Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-03-12
A BEARS CRAZY MOUNTAIN RIDE.
Bruin Starts Flat Car on a Gravity
Road and Has High Old Time.
Scranton (Pa. J Time.


A little narrow-gauge railroad runs
from the steam saw-mills on the upper
waters of Spring Brook into the heml0ck
siashlngs On higher ground. The rails
are of hard wood and the little road curves
this way and that for a distance of two
miles and half from the mills. Cars
loaded with saw logs are run down to the
mills by gravity and a single horse draws
two empty cars to the upper end of the
road at trip.
Last Wednesday morning James Con-
over drew two cars to the end CT the road,
and rode the horse back to the mills.
George Wickerhoffer, Simon Schultz,
William Forester, David Wilbur and
Jacob Hyde loaded car as soon as they
could and Hyde started for the mills with
it. The other men then strobe up the
hillside to get more logs ready, leaving
their dinner-cans sin the empty car. In
less than half an hour Wilbur noticed
bear walking from one end of the car to
the other. He called the attention of his
companions to it, and the men stopped
working, watched the bear and made nc
noise to scare it, The bear walked around
the car half dozen times and then put It's
DAVIS on the rear end and moved it's nose
from side to side.
Pretty soon the bear climbed upon the
hind END of the platform and the car be-
gan to roll slowly down the incline. The
movement of the car seemed to tickle the
bear, the woodsmen said, for, instead of
jumping off, it sat up on its launches,
Rugged itself. surveyed the surroundings
and appeared to be very much pleased
with its ride AS the car gained speed the
bear began to dance back and forth on its
hind feet, but it didn't attempt to slide off
It acted as it it was in ecstacies over the
way it was sailing along, and, as it
pranced from one end of the platform to
the other, it upset all the dinner cans and
sent them rolling from the sides of the Car.
At this the woodsmen all yelled like In
dians but the bear kept en- dancing as
though it hadn t heard anything but the
pleasant rumbIing of the wheels Then
the men started on dead run after the
runaway Car and its happy four-footed
passenger, yelling at the top OF their
lungs as they raced down the hillside IN a
short cut to the track When they struck
the track the car was rolling along at
higher rate Of speed than they could run.
they ran a few rods further and then
came to halt and yelled. At last ,he
bear heard them and stopped dancing
long enough to take good look at them.
Then IL startt d in again and the astOnlsh-
ed woodsmep resumed their chase until
the car and bear went out OF sight around
the curve. The bear was still dancing for
all he was worth when they got their last
glimpse OF 1t.
The rest of sthe story is told by Conover
and Hyde, who were on their way to the
head of the road with a couple of empty
~ IL. toa 1o,, n
Hyde was sitting On the hind car. About
mile from the mills Conover spied the
runaway car at the further end of quite
long stretch of straight track. 1t had
just dashed around a curve, and Conover
saw the bear hopping up and down, bal
ancing back and forth, crossing over. and
cutting up as though it was perfectly in
toxicated with delight.
Seeing that the bears swiftly running
vehicle was bound to crash into his train
in a few seconds, Conover hastily unhoist
ed the horse and drew it from the track,
at the same time yelling out to Hyde to
slap on the brake and JUMP. Hyde did so
and when he struck the ground The Dear S
car was within $50 feet Of the stationary
cars. 1t was going at terrific rate, for
it had run all Of mile and half. and
was gaining peed every second, apparent
ly to the bear S entire satisfaction, for it
continued to caper all over the platform.
When the car struck the standing ones
the bear went end over end the whole
length of the two cars, the splinters few,
and the bear landed in heap on the
track. 1t was slightly stunned by the fall,
and Hyde grasped an ak from a socket In
one of the cars and made for it. Before
| he got to 1t the cars began to run back and
| he sprang up to put ON another brake. One
| of the wheels crushed the bears paws
while Hyde was on the Car, and the bear
rose up and tipped the car over. Then
Conover grabbed the ak and split the
bears head open. The animal had evil
IDENTIFY been alternating for several weeks
and had come out IN search of food. 1t
weighed 500 pounds.