The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-06-05

met the famous Jim Bridger. In a
scholarly biograpt of Bridger, J. Cecil
Alter has described the meeting Of these
two men as "love at first sight" Bridger
liked Gore and he soon became Cores
favored companion. Both were OF the
same race. Alter wrote: James Bridger
may have been the scum a., OF the earth
Gore he was diamond in the rough,
an unpublished gem in the clasp Of the
mountains" Bridger was enroute to
his farm near Kansas City when he met
Gore. He treated the nobleman IN
most casual manner as just another
and title was to Cores liking and he
persuaded Bridger to join the expedi-
ton as guide. For two years the men
were close companions. The Rocky
mountains were an open book to James
Bridger and he knew places where the
story telling at Fort Laramie, the ex-
pedition started gaily on its way north.
Game animals and birds fell before
the guns of Gore and his followers by
the thousands. No one knows just how
much game was killed but it is known
that at one hunting camp on the Vel
slain: Nothing but the tongues and a
small amount of choice meat was taken
and thousands of pounds of meat were
left to rot on the prairie. Gore himself
is said to have killed 1000 buffalo in
S one day. 5ef9sd Which ;1, vas Later
buffalo made up only small amount
Of the game killed, for elk, deer. noun
| tain sheep, antelope and small game
fell by the hundreds all along the
| route taken by the expedition. Thou
sands Of game birds and los grizzly
dreds of trophies skulls, antlers, skins,
birds, and horns. He was having the
| time Of his life hut he soon Woreaput
his welcome in the mountains. Trap
perS and Indians alike resented his
wholesale slaughter of the game. News
Of the expeditions killing reached the
halls of congress and a great deal of
! talk ensued and congress finally passed
laws protecting wild game in the west.
These were the first federal game laws
ever passed. The laws really meant lit
tie for there was no one in the west to
enforce them.
The Gore expedition was Jim Bridg-
er's last great adventure in the Rockies.
In speaking Of it later he said: "Sir
II O'Clock in the morning, when he took
his bath, ate his breakfast and set out
generally alone for the days hunt"
Gore would sometimes remain away
from his camp until 10 O'Clock at night.
On his return he invariably sat down
and recorded the days events in his
journal. Just what became of this
journal has not been ascertained. The
hours before retiring Gore usually spent
reading from one of the books of his
travelling library. He often read Shakes:
peare to Jim Bridger. Bridger cared
little for the writings of the Bard OF
Avon, but when Gore produced The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and
began to read from that volume the
frontiersman was deeply interested.
Bridger said later that many of his own
adventures would have been as inter-
esting as the Baron's "ef they were
writ down in a book"
The summer and fall of 1855 Gore
spent hunting and exploring the Big
Horn mountain range. Later he moved
to the Crow Indian country and did
some trading with the Indians and thus
adding many Indian trinkets to his
trophies. But by this time the Re dmen
were so enraged by his useless slaughter
of game that they began to make
trouble for the travellers by stealing
horses. Gore decided to return to st:
Louis and the party built flatboats and
floated down the Yellowstone and MIS-
souri, rivers to Fort Union, fort which
has figured largely in Montana history,
but which was actually 500 feet cast OF
the present Montana-North Dakota
border. The arrival of the titled hunter
meant little to residents of Fort Union
for they had become accustomed to1
nlingling with nobility and even roy.
atty when Prince Macmillan of Weld