The Grizzly Bear of the Frontier American West

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This thread is all about the grizzly bear of 19th century frontier western America.




The, during the winter in North Dakota, the Hidatsas had told Lewis and Clark about there’s this ferocious animal that lives where you’re gonna be going. It’s a big bear, a bear the size that you’ve never seen, you know. Some of our warriors have killed and look, we’ve got the claws, they’re big claws aren’t they, and it’s a real mark of honor for us to kill one. Well, as they’re going west into Montana they start seeing some big bear tracks, they think, “Hey, this must be it.” But they’re more curious than frightened of it. And, as they came into what’s now Montana, they saw a grizzly bear, and it was big, but they shot it and killed it. And that night Lewis was writing in his journal, “Well, you know, I can understand how the Indians with, armed as they are with just some bows and arrows might be frightened of this monster. But in the hands of an experienced woodsman with a good rifle, they’re nothing to be afraid of.” Well, about 2 days later, they come across another grizzly bear and they fire 8 or 9 shots into it can’t kill it. It chases them off the, off the Plain and into the river. They meet another one who chases some men up a tree. Everywhere they’re going, they’re meeting these big grizzly bears that they just have trouble killing. And finally, Lewis sits down one night to write in his journal, he says, “I find the curiosity of our men with respect to this animal is pretty much satisfied.”





Credit: Rare Book and Special Collections Division Library of Congress.

Meriwether Lewis was furious when expedition carpenter Patrick Gass published his own account of the expedition in 1807. Gass's A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery provided Americans the first authentic book-length account of the famed expedition.

For audio clip, scroll down & select from the following link:
www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/living/idx_7.html




Lewis and Clark West to the Pacific by Frank R. "Bob"
Davenport Photo and Copyright held by: Lewis and
Clark Trail Heritage.

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"For the instances of this we are indebted almost wholly to the narrative of the Travels of Captains Lewis and Clarke, whose statements are no doubt founded in truth, although it may be suspected that they require to be received with some grains at least of allowance. According to these gentlemen one bear which had received five shots in his lungs, and five other wounds in various parts of his body, swam a considerable distance to a sand bank in the river, and survived more than twenty minutes; another that had been shot through the centre of the lungs, pursued at full speed the man by whom the wound was inflicted for half a mile, then returned more than twice that distance, dug himself a bed two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive two hours after he received the wound; and a third, although actually shot through the heart, ran at his usual pace nearly a quarter of a mile before he fell. There is no chance, they add, of killing him by a single shot, unless the ball goes directly through the brain; a single hunter runs consequently no little risk in venturing to attack an animal upon whom the most dangerous wounds, if not instantaneously fatal, produce no obvious immediate effects."


Hahn D. 2003. The Tower Menagerie. London: Simon and Schuster.

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"Our First Grizzly, killed by Gen. Custer and Col. Ludlow." By Illingworth, 1874, during Black Hills expedition.


Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Our_First_Grizzly,_killed_by_Gen._Custer_and_Col._Ludlow.%22_By_Illingworth,_1874,_during_Black_Hills_expedition_-_NARA_-_519426.jpg

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From the 1909 book, The grizzly bear; the narrative of a hunter-naturalist, historical, scientific and adventurous by Wright, William H. (William Henry).






Somewhere along the Idaho and Montana border: regardless of the reported weight, photograph of a large bear.



TEXT EXTRACT:


THERE is an old saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. This, in another sense, is equally true of bears; and more grizzly hunters have won their chance to drive their bullets home by studying their victim's appetite than by any other method. It follows that some of the easiest hunting grounds in the north-west used to be along the streams where the salmon ran, for the grizzly is a great fisherman. It is true that in the fishing season his pelt is valueless, as at that time of year he has no fur and but very little hair, but the man who has come out to get a grizzly is apt to look upon this circumstance as, indeed, a misfortune, but one to be taken philosophically.


In the streams tributary to, the Clearwater River in Idaho there are two or three runs of salmon. One, of what are locally known as the red, or Columbia River salmon, takes place in the early spring, at the time of high and muddy water. It does not, on this account, attract so much attention from the bears. But later on, between the middle of August and the middle of September, what are known as the dog salmon make their way up all the little streams. At that time the water is clear and low; the stream beds are successions of small rapids and broken riffles; the mad, unreasoning longing of the salmon to reach the uttermost head of salmon navigation drives them to struggle over places where there is scarcely enough water to float them when swimming on their sides, and the grizzlies gather to the feast.

These dog salmon grow to a very large size. They run from two to four feet in length, and would, if fat, weigh fifty or sixty pounds. But by the time they reach the upper waters of the small streams they are very poor and thin (good, indeed, only for bear bait), and fall easy victims to the bear and other animals and large birds that prey on them.

The grizzly has his own calendar and never gets mixed up on it. About two weeks before the salmon are due he leaves the higher hills and ridges and gathers near the streams, to be on hand when the fish appear. One can easily tell where to lie in wait for them. They always have their favorite fishing ground, usually at some shallow riffle, and the creek bank is worn smooth by the many trails leading away into the dense thickets, where they lie up when not fishing. After locating one of these fishing grounds, one has only to select a good hiding place, being careful not to make noise enough to frighten away the bears, and then wait until they come down to fish. In localities where they have been little hunted, I have seen them out fishing at all hours of the day, and to see a grizzly catching salmon is worth one's while.

The grizzly usually sits on the bank of the stream and watches the riffles over which the salmon try to force their way. He will wait quietly enough until the salmon is about half-way up the riffle and struggling in its efforts to make the ascent. Then he will make a quick dash, and, with one sweep of his huge paw, will send a shower of water ten feet into the air, in the midst of which will be seen a salmon sailing toward the creek bank and landing, many times, ten or twenty feet beyond. Then the bear hurriedly makes for the shore and, if hungry, eats the fish. If he has already had his fill, he will kill it, lay it down, and, returning, wait for another. I have seen one bear catch seventeen salmon in this manner before stopping, and he then carefully piled them together and buried them for future use.

Sometimes a bear will sit on a log jam and watch for the fish to swim out from under the logs. When one comes he will, with a sweep of his paw, send it flying to the bank. I have often seen them fishing in this way, lying on a log with one paw hanging in the water, and it is wonderful how many salmon they will fling out. Once I saw five old grizzlies fishing from one log jam. Indeed, I have watched for hours along these streams, and some of the pleasantest moments of my hunting trips have been so spent; but while I could have killed many a bear in this way, I have never killed but three.

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p.69-71.


In going up the mountain he had deliberately picked the worst possible going, and, in places, had even scaled cliffs that the dogs had had to go around. Again, he had turned at right angles and run horizontally along hillsides so steep that the dogs, to keep from falling headlong, had had to give ground and veer downhill. He accomplished this feat and kept his huge weight from slipping downward by simply twisting his fore paws till his huge claws engaged the snow like hooks. To put it plainly, when he was headed south, his fore claws pointed east, uphill.

What with these tactics, and his natural speediness, he was so far ahead of the dogs when he reached the summit of the mountain that, as his trail plainly showed, he had stopped and stood on his hind legs to look or listen for them, and then, dropping again on all-fours, he had started down the opposite slope. Now, if his tactics in the ascent had been masterly, his method of going down was spectacular. The snow was comparatively soft for a depth of two feet or so, and that bear's trail looked like the track of a huge boulder. He had simply turned on full steam, pulled the throttle wide open, and let her go. There were places where I took nine steps to cover one of his jumps.

p.121-122.


PDF LINK: archive.org/details/grizzlybearnarra00wrig