The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-13
MONTANA's WILD MAN
Further Particulars as to His
Strange Life.

Further Particulars as to His
Strange Life.
BUTTE, Mont. Dec. 12-George Pet
tnSlll, the wild man of the Wise River
mountains" who was found dead few
days ago. far from his usual haunts,
ABOUT forty miles southwest of Butte,
was a strange character in life. For
more than thirty years he had lived
alone among the wild animals of the
mountains and Stunned everything that
mad the appearance of civilization. His
lie. previous to his appearance in Mon
tana at the close of the war. remained
mystery, and only once was an at
tempt made to question him on that
subject.
Every man has his secrets" he re-
piled, land the world should respect
them"
At the time of his death Pettingill
was 20 years of age. and it had been
MS frequent boast that he had never
known day of sickness since he be.
gan running wild in the mountains. He
was over six feet tall and weighed It's
pounds, and as he wore little clothing
his body became covered with a, heavy
growth of hair and only in the very
coolest weather did-he wear more than
a breech clout, and went barefooted in
the deepest snow. The hair of his head
and beard, Of an iron gray color. hung
in heavy matted curls down below his
waist, each curl containing probably
more hair that the head of the aver
age woman. He lived entirely on raw
meat which he killed himself. His
method was to get on the trail of
deer, elk, bear or moose and run 1t
down. He had been known to follow
a deer for a week or ten days. and be-
ing tireless himself. the deer sooner or
later fell victim to his endurance s13d
knife. After killing the animal
would camp near the carcass and 81
main there until he had consumed 1t
The only shelter the man had was
rude cabin built half into a mountain
near the junction of the Wise and Big
Hole rivers and formed by Bonded fir
trees. This he called his head
quarters" On one side of the
cabin there was a perfect imprint OF a
human form. at the head OF which was
a piece of wood worn hollow in the
middle. The spot had been the old
mans bed or sleeping place for mora
than thirty years. About once year
Pettingill visited Dewey, a settlement
near his place. but with the exception
of these visits he never associated with
human beings. He has frequently been
encountered in the mountains by par
ties Of hunters and treated very civilly
all who sought to engage him in con-
versation. A Butte photographer once
went out to his haunts and offered him
$500 for the privilege Of taking his pic
ture. but Pettingill would not have 1t
The photographer, however, tried to
take him una:wares, but Pettingil
caught him in the act and took the
costly camera away from the photo
grapher and smashed it to pieces. The
only photograph taken of the wild man
was by Henry T. Farriss, an amateur
photographer, who caught the old man
on a snap shot while he was dressed
up for company"
One day recently Pettingill called at
the cabin of an old miner near Silver
Star and asked for something to eaS,
which was given him. He then laid
down in the sun to take nap. About
an hour later the miner attempted to
awaken him and found him dead.
Since his death several persons have
claimed to have identified him as an
old hunter and backwoodsman who
lived near La Crosse, Wis, in the lat
ter part Of the SOS. There were a
great many Indians in that part Of the
country at that time. and. according to
the story. they attacked Pettlngill and
his partner and killed the latter,
whereupon Pettingil1 swore etern ~
ed out to annihilate the race and WIS
in a fair way to carry out his threat
when he was arrested for murder. tried
and acquitted. About that time the
war broke out and he enlisted In the
Twentieth regiment and served three
years. 1t is stated that he got into a
quarrel with an officer and killed him
In a duel and then came to Montana.
The only account Pettingill was ever
known to give Of his life was that he
was born in Concord n. H, and went
to Wisconsin In 1S4S, and from there en-
tered the army. He subsequently came
to Montana out of pure love for adven-
ture. He said he had a scheme to get
In with the Sioux Indians and tame a
band Of buffalo. and then take them
east to sell, but he found the Sioux too
treacherous. and therefore did not push
his acquaintance with them and aban-
doned the buffalo-taming idea The
story from Wisconsin Of his thirst for
Indian gore is not borne out by his
life in Montana, where he was always
on the most friendly terms with NE
Indians.