Oct. 18, 1894.] 
FOREST AND • STREAM. 
31S 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Present and Past in the Wilder^West. 
[Irom a Staff Correspondent.] 
BILLINGS, MONTANA. 
The lively little city of Billings, Montana, situated well 
up on the Yellowstone Biver, at the base of the east slope 
of the Rockies, is one of those communities well covered 
by the comprehensive but not inaccurate title of "red hot 
Bporting town." It is claimed by the sportsmen of Bil- 
lings that more different kinds of sport with rod and gun 
can be had out of Billings, and • in a higher degree of ex- 
cellence, than is possible at any town in the West. 
Taking Billings as a center, one can outfit for elk, deer or 
bear about as advantageously as at any mountain town 
one could name. One can get some sharp-tailed grouse 
shooting at times, and in season he can have excellent 
goose and duck shooting. If he is a lover of the grey- 
hound he can have the best of opportunities for coursing 
coyotes or gray wolves in the neighboring ranches. Above 
all he can easily reach some of the best trout fishing ever 
enjoyed by mortal man. The Stillwater, the Clark's Fork, 
Boulder Creek, the Fishtail, the Little Rocky, Bennett 
Creek and other mountain streams easily accessible from 
this point, by rail, wagon and pack animals, afford such 
trout fishing as cannot be understood, appreciated or be- 
lieved by one who has not actually seen it. Naturally 
there are many lovers of the fly-rod in this mountain city, 
and even those making up the membership of the vigor- 
ous trap-shooting club take readily to the angle. The 
town presents an exceptionally strong body of active and 
practical sportsmen. It might well boast also of its social 
organization, the Billings Club, at whose elegant rooms 
the sportsmanship of the town is apt to be found in con- 
gregation of an evening. 
Mr. Huntington, the gentleman who handles the elec- 
tricity and business of the Northern Pacific station of 
Billings, has already written a most pleasant account of 
the attractions which Billings possesses for the sportsmen, 
and I will not attempt to add to his specifications further 
than to say that any visitor would be missing a good 
feature if he failed to get a run after Mr. Huntington's 
foxhounds. 
Col. Babcock, of the A. L. Babcock Hardware Co.; Mr. 
John D. Losekamp; the main general outfitter; Mr. Phil. 
M. Gallaher, civil engineer; Mr. Jabe Vaughan, who 
feeds hungry people, are all gentlemen whom it is a 
pleasure to meet, and anyone of them will give a stranger 
the straightest kind of information as to the sporting 
resources of the country, which is something of which 
the visiting stranger cannot always be sure in a Western 
town.. 
A Corner on Elk Teeth. 
I am satisfied that I am presenting a unique piece of 
news, when I say that Billings has one distinction which 
no other town on earth can claim. It is the greatest elk 
tooth market of the world. It may not be generally un- 
derstood, but is none the lesi a fact, that there is a corner 
on elk teeth. Mr. John D. Losekamp, of Billings, is the 
man who holds this corner. He practically holds the elk 
tooth stock of the entire country ; and to his already enor- 
mous supply he is constantly adding, the Indians and 
hunters bringing teeth to him from all over the country. 
Not every one knows that the elk teeth, or rather the 
tusk, of which two only are found in the mouth of the 
adult elk, has a practical commercial value. The teeth 
are used as jewelry, mostly as pendents on watch guards 
or as insignia of the secret society known as the Elks. 
The value of a tooth ranges from 50 cents to $2.50, ac- 
cording to its size, color and marking. Mr. Losekamp 
has now over 86,000 elk teeth deposited in safety vaults. 
He buys them mainly of the Indians. Many of the old 
Indian dresses were highly ornamented with elk teeth, 
some of them being fairly covered with the teeth. Mr. 
Losekamp has lived on the frontier all his mature life, and 
understands Indian trading perfectly, yet he has some- 
times paid over $100 for a single garment thus ornamen- 
ted, caring of course for nothing but the teeth. The In- 
dians drill the teeth to fasten them on their dresses, and 
this doeB not injure the value of the tooth, but they have 
a much worse habit of sometimes staining the teeth a 
bright red. This dye cannot be extracted, and depreciates 
the value of the elk tooth for a white customer. The In- 
dians do not dye the teeth so much now since they have 
learned they can sell them for more in their natural state. 
Mr. Losekamp gave me a very interesting description of 
the long bargainings he has sometimes had with Indian 
chiefs, who were reluctant to sell the much-prized family 
possession of dresses covered with elk teeth. I fancy that 
few dwellers east of the Rockies have known much be- 
fore this of the elk tooth as an article of commerce, and 
believe Mr. Losekamp's venture to be one altogether new 
in its way, though not without a prospect of handsome 
profit. 
Couldn't Carry Any More Trout. 
Mr. Losekamp is as ardent a fisherman as one would 
often meet, and each summer takes a long trip up his 
favorite stream, the Stillwater. Under date of Sept. 7, 
he writes me as follows: 
"I am just back from my outing trip of twenty-two 
days in the upper Stillwater country about twenty miles 
above where you were with us. It would be difficult for 
me to give you a description of the entire trip, but I wish 
to give you a list of trout I caught from 8:'30 to 11:30, on 
the upper Stillwater River, a country which is seldom 
gone into. Did not want to fish longer, as I had all I 
could conveniently carry. We caught some lower down 
the creek measuring 20 and 20*in. which weighed 41bs. 
The catch was (Thursday, Aug. 16): 5 at 14in. long, 6 at 
14|in., 6 at 15£in, 6 at 16in, 5 at 16+in.; 28 in number, 
which I should place at 641bs. weight. A good day's fish 
in that country would certainly run close to 100 fish of 
the above size. I wish you could have been with me and 
seen sport which money could not buy in the Eatt. 
"Quivey was in a few days ago and spent a couple of 
days with me. Old Bill Hamilton is sojourning in the 
mountains, and Liver-Eating Johnson is in Red Lodge, 
basking in the cool air." 
Speaking of this same trip, a writer in Mr. Ramsey's 
paper, the Stillwater Bulletin, says: 
One of the most agreeable trips for a summer outing is up the Still- 
water Valley. Although so recently open to civilization it is thickly 
dotted with cabins, overrun with irrigation ditches and presents some 
as beautiful and fertile ranches as are found in this part of the State 
There are no gnats or mosquitoes which, with the cold mountain 
streams and plenty of fish, make it desirable for camping. Our little 
P. art y spent ten days on the upper lakeB of the Stillwater. As far as 
, y the road 18 K° 0(i > DUt from there to the lakes the trail is very 
difficult; mountains, swamps and swift mountain streams bar your 
approach to the lakes. Eight miles above Nye is Fish Lake— by right 
a broad eddy in the river— a mile long and from ten to twenty rods 
wide. Here we camped and were joined .the second evening of our 
arrival by John Losekamp, Ed. Vaughan and others who added their 
jovial stories and experiences to the chat around the camp-flre. The 
next day at noon one might have seen Mr. Losekamp coming into 
camp with twenty-seven speckled beauties weighing at least 501ba 
His score was tied by Chas. Hathaway of our party the next morning. 
The salmon trout of the lake are of uniform Bize, averaging 21bs at 
least, with a few from 3 to SJ^lbs. Large game is not abundant on 
account of the heavy fire last fall, which destroyed the shelter and 
feed. The settlers are very hospitable and kind, and many pleasant 
reminiscences will attend our journey. 
Along the Stillwater. 
I very well remember the fishing trip up the Stillwater 
to which Mr. Losekamp refers in his letter, mentioning 
myself as one of the party. That was last April, when 
the mountains were full of snow and the water in all the 
streams was so cold as to make you shiver at the thought 
of drinking it. We made up our party at Billings, Mr. 
Losekamp. Col. Babcock, Mr. Vaughn, Mr. Meigs and my- 
self going thence west by rail to the little tov^n of Still- 
water, whose name is now changed to Columbus. This 
pleasant village nestles next to the mighty Yellowstone, 
nearly opposite the mouth of the beautiful Stillwater 
stream, the latter one of the most beautiful streams one 
ever set eyes upon. At Stillwater we were joined by Mr. 
June Noyes, the main local trout enthusiast, and as quiet 
and kind a companion as ever wet a fly. We took a team 
here and went some distance up the Stillwater, in our sec- 
ond day going as high up as Absoraka. This little post 
office, which is now kept open for the convenience of the 
Stillwater settlers, is located just above the junction of 
the Rosebud. All the valley, as the Bulletin says, clear 
up to the extreme forks of the Rosebud, is now taken up 
and under the ditch, but the farming is of so feeble a sort 
that the wildness of the country is not much disturbed. 
Indian Graveyards. 
The trace cf the Indian is still strong along the Still- 
water; witness the several Indian burying grounds 
which are to be found around Absoraka. There are two 
of these not half a mile from the house where we stopped, 
one very large one in the clefts of the rocks which line 
that stream. Another, and one more accessible, is in the 
timber of the bottoms just above the house. This really 
was only one large burial tree, but it held a number of 
bodies. The cowboys, who do not share the old-timer's 
idea as to the sanctity of an Indian graveyard, have torn 
this burial tree pretty much to pieces. The lodge poles, 
which made the platform, are all scattered about, and 
the bones, clothing, etc.. are spread widely around over 
and under the deep surface covering of forest leaves. We 
found here many fragments of bones, and numbers of the 
ornaments with which these poor people had adorned 
their dead— copper beads, bits of copper wire, many-col- 
ored glass and porcelain beads, etc., etc. There was one 
little hand, with the wrist bones still attached, bearing 
still about it the copper bracelet which in life was no 
doubt the wearer's pride. Under the leaves, some dis- 
tance away from the burial tree, we found two skulls, 
quite perfect except that the lower jaw was gone, the 
coyotes no doubt having accounted for the latter. Off to our 
left a mile or so, opposite the great burial cliff across the 
Rosebud and distant from it about two miles or more, my 
companion pointed out to me yet another burial ground, 
this one also situated high up on the face of a rocky bluff. 
These were all Crow (''Absoraka") graves. The Crows 
seem to have left their dead either in trees or in caves, as 
seemed best at the time. The method of sepulture was 
the same in either case. The body was wrapped up 
tightly in blankets or cloths, and put far back into the 
cave or crevice of the rocks, no pains being taken to 
cover it with the rocks, though the intention seems to 
have been to protect it from wild animals. From the 
tomb across the Rosebud, there had rolled down to the 
foot of the cliff the head of a little baby, and I presume 
the coyotes had managed to get in there. One could not 
look on these evidences of a former life and death with' 
out a certain feeling of sadness, in spite of the recollec- 
tion that the Crows were not altogether admirable per- 
sons in their habits of business or pleasure. But I am in- 
clined to believe that their two different systems of dis- 
position of their dead can nowhere be better seen in so 
close proximity to each other than here up the valley of 
the Stdl water and Rosebud streams. 
Plenty of Trout. 
As to our success at fishing, even at that inauspicious 
season, I could ask nothing better, though my friends 
were continually complaining and apoligizing about it, 
and declaring that they never had so poor luck in their 
lives. The trout were not taking the fly to any great 
extent, and we found that the minnow and the helgra- 
mite or "devil scratcher" made the best bait. We caught 
a number of trout weighing a pound, a pound and a half or 
two pounds. While I did not have the luck of my friends 
Losekamp, Noyes or Vaughn, I at least was able to hold 
Col. Babcock level, and moreover had the satisfaction of 
getting the largest trout of the trip, a magnificent fellow 
which we thought would weigh 51bs. and certainly over 
41bs. I remember few trips in all my life so thoroughly 
enjoyable as this up the lovely Stillwater Valley. My 
friends urged me to join them for their summer trip, still 
higher up the stream, and though I could not go, I am 
glad to learn that this expedition has been so fortunate 
as Mr. Losekamp tells. I can certainly heartily indorse 
all that the most enthusiastic Billings man can say in 
regard to the excellence of the sport near Billings. Of 
course, neither the Stillwater nor the other streams above 
mentioned, are actually near Billings, in the Eastern 
sense of the word near, but in Montana 50 or 60 miles is 
nothing, and Billings is the town you want to head for if 
you figure on sport in that part of the State. 
Old Times and Actual Old-Timers. 
Mr. Losekamp speaks of Mr. Quivey, Uncle Bill Ham- 
ilton and Liver Eating J ohnson. These are all old-timers 
of the most interesting sort, and from them or of them 
all we are certainly going to hear a great deal more in 
Forest and Stream. I met Uncle Bill Hamilton and 
Liver-Eating Johnson, both at Billings, and Ike Allen at 
Columbus, and no passing show, no panorama, no epic of 
the most skillful pen could for an American equal the 
experience of talking to these men of the days gone by 
As best l ean, that is to say, all too poorly and inaccur- 
ately, I shall later on try to tell some of the things thev 
told to me. ■ J 
"Old B ill Hamilton ," as he is known from one end of 
the Yellowstone to the other, is one of the few genuine, 
reliable old-timers the West has left. He has lived a life 
of adventure since his boyhood, and his old age now finds 
him settled _ down in the little town at the mouth of the 
Stillwater, m a little cabin over which flutters a ragged 
flag in remembrance of the days when he scouted for the 
Generals of the Army in the West. Old Uncle Bill Ham- 
ilton is one of the most lovable men I ever met. My last 
remembrance of the Stillwater is that of his tall, thin fig- 
ure as he stood fishing at its mouth. Uncle Bill had 
caught some trout, too, and with Western liberality he 
wanted me to take with me the largest ones he had. I 
can conceive that the writing descriptive of even one's 
most pleasant trips can sometimes be a labor, but when I 
come to write of Uncle Bill Hamilton, every word will be 
a pleasure, for a more simple and more honest man never 
lived, neither one less seeking of notoriety, though the 
record of his life, if it could ever really be obta,ined,would 
surpass, we may well believe, any volume of American 
adventure that has ever yet been penned. 
Cyclone in Arkansas. 
On Oct. 2, a cyclone visited Little Rock, Ark., with 
even more disastrous effects in sportingdom than that 
mentioned last week at Horicon Shooting Club, in Wis- 
consin, Several lives were lost in Little Rock, and many 
persons were injured. The Richelieu, conducted by the 
well known sportsman, Mr. Jos. Irwin, was considerably 
damaged. The Dickinson Arms Co., the largest sporting 
g? °ds firm in the State, suffered loss to the extent of 
$2,500. Joe Irwin and John Dickinson are not the sort 
of people we would willingly have meet with such mis- 
fortunes. 
A Lawyer's Trip. 
Mr. A. S. Trude, probably the best known criminal 
lawyer of Chicago, and a good Forest and Stream man, 
is back from a long and successful trip in Wyoming and 
Idaho. Mr. Trude is a good lawyer, and no doubt he 
knows that elk are under a close season of six years in 
Montana, and are protected in Idaho till Sept. 1, 1897 
and can not be legally hunted at all in Wyoming by a 
non-resident. I take it, therefore, that the newspaper 
reports which credited him with bringing back a lot of 
elk meat and eight elk heads are merely pieces of imagin- 
ative writing. How about it, Mr. Trude? You really 
wouldn't want to class yourself with Dr. Thomas, now 
would you? 
A copy of the Game Laws in Brief costs 25 cents. A 
copy of Forest and Stream costs 10 cents. They are 
worth it. 
A Railroad Man's Trip. 
Mr. W F. White, general traffic manager of the Santa 
Fe R. R. , and the party who accompanied him in the 
special car trip to New Mexico and other parts of the 
Spanish Southwest, have returned, after a most enjoyable 
and successful experience in the mountains. Mr. White 
is one of the most deservedly popular railroad men in the 
business. This trip to the Southwest is a fixture with him 
for each year, and he is going again next fall. 
Busy Day. 
State Warden Blow and Deputy Lenk arrested James 
Ollandher one day last week on Wolf Lake, one of the 
Calumet waters south of Chicago, for shooting ducks 
before daylight. Ollandher tried to escape, and pulled 
his gun on the officers, but the latter called his bluff and 
ran him in. His case was continued until to morrow 
$200 bail. ' 
John Delaware, 32 West Ohio street, likes robins for 
autumn diet, and he shot six Sunday near Hyde Lake at 
a cost of $5 a bird. ' 
Louis Embers, 228 Clybourn place, shot two robins on 
the Desplames River the same day. For the songsters he 
paid $10 a bird. 
George McMurdy was arrested for shooting ducks and 
using a headlight on Wolf Lake. The court fined McMurdy 
$10 apiece for three ducks. 
Warden Blow is enforcing the game laws vigorously 
having secured 146 convictions this season. 
Kit Carson's Kinsman. 
The dispatches have the following: 
Clayton, N. M„ Sept. 30.— Thomas O. Boggs, better known as "TTnele 
Tom " one of the oldest American residents of New Mexico is dead 
Mr Boggs came to New Mexico in 1845 with his fathei who was one 
of the organizers of the ill-fated Donner party, the first toTavI* over* 
land to Cahf ornia^ "Uncle Tom" acted as guide for G^neral¥remont 
He was sent by General Kearney in 1848, with dispatches of Genera 
Scott in Old Mexico to Fort Leavenworth, and met with many thrill- 
ing experiences while engaged in this duty. Mr. Boggs was I brother- 
in-law and companion many years of Kit Carson. oulBr 
Called Back. 
Mr. Of, Johnson late of Chicago, and a prominent 
angler there, located last year at Portland, Ore., and had 
great times in the Northwest with the salmon, trout deer 
elk and bear Two weeks ago he arrived in Chicago! 
"I couldn't ask for more sport than that Coast country 
affords " said he , but I couldn't stay away from thfe 
dirty, busy old Chicago. It called me back and here I 
am. 
Egad! Sir. 
In its leading article for the current issue a Chicago ex- 
sportmg newspaper speaks of some "Cadwell" ducks If 
the editor had known anything about shooting he prob- 
ably wouldn t have said that. Do you suppose he could 
have meant gadwall? 
Forgot 
A new publication volunteers the information that 
there are "about 25,000 elk and 150 buffalo in the Yellow- 
stone Park. ' The readers of Forest and Stream learned 
that some time ago from seeing the news in Forest and 
Stream. That was where the editor of the new publica- 
tion saw it, but he forgot to say so. I can recommend 
Forest and Stream to editors or readers who are looking 
for news for their respective purposes. E. Hough. 
909 Security Build ins, Chicago. 
Prairie Chickens. 
Recent reports received by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
™i r ™ stations w the prairie chicken country of Minnesota and 
South Dakota all indicate a prospect of the best hunting for years 
Chickens are very plentiful and in fine condition. Duck shooting 
prospects are also good Full information can be had by addressing 
CUcag^ g6 jid S °' M4lwftl * ee & st - Paul Ra« way, 30? Clark street. 
