Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1896-06-19
THE CUB CREEK BULL FIGHT
BY zDsoS KEafP

he great potato picnic VIII never be
forgotten by the people Of Cub Creek
valley This district was at first The
scene Of a brief mining excitement.
After that there was blaze Of disorder
/ y glory. This subsided into 2 tame ca
reer Of cattle ranching, which anally de-
veloPed an unexpected resource Il
was found that the light and po~1ery
sol Of the valley, when properly irri-
gated, produced potasOes in great quan-
tty and Of excellent quality.
From this moment the prosperity Of
the Cub Creek valley was assured Po-
tato ranches were opened in every d.
rection Irrigating enterprises were
undertaken on large scale, ard land
rose rapidly in value. Cub Greek City
soon Rad a population Of 5ooo souls,
wit an opera house, daily paper a
mayor and a CITY council
Ny fair er was the first mayor Of the
citv He is a very enrerprising man
and had contributed many schemes TO
bloom" Cub Creek. One Of his schemes
was the great potato picnic Kind OF
grand potato barbecue, which was ad-
vertised far and vide which attracted
many thousands OF people, and which
served 70 increase me fame and an
nounee the resources Of he district.
Committees we're appointed 10 devise
attractive features for the occasion
was put on the committee on sports. Of
which my friend Tom Narcross, was
chairman. We were told By my father
that no ordinary programme Of sports
would do, and that we must get up
something picturesque, novel and
startling
If il Is 10 De picturesque" I said IN
one Of the committee meetings. IL must
be borrowed from one Of the 5ygone
times Of me valley"
We all remained silent and retec-ed q
moment. and then Ton Narcross jump
ed Up il some excitement
Il have it,7 ne exclaimed Wen
give them a bun-fghrr' We were struck
almost dumb by ne brilliancy Of the
suggestion, and adopted ~ bv unani
nous vote.
Bat it was one thing 10 decide 70 have
a bull-fght and another 70 get one up
Nv father told Us thai we must "Put il
through ourselves" he had no time 10
superintend It. But we must guarantee
thar no one should be hurt n IT, andtha
the animals should neither Be kil-ed nor
cruelty treated.
We gave the guarantee and Sc about
Organizing the "hght." OF course we
knew absolutely nothing a5o1t bull
fghtS. We had come TO the valley dur (
ing she potato period, and knew nothing /
except from books and hearsay about (
the wild life IN the mountains and the /
plains.
Nor could we ind anyone who had /
experience in bull-hghrs. Sc much /
time passed while we were vainIy cor
responding with various people in the
territory, hoping 10 fud someone who
could direct bull-ight, that when We
at last gave up searching and resolved
10 trust TO our own resources, we had
but three weeks left in which 70 prepare
for the event.
We read all We could find in the books
in the Cub Greek public library about
oull-hghting, and then I went down 70
Cheyenne and tudied up the subject in
the public library there
Nv first proceeding on reaching nome
was TO organize all the boys knew into
corps OF toredores, picadores, chulos
and matadores. Most Of the
bows wanted 20 De toredores or mata-
iores. but Tom and I exercised our
authority. seconded BY that Of nav
father, 10 such an extent that We finally
filed up the ranks
Then we appointed q subcommittee
IN costumes. ard called in the assist
snce OF INV sister Blanche and Of Toms r
mother. =, NJ had gift for getting up 2
III sorts of fancy dresses. ! gave them ?
ny notes on The subject Of oullhghters q
,ostumes.s and they SCI a. work.
Everything seemed 10 sc going on E.
winning now. One further important ?,
eQuirement in a bull-dghthad e.. how o
.ve-, TO sbe met. We must have some
,ulls. This was the most difficult task
f the whole enterprise. Bat AZ last we :,
orrowed five handsome Texas steers De
ouging 10 ranchman At the head of :,
ne creek
For our arena, we proposed 20 have an
lclosure of barbed wire ar one side OF 3,