The Portland daily press., 1892-03-10
A Wonderful Den Of Monsters Found
in Kansas.
rrue Snake Story Told by Veteran Oh
the Ninoteenth Kansas Cavalry-A Re-
markabIe Hybrid Discovered in
an Indian Village.
Especial Kansas Letter.


other seaside resorts. Baron Munchau-
sen, Sinbad and even Mulhattan have
tried their hand at writing snake
stories. but it isn't that sort OF tale
that the writer proposes to rehearse'
and in order to escape the imputations
that ordinarily attach to the garrulous
fisherman and serpent romancer, the
reader is assured in advance that every
representation herein made is absolute
y true.
During the Indian war Of 1s6s-69,
against the Cheyennes, Arapahoe ana
Comanche Indians, upon our western
border. Gems. Sheridan and Custer de-
cided upon winter campaign AGAINST
the hostiles with the Seventh United
States cavalry, the Nineteenth caval-'
nv and detachment of in
fantry, the object being to strike the
Indians in their winter villages when
their supplies were short and their
ponies unable to subsist on natural
forage. After chasing the rowing bands
out of western Kansas and into the In
dian territory, the combined villages
of all these tribes were attacked and
broken up on the Cemerone river, and
the scattered warriors were pressed
still further south.
Scouts finally again located their
principal villages among the Wichita
mountains, range or prolongation of
the Rockies extending in the extreme
southwest corner of the Indian terri
tory, and here the troops followed
them. Judicious maneuvering upon the
part of Gen. Sheridan soon resulted in
surrounding and capturing these viii
layers, the squaws and surplus ponies
of the aforesaid tribes in the valley of
Medicine Bluff creek, and here the little
army encamped for several weeks dur
ing the months of January and Febru-
airy, 1869.
The camp of the Nineteenth Kansas
was located about three-quarters OF
mile from the romantic Medicine Bluff,
a bald and mural precipice facing the
camp, no less than 800 feet high, and
having the appearance of a small noun
tain, one-half of which had been
washed away by the encroachments OF
the rapid stream that flowed along the
base. For quarter of a mile out
toward the level ground on which the
camp was located, there were great,
irregular piles of powders, which had
been washed down by successive floods
of the mountain torrents, and increas-
ing in height and size as the bluff was
approached. Among these rocks there
were numerous caverns, subterranean
tunnels and spacious interstices in
habited by cinnamon bears, coons,
hedgehogs, and other hybernating an
imals, as well as monster reptiles. The
Indians, scouts and old hunters and
trappers had frequently described the
huge mountain rattlesnakes, but they
made them so large that we thought
them romancing for the benefit Of ''ten-
derfeet."
One afternoon in February, after two
or three days of quite warm weather,
the attention of the command was at
tracted by a loud and continuous
buzzing and whirring, the noise re-
seuabling that made by large cotton
gin some distance away. 1t was such
a remarkable and unusual sound that
great curiosity was excited and dozens
of the men started out to investigate.
They were not long in discovering a
large cavern among the rocks, the bot
| tom and shelving sides of which were
covered with snakes. There were bull
snakes, moccasins, black snakes, an
endless variety of prairie reptiles but
predominant in numbers were the
mountain rattlers. They were ire
mendous in size and horrible in appear
ance, some of them measuring ten and
twelve feet in length and fourteen and
fifteen inches in circumference around
| the larger part. 1t was these monsters
and their numerous families, running
down in size to one or two feet in
length, that made the noise.
The preceding warm days had revived
them from their torpor sufficiently to
permit them to move their tails, and
thus they were shaking their rattles in
| horrid concert, moving them around in
circles and filling the air with the dread
buzz. They were not sufficiently thawed
| out to crawl or move their bodies, and
the soldiers killed several hundred of
them with for1ed sticks and their re-
volvers. No less than one hundred of
the largest ones were dragged to camp
and skinned, their hides being pre-
served as trophies of the occasion, or
taken home to Kansas in proof of the
remarkable snake story told by the men
of the Nineteenth. The writer secured
one skin measuring eleven feet eight
inches in length, and twelve inches in
girth, this snake having twenty-five
rattles, indicating that it was twenty
| four years old. This skin was subs5-
quently presented to Col. G. B. Mason,
| of Ottawa, Kan, who ser5 it to a muse
UNI in Columbus, o., and there are sew
eral still larger skins in the collection
of curiosities belonging to the Kansas
State Historical society at Topeka.
Such monsters could swallow good
sized child and have been known to
kill and swallow a young antelope, but
it is rarely that one ever heard of their
biting or attacking man. With the
influx of white soldiers and cattlemen
into that country, the mountain RATHER;
is fast disappearing, and probably no
human eyes will ever again rest on such