The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-04-27
BOSS WOLF HUNTER.
BEN coRBIN's WOLF FARM PAYS HIM
WELL.

North Dakota Man Who Thrives Upon the
Bounty Law-Makes a Good Living at
Trapping Alone Catches Young Wolves
With Fishhooks-ssves the Females.
One of the most picturesque and inter
s<sing characters in the western part of
North Dakota Is Ben Corbin of Glencoe,
Emmons county, known all over the state
as the "boss wolf hunter" Corbin has
made life study of wolf trapping and as
result has caught more wolves than pos
sibly any other hunter In the northwest.
He Ii accustomed to compute his seasons
catch by hundreds, and as the bounty on
the animals ranges from So to $5 a head,
according to the county In which they are
caught, he makes q good living at wolf
trapping alone.
Corbin is a VirRinian by birth and has
been hunter and trapper all his life. In
addition to his duties as a wolf hunter he
keeps small store and sort of inn or
half way house, where settlers en- route to
town may stop overnight. Every season,
when the wolves give birth to their young,
he is early on the trail of the animals, and
in territory of % square miles he man
ages to keep the young ones pretty well
cleaned out. The old ones he does not Of
ten touch. His reason for sparing them
is selfish one and yet natural He says:
81 have practically all the wolf dens in
my locality spotted and know where to
find them every year. The litter of . fe-
male wolf ranges from five to nine wolves
and as i catch the whole litter every year
each female wolf is worth $25 to $50 year
to me, as / get 50 each for the young
wolves. II l kill the old one, deprive my
self Of this revenue"
This Is the argument that Corbin makes
to the county commissioners and the state
for larger bounty on old female wolves.
He says II a bounty of $40 each were offered
for the old female wolves they would be
killed, where at present they are spared by
wolf hunters out of consideration for the
revenue they bring in the shape of young
ones. In the past nine years Corbin has
kept an account of five old wolves In tho
territory over which he has hunted and he
says he has received nearly 1000 in the
shape of bounty on the young they have
produced This he calls reducing the wolf
bounty business to science.
Corbin's methods of catching young
wolves is one which he devised himself,
by no other wolf hunter in the state He
catches the young wolves with fishhooks
and steel line and has been known to
land eight young wolves on the same line
in one night.
The wolves live in dens in the earth,
after the manner of badgers, except that
the dens are larger. When Corbin locates
den, be waits until night and then
brings his fishing line and hooks into
play. The steel line is fastened to stout
stake driven into the ground and is then
carried beneath the soil through the region
Immediately about the den. From the
main wire are numerous smaller wires
projecting in all directions to the end of
each of which is spring fishhook These
hooks are baited with good sized pieces OF
chicken breast or other tempting morsels
of meat, and the plant is then left over
night.
When the young wolves leave the den at
night to prowl about in search of food, the
first thing they encounter is these scat
tered bits of meat. The wolf is ravenous
animal and bolts small bits of meat whole.
The young ones attack these bits of meat
and swallow them, snap goes the bolted
spring hook, and the wolf Is fast. Every
effort made by tho wolf to get away adds
to the pain inflicted by the hook, which
has found Judgment in his stomach or
throat, and he soon learns that absolute
quiet is the best method under the circum-
stances. Not infrequently Corbin returns
to the den in the morning TO find every
one of the young wolves caught on the
spring hooks. The steel wire prevents their
biting IL in two and escaping I'm this fash
ion, and as the animals are all securely
fastened it is no difficult task to knock
them In the head with club, take their
scalps and leave the bodies for the buzz
yards.
This process is repeated at every den
which may be discovered by the hunter,
and seldom without success. Hundreds of
young wolves are caught every season and
their scalps brought in for the bounty.
The same ground is gone over every sea-
son with the same results and Corbin
pockets annually hundreds of dollars as
the result of his ingenuity. He has en-
deavored to have the hshhook and line
patented as means of catching wolves,
but the patent office does not consider an
old device patentable as applied to new
end, and he has been unable to secure q
patent.
Corbin makes some calculations Of the
number of wolves in the western part of
the state which are startling to stockmen.
He claims that from the number of wolves
he has caught on 90 square miles of terri
tory, II the same number exists on every
other equal section of territory-and 1t Is
reasonable to suppose 1t does-there are
800, 900 wolves In the western part Of the
state, and the annual damage they do to
cattle and all stock interests Is enormous.
But so long as the bounty Is the same on
old wolves as young he says the wolf
hunters will content themselves with kill
ing as many young wolves as they can
without harming the old ones, and there
will be no perceptible advance made in the
diminution of the original number Of
wolves st. Paul Pioneer Press.