The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-03
FORTUNE In BONES
BLEACHING REMAINS OF BUFFA-
LOES GATHERED UP AND
SENT TO MARKET
INDUSTRY OF THE PLAINS

East From Points In the North
Hyest-FOrmer Rust1er on Ranch
the Pioneer in the Trade-Be-
Iieved to Be Crazy by Those Who
Saw Him at Work.
A tall, lank, long-haired man in a wide
brimmed sombrero, and wearing a clank-
ing watch chain 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 almost every one, when his eye
was caught by picture in window
which represented small herd Of buff
faloes. He stood in front of it some. time,
and as he rejOined the crowd a Kansas
business man remarked:
mo wonder he looked at 1t. That was
old John Bone I don't know his right
name, but that's what he was called be-
cause he made fortune out Of bones
buffalo bones, after those animals had
been wiped off the face of the earth.
He's forgotten me, but I was banking in
those days, and so saw him often I
reckon he lives somewhere hereabouts,
but you can bet he isn't picking up bones
now; he's making mis- own as comfortable
as possible
Twenty years ago there were alive and
roaming on the plains 100000 or 100000
| buffaloos, and there was an army Of
whites and Indians trying to wipe them
out. The white hunters, If collected,
/ ~ or
| and. as for Indians, they had a dozen
armies in the field killing buffaloes for 50
| apiece.
"This John Bone was a hustler on a
ranch in Northern Kansas, and was hired
by the owner TO kill buffaloes; and I eX-
pect next to Buffalo Bill he has killed
more buffaloes than any one. 1t 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
happened to see a notice in an Eastern
| paper that old bones were wanted, and
| he opened up correspondence and found
! that he could make SIS or $40 ton on
them; so he started In. He first rented
a place for camp with plenty Of acreage,
| and then, with his three brothers, start
ed out with carts collecting bones. At
| that time the country was detted with
| buffalo skeletons from one end to the
| other The hunters only took the hides,
| sometimes the tongues, and left the en-
| tire animal; SO it was not a difficult mat
| ter 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 the camp. In this way he heaped
up pile that was such a curiosity that
| 1t was called the Bone mountain and
| John Bones monument
"IIe was, so far as I 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 any one what he was doing
The hunters thought he was crazy and
called him John Bones. John was smart
| enough to help out the idea, and he 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 q big
house Of heads ana then charge adnis-
/ sion. The first lot he piled up in a big
square, and the last time 1 saw; it it was
,thi1t y feet high and twenty feet thick,
l. and made up Of thousands Of bones. A
| stranger sight you never saw, and GER
tainly a monument to. the destruction 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
| 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 seeming
| ly ihexhaustible Why. 1 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, I do not know, but
| fortune without doubt. The railroads
could tell the story, and I know that in
| one year the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe shipped 100000 pounds. That was in
| 1879. In '7S they shipped about 100000
| pounds, and in IA nearly 100000 pounds
| In the North the great places for ship
ment were Billings, Mont, and James,
| town, N. D. Here you could see up to
ten or twelve years ago piles Of bones, as
large as the state house, was going to
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 buff