hostile Indian country, and only the hunter who was particularly
reckless and daring ventured into it--were a favorite feeding ground for
sheep. They were reported very numerous by the first expeditions that
went up the river, and a few have been killed there within five or six
years, although the valley is given over to farming and the upper
prairie is covered with cattle. This used to be one of the greatest
sheep ranges in all the West; the wide flats of the river bottom, the
higher table lands above, and the worn bad lands between, furnishing
ideal sheep ground. The last killed there, so far as I know, were a ram
and two ewes, which were taken about forty miles below Rosebud Station,
on the river, in 1897 or 1898.
Of Wyoming, Mr. Wm. Wells writes: "I have only been up here in
northwestern Wyoming for a year, but from what I have seen, sheep are
holding their own fairly well, and may be increasing in places. In 1897,
Mr. H.D. Shelden, of Detroit, Mich., and myself were hunting sheep just
west of the headwaters of Hobacks River. There was a sort of knife-edge
ridge running about fifteen miles north and south, the summit of which
was about 2,000 feet above a bench or table-land. The ridge was well
watered, and in some places the timber ran nearly up to the top of the
ridge. On this ridge there were about 100 sheep, divided into three
bands. Each band seemed to make its home in a cup-like hollow on the
east side of the ridge, about 500 feet below the crest, but the members
of the different bands seemed to visit back and forth, as the numbers
were not always the same.
"We could take our horses up into either one of the three hollows, and
some of the sheep were so tame that we have several times been within
fifty yards in plain sight, and had the sheep pay very little attention
to us. In one instance two ewes and lambs went on ahead of us at a walk
for several hundred yards, often stopping to look back; and in another a
sheep, after looking at us, two horses and two dogs, across a canyon 200
yards wide, pawed a bed in the slide rock and lay down. In another case
I drove about thirty head of ewes and lambs to within thirty-five yards
of Mr. Shelden, and when he rose up in plain sight, they stood and
looked at him. When he saw that there was no ram there, he yelled at
them, upon which they ran off about 400 yards, and then stood and looked
at us.
"I do not think that these sheep had been hunted, until this time, for
several years. As nearly as I could tell, they ranged winter and summer
on nearly the same ground. At the top of the range, facing the east,
were overhanging ledges of rock, and under these the dung was two feet
or more deep.
"Either during the winter or early spring the sheep had been down in the
timber on the east side of the ridge, as I found the remains of several,
in the winter coat, that had been killed by cougars."
Mr. D.C. Nowlin, of Jackson, Wyo., was good enough to write me in 1898,
concerning the sheep in the general neighborhood of Jackson's Hole; that
is to say, in the ranges immediately south of the National Park, a
section not far from that just described. He says: "In certain ranges
near here sheep are comparatively plentiful, and are killed every
hunting season.
"Occasionally a scabby ram is killed. I killed one here which showed
very plainly the ravages of scab, especially around the ears, and on the
neck and shoulders. Evidently the disease is identical with that so
common among domestic sheep, and I have heard more than one creditable
account of mountain sheep mingling temporarily with domestic flocks and
thus contracting the scab. I am confident that the same parasite which
is found upon scabby domestic sheep is responsible for the disease which
affects the bighorn. It is not difficult to account for the transmission
of the disease, as western sheep-men roam with their flocks at will,
from the peach belt to timber line, regardless alike of the legal or
inherent rights of man or beast. Partly through isolation, and partly
through moral suasion by our people, no domestic sheep have invaded
Jackson's Hole."
Mr. Ira Dodge, of Cora, Wyo., in response to inquiries as to the sheep
in his section of the country, says: "Mountain sheep are, like most
other game, where you find them; but their feeding grounds are mainly
high table-lands, at the foot of, or near, high rocky peaks or
ranges. These table-lands occur at or near timber line, varying one or
two thousand feet either way. In this latitude timber line occurs at
about 11,500 feet. In all the ranges in this locality, namely, the Wind
River, Gros Ventre, and Uintah, water is found in abundance, and, as a
rule, there is plenty of timber. I think I have more often found sheep
in the timber, or below timber line, than at higher altitudes, although
sometimes I have located the finest rams far above the last scrubby
pine.
"The largest bunch of sheep that I have seen was in the fall of 1893. I
estimated the band at 75 to 100. In that bunch there were no rams, and
they remained in sight for quite a long time; so that I had a good
opportunity to estimate them.
"I do not profess to know where the majority of these sheep winter, but,
undoubtedly, a great number winter on the table-lands before mentioned,
where a rich growth of grass furnishes an abundance of feed. At this
altitude the wind blows so hard and continuously, and the snow is so
light and dry, that there would be no time during the whole winter when
the snow would lie on the ground long enough to starve sheep to death.
Several small bunches of sheep winter on the Big Gros Ventre
River. These, I think, are the same sheep that are found in summer time
on the Gros Ventre range. I have occasionally killed sheep that were
scabby, but I have no positive knowledge that this disease has killed
any number of sheep. In the fall of 1894 I discovered eleven large ram
skulls in one place, and since that time found four more near by. My
first impression was that the eleven were killed by a snowslide, as they
were at the foot of one of those places where snowslides occur, but
finding the other four within a mile, and in a place where a snowslide
could not have killed them, it rather dispelled my first theory. As
mountain sheep can travel over snow drifts nearly as well as a caribou,
I do not believe that they were stranded in a snowstorm and perished,
and no hunter would have killed so great a number and left such
magnificent heads. The scab theory is about the only solution left. The
sheep are not hunted very much here, and I believe their greatest enemy
is the mountain lion.
"There is one isolated bunch of mountain sheep on the Colorado Desert,
situated in Fremont and Sweetwater counties, Wyo., which seems to be
holding its own against many range riders, meat and specimen hunters, as
well as coyotes. They are very light in color, much more so than their
cousins found higher up in the mountains, and locally they are called
ibex, or white goats. The country they live in is very similar to the
bad lands of Dakota, and I dare say that their long life on the plains
has created in them a distinct sub-species of the bighorn."
The Colorado Desert is situated in Wyoming, between the Green River on
the west, and the Red Desert on the east. The sheep are seen mostly on
the breaks on Green River. They are sometimes chased by cowboys, but I
have never known of one being caught in that way.
I am told that in some bad lands in the Red Desert, locally known as
Dobe Town, there is a herd of wild sheep, which are occasionally pursued
by range riders. Rarely one is roped.
Mr. Fred E. White, of Jackson, Wyo., advised me in 1898 of the existence
of sheep in the mountains which drain into Gros Ventre Fork, the heads
of Green River and Buffalo Fork of Snake River. Mr. White was with the
Webb party, some years ago, when they secured a number of sheep. The
same correspondent calls attention to the very large number of sheep
which in 1888, and for a few years thereafter, ranged in the high
mountains between the waters of the Yellowstone and the Stinking
Water. This is one of the countries from which sheep have been pretty
nearly exterminated by hunters and prospectors.
Within the past twenty or thirty years mountain sheep have become very
scarce in all of their old haunts in Wyoming and northern Colorado. This
does not seem to be particularly due to hunting, but the sheep seem to
be either moving away or dying out. Mr. W.H. Reed, in 1898, wrote me
from Laramie, Wyo., saying: "At present there are perhaps thirty head on
Sheep Mountain, twenty-two miles west of Laramie, Wyo.; on the west side
of Laramie Peak there are perhaps twenty head; on the east side of the
Peak twelve to fifteen head, and near the Platte Canon, at the head of
Medicine Bow River, there are fifteen. In 1894 I saw at the head of the
Green River, Hobacks River, and Gros Ventre River, between two and three
hundred mountain sheep. There are sheep scattered all through the Wind
River, and a very few in the Big Horn Mountains; but all are in small
bunches, and these widely separated. Some of the old localities where
they were very abundant in the early '70's, but now are never seen, are
Whalen Canon, Raw Hide Buttes, Hartville Mountains, thirty miles
northwest of Ft. Laramie, Elk Mountains, and the adjacent hills fifteen
miles east of Fort Steele, near old Fort Halleck. They seem to have
disappeared also from the bad lands along Green River, south of the
Union Pacific Railroad, from the Freezeout Hills, Platte Canyon, at the
mouth of Sweetwater River, from Brown's Canyon, forty miles northwest of
Rawlins, from the Seminole and Ferris Mountains, and from many other
places in the middle and northeastern part of Wyoming."
In Colorado, the mountains surrounding North Park and west to the Utah
line, had many mountain sheep twenty-five years ago, but to-day old
hunters tell me that there are only two places where one is sure to find
sheep. These are Hahn's Peak and the Rabbit Ears, two peaks at the south
end of North Park.
There were sheep in and about the Black Hills of Dakota as late as 1890,
for Mr. W.S. Phillips has kindly informed me that about June of that
year he saw three sheep on Mt. Inyan Kara. These were the only ones
actually seen during the summer, but they were frequently heard of from
cattle-men, and Mr. Phillips considers it beyond dispute that at that
time they ranged from Sundance, Inyan Kara and Bear Lodge Mountains--all
on the western and southwestern slope of the Black Hills, on and near
the Wyoming-Dakota line--on the east, westerly at least to Pumpkin
Buttes and Big Powder River, and in the edge of the bad lands of Wyoming
as far north as the Little Missouri Buttes, and south to the south fork
of the Cheyenne River, and the big bend of the north fork of the Platte,
and the head of Green River. This range is based on reports of reliable
range riders, who saw them in passing through the country. It is an
ideal sheep country--rough, varying from sage brush desert, out of which
rises an occasional pine ridge butte, to bad lands, and the mountains of
the Black Hills. There are patches of grassy, fairly good pasture
land. The country is well watered, and there are many springs hidden
under the hills which run but a short distance after they come out of
the ground and then sink. Timber occurs in patches and more or less open
groves on the pine ridges that run sometimes for several miles in a
continuous hill, at a height of from one to three or four hundred feet
above the plain. The region is a cattle country.
In 1893 and '97 fresh heads and hides were seen at Pocotello, Idaho, and
at one or two other points west of there in the lava country along Snake
River and the Oregon short line. The sheep were probably killed in the
spurs and broken ranges that run out on the west flank of the main chain
of the Rockies toward the Blue Mountains of Oregon.
Mr. William Wells, of Wells, Wyo., has very kindly given me the
following notes as to Colorado, where he formerly resided. He says:
"During 1890, '91, '92, there were a good many mountain sheep on the
headwaters of Roan Creek, a tributary of Grand River, in Colorado. Roan
Creek heads on the south side of the Roan or Book Plateau, and flows
south into Grand River. The elevation of Grand River at this point is
about 5,000 feet, and the elevation of the Book Plateau is about 8,500
feet. The side of the plateau toward Grand River consists of cliffs from
2,000 to 3,000 feet high, and as the branches of Roan Creek head on top
of the plateau they form very deep box canyons as they cut their way to
the river. It is on these cliffs and in these canyons that the sheep were
found. I understand that there are some there yet, but I have not been
in that section since 1892. On all the cliffs are benches or terraces--a
cliff of 300 to 1,000 feet at the top, then a bench, then another cliff,
and so on to the bottom. The benches are well grassed, and there is more
or less timber, quaking asp, spruce and juniper in the side
canyons. There are plenty of springs along the cliffs, and as they face
the south, the winter range is good. The top of the plateau is an open
park country, and at that time was, and is yet, for that matter, full of
deer and bear, but I never saw any sheep on top, though they sometimes
come out on the upper edge of the cliffs.
"There were, and I suppose are still, small bands of sheep on Dome and
Shingle Peaks, on the headwaters of White River, in northwestern
Colorado.
"There was also a band of sheep on the Williams River Mountains which
lie between Bear River and the Williams Fork of Bear River, in
northwestern Colorado, but these sheep were killed off about 1894 or
'95. The Williams River Mountains are a low range of grass-covered
hills, well watered, with broken country and cliffs on the south side,
toward the Williams Fork.
"It is also reported that there is a band of sheep in Grand River Canyon,
just above Glenwood Springs, Colo., and sheep are reported to be on the
increase in the Gunnison country, and other parts of southwestern
Colorado, as that State protects sheep."
Mr. W.J. Dixon, of Cimarron, Kan., wrote me in May, 1898, as follows:
"In 1874 or '75 I killed sheep at the head of the north fork of the
Purgatoire, or Rio de las Animas, on the divide between the Spanish
Peaks and main range of the Rocky Mountains, southwest by west from the
South Peak. I was there also in November, 1892, and saw three or four
head at a distance, but did not go after them. They must be on the
increase there."
In 1899 there was a bunch of sheep in east central Utah, about thirty
miles north of the station of Green River, on the Rio Grande Western
Railroad, and on the west side of the Green River. These were on the
ranch of ex-member of Congress, Hon. Clarence E. Allen, and were
carefully protected by the owners of the property. The ranch hands are
instructed not to kill or molest them in any manner, and to do nothing
that will alarm them. They come down occasionally to the lower ground,
attracted by the lucerne, as are also the deer, which sometimes prove
quite a nuisance by getting into the growing crops. The sheep spend most
of their time in the cliffs not far away. When first seen, about 1894,
there were but five sheep in the bunch, while in 1899 twenty were
counted. This information was very kindly sent to me by
Mr. C.H. Blanchard, at one time of Silver City, but more recently of
Salt Lake City, in Utah.
Mr. W.H. Holabird, formerly of Eddy, New Mexico, but more recently of
Los Angeles, Cal., tells me that during the fall of 1896 a number of
splendid heads were brought into Eddy, N.M. He is told that mountain
sheep are quite numerous in the rugged ridge of the Guadeloupe
Mountains, bands of from five to twelve being frequently seen. As to
California, he reports: "We have a good many mountain sheep on the
isolated mountain spurs putting out from the main ranges into the
desert. I frequently hear of bands of two to ten, but our laws protect
them at all seasons."
My friend, Mr. Herbert Brown, of Yuma, Ariz., so well known as an
enthusiastic and painstaking observer of natural history matters, has
kindly written me something as to the mountain sheep in that
Territory. He says: "Under the game law of Arizona the killing of
mountain sheep is absolutely prohibited, but that does not prevent their
being killed. It does, however, prevent their being killed for the
market, and it was killing for the market that threatened their
extermination. So far as I have ever been able to learn, these sheep
range, or did range, on all the mountains to the north, west, and south
of Tucson, within a hundred miles or so. I know of them in the
Superstition Mountains, about a hundred miles to the north; in the
Quijotoas Mountains, a like distance to the southwest, and in the
mountains intermediate; I have no positive proof of their existence in
the Santa Ritas, but about twenty-three years ago I saw a pair of old
and weather-beaten horns that had been picked up in that range near Agua
Caliente, that is about ten or twelve miles southwest of
Mt. Wrightson. I never saw any sheep in the range, nor do I know of any
one more fortunate than myself in that respect. In days gone by the
Santa Catalinas, the Rincon, and the Tucson Mountains were the most
prolific hunting grounds for the market men. So far as I can remember,
the first brought to the market here were subsequent to the coming of
the railroad in 1880. They were killed in the Tucson Mountains by the
'Logan boys,' well known hunters at that time. Later the Logans made a
strike in the mines and disappeared. For several years no sheep were
seen, but finally Mexicans began killing them in the Santa Catalinas,
and occasionally six or eight would be hung up in the market at the same
time. Later the Papago Indians in the southwest began killing them for
the market. These people, as did also the Mexicans, killed big and
little, and the animals, never abundant, were threatened with
extermination. Those killed by the Logans came from the Tucson
Mountains; those killed by the Mexicans from the Santa Catalinas, and
those killed by the Indians probably from the Baboquivari or Comobabi
ranges. I questioned the hunters repeatedly, but they never gave me a
satisfactory answer.
"Although I never saw the sheep, I have repeatedly seen evidence of them
in both the ranges named. Inasmuch as I have not seen one in several
years past, I feel very confident that there are not many to see. Last
year I learned of a large ram being killed in the Superstition Mountains
which was alone when killed. About three years ago the head of a big ram
was brought to this city. It is said to have weighed seventy pounds. I
did not see it, nor did I learn where it came from.
"The Superstition and the Santa Catalinas are the very essence of
ruggedness, but notwithstanding this I am constrained to believe that
the days of big game are nearly numbered in Arizona. The reasons for
this are readily apparent. The mountain ranges are more or less
mineralized. To this there is hardly an exception. There is no place so
wild and forbidding that the prospector will not enter it. If 'pay rock'
or 'pay dirt' is struck, then good-by solitude and big game. A second
cause is to be found in the cattle industry, which, as a rule, is very
profitable. One of the most successful cattle growers in the country
once told me that cattle in Arizona would breed up to 95 per cent.
These breeders during the dry season leave the mesas and climb to the
top of the very highest mountains, and, of course, the more cattle the
less game. A year ago I was in the Harshaw Mountains, and was told by a
young man named Sorrell that a bunch of wild cattle occupied a certain
peak, and that on a certain occasion he had seen a big mountain sheep
with the cattle.
"So far as I know, I never saw or heard of a case of scab among wild
sheep."
Later, but still in 1898, Mr. Brown wrote me that, according to
Mr. J. D. Thompson, mountain sheep are common in all the mountains
bordering the Gulf Coast in Sonora, and also in Lower California.
Mr. Thompson is operating mines in the Sierra Pinto, Sonora, 180 miles
southeast of Yuma. This range is about six miles long and 800 feet
high. The mule deer and sheep are killed according to necessity. Indians
do the killing. A mule deer is worth two dollars, Mexican money, and a
sheep but little more, although the former are much more abundant than
the latter. The last sheep taken to camp was traded off for a pair of
overalls.
"It is reasonably certain that with sheep in southern Arizona and
southern Sonora, every mountain range between the two must be tenanted
by this species.
"During the August feast days the Papago Indians living about Quitovac
generally have a Montezuma celebration, in which live deer are employed.
For this purpose several are caught. Subsequently they are killed and
eaten. They are taken by relays of men or horses, sometimes both."
In northern Arizona sheep are still common. Dr. C. Hart Merriam in his
report on the San Francisco Mountain--"North American Fauna"
III.--recorded the San Francisco herd, of which he saw eight or nine
together. He also recorded their presence at the Grand Canyon, where they
are still fairly common, though very wary.
Mr. A.W. Anthony, of California, wrote me in 1898 concerning sheep in
southern California, and I am glad to quote his letter almost in
full. He says: "In San Diego county, Cal., there are a few sheep along
the western edge of the Colorado Desert. So far as I know, these are all
in the first ranges above the desert, and do not extend above the piñon
belt. These barren hills are dry, broken and steep, with very little
water, and except for the stock men, who have herds grazing on the
western edge of the desert, they are very seldom disturbed. Along the
line of the old Carriso Creek stage road from Yuma to Los Angeles,
between Warner Pass and the mouth of Carriso Creek--where it reaches the
desert--are several water holes where sheep have, up to 1897, at least,
regularly watered during the dry season.
"I have known of several being killed by stock men there during the past
few years, by watching for them about the water. As a rule, the country
is too dry, open and rough to make still-hunting successful. At the same
time I think they would have been killed off long since except for
reinforcements received from across the line in Lower California.
"Up to 1894 a few sheep were found as far up the range as Mt. Baldy, Los
Angeles county, and they may still occur there, but I cannot be sure.
One or two of the larger ranges west of the Colorado River, in the
desert, were, two years ago, and probably are still, blessed with a few
sheep. I have known of two or three parties that went after them, but
they would not tell where they went; not far north of the Southern
Pacific Railroad, I think.
"In Lower California sheep are still common in many places, but are
largely confined to the east side of the peninsula, mostly being found
in the low hills between the gulf and the main divide. A few reach the
top of San Pedro Martir--12,000 feet--but I learn from the Indians they
never were common in the higher ranges. The piñon belt and below seem to
be their habitat, and in very dry, barren ranges. I have known a few to
reach the Pacific, between 28 deg. n. lat. and 30 deg. n. lat.; but
they never seem at home on the western side of the peninsula.
"Owing to their habitat, few whites care to bother them--it costs too
much in cash, and more in bodily discomfort; but the natives kill them
at all seasons; not enough, however, to threaten extermination unless
they receive help from the north.
"I have no knowledge of any scab, or other disease, affecting the sheep,
either in southern or Lower California."
For northern California, records of sheep are few. Dr. Merriam, Chief of
the Biological Survey, tells me that sheep formerly occurred on the
Siskiyou range, on the boundary between California and Oregon, and that
some years ago he saw an old ram that had been killed on these
mountains. On Mt. Shasta they were very common until recently. In the
High Sierra, south of the latitude of Mono Lake, a few still occur, but
there are extremely rare.