Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-07-02
KILL ONLY BUFFALO
Hunters Stay Cow Running With
a StoCkman'S Herd.
Declared to Be the Last Wild Bison
Of All the Millions That Once
Roamed at Will in
South Dakota.

Guthrie, Okla-"Just about a year
ago my ranch partner, Phil Ellison.
helped kill the last range buffalo in
South Dakota" said Emmert Ander-
son, stalwart former Oklahoman,
who came here to visit his parents.
Anderson and Ellison have a cattle
ranch at RattIesnake Butte, and get
their mail at the little postoffice town
of Dupree, which is 100 miles north
east of Pierre.
This buffalo was a cow said An
derson, "and about fourteen years old
She was a full blood, and the last of
millions that once r0amed that coun-
try. Her presence had been known
for long time, and the cowboys pro-
tected her For the last five or six
years she had kept with the hard Of
a cattle man named Simon Lutz.
About IA years ago three wild buff
falo came from the north and were
seen on the Lutz range. One Of the
COWS dropped a calf, and this calf
shortly became the only wild buffalo
in that part Of South Dakota, as it's
mother and her two companions were
killed by hunters
after this COW began going with the
Lutz herd, she grew more or less ac-
quainted with Lutz, and would not
stampede when he came in sight,
though he was never able to get close
to her The moment a stranger ap.
peared, however, the COW broke for
the hills and remained in hiding until
LIE disappeared, but she could Outrun
the feetest horse, and nobody ever
succeeded in roping her.
about a year ago Chuck Hall,
butcher at Faith, S. D.; Ed Carr, and
Phil Ellison QUILTED and started after
the cow They got sight Of her in
day or two, and gradually drew closer
to where she was grazing. Carr
stalked her from behind a hill when
the wind was favorable. Peering over
the ridge, Carr saw the COW not more
than hundred yards distant His
first shot merely wounded her, and
she charged viciously upon him. A
second shot brought her down. Hall
has her head mounted in his butcher
shop at Faith
"On this same hunt, and in the same
locality where the buffalo COW was
found, these hunters made another kill
that added a trophy to their expedi-
ton.
For nine years there had been an
outlaw steer of giant size ranging the
country. His color was solid white.
and he could be seen for miles GA
bright, sunshiny day His horns were
Of phenomenal size and breadth. He
carried the brand of the old Turkey
Track ranch, once one Of the most
widely known outfits in the west, and
whose headquarters were far down in
the Texas Panhandle, where the bat
tie between buffalo hunters and big
war party Of Comanche Indians took
place in the early '70s.
"The most persistent effort extend
ing through period of years failed to
get this old steer to the railroad when
cattle shipments were made. He would
drift in for miles, but seemed to have
a kind of uncanny intuition Of final
danger, and at night would sneak
away from the herd and return to his
old freedom. Usually steer will stay
with the herd to the end.
Hall and his companions shot the
old fellow and his horns are hanging
in the butcher shop at Faith. He had
been a moving landmark for years in
that part Of South Dakota, and like
the buffalo COW, was perhaps the last
of his kind, as the old Turkey Track
ranch is gone, and cattle no longer
are brought up the trail from the Pan
handle country to the north"