The Buzby Family -- An Alaska Pioneer Family
Early Days in Montana - page 3About November 1st we loaded our winter's outfit into a good stout wagon and pulled out for the divide between the Yellowstone and Big Missouri Rivers with four good horses which would work in the harness as well as under the saddles. On the headwaters of a stream called Redwater, Montigue had a good dugout - house and stable combined as was his wont. All of that country was covered with a thick growth of Buffalo and bunch grass. It is a high plateau country interspread with small abode buttes and some high hills - one of the finest grazing grounds in North America and had always been a favorable wintering spot for Buffalo, so Monty told me, and which later events proved correct. Crossing the Yellowstone at an old Indian crossing about three miles below the mouth of O'Fallon Creek we struck out in a northeasterly direction. We reached Mont's winter camp at the end of the second evening and the following day we hauled wood and straightened things out for housekeeping. Antelope were seen at all times in those days and were considered a nuisance by Buffalo hunters - often alarming the Buffalo by their crazy actions when one was crawling onto the game. On one occasion I shot into a bunch of them that persisted in hanging around and pretending to take a great interest in my business. I killed three with one bullet - only a small incident to show in what numbers they congregated. The camp being in order we saddled up to reconnoiter for Buffalo and to acquaint me with the lay of the country - our custom was to keep one horse in the dugout every night hobbling the other three and keep taking turns with them. We had no hay but a few sacks of oats for emergencies. Our stock kept in fine condition summer and winter on the native grass. During the first five or six days we saw only a few old bulls with which we did not bother. Monty said the herd would feed on down from the northwest. Accordingly about ten days after our arrival at camp I rode twenty miles or so northwest toward a high ridge called Little Sheep Mountain. With my field glass, which was carried strapped to the saddle, I noticed Buffalo five or six miles away in the Valley of Cedar Creek. Riding still farther up the divide until I could see a big flat several miles in extent and to my delight I beheld thousands of our game scattered all about. It was my first sight of a great herd and my readers can imagine how my blood warmed at the display. I would not at that moment have changed places with the president or a king. They were grazing and lying about as far up the valley and surrounding hills as I could see. After a good long look I loped back to camp to gladden Monty's generous heart with my news. His advice was to let them alone until a good portion of the herd was within two or three miles of our camp. Then if they worked out as he expected they would, we would have plenty of work cut out for us. |