The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-14

Each year the supply Of big game in
tne Rocky mountains is rapidly diminish
ing, and, in spite of the stringent game
laws enforced by strict game War1ens
Sue hunter who can take month off
mails ca ~ some OF the really big ami
yloual Two generations ago hundreds of
Larry hunters tramped and trapped over
tne great backbone of the American CON
unent. and made their livelihood off tba
hioes and pelts taken from Americas big
SdIne; Ihose same men probably thought
h trs,n lot was hard one and would gladly
nave changed places with the city bred
man of business of the present day. In
those days game was plentiful and those
west turned TO hunting as about the onIv
known method of making living beyond
the confines of civilization.
generation ago. the game was much
scarcer, but still bear, elk deer buffalo
me untain sheep and goat roamed at will
over TINS vast 1ntermountain country and
no greater enjoyment could be had af
that time than hunt for the pIeasure
on hunting, in which the hunters effort
was rewarded with all the big game. he
desired to kill. The hunting and killing
o. big game as a business has long since
ceased as advancing civilization has
0Ilven the big game from the
grass covered lOwlands TO the rocky noun
tain sides too steep for pasture land for
the domesticated animals
6ut even then game abounded in the
much trouble could easily find plenty of
sport in a months outing in the noun
tains.
Year by year this supply has sradualIy
decreased, until today the hunter who
can locate band of sheep, herd of deer
or elk: few goats and a scattering of
bear, is considered lucky by his friends
iron the entire western part of the
American continent perhaps the best
place today to hunt for big game is the
tana.
To this place last month a party Of
salt Lake hunters found their way and
after two weeks tramping up and down
the peaks and crags of the widest part
or this wild range their efforts were re-
wsrded with a fairly good sized bag Of
say nothing of the smaller field game and
largest sized trout in the virgin streams
or that part of the country
Personnel of the Party.
The party consisted of w. H Parker.
X c. Dustin, DIR. IT. S. Scott. L. E.
Klter and DR.. E. A. Trip. Leaving Salt
Lake; the party. took the train to Drum
mond, Mont. where a stage trip of sixty
miles brought them to Ovanda, Mont,
well within the Kootenai range. Here
OUTFIT consisting OF twenty-four head Of
horses, twelve beagle and Russian
POUNDS, a guide. cook and horse wrang-
ard tenting outfits.
The guide was man who knows his
business and is considered by hunters
the world His name is Joseph StadIer,
and besides having a great amount of ex-
perience In the Montana mountains.
Stadler learned his business while game
keeper on the vast preserves Of Baron
Rothschild on the borders of Germany and
Austria. His wife was the cook and
while the members of the party have NO
complaint on Stadler's ability thew saw
bis wife is even better as a cook than
ne is a guide.
Armed with this sort of an outfit tbey
packed into Swan river valley, where hero
and there a stray ranch house was the
lest vistage Of civilization Leavinp his
valley, IL took them three days to brealx
their way into the Businesses of the Lcoote-
mai mountains, two hundred miles from,
the railroad and to a spot seldom If ever
trod by human feet Here nothing hnt
dense timber or rocky mountain crags
could be seen in every direction.
Ritter Gets First Blood.
The party had hardly made the first
camp when the rifle of L. E. Ritter Cracked
and a deer fell within fifty yards of the
camp. 1t was the partys first fresh
meat, and from that time until the hunt
ers returned for home a fresh yenison
steak meant a trip OF but a few hundred
yards from the camp.
They were right in the heart of the
deer country and the guide told them
there were thousands within a radius of
a few miles from where the camp stood
But the Rocky mountain goat. one of
, the hardest game animals in America to
find one OF the hardest to get after it