ON THE TRAIL OF THE CLUB FOOT BEAR 
A STORY OF BIG GAME IN THE CASCADE AND SISKIYOU RANGES WHEN ELK. DEER, 
BEAR AND BIG TIMBER WOLVES ROAMED THE FORESTS PRACTICALLY UNDISTURBED 
A S this is the first story I have writ- 
ten for Forest and Stream, I will 
just say for the benefit of the read- 
ers that these stories are written from 
actual experiences in hunting big game 
for over twenty years in the Cascade and 
Siskiyou Range, when elk, deer, bear, and 
big timber wolves were roaming the for- 
est practically undisturbed except by my- 
self and dogs. During half of this time I 
had with me Trailer, who was supposed 
to be, and no doubt was, one of the best 
bear and cougar dogs on earth. He often 
treed two cougar in one day, and three 
and four bear in a day, a feat that is 
seldom done by any dog, and this he often 
did alone, without a helper. These facts 
are well known by any amount of people 
in Southern Oregon. As it is claimed 
that a cougar will kill on an average of 
fifty deer a year, it will be easy to see 
that Trailer saved the lives of a great 
number of deer to say the least. 
I never allowed Trailer to run deer, 
only when wounded; and you can believe 
me when I tell you that whenever I drew 
blood, and sent Trailer after a deer, I 
was sure to get it. And when Trailer 
struck a bear or cougar track that was 
fresh it was nearly a sure shot that it 
would be climbing a tree in a short time. 
In those days I used to go on hunting 
trips of several days’ duration, taking 
'.long pack horses, and often had to dry 
or jerk the meat, as it would be too heavy 
to pack in fresh. Often I went alone, but 
at times I was accompanied by some 
friend who wished to take an outing. On 
the hunt that I intend telling you about 
in this story I had with me a man by the 
name of Templeton, who had never hunt- 
ed big game before, but who afterwards 
became quite a hunter and was with me 
on a number of occasions when we had to 
handle our Winchesters pretty lively. He 
was a very excitable man, as you will find 
out when you read this story. I will call 
him Temp for short as that is what I al- 
ways called him in those days. 
I had heard of an immense grizzly that 
was ranging in the region around Mt. 
By JOHN B. GRIFFIN 
Pitt. Occasionally it would take a stam- 
pede and get over in the Buck Lake coun- 
Ly and kill a few sheep and sometimes a 
cow, or a big steer, and then hike back to 
his old stamping-ground north of Four 
Mile Lake, and would not show up in that 
locality for quite a while again. The 
sheep belonged to a man named Reddick, 
who tried all kinds of plans to trap him, 
but the old scamp was too foxy to be 
trapped. He probably had been in a trap 
before, as he had a crippled foot and 
The old scamp was too foxy to be trapped 
made a peculiar track which gave him 
the name of the Club Foot Bear. 
I received a letter from Reddick offer- 
ing me one hundred dollars if I would 
come and kill the bear. At the time he 
wrote Old Club Foot had swooped down 
and killed a big four year old steer and 
he wanted me to come at once. So Temp 
and I started out one morning with our 
outfit of horses and dogs. Trailer and 
Ranger, and before noon the next day we 
landed at Reddick’s camp on Buck Lake 
prairie where the steer had been killed. 
That afternoon he went with us and 
showed us where the steer lay. The bear 
had not been there for a day or two; how- 
ever, we could follow his tracks and 
found he had gone north toward Black 
Butte. The trail led us through a big 
burn for three or four miles where it 
was easy to follow, but after a while we 
struck the timber and brush. Then it 
was all off, and w’e went back to camp. 
After holding a consultation with ReT 
dick, we came to the conclusion that he 
had gone back to his old range. So the 
next morning we packed up and struck 
out for Four Mile Lake, at the foot of old 
Mt. Pitt, and the hunt was on for the 
trail of the Club Foot Bear. Our route 
lay through a level timber country for 
several miles, as we avoided the high hills 
and swung in by Lake of the Woods, and 
that night made our camp on Grouse 
Creek, where the grass was high as a 
horse’s back and huckleberries grew by 
the bushel. The next day we laid oyer 
and took a scout out around the side of 
old Mt. Pitt, east of camp, but failed to 
find any sign of the Club Foot Bear. 
I told Temp that probably he was tak- 
ing it easy and it would be three or four 
days before he would get back to his old 
range probably. As there were lots of 
huckleberries on the hill east of camp, we 
concluded to give the bear a round-up for 
a few days, and then go on one and make 
another camp near where the old Club 
Foot ranged. So next morning we were 
off bright and early. I took Trailer with 
me, and took a route nearly northeast 
from camp, and Temp went nearly east, 
which would put him on the lower side of 
the hill from me, as we thought that 
would be the best thing to do in case 
Trailer should start a bear. The country 
was covered with open pine timber, with 
scattering brush all through it, and was 
an ideal place for deer. I had not gone 
more than two miles from camp when 
out jumped two big bucks within forty 
steps of me and bounded off through the 
timber. The Winchester came to my 
shoulder in double quick time, and catch- 
ing a bead behind the shoulder of the one 
•Contents Conyrisrht, 191S, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
