The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-25
BEARS IN SIN JUAN COUNTY

Denver, Nov 27.-Four shaggy pelts
mist's shop in this city show the result
of the bad judgment of the original
owners of the hides in trying to in
terfere with operations to a party of
engineers engaged in constructing the
new state road between Moius lake
and a point on the Durango Rico road,
near lockwood station, on the Denver
& Rio Grande railway. Two of the
engineers, w. L. Holbrook and Robert
). Sumner, brought the bear skins to
Denver with them the day before cleo
ton to be mounted for future use as
rugs. Two of the skins are of the black
bear variety, and the other two are
cinnamonS.
The four bears came to grief early
last September, after they had caused
much alarm and excitement amons elle
slayerS. About the. middle of August
a party of so laborerS in charge of the
engineers employed by the state began
work on the new highway in the San
Juan district, an appropriation for the
work having been passed by the last
legislature. 1t runs from Molus lake,
near Silverton, TO the junction of The
Rico and Durango road, about 20 miles
from the latter town. The work of
construction began at the lake, and in
that vicinity operations were carried
on in stretch of country absolutely
uninhabited, and very wild and broken.
The mountain sides are covered with a
heavy growth of timber, interspersed
with scrub oak openings, where snow
slides had destroyed the timber, and
no trails of early prospectors had ever
been made for many miles in that
rough wilderness.
Toward the end of August HolbroOk
was returning to the camp of the
engineers after a horseback trip to
Silvefton, and he saw signs of all kinds
of bears along the way. An early snow
had fallen in the higher regions, and
had driven the bears down TO warmer
attitudes. They were traversing a dis
trict far from the haunts of men, and
had no expectations of encountering
any disturbing elements. HOlbrook's
horse suddenly snorted, SHE'D and
showed every indication of a desire to
turn back. Holbrook tried to quiet the
animal, but its evident fear of some
thinS in the neighborhood only in
creased. The engineer looked around
the landscape, screened by tall timber
and soon detected the cause of his
horses terror.
In an open tract, beyond a tangle of
scrub oak, on the hillside to his left,
not quarter of a mile away, were
fully dozen big bears gamboling like
schoolboys at play. Black bears and
cinnamons seemed to be in about equal
proportions. 1t looked to Holbrook as
if the animals had been feasting on
the acorns in the brush and were then
enjoying an after-breakfast romD.
Some were lying in the warm sun
light, others were rolling over and over
in perfect contentment with themselves
and all the world, while the more
active were engaged in a frolic. One
bear would lie paws down on the
ground while another clunsily turned
a somersault over the body of the pros
trate animal. This trick the bears
seemed to enjoy immensely, taking
turns at the feat of somersaulting. Hol-
brook had no desire to disturb the
frolic of the delegation of bears and so
pushed on to the nearest house along
the road, the residence of a ranchman
named Love. He remained there during
the day and night. reaching the engin-
GERS camp on the following day. On
the way he saw more bears, some of
them moving quite near the old Baker
trail he was following.
AT the camp he was informed that
bears had been bothering the men
there. The entire neighborhood seemed
to have become sort of meeting place
for all the bears of San Juan county.
III.
coming forth at night to pillage the
camp, stealing the meat which the la
borerS had suspended upon the limbs
of the pine trees. That night Hol-
brook and Sumner sat up with Win
chesters to get shot at a bear. but
they only wasted several cartridges for
their pains, and when morning came
the meat had again disappeared
They now determined to adopt an
etfectual method of warfare upon the
shaggy brutes a man was sent to
SllVerton TO purchase the biggest bear
trap there on sale, and When it arrived
they set it under a tall pine tree which
STOOD alone in a scrub oak thicket over a
mile from the camp. A hole was dug
FOR the trap at the foot of the tree. and
low enclosure of sapling pickets with
brush barricade was constructed
around it with only one point of en-
trance possible, so that any stray brlIin
wandering into that Enclosure needs
must walk into the trap. Suspended
from limb above was a piece of fresh
meat to tempt the bears to explore the
new camp.
Next morning when Holbrook. Sum
ner and several other members of the
party visited the trap, they discovered
4oO-pound cinnamon bear sitting on
top OF 1t, crying like a human being in
his discontinue, with one of his fore
paws caught firmly in the steel laws of
the machine. A council was held TO de-
termlne what means should be used in
getting the imprisoned bear to camp
where he could be killed. skinned and
converted into oil and palatable roasts
ana steaks To drag the carcass that
distance seemed out of the question On
the suggestion of an old hunter. il was
finally decided to drive the bear To the
place of slaughter
10 avoid the possibility of a bear
making off with the trap a heavy loo
of wood had been fastened with a stonf
chain to the trap and this was now
found to be lodged in a tanele of
brush. The party dislodged the log
from the brush so that the bear could
With some difficulty drag 1T after him
me party now armed themselves WITH
scout poles which they used to prod
tle pear and discourage him from ST
ing uD and showing fight. After sew
eral whacks the bear decided tn hraal,
a away, and he rushed through the brush
gown hlil, dragging trap ard log after
MN whenever he paused the men
gathered about him. IF he showed fight
they would beat him over the snout
Until ne was compelled TO move OF
once more By thus herd:ne tho hear
ana with, much shouting and beatina,
OF poles the bear was finally brough+
INTO camp, where he was offered uD as
a sacrifice. ~ 60
The hunters took the trap back to the
pine tree and reset it as before. Next
day they found a young black bear
WelshlnS abouf go pounds. which was
driven into camp as its predecessor had
been, where it was killed and disposed
of in a similar fashion.
Two days Went bV without oov y,,o~o