The times., 1899-11-26
MADE MONEY IN BONES.
4 Bnnchman Who Started "a New
Plains Industry.
CFrom 10 80 York SLm. !

wide -brimmed sombreTo and wearing a
clanking watchchain of colossal size. was
sauntering along the principal street of Los
Angeles, Cal. recently with hands deep in
his pockets, looking over the heads of al
most everyone, when his eye was caught by
a picture of q window which represented
a small herd Of huffaoes. He stood in
front of il some time, and as he rejoined
the crowd a Kansas business man re-
marked
NO wonder he looked at it. That was
old John Bone. l don't know his right
name but that's what he was called be-
cause he made a fortune out of bOness-buf-
falO bones. after those animals had been
wiped off the face of the earth. He's for
gotten me. but l was banking in those days,
and so saw him often and knew his busi-
ness pat / reckon he lives somewhere
hereabouts, but you can bet he isn't pick
ing bones now; he's making his own as
comfortable as possible Twenty years ago
there were alive and roaming on the plains
five or six million buffaloes. and there was
an army Of whites and Indians trying TO
wipe them out The white hunters if col
/ lected would make an army OF six or seven
/ thousand men, and as for Indians, they
! had dozen armies in the field killing buf-
( falo for So apiece.
This John Bone was a hustler on a
ranch in northern Kansas, and was hired
by the owner to kill buffaloes and | eX-
( pect, next TO Buffalo Bill. he has killed
more buffaIoes than anyone. II was hard
/ work, and he finally decided to go into
business for himself, but he didn't go in
/ for hides he went after bones. He hap
pened to see a notice in an Eastern paper
+ that old bones were wanted and he open
/ ed up correspondence and found that he
could make SIS or 500 a ton for them. So
( he started in. He first rented a place for
{ camp with plenty of acreage, and then
with his three brothers, started out with
/ carts collecting bones. At that time the
country was dotted with buffalo skeletons
from one end to the other. The hunters
only took the hides, sometimes the
tongues, and left the entire animal; so it
was not a difficult matter TO get all the
bones he wanted. He piled them up in
heaps. Then the carts came along and
loaded up and dragged them TO camp. In
this way he heaped up a pile that was such
! curiosity that 1t was called the Bone
Mountain and John Bones Monument
He was, so far as l know, the pioneer
bone picker, though there might have been
others in what was known as the north
herd, and so you may be sure he did not
tell anyone what he was doing. The hunt
/ ers thought he was crazy and called him
John Bone. John was smart enough to
help out the idea, and said nothing and
just piled up his bones. He told one man
he was going TO pile up as many as he
| could get and make a big house of heads
and then charge admission. The first lot
he piled up in a big square and the last
time l saw it, it was thirty feet high and
twenty feet thick and made up OF thou
sands OF bones. A stranger sight you =ve-
saw, and certainly a monument TO the de-
struction of the bison
But while he was piling up this house.
as he called it, John had his brothers and
some one inside at work and these men
ground up the bones and packed them to
the nearest railroad, and got SIS a ton for
them f. o. b., and sometimes more. When
the supply was exhausted here he moved
on and began another fort. as the skulls
and skeletons were seemingly inexhausti-
BILE. Why, ! have seen places where for
miles the country would be dotted with
the bleaching bones and it was no trick to
get thousands. BY and by others began TO
get on to it. and it was one of the sights
on the northern roads to see the piles of
buffalo bones waiting shipment.
What John made | don't know. but d
fortune without doubt. The railroads could
tell The tory. and l know that in one year
the AtchisOI Topeka and Santa Fe ship
ped 100000 pounds; that was in 1872. In
'73 they shipped about three million
pounds and in "a nearly seven million
pounds. In the North the great places fOI
shipment were Billings Mont. and James
town, Oak. Here you could see up to ten
or twelve years ago piles OF bones. as large
as the State house, l was going tC say
Finally when hides began to get scarce
the bone hunters were as thick as hops and
with big bullock teams they went all over
the country wherever buffalo had beer
known and took every bone. They hauled
them to the Missouri River and shipped
them by steamer down to central places
from which tens of thousands of tons were
shipped all over the world.
In those days my business took me out
On the plains. We often advanced money
TO the responsible hunters for their outfit
and ! was often in the camps. Generally
there were three men together. They had
a wagon, tent. horses rifles, ammunition
and canned provisions. Each man was
armed with rife, three skinning knives
and long steel or sharpener and they
were pot hunters from way back; many oi
them would kill fifty to eighty buffaloes d
day. Their method was to steal up 10 a
herd lie in concealment, and shoot the
leader The buffalo was stupid beast
and would stand looking al the smoke and
gather around the first victim. Finally an
other one would start off and the hunter
would shoot it and the scene would be re
| enacted, and so on until a single man by
firing about once a minutes has been known
in a very short time to wipe out herd.
Nearly all these skins were handled In
New York by two firms. J. & A. Bosko-
witZ bought in nine years 24b, 10 robes and
hides for which they paid 1929, 100, and
probably sold for at least $2,000,000. The
other firm. Joseph Ullman. paid out for
robes and hides in four years about $310
600. The two firms in eight years paid
out 81, ,233. 900 for hides and robes; so you
can figure out as TO the number OF ami
mails slaughtered
John Bone worked at first for men with
capital: then when they got twelve or fif-
teen hundred head the brothers went in
for themselves. 1t was not always plain
sailing Their men were often caught IN
blizzards and frozen 10 death, and theiI
bones mingled with those of the animals
they were in search of. l heard this man
tell an experience which we'll illustrated the
number of buffaloes at the time and the
dangers of the sport He was hunting foi
bones and had found wagons packed high
with them when one night they heard q
| rushing roaring sound as of a mighty wind
while the very earth seemed TO tremble
'Buffaloes on Il stampede cried Bones
starting up, and in few moments over The
divide came a black mass of forms that Gov
cred the earth. They seemed to be pushed
on with irresistible force and were coming
down on the camp like an avalanche
Bone himself rushed toward them firing his
gun to turn them, if possible. while the
others endeayored TO wheel the heavy cart!
together. But the mass of animals came OF
like the wind and the men could only craw
beneath the carts One was overturned
while against the other was piled a sole
mass Of belIOWing groaniug biSOns tha