Show ITO HUNTERS the th e great buffalo killing match ELMO SCOTT WATSON the following news dia patch from denver colo was widely printed in newspapers throughout the country cooke rhea one of the last of the buffalo hunters who supplied meat to construction brewa in pioneer days of the west Is dead here at the age of eighty eight rhea who was professional hunter for the union pacific Is reputed to have killed 07 buffaloes in one day although there are still living plenty of old timers who at one time or another killed buffalo the majority of the professional hunters have already followed their quarry over the great divide but the bishing of this one of their number serves to recall what has been characterized as an epic chapter of american history but one in which americans can tal e attle pride because it furnishes a record of wasteful ruthless slaughter by a nation of people unparalleled in history As for the record of individuals in that wholesale killing mention of cheas rheas mark of ca buffaloes in one day inevitably brings to mind the teat which won for william frederick cody the by which he became world famous buffalo bill in 1807 the kansas pacific railroad was being built west through kansas and the firm of goddard brothers who had the contract for feeding the army of 1 laborers were looking about for a hunter to provide the mainstay in the la borers fare buffalo meat at first they offered the job to the celebrated wild bill hickok but he declined and suggested that they employ young bill cody who had already won some renown as an indian fighter and guide the re ault was an agreement cody for a salary of a month agreed to provide the hind quarters and humps of 12 buffaloes per day cody worked for condard brothers a little less than 18 months and in that time accord ing to his own count he killed a total of buffaloes he became very popular among the workmen one of whom Is said to have made up the following jingle which fixed his famosi nickname upon him buffalo bill buffalo B 11 missed and never will always aims and shoots to and the company pays hir buffalo til but had the title of buffalo bill thus conferred upon him cody was soon called upon to defend that title army officers stationed at fort wallace having seen the buffalo killing feats of billy comstock a noted guide and in ter preter who was chief of scouts at that post arranged a match between comstock and cody for a wager of a side the two men were to hunt one day of eight hours beginning at eight 0 clock in the morning and closing at four in the afternoon and the man who should kill the greater number of buffaloes from on horseback in that time was to be declared the winner the match took place in 1808 and was staged cast of the new town of sheridan kan cody in his autobiography has given the following account of the match the buffaloes were quite plenty and it was agreed that we should go into the same herd at the same time and make a run as ne called it each one killing as many as possible A referee was to follow each of us on horseback when we entered the herd and count the buffaloes killed by each man we were fortunate in the first run in getting good ground comstock was mounted on one of his favorite horses while I 1 rode old brigham I 1 felt confident that I 1 had the advantage of corn stock in two things first I 1 had the best buffalo horse that ever made a truck and second I 1 was using what was known at that time as the needle gun a breech loading springfield rifle calibre 60 it was my favorite old borgia while comstock was armed with a henry rifle and although he could fire a few shots quicker than I 1 could yet I 1 was pretty certain that it did not carry powder and lead enough to do execution equal to my caliber 50 at last the time came to begin the match comstock and I 1 dashed into a herd followed by the referees refe reps tie buffaloes separated comstock took the left bunch and I 1 the right my great in killing buffaloes from horseback was to get them circling by riding my horse at the head of the herd shooting the leaders thus crowding their followers to the left till they would finally circle round and round an this morning the buffaloes were accommodating mo dating and I 1 soon had them running in a beautiful circle when I 1 dropped them thick and fast until I 1 had killed 38 which finished my run comstock began shooting at the rear of the herd which he was chasing and they kept straight on lie succeeded however in killing 23 but they were scattered over a distance of three miles while mine lay close together I 1 had nursed my buffaloes as a billiard player does the balls when he mikes a big run while taking a short rest we suddenly spied another herd of buffaloes coming toward us it was only a small drove and we at once prepared prep ired to give the animals a lively reception they proved to be a herd of cows and calves which by the way are quicker in their movements than the bulls we chirped in among them and I 1 con eluded my run with a score of 18 while comstock killed 14 the score now stood ag to 37 in my favor after w e hid eaten a lunch which was for us we came up close to another herd As I 1 was so far abeid of my competitor in the number killed I 1 thought I 1 afford to give an extra exhibition of my skill so leaving my saddle and bridge with the wagons we rode to the windward of the buffaloes as usual and when within a few hundred yards of them we dashed into the herd I 1 rodn had 13 laid out on the ground the last one of which I 1 had driven down close to the wagons where the ladles were it frightened some of the tender creatures to see the buffalo coming at full speed directly toward them but when he had got within 50 birds of one of the wagons I 1 shot him dead in his tracks this made my coth buffalo and finished my third and last run comstock having killed 40 As it was now late in the afternoon corn stock and his bickers give up the fidei thit he could belt me and thereupon the referees declared me the winner of the natch as well as the champion boffilo hunter of the although cody won the title of champion but falo hunter with his record of killing ga of the animals in one day he was fir from being the champion buffalo killer thit dubious hon or if indeed it could be awarded to any in was to be reserved for one of the army of hide hunters who in a little more than a decade were to drive the buffalo to the verge of extinction armed with the heavy sharps buffalo rifle which fired a slug of lead two inches in length half an inch in diameter and weigh ing eight to a pound and the complement to the rifle a shooting rest made of two sticks tied together X fashion which were set in the ground to support the barrel of the sharps the hide hunter would creep up on a herd of buffalo and methodically set to work shooting down the animals until he hid killed everyone in range or until the smell of blood after a few had been killed the remainder of the herd the late wyatt earp famous gun fighter and peace officer of dodge city kan and tombstone araz who was a buffalo hunter at one time in his career in an interview a few years before hla death had the following to say about the work of alie hide hunter with the best of luck a single hunter might kill buffaloes in a day from several stands that would be all that four skinners could handle I 1 found that alie average bunch would stampede by the time 0 or 40 of their number had been killed in my sears on the plains the known record kill from a single stand was held by tom nixon a famous shot who made headquarters at dodge lie managed to knock over animals without moving his rest sticks but he ruined his sharps rifle in doing so I 1 have known other hunters who boasted of records of more than from a stand the best total for a seasons kill was set by billy tillghman who afterward served with me as a peace officer lie took 3 hides between september first of one year and april first of the next no buffalo hunter that I 1 knew on the plains ever topped that score an adequate idea of the wholesale destruction of the animals may be obtained from the data collected by the well known frontier historian E A and presented in one chapter of his invaluable chronicle of border history righting red clouds warriors in it he says in pirt of the vast numbers of these great animals on the western plains between and 1883 when the last big herd was exterminated mina ted st differ but in the year 1850 IBM ai T ht ered T tor uichiro it Is safe to state that there were in the neigh boyhood of buffalo ranging between manitoba and the staked plains of texas their numbers were literally innumerable so vast were they that the first trains on the union pa rall roid were often obliged to stop until the immense herds had crossed their tracks in 1871 it wis not uncommon to see herds of buffalo from 20 to 50 miles in width that same year col richard irvcng dodge an army officer of over 30 years experience in indian warfare drove in a light wagon along the ar cansas river from walnut creek to pawnee fork through one herd of buffalo not less thin 25 miles wide and extending north and south as far as the eye could reich it was when the union pacific railroad was being built in 70 that the real slaughter of the buffalo began thousands of men flocked to the plains to enter this new and novel in austry and so countless were the hides which were thrown upon the market that the price dwindled from 4 and 5 each to as low as 1 at one time buffalo hides was stacked in a corral at dodge city kan awaiting shipment the hide hunters took only the skin leaving the carcass to rot while thousands of men be it slid to their disgrace slaughtered buffalo for the mere wanton pleasure of killing one night early in the GOs gen phil sher idan and major inman were occupying the office of robert M wryght a prominent business man of dodge city kan they had just made a trip from camp supply and air wright was called into the office to consult with the officers as to the probable number of buffalo between dodge city and camp supply taking a strip 00 miles east and 50 miles west they had first made an estimate of general sher idan said that won t do they figured a while longer and finally made it ricilly they reached the conclusion tint there must be but they were afraid to give out those figures lest they be accused of pre but they stated that they believed it nevertheless the completion of the western railroad alv idad the buffalo into two immense herds the northern and the southern the southern herd in 1871 was estimated at and was being diminished at the rite of to a day robert wryght and charles rath of dodge city shipped over buffalo hides the first winter the A T S F railroad reached dodge and they estimated that other parties shipped as many more the santa fe railroad company compiled the following table showing the shipments made over their line as well as the union pacific and kansas pacific roads buffalo statistic for the year 1872 73 74 U P K P A T and all other S F railroads ear hides hides total 1872 1873 1874 total 1 meat ibs meat ibs total 1872 none none 1873 1874 total bone ibs bones ibs total 1872 1873 1874 total SI from 1872 to it Is estimated that there were buffalo killed and wasted the meat being left to rot upon the plains the hides only being utilized it Is reckoned that in all were killed by white hunters and the hides shipped over the santa ie during the sime period the indians killed but besides these settlers and mountain indian tribes are estimated to have killed so that the grand total for these years was dur ing the following year 1875 the end came to the great southern herd and at the close of the year it had been nearly swept from the earth one hunter in ford county kan Is credited with having killed buffalo at one stand in 40 minutes and in 35 days to have slain 2173 another dodge city man says he killed 1500 in 1 days and that his greatest slaughter was in a single day lie employed 15 skinners whose sole duty was 19 follow him up with wagons and remove the hides as fast as he killed the animals the great northern herd went the same way in 1882 it was estimated that there were 1000 alive in this herd but there were at least white hunters in the field shooting and slaughtering the beasts at every point then came 1883 thousands more grabbed rifles and took to the field such a merciless war of ex termination was never known in a civilized land the final chapter in the orgy of killing may be summarized in one fact in 1884 the northern pacific railroad carried one scanty carload 0 buffalo hide casttle cast the last it ever carried ohp day of the buffalo was over by newspaper union |