5 ] 4 
FOREST AND STREAM 
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The Wild Horse 
It has long been an article of popular belief 
that the wild horse once roamed in multitudes on 
the great western plains, ranging from the frozen 
north to the sub-tropical south. That belief is 
a survival of a period when the remote west was 
little known. When it was regarded as a vast 
and mysterious land, abounding with a wondrous 
wealth of animal life. Yet it may be safely 
asserted, that except in Texas and the former 
Indian Territory, the wild horse nowhere gained 
a substantial foothold. 
Catlin, who has left us a record of his jour- 
neyings through so much of the unpeopled west 
states the current belief of his time as follows: 
“The wild horses, which are found in great num¬ 
bers on the prairies, have unquestionably 
strayed from the Mexican borders and now 
range and subsist themselves, in winter and sum¬ 
mer, over the vast prairies that stretch from the 
Mexican frontier to Lake Winnipeg.” Despite 
his assertion, Catlin never mentions seeing a wild 
horse except within the above territory. Nor do 
any of the many government explorers and un¬ 
official travellers whose paths have gridironed the 
far stretching plains, appear to have observed the 
wild horse elsewhere than in the immediate 
neighborhood of the locality designated. Another 
traveller that voices the popular illusion is Bald¬ 
win Mollhausen, naturalist to the government ex¬ 
ploring expedition under Lieut. A. Whipple which, 
in its search for a Pacific railroad route, passed 
along the Canadian river in 1853: “The prairie 
Indians increase their herds by catching mustangs 
or wild horses, small but powerfully built ani¬ 
mals, and unquestionably the descendants of 
those brought to the country by the Spaniards, 
which, having escaped and become wild, increased 
to herds of thousands and animate the plains 
from the borders of Texas to the Yellowstone 
and the Missouri.” In fact, the territorial ex¬ 
tension of the wild horse was as much exag¬ 
gerated as that of the former “Great American 
Desert” both errors even invading school books, 
and although the popular misconception, has in 
the one instance been dissipated, it lingers in the 
other. 
Notwithstanding his animation of the plains 
with “herds of thousands,” Mollhausen does not 
seem to have described a single wild horse dur¬ 
ing the course of his transcontinental journey in 
1853, although the valley of the Canadian river, 
through which he passed, was formerly fre¬ 
quented by the animals. Of the scores of govern¬ 
ment and other expeditions that traversed, in 
every direction, these grassy steppes prior to 1853, 
probably few, if any, noted the presence of the 
wild horse, other than the seven or eight whose 
observations are herein cited. It should be remem¬ 
bered that the record of the government expedi¬ 
tions was scrupulously kept, the happenings of 
each day particularized, and the appearance of a 
troop of wild horses, or even that of a single 
individual, would not have failed to be noted. 
The first explorers, other than the Spaniards, of 
the Southwest, were Frenchmen, from Louisiana 
and Illinois posts, whose expeditions, in the lat¬ 
ter part of the seventeenth and the earlier por¬ 
tion of the eighteenth centuries, seem to have 
fairly covered the region now included within 
Kansas, Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, to¬ 
gether with a portion of Texas. The Indian 
tribes encountered appear to have been more or 
less supplied with horses, and the Comanches at 
that time, fine riders; but if they had already 
acquired their famous feat of riding suspended 
at the horse’s side, the narrative fails to record it. 
Probably no wild horses were seen, Parkman, in 
his transcript of the original Ms. making no 
allusion thereto. 
Upon its consummation of the Louisiana pur¬ 
chase the U. S. Government despatched two 
cavalcades to explore its territorial acquisition. 
The first of these expeditions, under Lewis and 
Clark, traversed the northern belt, while the 
other under Lieut. Z. M. Pike explored the 
southern portion, proceeding first to the peak that 
bears his name, thence to Sante Fe, returning 
through northern Mexico and Southern Texas, 
to Natchitoches, Louisiana. Upon Oct. 29, 1806, 
Pike met two wild horses near the present town 
of Pawnee Rock, Kansas, upon the Arkansas 
river, and three days later he states: “Upon us¬ 
ing my glass I observed on the prairie a herd of 
horses. * * *, they came up near us making the 
earth tremble beneath them. Among them were 
some very beautiful bays, blacks and greys, and 
indeed of all colors.” During the remainder of his 
outward journey he seems to have met no more, 
but on his return through southern Texas, he 
writes under date of June 3, 1807: “Saw some 
wild horses.” June 4: “Great sign of wild horses.” 
June 7: “Passed two herds of wild horses.” 
These were in Maverick County near the 
Nueces. June 20: “Passed several herds of wild 
horses.” In this exedition’s course buffalo, ante¬ 
lope, etc., were seen almost daily, horses appar¬ 
ently but five times. Pike states with regard to 
Texas “that wild horses were in such number as 
‘Me for the tall timber” 
Wl^n you take down your old ‘'shooting iron" and get to scoutin round, 
he sure you load up with tke stuff that gets the game before they find a 
refuge. You seldom get more than one shot, and you can make that count, 
ifyo “ sW Robin Hood 
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