners of the cattle di:
;. covered the loss of their stock a few day
IT ayter they were gone, and started in pu'
y suit. The Wsckliffs had their friepd
: stationed along the trail, and were war;
: ed by signals of the coming of the pul
d suers. Accordingly they drove the cattl
70 as fast rs they could, eastward, acros
d Green river and up the Bear with the in
n tention of reaching the Elk noun, al
d country in northwestern Colorado, wh-r
4 they world be
10 PKRRRcTLY SAFE FROM DETECTION
g and their stock could secure the mo-
- succulent of food.
% Ths thieves and the stolen herd ha
y reached q mesa of inviting grass AZ SUI
down one day, and halted to camp 4,
ut tho night. terrific storm arose. TT
10 lightning flashed necessarily and tt
g thunder pealed and crashed with unil
e, termitting fury. The four men despe
lg ately held the terror striken cattle /
* riding about them constantly. But ii
50 cited the bruses beyond measure. The
Of surged and ginned, every moment gro'
ID ing less subject to control. All at ono
Of as if by some mad impulse, they stan
le peded.
ot A stampede of cattle by day is calcula
s. ed to strike terror to any heart, lea
i. there should be some human being in u
pathway. A stampede by night, and du
IN ing furious thunder storm, with Il
l. lightning revealing the huge mass
Is frenzied brutes, hurling itself on like
N living catapauit, frantic with fear, and
IA resistless as the storm itself, is one of ii
N most appalling spectacles, All the m,
,e might of frepzied animate force is arou
~ ed, and self destroying as well as destro
I. ing all in their way, they rush on UNI
Id they fall dead-like or plunge into son
IN abyss.
q. John Wyckcliffe and his sons met the
= fate amid the ightning's glare ard Il
r thunier's roar. They endeavored to he
or off the stampeding herd. Instead IN
ia and thtir horses were swept on, al
"a driven, in the terror TO escape the char