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030 - Part III Chapter 2 The Smithsonian Expedition for Museum Specimens The Hunt · Extermination of the American Bison

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty nine of the Extermination of the American Bison.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Extermination of the American Bison
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  Speaker 1: by William T. Hornaday, a Smithsonian expedition for Museum Specimens,
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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter two, The Hunt, Part one. On September
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourth, I arrived at Miles City a second time,
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  Speaker 1: fully equipped for a protracted hunt for buffalo, of this
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  Speaker 1: time accompanied only by W. Harvey Brown, a student of
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  Speaker 1: the University of Kansas, as field assistant, having previously engaged
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  Speaker 1: three cowboys as guides and hunters. Irwin Boyd, James mcnaney
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  Speaker 1: and L. S. Russell. Messrs Boyd and Russell were Miles
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  Speaker 1: City awaiting my arrival, and mister mcnaney joined us in
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  Speaker 1: the field a few days later. Mister Boyd acted as
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  Speaker 1: my foreman during the entire hunt, a position which he
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  Speaker 1: filled to my entire satisfaction. Thanks to the energy and
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  Speaker 1: goodwill of the officers at Fort Keyele, of which Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Cochrane was then in command, our transportation, camp, equipage,
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  Speaker 1: and stores were furnished without an hour's delay. We purchased
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  Speaker 1: two months supplies of commissary stores, a team, and two
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  Speaker 1: saddle horses, and hired three more horses, a light wagon
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  Speaker 1: and a set of double harness. Each of the cowboys
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  Speaker 1: furnished one horse, so that in our outfit we had
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  Speaker 1: ten head, a team, and two good saddle horses for
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  Speaker 1: each hunter. The worst feature of the whole question of
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  Speaker 1: subsistence was the absolute necessity of hauling a supply of
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  Speaker 1: grain from Miles City into the heart of the Buffalo Country.
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  Speaker 1: For our ten horses, for such work as they had
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  Speaker 1: to encounter, it was necessary to feed them constantly and
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  Speaker 1: liberally with oats in order to keep them in condition
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  Speaker 1: to do their work. We took with us two thousand
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  Speaker 1: pounds of oats, and by the beginning of November as
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  Speaker 1: much more had to be hauled up to us. Thirty
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  Speaker 1: six hours after our arrival in Miles City, our outfit
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  Speaker 1: was complete, and we crossed the yellow Stone and started
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  Speaker 1: up the Sunday Creek trail. We had from Fort Keyle
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  Speaker 1: a six mule team, an escort of four men in
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  Speaker 1: charge of sergeant bailiffs, and an old veteran of more
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  Speaker 1: than twenty years service from the fifth Infantry, Private Patrick mccanna,
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  Speaker 1: whose detail to act as cook and camp guard for
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  Speaker 1: our party during our stay in the field. On September
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  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, we reached Toe's Ranch the h V on
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  Speaker 1: Big Dry Creek erroneously called Big Timber Creek on most
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  Speaker 1: maps of Montana, at the mouth of Sand Creek, which
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  Speaker 1: here flows into it from the southwest. This point is
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  Speaker 1: said to be ninety miles from Miles City, and here
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  Speaker 1: we received our freight from the six mule wagon, loaded
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  Speaker 1: it with bleached skeletons and skulls of buffalo, and started
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  Speaker 1: it back to the post. One member of the escort,
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  Speaker 1: Private C. S. West, who was then on two months furlough,
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  Speaker 1: elected to join our party for the hunt, and accordingly
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  Speaker 1: remained with us to its close, leaving half our freight
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  Speaker 1: stored at the h V ranch. We loaded the remainder
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  Speaker 1: upon our own wagon and started up Sand Creek. At
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  Speaker 1: this point the hunt began. As the wagon and extra
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  Speaker 1: horses proceeded up the Sand Creek trail in the care
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  Speaker 1: of W. Harvey Brown, the three cowboys and I pared off,
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  Speaker 1: and while two hunted through the country along the south
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  Speaker 1: side of the creek, the others took the north. The
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  Speaker 1: whole of the country bordering Sand Creek quite up to
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  Speaker 1: its source, consists of rugged hills and ridges, which sometimes
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  Speaker 1: rise to considerable height, cut between my great yawning ravines
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  Speaker 1: and hollows such as persecuted game loves to seek shelter in.
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  Speaker 1: Inasmuch as the buffalo we were in search of had
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  Speaker 1: been seen hiding in those ravines, it became necessary to
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  Speaker 1: search through them with systematic thoroughness, a proceeding which was
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  Speaker 1: very wearing upon our horses. Along the south side of
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  Speaker 1: Sand Creek, near its source, the divide between it and
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  Speaker 1: Little Dry Creek culminates in a chain of high, flat
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  Speaker 1: topped buttes whose summits bare a scanty growth of stunted
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  Speaker 1: pines which served to make them conspicuous landmarks. On some maps,
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  Speaker 1: these insignificant little buttes are shown as mountains under the
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  Speaker 1: name of Piny Buttes. It was our intention to go
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  Speaker 1: to the head of Sand Creek and beyond, in case
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  Speaker 1: buffaloes were not found earlier. Immediately westward its source there
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  Speaker 1: is a lofty level plateau about three miles square, which,
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  Speaker 1: by common consent we called the High Divide. It's the
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  Speaker 1: highest ground anywhere between the Big Dry and the Yellowstone,
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  Speaker 1: and is the starting point of streams that run northward
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  Speaker 1: into the Missouri and Big Dry, eastward into Sand Creek
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  Speaker 1: and the Little Dry, southward into Porcupine Creek and the
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  Speaker 1: yellow Stone, and westward into the Mussel Shell. On three sides, north,
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  Speaker 1: east and south, it is surrounded by wild and rugged
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  Speaker 1: butte country, and its sides are scored by intricate systems
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  Speaker 1: of great, yawning ravines and hollows, steep sided and very deep,
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  Speaker 1: and bad lands of the worst description. By the twelfth
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  Speaker 1: of October, the hunt had progressed up Sand Creek to
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  Speaker 1: its source and westward across High Divide to Calf Creek,
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  Speaker 1: where we found a whole of wretchedly bad water and
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  Speaker 1: went into permanent camp. We consider that the spot we
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  Speaker 1: selected would serve us as a key to the promising
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  Speaker 1: country that lay on three sides of it, and our
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  Speaker 1: surmise that the buffalo were in the habit of hiding
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  Speaker 1: in the heads of those great ravines around the High
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  Speaker 1: Divide soon proved to be correct. Our camp at the
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  Speaker 1: head of Calf Creek was about twenty miles east of
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  Speaker 1: the Musselshell River, forty miles south of the Missouri and
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  Speaker 1: about one hundred and thirty five miles from Miles City,
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  Speaker 1: as the trail ran four miles north of us. Also
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  Speaker 1: on Calf Creek was the line camp of the S. T.
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  Speaker 1: V Ranch owned by Messrs J. H. Conrad and Company,
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  Speaker 1: And eighteen miles east, near the head of Sand Creek
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  Speaker 1: was the line camp of the N. Bar Ranch owned
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  Speaker 1: by mister Newman. At each of these camps there were
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  Speaker 1: generally from two to four cowboys. From all these gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: we received the utmost courtesy and hospitality on all occasions,
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  Speaker 1: and all the information in regard to buffalo which it
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  Speaker 1: was in their power to give. On many occasions they
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  Speaker 1: rendered us valuable assistance, which is hereby gratefully acknowledged. We
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  Speaker 1: saw no buffalo, nor any signs of any until October thirteenth.
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  Speaker 1: On that day, while L. S. Russell was escorting our
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  Speaker 1: second load of freight across the high Divide, he discovered
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  Speaker 1: a band of seven buffaloes lying in the head of
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  Speaker 1: a deep ravine. He fired upon them, but killed none,
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  Speaker 1: and when they dashed away, he gave chase and followed them.
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  Speaker 1: Two or three miles, being mounted in our tired horse,
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  Speaker 1: which was unequal to the demands of the chase. He
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  Speaker 1: was finally distanced by the herd, which took a straight
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  Speaker 1: course and ran due south. As it was then nearly night,
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  Speaker 1: nothing further could be done that day except to prepare
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  Speaker 1: for a vigorous chase on the morrow. Everything was got
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  Speaker 1: in perfect readiness for an early start, and by daybreak
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  Speaker 1: the following morning, the three cowboys and the writer were
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  Speaker 1: mounted on our best horses and on our way through
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  Speaker 1: the bad lands to take up the trail of the
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  Speaker 1: seven buffaloes. Shortly after sunrise, we found the trail not
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  Speaker 1: far from the head of Calf Creek and followed it
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  Speaker 1: due south. We left the rugged butte region behind us
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  Speaker 1: and entered a tract of country quite unlike anything we
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  Speaker 1: had found before. It was composed of a succession of
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  Speaker 1: rolling hills and deep hollows, smooth enough on the surface
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  Speaker 1: to all appearances, but like a desert of sand hills
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  Speaker 1: too traverse. The dry soil was loose and crumbly, like
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  Speaker 1: loose ashes or scoria, and the hoofs of our horses
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  Speaker 1: sank into it half way to the fetlocks at every step,
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  Speaker 1: but there was another feature which was still worse. The
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  Speaker 1: whole surface of the ground was cracked and seamed with
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  Speaker 1: a perfect network of great cracks into which our horses
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  Speaker 1: stepped every yard or so and sank down still farther
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  Speaker 1: with many a tiresome wrench of the joints. It was
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  Speaker 1: terrible ground to go over. To make it as bad
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  Speaker 1: as possible, a thick growth of sage brush or else
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  Speaker 1: grease wood was everywhere present for the horses to struggle through,
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  Speaker 1: And when it came to dragging a loaded wagon across
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  Speaker 1: that twelve mile stretch of bad grounds, or gumbo ground,
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  Speaker 1: as it was called, it was killing work. But in
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  Speaker 1: spite of the character of this ground, in one way
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  Speaker 1: it was a benefit to us. Owing to the looseness
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  Speaker 1: on the surface, we were able to track the buffaloes
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  Speaker 1: through it with the greatest ease, whereas on any other
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  Speaker 1: ground in that country it would have been almost impossible.
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  Speaker 1: We followed the trail due south for about twenty miles,
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  Speaker 1: which brought us to the head of a small stream
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  Speaker 1: called Taylor Creek. Here the bad grounds ended, and in
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  Speaker 1: the grassy country which lay beyond, tracking was almost impossible.
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  Speaker 1: Just at noon we rode to a high point, and
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  Speaker 1: on scanning the hills and hollows with the binocular, discovered
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  Speaker 1: the buffaloes lying at rest on the level top of
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  Speaker 1: a small butte two miles away. The original bunch of
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  Speaker 1: seven had been joined by an equal number. We crept
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  Speaker 1: up to within two hundred yards of the buffaloes, which
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  Speaker 1: was as close as we could go, fired a volley
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  Speaker 1: at them just as they lay, and did not even
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  Speaker 1: kill a calf. Instantly, they sprang up and dashed away
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  Speaker 1: at astonishing speed, heading straight for the sheltering ravines around
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  Speaker 1: the high divide. We had a most exciting and likewise
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  Speaker 1: dangerous chase after the herd through a vast prairie dog town,
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  Speaker 1: honeycombed with holes just right for a running horse to
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  Speaker 1: thrust a leg in up to the knee and snap
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  Speaker 1: it off like a pipe stem, and the cross fearfully
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  Speaker 1: wide gullies that either had to be leaped or fallen into.
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  Speaker 1: Mc nanney killed a fine old bull and a beautiful
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  Speaker 1: two year old or spike bull out of this herd,
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  Speaker 1: while I managed to kill a cow and another large
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  Speaker 1: old bull, making four for that day. All told, this
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  Speaker 1: herd of fourteen head was the largest that we saw
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  Speaker 1: during the entire hunt. Two days later, when we were
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  Speaker 1: on the spot with the wagon to skin our game
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  Speaker 1: and haul in the hides, four more buffaloes were discovered
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  Speaker 1: within two miles of us, and while I worked on
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  Speaker 1: one of the large bull skins to save it from spoiling,
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  Speaker 1: the cowboys went after the buffalo and by a really
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  Speaker 1: brilliant exploit, killed them all. The first one the fall
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  Speaker 1: was an old cow, which was killed at the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the chase. The next was an old bull who
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  Speaker 1: was brought down about five miles from the scene of
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  Speaker 1: the first attack, and then two miles farther on, a
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  Speaker 1: yearling calf was killed. The fourth buffalo, an immense old bull,
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  Speaker 1: was chased fully twelve miles before he was finally brought down.
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  Speaker 1: The largest bull fell about eight miles from our temporary camp,
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  Speaker 1: in the opposite direction from that in which our permanent
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  Speaker 1: camp lay, and at about three o'clock in the afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: there not being time enough in which to skin him
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  Speaker 1: completely and reach our rendezvous before dark, Messrs mc nanny
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  Speaker 1: and Boyd dressed the carcass to preserve the meat, partly
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  Speaker 1: skinned the legs, and came to camp as early as possible.
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  Speaker 1: The next morning we drove to the carcass with the
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  Speaker 1: wagon to prepare both skin and skeleton and haul them in.
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  Speaker 1: When we reached it, we found that during the night
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  Speaker 1: a gang of Indians had robbed us of our hard
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  Speaker 1: earned spoil. They had stolen the skin and all the
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  Speaker 1: eatable meat, broken up the leg bones to get at
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  Speaker 1: the marrow, and even cut out the tongue. And to injury.
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  Speaker 1: The skulking thieves had added insult through laziness. They had
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  Speaker 1: left the head unskinned, but on one side of it
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  Speaker 1: they had smeared the hair with red war paint, the
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  Speaker 1: other side they had daubed with yellow, and around the
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  Speaker 1: base of one horn they had tied a strip of
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  Speaker 1: red flannel as a signal of defiance. Of course, they
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  Speaker 1: had left for parts unknown, and we never saw any
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  Speaker 1: signs of them afterward. The gang visited the l u
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  Speaker 1: Bar ranch a few days later, and so we learned
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  Speaker 1: subsequently it was then composed of eleven braves who claimed
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  Speaker 1: to be as Cinnaboynes and were therefore believed to be Pigans,
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  Speaker 1: the most notorious horse and cattle thieves in the Northwest.
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  Speaker 1: On October twenty second, mister Russell ran down in a
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  Speaker 1: fair chase a fine bull buffalo and killed him in
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  Speaker 1: the rough country bordering the High Divide on the south.
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  Speaker 1: This was the ninth specimen. On the twenty sixth we
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  Speaker 1: made another trip with the wagon to the Buffalo Buttes.
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  Speaker 1: As for the sake of convenience, we had named the
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  Speaker 1: group of buttes near which eight head had already been taken.
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  Speaker 1: While mister Brown and I were getting the wagon across
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  Speaker 1: the bad grounds, Messrs mcnanney and Boyd discovered a solitary
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  Speaker 1: bull buffalo feeding in a ravine within a quarter of
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  Speaker 1: a mile of our intended camping place, and the former
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  Speaker 1: stalked him and killed him at long range. The buffalo
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  Speaker 1: had all been attracted to that locality by some springs
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  Speaker 1: which lay between the two groups of hills, and which
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  Speaker 1: was the only water with an radius of about fifteen miles.
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  Speaker 1: In addition to water, the grass around the Buffalo Buttes
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  Speaker 1: was most excellent. During all this time we shot antelope
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  Speaker 1: and coyotes whenever an opportunity offered, and preserved the skins
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  Speaker 1: and skeletons of the finest until we had obtained a
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  Speaker 1: very fine series of both. At this season the pelts
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  Speaker 1: of these animals were in the finest possible condition. The hare,
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  Speaker 1: having attained its maximum length and density, and being quite new,
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  Speaker 1: had lost none of its brightness of color, either by
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  Speaker 1: rare or the action of the weather. Along Sand Creek
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  Speaker 1: and all around the High Diville antelope were moderately plentiful,
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  Speaker 1: but really scarce in comparison with their former abundance, so
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  Speaker 1: much so that had we been inclined to slaughter, we
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  Speaker 1: could have killed a hundred head or more instead of
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  Speaker 1: the twenty that we shot as specimens and for their flesh.
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  Speaker 1: We have it to say that from first to last,
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  Speaker 1: not an antelope was killed which was not made use
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  Speaker 1: of to the fullest extent. On the thirty first of October,
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  Speaker 1: mister Boyd and I discovered a buffalo cow and yearling
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  Speaker 1: calf in the ravines north of the High Divide, within
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  Speaker 1: three miles of our camp, and killed them both. The
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  Speaker 1: next day, Private West arrived with a six mule team
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  Speaker 1: from Fort Keo, in charge of Corporal Claffer and three men.
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  Speaker 1: This wagon brought us another two thousand pounds of oats
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  Speaker 1: and various commissary stores. When it started back on November third,
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  Speaker 1: We sent by it all the skins and skeletons of buffalo, antelope,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, which we had collected up to that date,
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  Speaker 1: which made a heavy load for the six mules. On
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  Speaker 1: this same day, mister mc nanney killed two young cow
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  Speaker 1: buffaloes in the bad lands south of the high Divide,
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  Speaker 1: which brought our total lumber up to fourteen. On the
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  Speaker 1: night of the third the weather turned very cold, and
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  Speaker 1: on the day following we experienced our first snow storm.
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  Speaker 1: By that time, the water in the hole, which up
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  Speaker 1: to that time had supplied our camp, became so thick
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  Speaker 1: with mud and filth that it was unendurable, And having
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  Speaker 1: discovered a fine pool of pure water in the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of a little canyon on the southern slope of a
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  Speaker 1: high divide, we moved to it forthwith. It was really
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  Speaker 1: the upper spring of the main fork of the Big Porcupine,
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  Speaker 1: and the finer situation for a camp does not exist
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  Speaker 1: in that whole region. The spot which nature made for
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  Speaker 1: us was sheltered on all sides by the high walls
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  Speaker 1: of the canyon, with an easy reach of an inexhaustible
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  Speaker 1: supply of good water, and also within reach of a
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  Speaker 1: fair supply of dry firewood, which we found half a
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  Speaker 1: mile below. This became our last permanent camp, and its
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  Speaker 1: advantages made up for the barrenness and discomfort of our camp.
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  Speaker 1: On Calf Creek, immediately south of us and two miles distant,
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  Speaker 1: there rose a lofty, conical butte about six hundred feet high,
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  Speaker 1: which forms a very conspicuous landmark from the south. We
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  Speaker 1: were told that it was visible from forty miles down
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  Speaker 1: the porcupine. Strange to say, this valuable landmark was without
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  Speaker 1: a name so far as we could learn, so for
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  Speaker 1: our own convenience, we christened it Smithsonian Butte. The two
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  Speaker 1: buffalo cows that mister mc naney killed just before we
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  Speaker 1: moved our camp seemed to be the last in the country.
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  Speaker 1: During the following week, we scouted for fifteen miles in
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  Speaker 1: three directions northeast and south, without finding as much as
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  Speaker 1: a hoof print. At last, we decided to go away
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  Speaker 1: and give that country absolute quiet for a week in
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  Speaker 1: the hope that some more buffalo would come into it.
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  Speaker 1: Leaving m Canna and West to take care of the camp.
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  Speaker 1: We loaded a small assortment of general equipage into the
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  Speaker 1: wagon and pulled about twenty five miles due west to
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  Speaker 1: the Musselshell River, we found a fine stream of clear
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  Speaker 1: water flowing over sand and pebbles, with heavy cottonwood, timber,
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  Speaker 1: and thick copses of willow along its banks, which afforded
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  Speaker 1: cover for white tail deer in the rugged brakes, which
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  Speaker 1: led from the level river bottom into a labyrinth of
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  Speaker 1: ravines and gullies, ridges and hog backs up to the
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  Speaker 1: level of the high plateau above we found a scanty
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  Speaker 1: growth of stunted cedars and pines, which once sheltered great
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  Speaker 1: numbers of mule deer, elk and bear. Now, however, few remain,
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  Speaker 1: and these are very hard to find, even when found,
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  Speaker 1: the deer and nearly always young. Although we killed five
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  Speaker 1: mule deer and five white tails, we did not kill
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  Speaker 1: even one fine buck, and the only one we saw
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  Speaker 1: on the whole trip was a long distance off. We
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  Speaker 1: saw fresh tracks of elk and also grizzly bear, but
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  Speaker 1: our most vigorous efforts to discover the animals themselves always
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  Speaker 1: ended in disappointment. The many bleaching skulls and antlers of
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  Speaker 1: elk and deer, which we found everywhere we went, afforded
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  Speaker 1: proof of what that country had been as the home
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  Speaker 1: for wild animals only a few years ago. We were
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  Speaker 1: not a little surprised at finding the fleshless carcasses of
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  Speaker 1: three head of cattle that had been killed and eaten
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  Speaker 1: by bears within a few months. In addition to ten deer,
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  Speaker 1: we shot three wild geese, seven sharp tailed grouse, eleven
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  Speaker 1: sage grouse, nine Bohemian wax wings, and the magpie for
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  Speaker 1: their skeletons. We made one trip of several miles up
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  Speaker 1: the mussel Shell and another due west almost to the
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Bull Mountains, but no signs of buffalo were found. The
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: weather at this time was quite cold, the thermometer registering
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: six degrees below zero, but in spite of the fact
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that we were without shelter and had to bivouac in
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the open, we were generally speaking quite comfortable. Having found
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: no buffalo, by the seventeenth, we felt convinced that we
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: ought to return to our permanent camp, and did so
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: on that day, having brought back nearly half a wagon
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: load of specimens in the flesh or half skinned. It
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: was absolutely necessary that I should remain at camp all
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the next day. While I did so, Messrs mc naney
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and Boyd rode over to the Buffalo Buttes, found four
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: fine old buffalo cows, and after a hard chase, killed
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: them all. Under the circumstances that this was the most
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: brilliant piece of work of the hunt. As the four
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: cows dashed past the hunters at the Buffalo Buttes, heading
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: for the High Divide, fully twenty miles distant, mc nannie
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: killed one cow and two others went off wounded. Of course,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the cowboys gave chase. About twelve miles from the starting point.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: One of the wounded cows left her companions, was headed
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: off by Boyd and killed. About six miles beyond that one.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Mcnannye overhauled the third cow and killed her, but the
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: fourth one got away for a short time. While mc
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: naneye skinned the third cow and dressed the carcass to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: preserve the meat, boy took their now thoroughly exhausted horses
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to camp and procured fresh mounts. On returning to mc nannie,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: they sat out in pursuit of the fourth cow, chased
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: her across the High Divide within a mile or so
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: of our camp and into the ravines on the northern slope,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: where she was killed. She met her death nearly, if
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: not quite twenty five miles from the spot where the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: first one fell end of Section twenty nine,