Memories of a Bear Hunter 



At this time the only other cattleman located on 

 the west side of the Big Horn Basin was Otto 

 Franc. He had settled on Grey Bull River, six 

 miles above the mouth of Wood River. He drove 

 into the basin in 1879 several thousand head of 

 cattle from the Madison Valley, Montana, going 

 by a roundabout way through the South Pass of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



From August 25 to October 30 we were about 

 the foothills of the mountains on the west as far 

 as the point where Grey Bull River comes out on 

 to the plains through its last canon, near the mouth 

 of Buffalo Fork. Our principal camps were at the 

 forks of the Meeteetse Creek, and on the Buffalo 

 Fork, near the point where it unites with the Grey 

 Bull River. On Rock Creek there were other 

 camps where we remained for shorter periods. 

 These two months were, on the whole, the pleas- 

 antest, and from the sportsman's standpoint, the 

 most successful of all the years spent among the 

 Rocky Mountains. It is true, the grand scenery 

 of the two previous seasons was wanting, nor was 

 there the daily feeling of interest caused by behold- 

 ing strange and wonderful sights, but as a mat- 

 ter of fact, this grand scenery and these wonders 

 of the Yellowstone had begun to pall on me. They 

 no longer aroused the emotions of pleasure and 



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