File:S.D. Butcher's pioneer history of Custer County - and short sketches of early days in Nebraska (1901) (14576967567).jpg

Identifier: sdbutcherspionee00butc (find matches)
Title: S.D. Butcher's pioneer history of Custer County : and short sketches of early days in Nebraska
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Butcher, Solomon D. (Solomon Devore), 1856-1927
Subjects: Frontier and pioneer life
Publisher: Broken Bow, Neb. : (Merchants Pub. Co.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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knewCarver quite well and was at his place in 1873-4-5. I was a buffalo hunterand trapper. Carver hunted altogether on horseback, but the regular buffalohunters, or hide hunters, as they were sometimes called, killed their gameby what we called the still hunt—that is, on foot. I alw^ays aimed to getwithin three or four hundred yards of the herds, and by firing a few timeswith my long range Sharps rifie, break the backs of two or three of the oldcows that were leaders. As they crawled around on their front feet theother buffalos would gather about them in alarm and curiosity, which enabledus to approach a little closer, getting what the hunters called a stand. Ihave frequently killed as many as forty buffalo at one stand, usually firingabout three shots for each hide. This was considered good work. Sometimeswe had to take to our heels, as many wounded buffalo would be on all sides,and they were very dangerous. We called them spike bulls. We always 86 PIONEER HISTORY OF CUSTER COTNTY
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Passing Away. aimed to kill all the bulls, as their hides were worth a dollar more thanthose of the cows, the average value of a bull hide in 1875 being $2,15. Fortybull hides made a good load. It cost us seven cents for ammunition everyshot we fired, and when I say that I kept an account until I had used $2,200worth of ammunition in killing 5,000 buffalo and other game, my readers maybe incredulous. J. N. Dubois, a prominent hide buyer of Kansas City, toldme at Buffalo, on the Kansas Pacific railroad, in 1874, that during ten monthsof that year 18,000 hides per day were marketed, with 500 outfits in the field,making thirty-six buffalo killed per day by each outfit. Carver is right. Hadwe foreseen how rapidly the buffalo would be exterminated and how valuabletheir hides would soon become, we might have made our fortunes. The car-casses that were left rotting on the plains by the millions might also have beenutilized. There were a few meat-drying concerns, but they did not appear tobe

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