CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1898-06-09
DEwEEsE's MUSEUM.
Containing Specimens of Large Game
Secured by Hard Labor and Expert
Workmanship.

| JJdll Dt w ccct, thio thC SA'AS~ ~ 49,
government in behalf of the Biological
Survey and Smithsonian Institutes
Right in the beginning it may be well
to state that Mr.. DeWeese has been a
game and relic hunter from his earliest
manhood. The forest and places of
difficult access are his natural elements.
Brave, bold and undaunted, with the
characteristics and training of noble
parentage. he is one among a thousand.
Mingled with the love of home and SO
ciety is the desire for adventure and
discovery Surrounded by the luxury
of sufficient competence, of keen busi-
ness intellect with the accumulatiye
faculty well developed, there is still
that semi dominant, inbred something
in his nature which impels him to seek
adventure and brave the rigors of eli
matte changes and disorders.
But of his hunting expeditions: 1t
was in his 10Th year that Dali first en-
tered the roll of nimrod. He WAS at
the old homestead in Ohio when tile OPP
portunity presented itself and he
grasped ii with all the ardor and de-
termination of his resolute disposition.
The trip extended into the heavily tim
bered regions of Wisconsin, where. il
those days, the native deer roamed and
browsed fearlessly. To those days the
writer can look back with some knowf=
edge of the feelings that sharpend Daii's
wits and put every nerve on the gui
viye, he having entered those great
black forests Of soughing pine and
quivering beech and lofty maple in the
year II.
Standing at the top of a little knoll,
at the base of which wound a beautiful
ravine-beautiful as only the rayines Of
the densely timbered north country can
be in the spring three boy hunteTss
leaning stupidly upon their guns and
gazing spellbound at living picture In
the raviue below There in that lovely
spot sixty or seventy miles from hu-
man habitaiion, with only the silence
of the great forest and chirp of nativa]
birds abounding, a family of black t...ff
deer are grazing eleven head their
reddish grey coats glinting in the sun
shine as the rays are sifted through the
leaves. wholly unconscious of the pres
ence of human beings. At last the
spell is broken THIS old buck, whose
head is ever in the air, whose bright
eyes and sharp ears are ever ON the
alert, has given marching orders and
the whole party lopes gracefully and
maiestically up the opposite slope, pass
ing noiselessly out of sight. Not shot
has been fired nor a word spoken, al
though possibly half an hour has
elapsed Each boy draws deep sigh,
shoulders his gun and trudges back to
camp without trophy, but happy in
the remembrance of sight to but s
few accorded.
1t was in this land of forests that
young Deweese got his first prize,
Whitehall buck of goodly proportions.
For twenty four consecutive years since
that Mr.. DeWeese has added mead or
a hide to his collection. besides gather
ing together many articles of Indian
warfare: bows, arrows, spears. stone
axes, hunting gear made from the sin
ews of animals, furniture made of
hoofs and horns, paddles and various
curios OF smaller, although not less in
teressing. character, including many
things picked up on his trip to Alaska
last year.
Mr.. DeWeese has never killed game
for any purpose other than to secure a
specimen, aud up to 1897, always con-
fined himself to one specimen. OF his
'97 trip, he says, he is heartily ashamed,
but there being so much in Alaska that
he wanted and the idea OF ever having
another opportunity to so there, being
so remote. he relaxed his discipline,
going to the great trouble and expense
of shipping home and mounting every.
thing he killed.
1t should be borne in mind that the
brief mention herein is only of those
specimens most highly priced, because
of the scarcity of the animal represented
or because of its great size.
MIR. Deweese's second adventure was
in the forests of Black river, Arkansas,
when he killed the big buck of Chalk
Bluffs; an animal that had. been hunted
by the natives and sportsmen from all
sections of the country for years. In
1850 he get white tail buck in Minne-
sofa, and in 1883 choice buck antelope
in North Park, Colorado. In 81 his
a. - .lN-