The silver star. (Dolores, Colo.) 1897-1901, 1901-03-08
4 BLIZZARD TRAGEDY.


uov - Dessrtsrs .frsm Uncle san'e
xo-,.. Psrished In = Dakota storm-
A. Il. Town, OF Saratoga Springs. N.
T., formerly OF the west. contributes
to the Saturday Globe the following
tragic story OF the Dakota plains:
Late in the seventies" says Mr..
Towne. when emigration began pour
ing into Dakota Territory venture
some pioneer, looking for the choicest
land went far beyond the
lines of government survey and pen
etrated into what was later Dickey
county. While examining some land
with view of .squatting' upon 1t he
made gruesome discovery. In a lit
tie swale he found a veritable bone
yard There were the skeletons OF
twenty-three horses lying in small
circle and inside this circle there were
the bones of twenty-eight men. Scat
tered on the ground were U. s. but
tons and belt buckles. Besides these
there were weapons, saddle irons ana
such things as are usually found in
the equipment OF cavalryman. nearly
eaten up with rust. The rusted wea-
pons, buttons. buckles. etc, prccluded
the possibility of a massacre as In
dams always plundered their victims.
The pioneer reported his discovery.
Finally army officers heard of 1t and
after investigation the probable expla-
nation was found.
1T seems that in March. 1861. there
was party of cavalrymen at Standing
Rock, a military post on the Missouri
river, who sympathized with the Con-
federacy and as soon as the March
thaw had cleared the prairies of snow
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 terrible bliz-
gard. 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 to
head them Off They may have inten-
ded to skirt along the frontier and
work their way south together. or else
&c get civilian clothes and then scatter.
efch getting south as best he could.
The spot where the bones were found
ir nearly 175 miles from Standing
Rock. SO the fugitives must have made
the best time possible after their es-
cape. After the blizzard struck them
their only hope would be to reach the
James river. where timber and shelter
ing bluffs could be found; but the
Egyptian darkness of blizzard night
must have overtaken them. Bewil-
dered. benumbed with cold. in constant
danger Of separation. they had. on
stumbling on this little swale. taken
the last desperate resort of plainsmen
when lost in storm. They scraped
out hole where the snow may have
been perhaps three feet deep, then
roping and tying down their horses as
closely as possible around the hole
they got into 1t and covering them
selves with their blankets and scrap
ing back the snow they waited for the
blizzard to bury them deep enough to
protect them from the intense cold.
But 1t never did and they finally fell
asleep. never to awake. A mile and q
half from the river and twenty years
afterward restless land hunter
stumbles upon this circle of bones and
the mystery OF the deserters' fate Is
solved