Pals of Four Wars Come Back to U. S.

1919

Wyoming Cattlemen Say They Are Ready at Country's Call Again.

NEW YORK, N. Y. — Two seasoned American warriors from Wyoming, ranchmen and veterans of four wars who never got a scratch in a battle, altho they fought in many, arrived here from Havre on the French liner La Lorraine.

They had been friends for 22 years, and whenever there was a real war under way they turned their ranches over to foremen and took chances on the firing line.

The last fight that brought them together was the great war. Their unit was the 148th field artillery, made up of the Third Wyoming infantry.

These two soldier-rangers are Capt. W. E. Jackson of Wheatland and Capt. W. P. O. Grote of Jackson. Capt. Grote's ranch lies up in the northwestern part of the State, just below the Yellowstone, and that of Capt. Jackson stretches along the Platte River in the southeast corner of the State.

They saw service together in the Philippines, in the Boxer uprising and in the Boer war in South Africa.

Wireless bulletins of the strained relations between the United States and Mexico aroused their interest at sea, and they announced they would go over the border if Uncle Sam needed them.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 5.

Can Cope With Wolves

1902

A New Breed of Staghounds Combines Speed With Ferocity

William A. Richards, assistant land commissioner, is a hunter of no mean prowess, and in his home near the Big Horn mountains, Wyoming, has killed more than one grizzly and mountain lion. Several days ago Mr. Richards was talking over sporting matters with a Washington Post reporter, when the conversation turned upon dogs and the value of the several breeds for hunting purposes, when he said:

"In my section we have at last secured a breed of dogs that is highly satisfactory. As wolf dogs they cannot be excelled, and the only time that to my recollection I ever saw these dogs turn tail was on an occasion when they faced four grizzlies. Even then they showed fight, retreating only when it was absolutely necessary. Several years ago we began experimenting with a view to securing a breed of dogs sufficiently heavy and ferocious to attack and kill wolves and fleet enough to run them down. After many trials we found that a cross between the old Scotch staghound and the common greyhound proved far superior to any of the experiments we had previously tried.

"These dogs combine the fleetness of the greyhound with the strength and ferocity of the Scotch staghound and as a result are being extensively bred all through the west. A coyote stands no show whatever with these dogs, for as soon as the pack overtakes him he does not strike the ground until he is literally torn limb from limb. The gray wolf is a better and harder fighter, but even in a fair fight one of these crossbred wolf hounds is an even match for the gray wolf. In fact there are some of my dogs that are almost as wild and fierce as the wolves themselves.

"These animals do not hesitate to tackle the black bear and generally make life a burden for him, while in hunting the grizzly bear they are quite useful in holding the game at bay until the hunter arrives to give 'Wahb' his coup de grace."

Must Face His "Gold Brick"

1915

Also Victims Who Claim to Have Been Fleeced

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Dec. 16. — E. A. Starkloff, an alleged "gold brick" king, recently arrested in Altoona, is accused of defrauding wealthy French and English persons of considerable cash. Starkloff's alleged scheme was uncovered in 1910, when he was arrested, placed under a cash bond of $22,000 and, after securing his release, jumped the bond. He has now been returned to Philadelphia, where a big brick, apparently of gold, which figured in the indictment, has reposed in the safe in the postoffice building since 1910.

According to Inspector Calvert of Altoona, who made the arrest, Starkloff would address letters to English and French people who had visited this country, but who had since died. The letters, written as tho the writer was ignorant of the person's death, would fall into the hands of the heirs. The letters always referred to "Frank Thomas," a prospector who had staked out a claim in Wyoming gold fields, had struck it rich and advised the purchasing of an adjoining claim.

Building Old As U. P. Road

1915

Its Proprietor Still Lives, a Victim of Generosity and Poverty

LARAMIE, Wyo., Dec. 16. — In the ordinary city which began no further back than 1868 the oldest building would be of little consequence, but in a city in the West, whose existence dates from May 9 of that year, when the Union Pacific Railroad laid its first rails into and thru the townsite, the oldest house seems very old indeed to the residents and to the people generally.

Laramie's oldest building today is a long two-story building which was built by Patrick Doran, who is living here at present, as a hotel, and in which hundreds of transient and regular boarders were accommodated for years.

Doran had his own way of keeping books. He chalked the accounts on the inner side of the front door. If a customer disputed the bill, mine host would go to the door, carefully erase the score and tel1 the dissatisfied customer that they would start all over again.

The old building is of logs, cut in the mountains several miles southwest of the city and floated down the Laramie River. The building is now used for a blacksmith shop.

In the early days of the frontier hotel Mr. Doran would charge a dollar a meal from those who could pay a dollar and lesser sums from those who could not afford to pay. No man ever went away hungry that had any money at all, and Mr. Doran would never take the man's last cent, so that one can imagine the large number of accounts the inward side of that door used to carry. Doran himself was quite wealthy at one time, but accepts charity from the county.

Dead A Million Years

1895

Priceless Bones From the Historic Waters of Bitter Creek

Men who once become interested in queer bugs and animals with which nature has peopled every part of the earth become so devoted to study of animal and plant life and so deeply interested in the bones of the man, woman or monkeys that lived and loved and died so many hundred thousand years ago that no personal sacrifice is too great for them to make in pursuit of their calling.

Prof. J. S. Worthman has just returned from the mountains of southern Wyoming, bringing with him the priceless treasure. It is the skeleton of a supposed human being dead some millions of years more or less, and may lead to the establishment of the missing link. The bones were found in the historic waters of Bitter Creek from which the fiery tempered cowboy is supposed to rise before spilling the blood of the towns-people in general. "The skeleton," says Prof. Worthman, "of a human body estimated to be a million and a half years old has interested scientists keenly. The Professor says the priceless skeleton was found near the head of Bitter Creek in Southern Wyoming, about ten miles from the Colorado line. The region was once the bed of a fresh water lake. Sediment gradually accumulated through unknown centuries until it formed a deposit two thousand to four thousand feet thick. The sage inhabitant whose remains are now disclosed to the eye of man was apparently drowned in the lake. His body was preserved as in an Egyptian mummy cave. By and by the water receded, new forces began to operate, mountain streams rippled across the dry lake bottoms, great chasms were out through the soft earth and the skeleton was exposed on the surface of a vast cliff.

The bones were broken in pieces and portions fell to the base of the cliff. Professor Worthman came along in the nick of time. His practiced eye detected the presence of an unusual specimen, but who can describe his joy as he stopped and picked up the tooth of a monkey? "The fragments of bones," said the Professor, "were many of them almost as small as a pin head and it required many hours of time and great patience to gather the pieces together until we could make one perfect whole. We gathered all the surface dirt over an area of twenty-five or thirty feet square and washed it out as the miner washes out the gravel for gold. Then we located the original resting place of the skeleton in the side of the cliff and dug out the remaining bones."

Length of the Skeleton

The Professor says he did not attempt to take complete measurements, but he estimates the skeleton to be two and a half feet long, forming an animal about the size and with the general make-up of a species of monkey, known as the white-faced capuchin. The Professor says some of the bones are missing, but the skull is complete, and it would be a simple thing for any paleontologist to draw a complete picture of the representative of the human race as he appeared long years ago.

Soon after his return to New York Professor Worthman will issue a pamphlet, giving a full scientific description of the skeleton and deductions to be drawn from the discovery. In this work he will be assisted by Prof. Osborne, curator of the museum and professor of biology in the college. Professor Worthman is a modest man and spoke guardedly of the conquest he has made over old Father Time, in grasping from the aged gentleman's hand one of the most sacredly guarded mysteries. In fact, the Professor talked just as enthusiastically about other finds that were made as about the skeleton of the monkey.

"Our object in coming to the west last summer," said he, "was to look for fossils which were deposited at the close of the cretaceous epoch, a period when the sea receded, the Rocky Mountain plateau arose and the fresh water lakes of the mountain region came gradually into existence. It was one of the greatest changes known in the geological history of the American continent.

"Another find," said the Professor, "and one in which the general public may be interested, was the skeleton of what is known as the little horse. This horse was the ancestor of the present species. It may perhaps surprise you if I say that this animal was no larger than a shepherd dog. Instead of a single toe, he had no less than four toes on each of his fore feet and three on his hind feet. The story of the evolution of the horse is one of the most convincing proofs of the doctrine of evolution. We now have materials to demonstrate to the most casual observer the evolution of this remarkable animal from his primitive beginning, away back in the commencement of the eocene period, at least 1,500,000 years ago, up to the present moment."

"Rides" Avalanche, Killed

1914

Rancher Thought It Great Sport to Slide Down Mountain Side on Mass of Snow

Jackson, Wyo., Feb. 7. — That "Windy" Hickman, a rancher, of the Jackson's Hole district, was killed while trying to "ride an avalanche," was the word brought here by James Fitzmeier. Fitzmeier himself was buried, but escaped alive after digging himself out of the snow.

The two men were on the Conant trail when the snow slide struck, carrying them down a mountain side. Hickman was delighted and shouted a suggestion that they "ride her; it's great sport!"

"Hickman was shouting and laughing like a schoolboy as the avalanche swept him down," said Fitzmeier. "He seemed to regard the experience as a lark. When I went under he was about 15 feet ahead of me, balancing himself on one leg."