The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-05-01
THE GREATEST OF ALL HERDS.
Ihirty-Two Thousand Elk In one
Band In the Jackson's Hole
District, wyoming.

JackSOnS Hole dlStr1ct,.tf yOmlnS.
There are, at this writing, estimated
to be some 80 900 head of elk in the
band. The men who have given this
estimate are well-known ranchers
and scattlemen, or cowboys and own
erss of sheep and stock ranges. Their
estimate comes pretty close to being
a correct one. During the severe
winters in Wyoming, when the elk,
driven BY the bitter cold and heavy
SHOWS, approach almost to their very
doors, they have unusual opportuni-
ties for observing this great herd OF
magnificent animals, reports the
Kansas City Star.
All the elk in Jackson's Hole dis
triet are carefully protected by the
scattered residents of the country.
At present the herd is under the COM
slant surveillance of two deputy game
wardens, while district game wardens
watch the band whenever any por-
ton of it strays into the district over
which they have authority. In the
summertime the herd is widely scat
tered over-an extent of country the
radius of which is more than 500.
miles, embracing territory of vir-
ginal beauty and primeval grandeur.
Of those elk which enter Colorado
large percentage is killed, while the
few which stray into Utah fall at the
hands of the Uintah Ute Indians. The
elk Which wander too far from home
are not killed in the summer, but in
the late fall.
BY far the larger portion of the
herd which is guarded in the winter
in Jackson's Hole passes the summer
in the timbered heights in the Teton,
eros Ventre, and Shoshone noun
tains, the Big Horn Basin, the yell
lowstone National Park, and even in
the free range near the settlement
of Jackson itself. One gentleman last
summer counted a herd of 500 elk
| within two and half miles of Jack
| son.
Within the last five years the elk
have decreased 1,s00 in number. This
alarming decrease is due as much to
the restriction of their natural range
as to the efforts of sportsmen, In
| dams, or commercial hunters, who,
it is often alleged, have pursued the
herd in order to obtain the much
| priced elk's teeth for a certain fra
| ternity. In severe winter weather a
| great number of elks perish from
starvation. Rather than venture to
the lower pastures, they founder
through the deep SHOWS of the noun
tains, browsing from the buds of
birch and quaking aspen. A thaw,
followed by severe cold weather,
makes a heavy crust that proves the
undoing of the emaciated elk. Then
progress becomes so difficult as to
| prevent the animal from obtaining
sufficient food.
It is often Incorrectly stated that
frs. If this were the case they
would never starve, for their range
abounds in conifers. Very few elk
are pulled down by wolves, cougar,
or other wild animals; in fact, they
remain in the mountain attitudes long
after the deep SHOWS have driven
these hungry marauders away, and
the spring thaws reveal untouched
carcasses of starved elks.
Elk are far and free travellers
They have not that strong love Of
. locality which characterizes most
members of the deer tribe, and wheI
they once get under way they swing
over the toughest ground an6
through dense forests of pine, uI
steep mountains covered with fairly
impenetrable brush and windfalls, al
almost the pace of locomotive. The
big herd in Jackson's Hole is con
siderable source of income to the res
idents of that country, and as sucl
it is as carefully guarded as is posi-
BILE in so wild and rough a region.
couple of years ago newspaper cor
respondent who had made the tri]
into Yellowstone park went furthe
into the Jackson's Hole country.
Alarmed by the sight of fence o
whitened elk horns, he wrote his ed
itor an article upon the indiscrimi
nate slaughter of the elk. He was mis-
!, , taken, however. All these horns ar
shed by the elk in the early sprin:
and are gathered during the cattl
round-ups. In the fall when the ell
are shot the horns are fastened firm
ly to the skull, and unless one ex
poets to have them separately mount
ed as trophies he does not troubl
to detach them.
In their mental equipment elk ar
like cattle, caribou, and reindeer
They do not possess the instinctiy
cunning of most members of the dee
: tribe. One will sometimes see a ban
: laboriously paving the snow for pas
ture in some deep-covered valley
: while the SUBMITS and hog-back
have been blown clear by the win(
= Deer, horses, and even sheep exhibi
keener reasoning in this respec
Only cratic methods of travel an
: habits of migration, together wit
:. their tendency to retreat as far a
; possible from the outposts of civilizs
ton. have made the existence of