The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-10
PILED W BUFFALO BONES.
rHn WAY "yOHN p0xEv STARTED
A PLAINS INDUSTRY.
DOT Tired Out sAoetias nuaaioss ter
Their Hides aAa Gathered Up
Bones-Made . Large Amount Of
Money Out of q Novel Industry.

Money Out of q Novel Indastry.
A tall lank. iong-haired man In q very
wide-brimmed sombrero and wearing .
clanking watch chain Of colossal size, was
sauntering along the principal streets Of
Los Angeles, Cal, recently with hands
deep In his pockets, looking over the
heads Of almost every one, when bis eye
wa. caught by picture in window
which represented small herd OF buffa~
loes. He stood In front Of II some time
and as he rejoinsd ths crowd q Kansas
bnsiness man remarked:
mo wonder he looked at II. That was
old John Bono. / 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 on the face OF tho earth. Hes
forgotten me, but was banking IN thoao
days. and saw him often and knew his
business pat I reckon he lives some-
where hereabouts, but you bet he isn't
picking up bones now: he's making his
own as comfortable AZ possible Twenty
years ago there were alive and roaming
on the plains five or six million buffaloes,
and there was an army Of whites ana
Indians trying to wipe them out. The
white hunters II collected would mako
an army OF six or seven thousand men,
and AZ for Indians, they had dozen
armies In tho field killing buffaloes for
- apiece.
This John Bone was hustler on .
ranch In Northern Kansas, and was hired
by the owner to kill buffaloes, and ex-
pect next to Buffalo Bill he has killed
more buffaloes than anyone. 1t was hard
work, and he finally decided to go into
business for himself but he didn't 60
In for hides; he went after bones. He
happened to see a notice in an Eastern
paper that old bones were wanted.
Pi6neer Home Picker.
He was, SO far as know, the pio-
neer bono picker. though there might
have been others in what was known as
the north herd, and 70 you may be sure
he did not tell anyone what he was do
ing. The hunters thought he was crazy
and called him John Bone John was
smart enough 90 help out the idea, and
he said nothing. and Just piled up his
bones. He told one man he waa going
to pile up A. many a. he could set and
make big house OF the heads, and then
charge admission. The first lot he piled
up In big square, and the last time I
saw 1t II was thirty feet high and twenty
feet thick. and made up Of thousands of
bones. A stranger sight you never saw.
and certainly monument to the de-
struction Of the bison.
Dus WHio Ae was PHii8 up eHAS HouSos
as he called It. John had his brothers ana
someone inside at work. and these men
ground up the bones and packed them to
the nearest railroad and got SIS a ton for
them T. o. b. and sometimes more. When
the supply was exhausted hero he moved
on ana began ahotnef fort. a. the skulls
ana SKELETONS were eeemnkiy inexnouGi-
Ole. why ! nave seen places wnere LOT
miles the country WOULD Pc dotted Win the
oieachcd pones. ana II was no. tnck 20 9es
thousands. by and BY others began 70 set
onto u, ana w. 60 q W. stsnn on
the Noftnern roads % ~ pass OF puh-
iaio nones waning spen
Whet Jonn made ! cont Know, cut 9
fortune Wttnouf eptys Ane ranroan couIo
teii inc story, ana KNOW int N ono
year the Atcnison. Iopoxa g SANTA .1 ~
snippeu i,oV"wv po.hus; va. ~. ~ - Al Ao.s.
IN 1919 .nsy snsppou 80 ~ sv . su
ana IN 1918 nesIly hWS~v pc.n1s an sne
n rss,,, inc la paces III sp
Here YOU could see up 10 ten or twelve
years ago piles OF bones. a. large as the
state house. I was going TO say. Finally
when hides began 70 get scarce the bone
hunters were as thick az hops. and with
bullock teams they went all over the coun-
try wherever buffalo had been known ana
took every bone. They hauled them to the
Missouri river and shipped them By
steamer down 10 c0ntrai piacoss from
which tens OF thousands OF tons vera
shipped all over the world.
I'm 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
wagon, tent, horses, rifles ammunition
and canned provisions. Each man was
armed with a rifle. three slkinning knives
ana long steel Or sharpener, and they
were pot hunters from way BACK; many
OF them would XIII nifty TO eighty bunaioes
a day. Their method was to steal up 70
herd. ne IN conceaiment ana shoot the
leader. the punalo was stupid beast
and would stand looking AZ the smoke ana
gather around the nrst victim Finally an
other one would start ON and the hunter
would shoot 1t. and the scene would be re-
enacted, and so on until a single man by
known