The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1901-05-21
A BLIZZARD TRAGEDY.


How az Dessrters from Uncle Bans
Forces Perished tn N Dskota stors~.
A. e. Town, of Saratoga Springs, N,
Y, formerly OF the west, contributes
TO the Saturday Globe the following
tragic story of the Dakota plains;
Late in the seventies" says MI.
Towne. when emigration began pour
ing into Dakota Territory venture
some pioneer, looking for the cholces'
land went far beyond the
lines of government survey and PEN
etrated into what was later DicKey
county. While examining some lano
with a view of squatting' upon 1t M
made a gruesome discovery. In III
tie swale he found veritable bone
yard. There were the skeletons o.
twenty-three horses lying In small
circle and inside this circle there Wers
the bones of twenty-eight men. scat
tered on the ground were U. ). put
tons and belt buckles. Besides tnesa
there were weapons, saddle irons ana
such things as are usually found III
the equipment of cavalryman. nearly
eaten up with rust. The rusted wea-
pons, buttons, buckles, ETC., precluded
the possibility of massacre as ln@
dams always plundered their victims.
The pioneer reported his discovery.
Finally army officers heard OF 1t ana
after investigation the probable expla-
nation was found.
''It seems that in March, 1851, there
was a party of cavalrymen at Standing
Rock, military post on the missouri
river, who sympathized with the Con-
federacy and as soon as the Marcn
thaw had cleared the prairies OF sno"
they deserted. For two or three days
strong parties secured the country IN
search of them. Finally 1t was
found that the deserters had headed
nearly due east; but here pursuit was
delayed several days by a terrible biz
Yard. This left the prairies covered
with snow, so every trace of them was
lost. All search proved futile and was
finally abandoned.
The deserters took the shortest route
towards civilization, probably be-
cause there was no telegraph line te
head them off. They may have inten'
ded to skirt along the frontier and
work their way south together, or else
to get civilian clothes and then scatter
each getting south as best he could
The spot where the bones were found
t. oy1rr Gfondinf
Rock, so the fugitives must have made
the best time possible after their es
cape. After the blizzard struck then
their only hope would be to reach thu
James river, where timber and shelter
ing bluffs could be found; but thu
Egyptian darkness of a blizzard nigh
must have overtaken them. Bewil
dered, benumbed with cold, in constan
danger of separation, they had. OF
stumbling on this little swale, takel
the last desperate resort of plainsmel
when lost in a storm. They scrape'
out hole where the snow may hav
been perhaps three feet deep, thel
roping and tying down their horses a
closely as possible around the hol
they got into it and covering them
selves with their blankets and scrap
ing back the snow they waited for tn
blizzard to bury them deep enough t
protect them from the intense colo
But it never did and they finally fel
asleep, never to awake. A mile and
half from the river and twenty year
afterward a restless land hunte
stumbles upon this circle of bones an
the mystery of the deserters' fate
solved"