The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1941-01-16
Biz Game In Montana From
Early Historical Records
by MRs KOCH

Oh 64Ed
(NOTE-This is the third in
stallment of a series of articles de-
scribing big game conditions in
Montana and adjacent territory at
the time the white man was first
penetrating this district)
THIRD NSTALLMENT
The account OF the Yellowstone
expedition of 1868, led by James
Stuart, is probably the last de-
scription of the big game days in
the three forks Of the Missouri be-
fore the tide of gold seekers swept
in. Crossing these valleys in April
1853, en- route from Bannock to the
Yellowstone, Stuart records: Be
tween Sinking Water and Madison,
saw elk and sheep; saw plenty deer
and antelope on Madison, also twen-
ty elk, black bear, buffalo. In Gal
latin Valley saw black tail, white
tail, and twenty elk, plenty geese,
ducks and prairie chicken, 4 or 5
black bear In Bozeman Pass be-
tween Gallatin and Yellowstone saw
100 elk, killed grizzly bear"
1t is perhaps not generally real
lied how far eastern Montana lag
ged behind the western valleys in
settlement At time when Mis-
soula, Helena, Virginia City and
Bozeman were thriving towns, with
4stoses, restaurants and banks, and
Ia Surrounding of well developed
ranches, the Yellowstone Valley
Judith Basin, and Missouri Valley
were still almost primitive wilder
ness, teeming with game herds, and
guarded by roaming bands of Black
feet Sioux, and Crow Indians, who
made travel possible only at the
risk of life and scalp.
General Edward S. Godfrey is re-
sponsible for the statement that ir
1876 there was not a ranch wesi
of Bismarck, N D., nor east Of
Bozeman, Mont.
After the Fort Phil Kearney
massacre in December, 1866, the
Government ordered all forts aban.
doned and the Bozeman road up the
Yellowstone closed to travel The
plains Indians, in particular tht
westward by the encroaching tide
of settlement, and were in no mooe
to give road to the white man. The
Yellowstone Valley and Bozemar
Pass, which was the most direc
route to the settlements of Mon,
tana, was as effectively closed a!
if it had been locked and barred
! The Custer campaign of 1875
marked the inevitable end of tht
Indian domination of the country
and in 1883 the completion of the
Northern Pacific Railroad definite
ly put close to the Montana from
tier period.
Buffalo Herds Exterminated
y The determination of the buffalo
herds followed close on the heel
LOT the railroad. Theodore Roose
welt, in Hunting Trips of Ranch
man." writes: 1.-The last OF the grea1
southern herds was destroyed ir
1878, though scattered herds escaped
and wandered into the desolate
wastes of the Southwest. Mean
while, equally savage war was
waged on the northern herds, anc
i i've years later the last of these
was also destroyed and broken up
The bulk of the slaughter was done
in the dozen years from 1872 t6
1888; never bAfore in all history
were so many73arge wild animal.
OF one species slain in SO short s
time"
Roosevelt's description of hunting
in the vicinity of his Little Mis-
souri, ranch in 1885 gives a gooo
idea of the reduction in game BY
that time. He says, Five years
ago elk were abundant in the val
ley of the Little Missouri, and ir
fall were found wandering in great
herds of over q hundred individuals
each. But they have now vanished
completely, except that one or two
may lurk in some of the most re.
mote and broken places, where
there are still deep wooded ra-
vines" A few scattered individual
buffalo were left, and Roosevelt
shot a couple in 1888. The grizzly
bear at that time had been com
pletely exterminated in the plain.
country. Whitehall deer were still
fairly abundant in the river bot
toms, and black-tail deer and sheer
in the bad lands.
The original range of the buffalo
in Montana included all of the
plains country in eastern Montana
and all of the open valleys in thu
West. 1t is notable that Lewis an6
y 49, 1.xk$ ~1
west of the Gates of the Noun.
tains on the Missouri. They die
not see them on any of the three
forks of the Missouri, or in the Bit
terroot or Clark Fork valleys. Thi.
must have been a temporary condi
ton, since several explorers subse
quently report them farther west
i Alexander Ross, in March 1924
4 found plenty Of buffalo in the BIZ
Hole Basin, as did Mullan in De