The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-29
COLORADO'S WALLED HERD.
The Strange Story Of an Inaccessible
Band Of Cattle.

Denver, Oct. lin the widest poruOn
Of the west, seventy-five miles northwest
of Meeker, where, in 1879, the Utes massa-
cred the Meelzer family and every one
at the agency, is the most wonderful cat
tie ranch in the world. Within a space
five miles in length and three miles in
width roams herd upon whose sides
the branding iron has never been placed,
and around whose horns the lariat has
never frightened. But score. or even
fewer of them, have ever seen man or
horse or other animal of their kind, and |
in fact, their kim except at distance of
nearly 600 feet above them. The Ute In
dams call them "pcheck-up," or red buff
falo. And yet, If an Indian who has seen
them should be asked about it. he would
laugh and shake his head, and all the |
information obtainable would be "P'check |
up; 'em red; no ketch 'em." There are |
more than thousand of this herd, and
yet no man owns them, nor is there a
man, white or black or copper colored, |
who has ever been able to posses a single !
hoof of these fat and tempting beeves.
The cattle are in a prison. Out of it
there is one method of escape, but to
travel that road means death to the ad-
Venturous one There is no way to get in
except it be by the use of rope ], 900 feet
in length. AS the Indians say: Heap
see EN-; no ketch 'em; no come away"
on the two long sides of the oblong space
in which these cattle roam, rise precipi-
tous and even concave rocks for 500 or
COO feet-yawning, black, and insurmount-
able. At either end. 'seethes and rushes
the Yampa or Bear river. For miles above
and miles below it plunges and stumbIes
IN, n ct IN y, ~
of its parent, the scarcely less tumutuous
but deeper Green river. Lake the wonder
full fiat top mountain of Colorado, this
home of the imprisoned herd has no like
ness in the world. It recalls in it's mac
feasibility the marvellous stories of the
valley of Yerdure, into which Nayne
Reid's Adventures only found their way
by the assistance of the balloon.
The story of the way in which these cat
tie came there is as strange as their ex-
istence is curious. Over twenty years ago,
when the government troops We're pur-
suing tho Norman murderers of the inno-
cent victims OF the mountain meadow mas
sacre, the Danites or Avenging Angels
of the Mormans, fed for their lives into
what was then literally the wilderness.
A few of those who had been the bltndest
followers of Lee the Norman fiend in
carnate, whose hands were red with the
blood of women and children, found in
their wanderings a pretty valley or
stream which flows from the Wasateh
range into the Green river. They stuck
their stakes, built their camp-fires, and
during the night their sagaciOus leader
had a vision, which told him there to stay.
They could hardly have chosen in all Utah
a more fertile or more isolated spot. They
called it Ashley, and about them have
since gathered more of their sect, until
where the refugees posted their picl1ets
on the lonely nights of the first summer
te
miles from the Union Pacific railroad
south, and 145 miles north Of the Rio
Grande Western. Until within a few years
past it has been isolated entirely, but now
IL is but thirty miles from the Ute reserya-
ton, and furnishing supplies for the
agency forms quite a business fer the
community.
1t is a tenet of the Danites that robbing
or theft from a gentle is no crime. So it
was thought TO be only a cunning trick
when John WyclIliffe one of the Norman
settlers of the new town, and his three
sons, made a night sortie on Henry's
Ford in Wyoming and carried away 500
head of cattle ranging there. This was in
1874. The owners of the cattle discovered
their loss few days after they We're gone
and started in pursuit.
The thieves and the stolen herd had
reached a mess of inviting grass at sun
down one day and halted to camp for the
night. terrific storm arose. The light
ming flashed necessarily and the thunder
pealed and cracked with intermitting
fury. The four men desperately held the
terror-stricken cattle by riding around
them constantly and chanting some
weird tune, But the wild fearfulness OF
the furious storm excited the brutes be-
You'd measure. They surged and ginned
every moment growing less subject to con-
troll All at once, as if by one mad i'm
pulse, they stampeded.
John Wyekliffe and his sons met heir
fate amid the lightnings glare and the
thunder's roar. They endeavored to head
on the stampeding herd Instead they
and their horse were swept on and driven,
e.. in the terror to escape the charge of mad
dened animals, over the brink of the aw-
ful precipice which frowns up from the
waters of the Bear After them plunged
the whole fright-crazed herd, and down Ia
the bottom of the fearful fail went horses
riders, and horned creatures. out of this
plunge of life to what was seemingly GER
tain death to all( a few Of the herd were
not killed Those which ad gone ahead
formed a cushion of death. Manned, stun
ned, but still invested with n spark of life
when the dread storm was over, the Iv
ing cattle crawled oft from the mass be
meath them and formed a nucleus for the
herd which now roam at will within theil
rocky confines. On the bank Of the river
stretching back a few hundred yards
grow succulent grasses, and upon this Tx
cattle have propegated and thriVed. II
looking over the edge of the prccipice on
can see that they are small and as wilC
and agile as deer. They have been shot a
to see the effct. and have learned to re
gard the appearance of a man whether In
dian or white. as q, menace from which
they fee, clamberng over rocks ant
through underbrush in the chase TO
point of concealment,
The place where the thieves and thei
horses and the herd fell is plainly marke,