The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-11-09

days trip instead Of journey Of SIX OF
seven weeks.

N1y . way AAAoVCeSA "a JOAAA4Sy We
seven weeks.
A young man named Belcher whom I
was acquainted with had left Denver
a few days ahead Of us. He was trav-
cling with a mule train outfit. After
one day we overlook his party, and
were going sc much faster than they
were Belcher thought he would get to
Alder Gulch soone by going with US.
There vas lots Of travel on the road
for the new diggin's, and we overlook
and passed most Of them, we were IN
such a hurry. This meant that most
Of the time we were travelling alone
and in danger from Indians, who
were troublesome on some parts OF the
road.
We we're without firearms except for
an old style Colts revolver I had
brought along, and a rusty little six
inch one Sullivan had with him.
We made good Roadway until we
came to Fort Bridger. We got there
just after the soldiers pay day, and our
horses were getting very leg weary. It
looked like every soldier in camp was
crowded around our outfit except the
boys on duty. They all brought can
teens, and we just had to sell them the
whisky! They stayed around our camp
fire all night, and what whisky they
didn't drink there they carried away in
canteens. We managed to save about
four gallons for u own use, which we
put in a demijohn and cached in the
brush. All the soldiers had plenty OF
money, and paid us a good price for
the whisky.
That night a soldier by the name Of
Shea deserted from the fort and start
ed for Alder gulch by way Of Lander's
cutoff. The next morning we thought
delays might be dangerous, so we hitch
ed up early and broke camp. We cross
ed Big Muddy creek and got down on
the Bear river where we found a good
road, very little travelled.
There was quite a valley between the
road and the river, and the river was
literally covered with wild ducks and
geese. It had been raining, and though
there were no wagon tracks or the
road We saw some fresh moccasin tracks
that set us to thinking. We Travelled
until late in the afternoon, and made
up u mind we would get as far away
from those moccasin tracks as pos
sible. We went down toward the river
to find a good camping place. We
found the ducks and geese quite tame.
as they evidently hadn't been hunted
any, and were quite plentiful.
While Sullivan was looking for O.
camping place he ran on to a s11ahH
spring where the ducks were as thick
as they could sit on the water. He
got close to them, got down on his
knee and fired at them with his little
old rusty revolver. The gun flew
apart, and the barrel in the course Of
its flight happened to light among the
ducks and killed three, so Sullivan came
back to the wagon with three ducks in
one hand and the stock OF his re-
volver in the other. He seemed great
ly to mourn the loss of his revolver for
fear he might need it to kill Indians
with; but since the ducks were the only
thing it had ever killed we concluded
he should be satisfied with its loss.
We Travelled farther to a bend in the
river, where a point Of the hill came
down to the road. There was a large
spring of cold, clear water here, and
across the point Of the hill was a bride
path, a cutoff for horsemen. A mile
farther on we came to a horseshoe
bend in the river, and there made a
camp. I took the horses a short ways
from camp and hobbled them. Suli-
van went a short distance from the
wagon and lit a fire to cook supper.
Belcher was in the wagon loading our
revolver.
AS I looked toward the hill I saw nine
or 10 horsemen coming over the bride
path. They were coming single file IN
Indian fashion, and as we had seen
signs of Indians earlier in the day we
could think of nothing else. We had
passed fresh graves Of Indian victims,
i-;lloa a fou dana bof0re co the soldiers