Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1909-01-28
Game


Elk and deer abounded and the set
tiers easily took them in large num-
bers for food and for their skins, until
the severe winter of 1897, after which
they We're never so plenty.
| have heard Uncle Natty Hamlin
tell of killing she bear and cubs near
where Mn Joe Wheeler now lives on
Troublesome. They were travelling
from the direction of "Towhead' in
what is now Section 6 in Audubon
Township, southeast towards the
timber, and Mr.. Hamlin's dogs found
and chased them. Other remains Of
bear We're found ON Section 2l in the
''Big Grove" in Extra township,
showing positively that bear once
lived here. William IIamlin killed a
buffalo on Buck Creek in the early
settlement, and Bryant Milliman and
John Crane about the same time saw
and chased wild buffalo west of where
Atlantic is now situated while trav-
cling to Council Bluffs. | saw in a
newspaper in 1865 that large wild
buffalo was killed in Dallas county.
1t is we'll known that wild buffalo
were found in the northwest part of
the state as late as 1866 and probably
later. Dwight West and Perll Smith
tell me that they found buffalo horns
on the prairie during the early years
OF their settlement here.
There was we'll defined beaver
down on the Botna about mile above
Extra as late as 1866 Perk Smith
says he saw beaver signs" there
where they had cut down trees as
large as a stove pipe with their teeth
Uncle John Jenkins once told me
that he had counted over one hundred
elk in a band on the high point west
OF the Botna just south of West Extra
In the spring of 1866 | visited that
spot and found a large elk skull with
noble setof antlers attached. partly
decayed and gnawed by wolves, the
largest ! ever saw, nearly six feet in
length Elk horns were found plenti-
fully on the prairie at that time
where the animals had been killed or
where they had shed them A large
set of horns would weigh twenty five
pounds or more and it is a fact that
they were shed annually in the Win
s1ny ca nah,
during the summer and at first of the
consistency of cheese, having a beau
tiful delicate covering During that
period they We're said to be in the
"velvet" the covering resembling that
material. The last bands of elk were
in the west and northwest parts of
the county on Indian Creek, Blue
Grass and the West Botna. Lone
Willow Greek was a famous resort.
They disappeared about 1871. Among
the last of the hunters to kill elk were
John Huntley, Stephen Bowdish and
Frank Harrington: possibly Christie
pher Luccock, and the Indians got
some about that time.
There.were some transient hunters
livingiin the little grove on the west
county line in Section IS, Douglas
township who killed considerable
number of elk in 1869, in that
vicinity, one of whom was killed by
lightning tate in the fall or early
winter of 1868 His body was covered
with snow and found the next spring
with his rifle near him. A thunder
storm was known to have occurred at
the time he was lost and from the
appearance OF his body and gun which
was broken, it was reported that he
was killed by lightning. There were
rumors that he met his death by foul
means. His body was found several
miles north of his camp and it was
said that he appeared to have been
following Elk tracks when killed.
Wild geese, duck, swans and sand
hill cranes were more or less plentiful
in the spring and fall months for
many years. Howard j. Green who
came in 1886, told me that he had