Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-11-06
DEVILS BLOWOUT
PAR iCULARLY BAD LAND IN
The BIG HORN BASIN.
AN AWFUL ALEKLI BOG
No Bottom to 1t and Its Sur
roundings the Worst Place in
World in Which to Get Lost
A Little Sermon by the
Way.

Buckskin Brady in the War Cry
There's a piece OF badland in the Big
Horn basin between the Big Horn
river an the mountains, called the
Devils Blowouts, ant is we'll named.
l had helped ter round up some of
the most impossible country in the
west, an had begun ter think that
! there Wus no place under the sun
where badlands, WashOuts, rocky
canyons, an alkaIi bog-holes he'd been
piled together thick enough ter cor
raj me er head me off roundup, an
| he'd felt fer sumtime that es fur es
personal experience Wus concerned [
! wus qualified ter take the bench agin
any cOw-chaser in the United States
when it cum down to a case OF bad
country by one who'd been there an
up ter the time | saw the Deil's Blow
outs Id have sent in er verdict in
favor OF er certain place erlOng the
Big Cheyenne river, where Jack Con-
way lost that bunch of government
packs, way back in the seventies;
since then l say the Devils BIowouts
again the world, an here's ter prove
it.
We hadn't been in them BIOwouts
morn an hour arter the OF man sent
us in ter round 'em up, till we cum
ter the conclusion that the devil had
sure huff had a hand in orderin that
particular piece of creation, an that
he had designed it as a sort of man
trap for ketchin' unfortunate cow
! punchers. Two of the boys went
down in er bog before we split up ter
do the circle, an if it hadn't Leen
that sum of us were quick and handy
they'd been there yet.
The Devils Blowouts is a rendyvoo
fer all the outlaw cattle an horses
for miles aroun' They are about
seven or eight miles across in any
direction, and are pretty well covered
with little hills of about $50 feet in
heit. These little hills are so near
the same heit and shape that yer ken
| hardly tell one from another. The
! general lay Of the country is level, so
that ter look across the hills from
the top they have the appearance of
an olGfashioned hay meadow, all
punched an ready fer the stock-yard.
! Not one hill in the hull track that
will serve as landmark, er point fer
observation. So, if by chance yer
| should git lost, there is not one single
point yer ken fasten yer eye on that
will guide yer out. You'd simply be
lost in a sea of hills, an this isn't the
worst, either, cause the valleys be-
tween the hills er completely cut up
! by badlands, washouts, rocky can
yons an alkali bog holes thatu
swamp er saddle blanket.
One time an Irishman, in writin'
ter his brother in the old country
about the west said: Say, Pat, tell
/ yer this county is all level but the
hills, an they say it's level under
them too" Well. the DEVILS Blow
outs er jest like that, only different
instead of the country bein' ''all level
under the hills. too" it's all level on
top of the hills, too, er that is the
levelest part
The hull Blowouts is covered with
trails. Trails in every canyon, trails
around every mill, trails across every
fiat, trails runnin' together from
every direction like the threads of a
spiders web; trails, trails, trails, till
you couldn't tell one from another.
| No matter in which way you travel
you'll find ere trail goin' that way,
too, and yet there's only one trail in
/ the hull bizness that will dodge the
alkali boys, clear the canyon an lead
yer out, an it runs straight across
from north ter south. If yer git off
this trail yer lost, an if yer any dis