The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-03-04

and having a dozen or more mules packed
with stores and camp e%quipage. The mum
had much to do with preventing Indian
attacks. They boosted of having had good
sport in killing buffalo, placing the num-
Der they had slaughtered at 1000. They
nad slain IN pure wantonness, just for
There were the mOnOmaniacs Of slaugh-
ter, the game hogs" whose kind flour
ished in the west from the time when the
where the red native killed wild creatures
ohly to provide themselves with food and
the other necessities of life.
Sir George Gore
Back in 1854, great excitement and in
dlgnat1on was aroused in the northwestern
territories, including what is now Mon
tana, among the scattering white Dopula-
ton OF trapperS and traders by the COM
ing to the plains and Rocky Mountain re-
glon OF the priZe-winning "game-hog' of
al history whose exploits still form q ira
dlrlOn among the Crow Indians. He was
a titled freshman, Sir George Gore, an &C.
centric and rather picturesque character
VINO spent three years in the Rocky Noun
tain region merely because he had a love
for adventure and a lust to Stay game.
The expedition of Sir George Gore was
the most p~retentious ever taken into the
Iar west by individual enterprise or mere
~ Tor pleasure. The retinue of this Eighty
lriShman consisted of 43 men, 10 horses.
II yoke of cattle, six wagons, p carts, and
II Jugs 4uG SuluG was LUek famous Jim
Brldger, known In history as 1.-The Daniel
Boone of the Rocky Mountains" OF this
expedition, Lieutenant j. II. Bradley, SOL
der and historian, says:
Following up the valleys of the main
and North Platte river, hunting as he
went, he finally crossed to the mouth of
Tongue river, where he built a fort for the
protection of his men and remained for
nine months, trading with the Indians and
pursuing his hunting projects. The de-
struction of game by his party was so
great that the indignation of the Crow
Indians was excited and they sent a re-
monstrance to the Indian department.
They said they objected to wholesale
slaughter for sO-called sport, the carcasses
being left to rot on the prairie. From a
letter OF Col. A. j. Vaughn, then Indian
agent on the Upper Missouri, to the super
intendent of Indian affairs at st. Louis,
No., dated in July, 1856, it appears that
100 bear, Upward of 1900 buffalo and in
Vulnerable elk, antelope and deer had al
ready fallen victims to the first real game
hog of the west. At last, in retaliation.
the Indians drove off about half of his
horses in one raid and the following win
ter: while he was wintering between Fort
Union and Fort Berthold, made a clean
sweep of the remainder"
At Fort Union
Sir George was not received with much
warmth at Fort Union by Major gilbert
son, who was not favOrably impressed with
the reports he had heard of the nobleman.
However, the factor agreed to have two
hat-bOttOmed boats built for the hunter,
who wished to descend the Missouri i'm
them to st. Louis. The American Fur
company also agreed to buy Sir Georges
wagons and equipment at some stipulated
price. When the boats were finished, there
was q misunderstanding as to the terms
Of the bargain, and the Irishman fancied
that, because of his remoteness, the COM
pany was trying to take advantage Of his
necessities. He seems to have been mer-
curlal, reckless and easily stirred to pas
sion, and needless of the consequences, he
would not accept the terms offered. He
accordingly burned his wagons and all the
Indian goods and the supplies not needed,
IN 'front.' of the fort, guarding the fire from
whites and Indians who might have sal
yaged some of the articles. He even
waited till the irons of the wagons and
carts cooled, and then threw them into the
river: his cattle and what horses he had
left he sold or gave away to vagabond
hangers-on at the post.
The Sane Hunters
There were, it is true, many men such
as the Earl OF Dunraven, DR.. Allen and
others, who came west and hunted western
game as did the Indian, for meat or trO-
phies, but the final extinction Of the bison
and other wild game on the prairies was
accomplished by the most cowardly n
inhuman methods.
The commercial slaughter of the bison
and the sale Of buffalo Hides reached vast
proportions in the seventies. In st. Louis,
one firm received 100000 robes in 1871.
There were many trading posts dealing In
these and smaller peltries. In Cheyenne. in
1872 there was at the Union Pacific tracks
"a shed that measured 175 feet long, go feet
wide, and 80 feet high, and this was liter
ally so packed with buffalo hides that the
walls bulged. Fort Benton, Montana, sent
$4,000 buffalo hides to the st. Louis mar
ket in 1876. 1t is estimated that from 1872
to 1874 there we're 1,78O,461 buffalo killed
and wasted, the meat being left to rot on
the plains, the hides only being utilized.
During this same time, also, 3,158,7s0 were
killed by white hunters and the hides
transported over the Santa Re Trail. Add
to these figures the $4,000 killed by the
Indians during those years and yO1 have
a grand total of 3,698.780. By 1877 the
great southern herd bad been extermiaate3.
The Hid Hunters
Colonel Harry Young states that one
hunter, Kirt Jordan, in Ford county, Kan
sas, held a record of having killed 100 buff
Ialo aC one stand. Colonel Young also
described the mule" method of removing
the hides, leaving the carcasses to the ele-
ments and the coyotes. But a very few
years saw the northern herd pass in much
the anne manner.
The most conspicuous person engaged in
the killing Of bison was the late Colonel
William r.. Cody, more familiarity known
as Buffalo Bill', which sobriQuet has been
a household word for more than, half a
century. In 1867, when the Kansas Pa
ei1c was being built across the claims to
Denver, Cody, then a young man, was en-
pl0yed at 5000 a month to keep the army
of workers supplied with meat. He was
engaged in this work for eighteen months,
during which time he killed on an average
eight buffalo a day.
Buffalo Bones
When, in the sixties, the vast army Of
~arg0nauts trekked the plains westward
toward the new "dfggings'' Of Idaho, the
pralries were ii many places fairly white
with the bleached bones Of buffalo. Little.