History of Grand Forks County : with special reference to the first ten years of Grand Forks City, including an historical outline of the Red River Valley

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: State Historical Society of North Dakota
• Subjects: Garry; Grand Forks; Hudson; Hudson Bay
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/39000

I" R E - S E T T I, E M E N T A N N A L S 47 them, though he only drove two teams. But in addition to bis driving the teams he was furnished with an old smooth-bore musket and ammunition so as to do a little hunting along the road. When they had gotten between Georgetown and Elm river, a bear came along on the outer side of the road so as to cross it behind the line of teams. Some one, as a joke, shouted to the cook to take his gun, run out, and kill the bear. The man took his gun, loaded with duck-shot, and the rest of his ammunition, and ran out to meet the bear. All thought that they would lose their cook, but none of them had sense enough to warn the fellow back. But fools generally have good luck and so had this one. When he had gotten within five rods of Bruin, tlie latter parly thought he had better get ready for a fight. Rising on his hind legs lie waited for an attack. The cook fired his charge of shot square into tlie bear's forehead, but the gun being dirty, the shot scattered and blew out the bear's eyes. That was the only thing that saved the man's life. Now there was time to reload and a man was hastily sent out by the train boss to shout to the cook that he should go close up to the animal, take aim behind the shoulder, and fire forward. He did so, and put an end to the roaring and distracted animal. "But the greatest novelty we bad to look at in those days was when the Hudson Bay company's freighters passed by us, going between Fort Garry and St, Cloud. Sometimes they had trains consisting of one hundred and six Red River carts drawn by ponies or oxen, both kinds of animals being used in the same train. The drivers rode alongside on horseback. They were generally halfbreeds, as could be seen by their long hair hanging down on their shoulders and mocassins on their feet; otherwise they were clothed like white men. From eight to ten carts were managed by each driver. The equipment of each man was a short whip, generally hung by a string around the wrist of tbe right hand, a muzzle-loading shot gun, a powder-horn and a shot-bag. The boss was always a white man, and he generally had one or more white men with him'as a kind of bodyguard. "Tlie last buffalo seen in this region was in 1867 when one was seen and shot on the Dakota side six miles below Georgetown. In 1871 there were some wild Texas steers roaming across tbe country, one being shot at Rush river, one at the mouth of the Sheyenne and another near the mouth of Ifilm river.". Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.