The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-28
BUCKlNG BULL
OF BELGRADE

Il
most eastern and most prolific of Mon
tana's farming lands. The GaIla!tir
valley is known the world over as the
place where the Missouri, here clear
and sparkling, starts on it's long jour.
ney to the sea; but little is known
! however, of the manner ana customs
OF the farming population, says w. A
SbOteSburg in the Chicago Inter-Ocean,
After the first wild rush of miners to
Alder gulch in '63, the overflow, those
VINO came too late to share in the rich
flnds of tins gold fields, discovered that
IN the black loan of the valleys in this
new Ell Dorado were riches more last
ing than the quickly gotten gold of the
placer dfggingS. So they built them
selves CABINS, and with the cattle that
mad brought them across the plains
they brooks up the virgin soil of the
prairie and started to raise grain and
produce to supply the necessities of the
mining camps, and where thirty years
ago roamed herds of buffalo and elk
now are seen horses and COWS, and in
stead of the eagles scream the shrek
OF the threshing steamers whistle is
heard ana the cries of the farm hands
as they garner the golden grain.
Farming in this section differs from
eastern methods and in nothing so
much as in threShing. The eastern
farmer hauls the grain from the field
TO the barn and there it waits until he
can conveniently thresh it. On the
large farms of the west this is impos-
sible, as it would require too large an
outlay of capital to build a. barn large
enough to hold even an ordinary crop.
Here the dryness of the climate admits
of the grain remaining out in the field
until threshed, and as it is often quite
late i'm the fall before the grain is dry
enough to handle, large crews are en-
ployed to hurry the work through. To
accomplish this in a country where
loose hands are few, the farmers from
different thTsshing districts unite up
to thirty or forty hands and exchange
work; that is, when the threshing sea-
son commences, each farmer in q cer-
tain district sends one or more men
with teams to the machine in his dis
trict, theirs to stay until the season
ends. The threshing crews are made up
of the farmers and their sons, cowbows
out of work and the wandering hobo
The hobo" is a tramp, pure and SIM
pie, differing from his more consistent
brethren, inaSmuch as he stops i'm Mon
taTa in the fall to take advantage of
the high wages paid at this season,
afterwards going west to join that
horde of migratory 'bipeds who every
winter seek the milder climate of the
coast
1t was one of these threshing outfits
that first brought to public notice the
bucking bull, now known in Montana
and northern Wyoming as the Buck
ing Bull of Belgrade" Kennedy's out
fit had been threshing ON CoWan's
ranch, at Dry creek; rain had stopped
the work and the boys were gathered
in groups gambling, smoking and the
riding fraternity Boosting of the Won
drouS speed of their ponies and their
own ability to ride anything that wore
hair
1T may be- said a quiet man in the
group that We're talking horse, sit may
be that you fellows can ride some, but
there's an animal ON this ranch that
none of you COW purchers can ride"
The challenge was eagerly accepted
by Lew Kennedy, a well-knoWn rider
from East Flatillead, who wanted to in
crease the amount of the bet, but the
quiet man said $40 was his pile. The
money being duly deposited in a third
party's hands, the animal was sent for.
In few minutes two small boys ap-
peared driving q, placid looking Hol-
stein bull. The boys laughed, and Lew
looked mad, but the quiet man said:
That's the animal; let's see you ride
lim''
It's all the same to me-" said Lew
Cow brute or broncho." The bull was
accordingly roped and blindfolded. He
stood quietly while the saddle was be-
ng cinched up and until the man was |
irmly seated in the saddle.
All sst?' asked the men who were !
holding the ropes.
All set answered Lew; 'cut loose"
With that the blinds were pulled off !
Ind the animal turned loose. With a
lisgusted snort the bull gave a leap in |
he ain; lit stiff-legged; then up again
higher, and giving a peculiar twist of |
lis back, set the saddle rolling and /
,rought Mr.. Kennedy to the ground
mid the cheers of the onlookers, the
,oorer by $40 Again the bull was
aught and mounted by Kennedy, with
he same result. When asked how he
anne to be bucked off so easily, the dis
usted broncho buster exclaimed:
"Buck! Why, it amt his buck; he
amt buck; it's the id variations he
'ets in
The next man to try the bull was an
named Brady, with the
anne result. but even quicker than
With Kennedy. The second time Brady
Tas thrown he got up from the ground
nd in tones indescribably English,
aid: Boys, 1 can't ride one side of
i'm. don't you know" to the intense
eight of the boys ito whom it was
cry apparent that Brady could mot
ide little bit. 1t was told afterwards
nat Brady hit the ground so hard the
accnd time he was thrown that the
ar upset big Ben Kennedy, who was
landing near, and sprained his ankle.
So the fame of the "bucking bull
-ent abroad and in a short time after
is first appearance in public he was
urchased by the Johnson Bros, of Bel
rade They named him James J. Cor
ett, and posted a challenge in the
1untry paper, expressing their desire ,
, back the bull against all Corners.
he local crack riders and many from
distance tried, unsuccsssfully, to ride
i'm, and the bull remains the cham
ION to this day. Amusements are few
Montana, and these bull rides eX-
ted great interest, and on Sunday af- 1
.rnoon, when the contests took place {
Il the men who could get away and {
amy women came to see the sport. )
The fact that these rides took place :
/ Sunday was very displeasing to the +
cal preacher, and his congregation $
as diminished thereby. The preacher /
ling a correspondent for the county |
aper would write up these Sunday '
in "a manner displeasing !
the bull Owners. The fact that the
,eacher was not i'm very good repute
mself made his criticisms additionally
..Why, blank his old picture" said Al :
shnson, ONE of the bull owners, "the
d Missourian had better pay his feed
lis he's owed us for over a year be-
re he calls US barbarians; and he'd
liter quit branding mavericks HE ]
lded as am afterthought, that being |
e minor sin of the two. Al Johnson