AT THE PAINTED Woops. 
ROM the years 1869 until 1886, the Painted Woods 
| proper was principal rendezvous for both hunters 
and trappers who were ranging the country between 
Heart River on the south,to Douglas River on the north. 
At this point, also, were in,operation two or three 
wood yards whose managers made a specialty of hard 
wood for the steamboat trade, which in connection with 
a large. supply of dry cottonwood made the Woods a 
regular way point and wooding-up place for all steam- 
ers on their passage either up or down stream. 
Being neutral grounds to the warring Indian tribes, 
made the place less dangerous to the average hunter 
as only war parties appeared there and they were guard- 
ed against by runners and mail carriers from the military 
posts who also made Painted Woods the principal stop- 
ping place between the two military posts of Forts Rice 
and Stevenson. 
On account of-the absence of Indian hunters the wild 
game in Painted Woods country had increased in great 
numbers since the advent of the military expeditions 
of Generals Sibley and Sully in 1863 and 1864, or about 
five years previous to the writer’s first arrival among 
the painted trees. 
Buffalo had became scarce—only an occasional stray 
from the main herds could be found, but elk were met 
with in considerable numbers in every cottonwood grove 
on both sides of the Missouri. Deer were also plentiful 
in the timber points and antelope could be found in herds 
of from one to five hundred scattered all over the prairies 
on the west side of the big river, but they were not so 
plentiful on the east bank of the stream. A traveler 
Fo eS ee a 
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