The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-06
WHERE NO MAN CD IS.
A Romantic Region in the Heart ofthe
Rockies.
From ne Kalasas On Tinles.

miles northwest of this place is the most
wonderful cattle ranch in the world
Within a space of five miles in length and
half mile in width roam hsrl upon whose
aides the branding iron has never b sen
placed and around whose horns the lariat
has never frightened. But a score or even
tsver of them have ever seen a man or
horse or other animal tn IN of their kind,
and in truth their kin, except at a distancs
of nearly 800 feet high above them. The
Ute Indians call them ''p'chek-uph or red
buffalo, and yet il an Indian who has seen
them should he asked about it, he would
lsugh and shake his head, and all the infor-
NATION obtainable would be ''p'chek-up EN-
red; no ketch en-" I'll ore are more than
400 of this herd and yet 10 man owns them,
nor is there man, white or blac.s or cop
ter-coored, who has ever been able to pos
sess single hoof of these fat and tempting
beeyes. The cattle are in a prison. Out of
it there is one method of escape, but to
travel tina road means death to the adven-
furious brute.
There is no way to get in, except it be by
means Of a rope l.010 feet long AS the
indians say: "Ilelp see 'em, no ketch EN-
no come away" Ga the two long sides Of
the oblong space i'll which these cattle
roam rise preeipitous and even conceived
rocks 400, $40 and 600 feet, yawning black
aud insurmountable, and at either end
eeetbes and PUSHES the Yampa or Bear
river. For miles above it plunges and
siumbles on in its headlong haste to reach
the arms of its parent, the scarcely less
tumultuous but deeper Green river. Like
TIE wonderful fiat top mountains of Colo
raGo this home Of the imprisoned herd has
no likeness in tho world. = 1t recalls in its
inaccossibility the marvellous stories of the
valley of veldure into which Mayne Reids
adventures only found their way by the
assistance Of the balloon. The story of
the way in which these cattle came there
is as strange as their existence is curl
Gus.
Fifteen years ago, when the government
troops were pursuing the Mormon murder
ers o. the innocent victims of the Mountain
Meadow massacre the Danites, or avenging
ange OF the Mormons, fed for their safety
mo what was literally t3e wilderness. A
lew of those who had been The blindeSt fol-
lowers of Lee the Mormon fend incarnate,
aud whose hands were red With the blood of
wnncl aud children, found in their wan
behring's IL pretty valley ON stream which
flows from the Wassach range into the
GrteH ilNer.
They struck their st takes, built their camp
fires, and curing tie night their sagacious
leader had vision which told him there to
stoy.
They could hardly have chosen in all
OClnt q more lSGUl.C OF more SpOU,
I hey called it Ashloj-, and about them have
since gathered moro OF tseir sect, until
where tho refug.s posted their picket of
guards on the lonely nights of the first sum-
nor has grown thriving villag'.
1t !, $40 miles from the Union Pacific
railro ii south, and l45 miles north of the
Re G.. ande v e,terp. Until within five
years il has been isolated eatrelv, but now
it is but thirty miles from the Unita reser-
walton ard furnishing supplies for the
agency forms quite business for the COM
mInitv. 1t is proverb of the Danites that
robbery or theft from Gentle is no C. ime,
so il was thought to be only cunning trick
when John Wye life, one of the Mormon
Sc ttlers OF tie new town, and his three sons
made night sortie on Iienry's Fork in
w om!ng and carried away 300 head of
caftle raj ging tnere. This was in 1876.
The Ownei of the cattle discovered the loss of
their stock few days after they were gone,
u d starred in pursuit. The WyckhtfeS had
their friends along the trail, and were
warned by signals of the coming of the
pursuing party. Accordingly they drove
the cattle as fast as they could travel on east
ward across Il cen river and up along the
Bear with the intention of reaching the Elk
mountain country, in Northwestern Colo
RADIO. where they would DO practically safe
from detection, ana their stock also would Sc
cui e the most Succu ent Of feed. The thieves
AND their stolen herd had reached a mesa
OF inviting grass at shutdown one day and
hailed to camp for the night. A terrific
storm al ose. The lightning flashed incesS-
antly and The thunder pealed and cracked
with uureHitting fury. The four men
desperately held the terror stricken cattle by
riding about them constantly. But the
w ld tearfnlncss Of the furious storm ex-
c;t-d tho brutes beyond measure, They
s.rged aud beloved, every moment grow
ing less subj, ct to control. All at once, as
If one mad impulse, they stampeded. A
stampede OF cattle by day is sight cal
cdlated to strike terror to any heart, lest
there should be some human being in the
pathway. A stampede by night and during
furious storm, with the lightning reveal
ing the huge mass of frenzied brutes hurl-
ing itself OF like living catapult, frantic
with fear and as restless as the storm itself,
is one Of the grandest and most appalling of
spectacles All the mad might of animate
force is ar u ed, and seif-destroying, as well
as destroying all in their pathway, they rush
on until they fall dead or plu go into some
abysS.
John Wyckiiffe and his sons met their
fate amid the lightnings glare and the
Uhupde,'sroar.. They endeavored 10 head
off the stampeding herd. Instead, they and
their horses were swept On and driven in
the terror to escape the maddened animals
over the brink of the awful precipice which
frowDs up from tie waters of the Bear.
After them plunged the whole fright-crazed
he d, and down tothe bottom of the fearful
fall went horses, riders and horned crea-
lures Out of this plunge of life to what
was seemingly certain death for all few
Of the herd were not killed. Those which
had gone ahead formed cushion of death.
Manned, stunned, but still invested with a
spark of life, when thestorm was over the
living cattle crawled out from the mass De-
meath them and formed nucleus for the
herd which now roams at will within their
rocky confines. On the banks of the river,
ST etching back few hundred yards, grow
succulent grasses, and upon this the cattle
have thrived and propagated. To those
who look at them from the edge of the pre-
cipice tuey seem small and as wild as deer.
rhet have been shot at to see the effect, ana
have learned to regard the appearance of
man, whether white or Indian, as a men ace
from which they fee, clambering over rocks
and through underbush in the chase of point
ofconcealuent. The place where the thieves
ana their horses and the herd fell Is plainly
marked by pyramid of bones, which rises
to a hight of 20 feet. The CHASTITY remainder
AID relics Of the human ard animal victims
OF tbe terrible leap shine toryh white and
Rlstening when I e sun is high and reaches
That spot with its full glare The progeny
OF the surviving animals from tile fall are
lat and sleek though, and have sunny beds,
deer-lika Wharp thpv lie fOf. warmth in the