The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-03-27
CHAPTER THREE

We now knew that the indians would
not bother us any more until the next
spring So we settled down to enjoy
ourselves 1t had been showing
several days and the game had about
all left the mountains. We kept our
horses upon the tops of the hills
where the wind had blown all the
snow off. About once week we had
to change them to some other hill.
The first thing every morning
we began skinning the beavers
and stretching them over hoops
made of willows. Thus matters
went on until Christmas. Like
Robinson Crusoe, l had cut a
notch in the door jam every day, and
on counting them I found that it
was December "a, 1878.
Heretofore, we had venison and
beans for breakfast, beans and veni-
son for dinner and broth venison and
beans for supper. So on account OF
the day when they found the little
Fellow in the manger, we thought
we would make change in our COM
missary department. This is what we
had for our Christmas dinner: Hot
baking powder biscuit, roast venison,
both black and white tail; roast deer
head; roast cotton tail; stewed pine
hen; fried white fish and beaver tail
soup
We spent the next three days
meditating on that dinner. We spent
the long evening making moccasins
for ourselves and buckskin gloves to
sell to the miners. Each one of us
also made himself a complete suit
of buckskin and we needed heavy
clothing in this country, for it must
have been at least forty-five degrees
below zero. We also made two pairs
of snowshoes, which were veryhandy
In the meantime it kept on snow
ing, finally it got so deep that we
thought it best to move the horses
down on the river BY the first of
February we had caught all the
beaver in that vicinity and the
snow was so deep that it interfered
with our trapping operations.
We cached al of our furs and
started for our dug-out on Lost river.
The snow bothered SO much that ira
vel was exceedingly slow. On the
third day out we came to wide
meadow with willows along the creek.
In these willows there was fine feed
and the snow was only about two
feet deep and not drifted, so the
horses could easily paw down to the
grass. This wes the finest meadow
we had seen dan Latham's ranch) ,
so we camped here three days, letting
the horses rest and at the end Of
that time started out in fine shape
and made the balance of the distance
in two days.
There was 2bout eighteen inches of
snow at the dug out and it took three
days to fix up our camp. We then
started to. string our straps for otter.
When we had them all set they were
strung along the river for five miles.
The mountain lions were so thick and
hungry that we were forced to build
a shed to protect our horses and we
drove them into this shed every night
and fastened them in.
Before spring we had shot II Of
these lions, besides IS lynx and wild
cats and we caught 10 otter and 40
mink. At our upper camp on Ante
lope we had taken 100 beaver, II
red fox, eight cross fox, 16 mink and
one fine fox. This was more than
we could have made hunting for the
Yankee Fork people. AS the snow
melted off our trapping was at an
end for that season, but we intended
to look over the country and see If
we could find enough beaver sign to
pay us to stay over another season.
We now took everything from the
dug-out camp and started up the
river. We followed the river up for
20 miles or more to where small
stream emptied into it .(Alder creek),
we followed this stream to it's source,
but saw few beaver sign. But the
sign of the Hudson. Bay trappers were
every where In evidence. They had
skinned the cream from the beaver
ponds. After following this stream
back down to where:it left the hills
(Chris Rodgers raneh), we turned
south and followed around the foot
hills to another very small creek
(Sheep canyon). Here we again
struck our old friends the ground
hogs and at once proceeded to make
meal of him. We followed this
stream a couple of miles until it
forked. Here we camped, as game
was plentiful, we thought it might be