Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-07
Antelope Nearly Vanished
From American Fields
-FOUR Dumb Animalsl

[Our Dumb Animalsl
Next to the buffalo, the most nu-
merous animal in the United States
no more than fifty years ago, was
the pronghorn antelope. About half
the size of the deer. but a bit more
compactly built, this dainty, fleet,
little animal ranged the plains coun-
try, from the Missouri river west
ward almost, if not quite, to the
Pacific ocean in places.
Along the north Pacific coast it
was unknown among the forested
mountains, but southwark, along the
arid stretches of territory, it ranged
clear to the sea. North and south
it ranged from far northward in the
Canadian country east of the Rock
les (but not so far north to west
ward of these mountains) down clear
across the United States and Ear
southwark into Mexico.
Antelope were dry country ami
mails and were always found wher-
ever sagebrush, bunch grass and the
short, curly, buffalo grass existed.
Outside of the arid regions the an
telope range was more or less re-
stricted, though they did range scat
of what is now the corn belt" of
eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Okla
homa, Texas and probably to some
extent into Missouri, Iowa and Min
nesota.
Their favorite range, however, was
the plains country just east of the
Rocky mountains, where they mi
grated with the seasons from AL
berta to Mexico and between the
Rocky and West coast ranges from
the Big Bend of the Columbia in
Washington, southwark to the gulf
of southern California and the
Mexican west coast.
These animals are the only true
antelope found in either of the
Americas, and are interesting from
good many standpoints. Fifty
years ago they ranged the plains in
immense herds, keeping fat and
thriving in the dry sage plains
ated that any animal must perish
eor want of feed and water.
l have seen, on Laramie plains, in
Wyoming. not later than thirty
years ago, herds containing from
500 to 10000 individuals, and this
was about the typical distribution
Trainmen of the Union Pacific
Railroad, who ran through the an
telope country, know that their
trains oftentimes plowed through
big herds of antelope, killing many
of them, and tossing them right and
left in piles of dead and injured-in
fact, this was common through
Wyoming.
The pronghorn is still in existence
on it's old range here and there, but
mostly only in small isolated areas
where forest reserves or some other
reservation or condition has given
them a chance to survive. Over al
most all of the thousands of square
miles that used to be their home
they have vanished and even their
bones were picked up along with
those of the buffalo and sent by
trainloads to the fertilizer factories
to be ground up and sent back to
the land.
I knew the pronghorn intimately,
for ranged the sage plains with
him for a number of years. l
watched him live his daily life, oc-
casionally shot O wolf and tried to
get a fawn, and occasionally shot
the antelope himself when short of
meat and needing him to eat. An
telope meat is not very attractive to
white mans palate, as it is
stringy, tough and dry, and has
somewhat the flavor of goat meat.
In the old days we very much pre-
ferred venison or buffalo and killed
antelope to eat only when forced to.
The pronghorn was the best run
ner of the plains animals and had
good endurance when it came to
long distance running, so it usually
was able to take care of itself very
we'll
It's one outstanding trait was in
tense curiosity. This very often led
to its undoing, for all we had to do
to get n shot was to crawl out into
the sagebrush to n position within q
quarter of mile or less of a
bunch" of antelope, and then stick
our hat or shirt or almost any OBJ
ject up on top of the gun barrel and
wave 1t about, then drop 1t down,
raise 1t. drop 1t, ETC., until the an
telope came within range, which he
was certain to do because he could
not understand this new moving OBJ
ject and could not resist coming up
to investigate. We used to call this
"fagging." and 1t was a common
way of hunting a single head for
meat.
Indians drove antelope herds into
natural corrals or box canyons and
killed them by hundreds sometimes
for meat and skins. The buclskin
made from antelope hide was white
and soft. but not so strong as deer
hide, being more porous, like sheep
skin.
Eagles killed many of the fawns
and they micsed killing many others
because the mother would rear up
and fight with her front feet. keep
hing the fnwn under her and gradu-
ally working to some sagebrush or