USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Dickinson County, Iowa, together with an account of the Spirit Lake massacre, and the Indian troubles on the northwestern frontier > Part 28
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It is supposed by those who know something of the habits of the buffalo that this one must have mistaken the mouth of the ditch for an ordinary buffalo trail and attempted to follow it. It is said that in the buffalo country it is no uncommon exper- ience to see a trail worn several feet deep by the buffalo fol- lowing each other in single file across the bluffs. How this lone animal strayed away from his fellows and made his appearance there at the mill at that time as he did has always been pretty much of a mystery, but this incident can be verified by a large amount of unimpeachable testimony and can be taken as true.
In the latter part of August, 1863, a party consisting of J. S. Prescott, E. V. Osborn, John Burrill, Aaron Rogers and R. A. Smith started for Sioux City on business at the United States Land Office. As they were going around the bend of the Little Sioux in the southwest corner of Okoboji township, they saw across the bend what they at first took to be two cattle lying down near the top of the bluff. Soon one of the boys made the remark that he didn't believe they were cattle, as there were no cattle running down there at that time. Prescott had a good glass which he always carried on his trips across the prairie. This was soon produced and by its help it was casy to see that the animals were buffalo. The party had three horses along, Prescott's two on a spring wagon, and R. A. Smith's saddle horse.
It was arranged that Prescott should drive his team behind the hill out of sight and await results, that R. A. Smith with his saddle horse should make a wide detour to the west and get beyond them, while the others with the three rifles of the party should, by keeping the high ground between them and their game, get as near them as they could and deliver their fire. This program was carried out as planned. Osborn had a heavy buffalo rifle. The other two were small affairs and of not much
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account. As the boys came over the ridge that they had kept between them and their game they found themselves closer to it than they expected to be, and not more than fifteen or twenty rods away. One of the buffalo had got onto its feet and was stretching itself while the other was lying still as first sighted. With all the caution possible the boys took deliberate aim and fired at the standing buffalo. Whether their shots took effeet or not they did not know at the time, but they did not bring him down. The two animals started on a deliberate can- ter to the southwest. They did not go fast, as R. A. Smith, who was stationed out that way with his horse, had no trouble in keeping alongside. But every time that he came up they were inclined to shear off to the left. Noticing this peculiarity he thought that by keeping on one side they might be run around in a circle to near where they started from. After running about a half mile they separated, one of them keeping on the southwest while the wounded one coming around in a circle was soon approaching the starting point. The boys noticing this dropped down out of sight by a gopher knoll covered with weeds and awaited his approach. He passed within about eight rods of them. When directly opposite they gave him another broad- side. This demoralized him materially and checked his speed somewhat, but failed to bring him down. He kept on until he came to the Little Sioux River. There was a sand bar here reaching out into the stream. He went out on this sand bar and stopped. He was by this time pretty well exhausted. Os- born made the remark that he had heard it said that you could not bring down a buffalo by shooting him in the forehead, and now he was going to find out. Accordingly he went out ahead about six or eight rods away, and taking deliberate aim at his forehead, fired. The ball went crashing through his brain, and he fell over on his back, his feet quivering in the air.
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An examination afterwards proved that the first ball fired at him passed through the fleshy part of the heart, but not striking any of the cavities, failed to bring him down. The boys soon rigged a Spanish windlass and dragged him out on dry land where they took off the hide and eut up the carcass. He proved to be a very large animal. The quarters must have weighed nearly four hundred pounds each. Whether this was the last buffalo killed in Iowa or not is an open question, but it was one of the last. There was one killed north of Spirit Lake, near Loon Lake, in Jackson County, Minnesota, about the same time, by "Jim Palmer," who was well known to all of the old settlers.
About the same time John Gilbert, who was carrying the mail between Spirit Lake and Fort Dodge, reported on his re- turn from one of his weekly trips that the people in the vicinity of Old Rolfe, which was then the county seat of Pocahontas County, were much wrought up and excited over having killed a large buffalo near there the previous week, and he gave the names of some of the parties engaged in the hunt and some of the incidents of it. There may have been others killed in Iowa that same season, and doubtless were. Indeed, of late there have been several items going the rounds of the press of north- western Iowa where different localities are claiming the dis- tinction of being the place where the last buffalo in Towa was run down and killed.
Other instances are reported of buffalo being seen which were not killed. One was seen one Sunday morning on the bluffs near where the Okoboji mill was afterward built. A. S. Mead reported having seen one in the vicinity of Marble Grove. And there were others. Since the foregoing was written it has been ascertained that in the summer of 1870 two buffalo were seen near the forks of the Little Sioux, in this county. They were coming from the northwest and going southeast. It was
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afterwards learned that this same two were also seen by several persons in the German settlement in the Little Sioux Valley, in Minnesota. What became of them was never known, and where they came from, and how they came to be here alone, will always remain a mystery.
Now, it is an open question as to what extent the buffalo was native to northwestern Towa. That peculiar product known as "buffalo grass" never grew there, and the buffalo were known to be very partial to it and never left the regions where it grew, except in times of drouth when it failed and they were obliged to seek other pasture. This was notably the case in 1863. This was the summer of Sully's first expedition up the Missouri, and the boys from this county connected with that expedition agree in the statement that the vegetation in the country through which they passed was burned up by drouth, and that they were obliged at times to make forced marches of twenty to thirty miles in search of water and forage for their horses. Of course this condition of affairs would compel the buffalo to scatter and seek their food wherever they could find it, and accounts for their coming into Towa that fall in greater num- bers than they had done for some years previous.
Now, whatever question there may be as to this having been the native home of the buffalo, there is none in regard to the elk. The prairies of northwestern Towa were as peculiarly adapted to being the home of the elk as those of Dakota were the home of the buffalo. In the early days it was a rare thing to cross any of the large prairies without encountering a drove of elk, and sometimes several of them. Of course they kept growing scarcer and more rare until the date of their final ex- termination, which is fixed in 1871. An interesting article writ- ten by J. A Smith, formerly editor of the Spirit Lake Beacon. and published in the Midland Monthly for August, 1895, en- titled "The Hegira of the Elk," gives an account of the disap-
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pearance of the elk from Iowa, and a short extract may prove interesting. Ile says :
"Until midsummer of 1871 a considerable drove of elk had found feeding grounds and comparative security for rearing their young in the then unsettled region of northwestern Iowa, where the trend of drainage is toward the Little Sioux and Rock Rivers and near their headquarters. A colony of settlers planted by Captain May in Lyon County in 1869, the rail- road surveyors and advance guard of pioneers in southwestern Minnesota in the same year, and the influx of homesteaders into Dickinson, O'Brien, Clay and Sioux Counties at that period, compelled this herd of elk to take refuge in the valley of the Ocheyedan River, a tributary of the Little Sioux. There they remained undisturbed, except by an occasional band of hunters, until a memorable July morning in 1871, when the writer at a distance of some two miles saw them pass southwestward down the further border of a small stream that emptied its waters into the Ochevedan River. The coigne of vantage was a lone house on a homestead elaim in the extreme southwestern corner of Dickinson County, miles away from any habitation to the east and many more miles away from any on the west. The herd passed down on the east bank of the stream, while the homesteader's cabin was on the west bank with the wide valley between. To the northwest the view was unobstrueted for half a dozen miles, and it was from this quarter that the elk were moving from their violated jungle homes amid the tall rushes and willows of the Ocheyedan Valley.
"Peering through the vista of pink and yellow shades of a rising summer sun, the first thought of the early summer dwellers in the cabin was that some emigrant's cattle had stan- peded-a not unusual occurrence. A few minutes later and the use of a fieldglass disclosed the identity of the swiftly gal- loping animals. Ere they reached the nearest point on the eastern range, we were able to classify them as a drove of elk consisting of four old bulls, ten full grown cows, twelve year- lings and four calves. Judging by the peculiar articulate move- ments which were plainly visible through the glass, the pace did not seem to be fast, but the conclusion arrived at from the distance covered in a given time, led us to believe that it would be useless to try to intercept them without swift horses. Some weeks later ( for news traveled slowly in those days), we learned
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that the entire drove in its hegira was scattered and killed be- fore reaching the Missouri River. They took refuge in the larger bodies of timber that skirt the lower waters of the Little Sioux River, and relays of hunters slew to the very last one this fleeing remnant of noble game. * * And this in brief is the story of the exodus from Towa of the American elk. *
** It is quite probable that the remnant, the fate of which these pages record, was the last vestige of the American elk east of the great Rocky Sierras and south of the unsalted seas."
Whether the writer of the above was wholly correct in his conclusion is immaterial. It was the last drove of elk in Iowa of which any reliable account can be obtained.
While there was occasionally a deer seen in this region in the early days, they were not plenty. Indeed, they were very rare. They are a timber animal and don't take to the open prairie unless they are forced to. And then again in the ter- rible winter of 1856 and 1857 they were either starved out or hunted down in the deep snows until they became almost ex- tinet, and during the next twenty-five years were met with but seldom. The winter of 1880 and 1881 will be remembered by the old-timers as another winter of very deep snows. Some time in December of that winter a drove of over twenty deer put in an appearance on the Ocheyedan River and Stony Creek. Where they came from has always been a mystery, but prob- ably from the Northwest.
Wallace Smith, who at that time lived on the Stony, hap- pened in Milford about the holidays, and while there told George Chase about the deer being in the Ochevedan Valley, and together they planned to have a hunt for them. Accord- ingly when Wallace went home Chase accompanied him, taking with him a large chicken dog that was the joint property of himself and E. D. Carlton, of Spirit Lake. This dog had pro- viously won a great reputation for skill and pluck, which he more than maintained on this occasion. After reaching home
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the boys formed their plans for following the deer the next day. Accordingly bright and early next morning they were off, ac- companied by the dog "Jim." The snow was deep and covered with a crust that held the dog all right, and held the men a part of the time, they breaking through occasionally, but was not strong enough for the sharp-pointed hoofs of the deer, they breaking through at every jump.
The incidents of the day's hunt are about what any person can imagine they would be under the same circumstances, and yet to hear the boys tell them they become interesting, and at times quite exciting, particularly the achievements of the dog "Jim." During the day he brought down three deer, two of which he killed outright, and the third one he tired out and istayed by it until the boys came up and dispatched it. The first was a fawn, and was easily disposed of. The second was a doe, and made quite a fight, but the dog soon tired her out and made a finish of her. The last of the three was a young, strong buck, and he put up the fight of the occasion. Except for the snow he doubtless would have escaped, for the dog had been doing pretty hard work and must have been by this time somewhat fatigued, but the sight of the big game "braced" him up and he went in to win. How long the fight lasted nobody knows, but when the boys came up both combatants were lying on the ground completely exhausted. The dog had not been able to inflict any mortal hurt, and the buek had not been able to get away. Every time the deer would make an effort to rise up the dog would grab him by the back of the neck, and they would have a tussle there in the snow. The boys soon put an end to the struggle by dispatching the deer, which was the largest one they took that day. They brought in seven in all, including the three that were credited up to old "Jim."
A day or two later than this L. J. and L. W. Vreeland, of Spirit Lake, encountered this same drove farther north and
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succeeded in securing two or three of them. What became of the balance of the herd is not known, but probably they were hunted down and killed before getting out of the state.
Now, it is more than probable that there are yet some deer in the timber regions of the state, but the incident just related is the story of the last flock of deer seen in northwestern Towa.
Foxes, coyotes and prairie wolves were numerous up to about 1870 or 1875, since which time with the gradual settlement and improvement of the country, they have gradually disappeared until they are practically extinet or nearly so. The fox is al- ways respected for his smartness, and the prairie wolf despised for his meanness. It was not possible, until abont 1880 for farmers to keep sheep with profit on account of the depreda- tions of these marauders. In addition to the prairie wolves there was occasionally seen a large grey wolf, known as the timber wolf. They seemed to be thicker set and stouter, stockier built than the wolves of the timber country, but were so rare that they never ent much figure in the game of northwestern Iowa. Mr. Barkman used to get one occasionally in his extensive pur- chases of fur in this region.
Another animal occasionally encountered in this region was a species of lynx, known among the trappers as the "bob-cat." Ile had long strong forelegs ; thick, heavy shoulders ; a short, thick neck, and a round head, a somewhat lank body, and a short tail, which accounts for the name "bob-cat." He had the tassels on the tips of his ears, which unmistakably proclaimed him a member of the lynx family. His feet were large in proportion to the body, and the tracks he left in the snow were terror inspiring to those not acquainted with the animal and his peculiarities. One of these animals was killed in the winter of 1869 and 1870 northwest of Spirit Lake, by a young man by the name of Fenton, who lived at Marble Grove. Either that winter or a year later one was killed by Frank Mead out west of West Okoboji. Frank and a young man by the name of
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Hogle were together out there trapping muskrats. It was their custom to make the rounds of their traps during the day, bringing their game in and taking care of their fur in the even- ing, and they were not very particular about throwing the car- casses far away from the tent. One night Frank heard some- thing prowling around and crunching the carcasses that had been thrown out the preceding day, and crawling out of bed he went to the door of the tent, and cantiously putting aside the curtain that served as a door he was suddenly startled by the hideous countenance of an enormous bob-cat within six inches of his face. Dodging back into the tent he seized his revolver and finished the animal there and then. He brought the hide in next day and was quite proud of his trophy.
A son of Homer Calkins, living at that time in a bend of the Little Sioux southwest of Milford, had a lot of traps set for small game, such as muskrat, mink, etc. One morning on visit- ing his traps he saw a fierce, hideous looking animal in one of them. He had no idea what it was, having never seen nor heard of anything like it. He at once provided himself with a willow club of suitable size and tackled the brute, and for a time it was an open question which would win, the boy or the bob-cat. But the boy was strong and plucky, and delivered his blows fast and furious and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his antagonist show signs of weakness, when a few more well- directed blows finished the job, and the furious beast succumbed to the inevitable and the boy carried home the hide in triumph. None of the animals have been seen nor heard of here since about that time.
The foregoing incidents are not regarded as either interesting or important, except as they mark the dividing line between the past and the present, the old and the new. It notes the time and place of the disappearance of the game of northwestern Iowa, which was once popularly supposed to be a hunter's para- dise.
CHAPTER XXXII.
EARLY FISHING-THE SUPPLY BEGINS TO DI- MINISHI-MEASURES ADOPTED FOR THEIR PROTEC- TION-THE FISH HATCHERY AT ANAMOSA- BRANCH AT SPIRIT LAKE-THE STATE HATCHERY MOVED TO THE LAKES-IT IS INJURIOUSLY AF- FECTED BY BOTHI HIGH AND LOW WATER AND IS
FINALLY ABANDONED-LEGISLATIVE RESTRIC-
TIONS-FISH SIAANTIES PROHIBITED-STATE BUILDS DAM ACROSS THE OUTLET-WINTER FISH- ING PROHIBITED-THE CLOSED SEASON.
P
ERHAPS a few words regarding the fishing and the in- terests connected with it may not be wholly uninterest- ing. Fabulous stories have been told first and last of the Spirit Lake and Okoboji fishing, but no ordinary report has been given ont that exceeded the truth as it was in the early days. These conditions remained in force until near the close of the seventies, when it began to be noticed that the fish were beginning to thin out or get scarce. This was due to two principal causes. In the first place no restrictions had ever been placed on the number of fish taken, or the manner of tak- ing them, and the result was that fish were taken away in enor- mous quantities. Parties would come from long distances in every direction, bringing their seines and spears and a boat, and barrels for packing fish and salt for putting them down, and going into camp would remain as long as they cared to, and then give way to some other party. .
In this way hundreds of tons were taken. In many instances, where parties didn't understand putting them down properly, they spoiled before reaching home and had to be thrown away.
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This class was never popular here and soon won the appella- tion "swill barrel fishermen." In the second place, during the high water of the ten years following 1874, vast numbers went down stream that never found their way back. The two mills on the outlet were built before the legislature passed the act requiring the owners of waterpowers to put fishways in their dams, consequently neither of the dams on the outlet were pro- vided with fishways. It was an easy matter for fish to go down stream, but impossible for them to get back. It is probable that more fish went down stream and failed to find their way back during those years of high water than have ever been caught out of the lakes since fishing first began. In view of these facts it soon began to be talked that measures must be devised to prevent their too rapid destruction, and also to replenish the diminishing supply.
To meet the emergency the Seventeenth General Assembly, in the spring of 1878, passed an aet requiring the owners of dams "to construct and maintain fishways of suitable capacity and facility to afford a free passage for fish up and down through such water course when the water of said stream is rimming over said dam." In the same act all dams or obstruc- tions not provided with fishways were declared nuisances, to be abated under the law relating to nuisances. This section of the law was afterwards declared unconstitutional so far as it related to dams built previous to the passage of the law, and as both of the dams on the outlet to the lakes were built prior to that time no fishways were ever erected in them.
In the spring of 1880, the state legislature enacted a law providing for an additional fish hatchery at Spirit Lake, and the appointment of an assistant fish commissioner. Previous to this time the state had erected a hatchery near Anamosa, in Jones County, and Mr. Shaw, the fish commissioner, used occa- sionally to send to the lakes quantities of small fish, but the
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distance was so great and the means of transportation so inade. quate that the amount of replenishing done through that channel was of little if any benefit.
. A. Mosher, of Spirit Lake, was appointed assistant com- missioner. He at once went to work with the limited appro- priation at his disposal, and erected on the isthmus an estab- lishment by which he was to supplement the work of the state hatchery, by securing from there spawn and young fish, and caring for them until they acquired sufficient vitality to be placed in the lakes. The experiment was not as successful as it might have been had the appropriation been more liberal. In 1886 the legislature decided to discontinue the state hatchery in Jones County and move the whole affair to Spirit Lake.
William Larrabee was governor at the time and he appointed E. D. Carlton, of Spirit Lake, fish commissioner. The office of assistant commissioner was discontinued. Governor Larrabee himself selected the new location, or rather intimated what lo- cation he would approve, and Mr. Carlton proceeded at once to move up such of the state's property as was worth moving and commenced the work of rebuilding the hatchery in its new location. Mr. Carlton at once proceeded to business and as rapidly as he could with the limited appropriation at his com- mand, he constructed the necessary vats and tanks and such other appliances as were understood to be the proper thing in enterprizes of this kind, and during the four years of his in- cumbeney made a fair start in the work of fish culture. Mr. Carlton retained the position until the spring of 1890, when he was superseded by Mr. R. K. Soper of Emmet County.
During Mr. Soper's incumbency the legislature failed to make any appropriation for contingent expenses, consequently he was handicapped by lack of funds. There was a little left over from the former appropriation and when that was ex- hausted he had no funds to work with, so that about all he could
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1
do was to draw his salary which he did with commendable regu- larity.
In 1892 Mr. Soper was succeeded by Jut Griggs of O'Brien County. Mr. Griggs didn't make much of a success of propa- gating fish but he was a holy terror after the violators of the law against fishing out of season. Measures for the protection and preservation of the fish have been adopted by the state as follows: First, the Code of 1873 prohibited the taking of fish "with any net, seine, wire basket, trap, or any other device whatsoever, except with a hook and line, snare, gun, or spear." March 20, 1884, the General Assembly passed a law with the following provisions : "That no person shall take by spearing with a gaff, spear or other device any fish from any of the per- manent lakes or ponds or outlets or inlets thereto within the state of Iowa between the first day of November and the thirty- first day of May next following." Another section of this act made it "unlawful for any person, company or corporation knowingly to buy, sell or offer for sale, or have in their pos- session any fish taken in violation of the foregoing section."
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