Wolves were a Major Threat 100 Years Ago

White Arctic Wolves, Display at Denver Museum of Nature and Science

In the early days of settlement in Sheridan County and the rest of Wyoming, the cattle industry was one of the largest businesses in the state. Unfortunately, predators took a toll on the cattle and, later, sheep, which took money out of the pockets of the producers. Wolves, just like today in Yellowstone, were the apex predator, killing hundreds of cattle and sheep each year.

For many years the state paid a bounty on wolves taken, and ranchers added their own bounties and hired trappers and hunters to decrease the number of wolves that preyed on their stock and their livelihood.

From the Sheridan Post, Jan. 5, 1899: In a conversation with John B. Kendrick, we we found that he has been paying out at least $1,000 to exterminate the wolves in the eastern part of this county. He hires men and furnishes them with horses, traps, guns, provisions, poisons, etc. He not only pays them wages for their labor, but gives a bounty on each animal in addition to the state bounty. Taking the $1000 and the loss of stock by the wolves is very costly and serious problem for Mr. Kendrick to solve.

Steve George informed us Saturday that the wolves were not afraid of entering his field and killing cattle within sight of his house. He uses a great deal of poison but Mr. Wolf is still growing in numbers, and becoming more bold.

The state press is bringing the wolf question up in a very satisfactory manner and we can expect to have favorable legislation on the subject by our incoming legislature!.

Kendrick and George weren’t the only ranchers who had wolf problems. This from the Sheridan Post Dec. 1897

Attention Trappers. W Souther was at the Towns last Wednesday and as he is manager of the Pratt & Ferris Cattle Co., he is deeply interested in the wolf question and says the company have offered the following extra bounty. “On and after Dec. 15, until further notice, the Pratt& Ferris Cattle Co. will pay an addition to the state bounty on wolves, $2, in Sheridan county only. Any one having skins caught after Dec. 15 must take them to the county clerk of said county to get his certificate and send same to W. Souther, Big Red, Wyo. who will give a check on J. H Pratt, Omaha, Neb. The company will give 16 days notice before with drawing thebounty.” Pratt and Ferris,. By W. Souther.

The Pratt and Ferris Cattle company was located near Ucross and Clearmont.

The Wyoming legislature took up the wolf issue as well, instituting a state wide bounty on wolves and coyotes.

Sheridan Post, January 1899: Thorough the kindness of Representative Chas. Lewis, we have before us a copy of a bill that has been Introduced by Mr. John F. McDermott, an act to encourage the destruction of predatory wild animals and fixes the bounty on wolves at $5 and coyotes $2. The board of county commissioners can also offer a bounty and the collection of the same is arranged in the usual way.

While it is a good measure us far as it goes, it would be better in our estimation, to place one dollar more on wolves undone less on coyotes. Wolves are very hard to capture while coyotes are not so timid and not nearly as destructive No bounty will successfully destroy the pest until we have a United States, or an interstate law that will place a uniform bounty for the mutual protection of all. Wolves have been multiplying upon the ranges of our state under tho present law. and it is an open question as to the number growing less under the proposed measure. All large stock owners arc giving bounties and encouraging the killing of wolves by every means within their power. This they will continue to do regardless of the steps taken by our law makers. Under the present system our stockmen are voluntarily paying more tribute for the protection of their business interests than any other class of business men in the state. If we ever succeed in reducing the number of wolves, then a larger bounty should be paid and the system kept up, making a graduated bounty until wolves would become as buffalo.

Wolves are brutal killers, as this story from the Rawlins Wyoming Tribune on January 22, 1885: Wyoming Wolves. Under that caption the Leader publishes an interesting article on the particularities of these pirates of the prairies. But owing to the persistent war made on the wolves and coyotes by the cattlemen and hunters, they are steadily diminishing in numbers. In the early days wolves wore always found with buffalo and so long as cattle are grazed on the plains, these pests will continue to inhabit the Rocky Mountain region.

During the summer wolves and coyotes literally live of the fat of the land. In the winter and early spring, they are unable to capture the small game on which they subsist, at other seasons, but this time of the year, and then they turn their attention to livestock, and then it is that the cattleman lose many calf, or yearling, and often full grown cow or steer.

Coyotes prefer young calves, born in the early spring. Half a dozen coyotes will surround a calf and simultaneously attacking it from different directions they easily and readily destroy it.

But wolves have been known to kill full grown cattle, although they also prefer to attack young stock. When large animal Is attacked, the wolves separate into two parties, one assaulting the cow from the front, while the others endeavor to hamstring it, this method of assault rarely fails to be successful. Soon the poor brute falls and moment later the entire pack of wolves is snarling over its body and feasting on the still living animal.

Bounties of $1.50 are paid in Wyoming upon each wolf or coyote killed. The pelts are brought to the offices of the county clerks. The skins are tanned with the hair on and are manufactured into robes, rugs and overcoats and not a few are stuffed.

Wolves also would attack people if given the chance, as these two stories illustrate.

Sheridan Daily Enteprise January 8, 1910: Man battles Wolves all Night Encampment, Wyo., Jan. 8. — During the heavy storms which prevailed in the mountains, John Odam, a miner, had an experience that bids fair to eclipse anything that has ever taken place in the west. After finishing his annual work on the Bonnie Bess claims, he and his companions, James Paltry and Knute Bjorkman, talked over the matter of getting to civilization.

Everything was gotten in readiness for the trip, and with a hearty handshake and a cheery good bye the three parted. For several hours Odam traveled along with a swinging gait, his ‘skees” fairly ringing as they slid over the crisp snow. Suddenly he heard a sound that chilled the blood in his veins. It was the faint call of a wolf. The call was taken up at different points and by the varying sounds he soon made up his mind that there must be at least eight wolves in the pack and that they were on his trail seemed very evident. He concluded to leave his pack except a small camp hatchet and a few provisions that he might be free to dodge this way and that to avoid the trees and not to hinder his progress.

This seemed to have the desired effect and he was congratulating himself upon his victory when a wild howl not more than a hundred yards away told the now weary traveler that he was not to escape so easily. A moment later and a great savage beast came within his vision, he took unerring aim and pulled the trigger. A yelp, and the animal reared on his hind legs and fell in a heap in the deep snow, and all was quiet.

Another rush as his skees cut the snow and then another howl told him that the pursuit had not been given up. In looking around he saw a large balsam tree which had been broken off about thirty feet from the ground leaving the long limbs unbroken clear to the top. With a hasty untying of the skee fastenings he hung them on the limb of the tree and started to climb the balsam.

One of the wolves, more fearless than the others, seeing its prey about to escape, made a rush and caught the tail of his coat as it went by, tearing off a piece of cloth several inches long. This hastened his efforts and at last he sat upon the broken trunk o£ the tree thirty feet above the snow. The night air was beginning to have its effect and he knew it would be impossible for him to survive the cold until morning. With a few dry twigs he started a fire and the warmth seemed to cheer his fading hopes. When the fire burned up too much he put on snow which, he took off the limbs to keep it from burning downward too rapidly.

In the meantime the wolves kept up a constant howling and snarling below. With the hatchet which he had luckily kept when he left his outfit, he was able to keep fuel by cutting the limbs. It was a long, weary night. At dawn he proposed to use his remaining cartridge to good advantage. As near as he could tell there were still four of the hungry beats watching for their victim. He was able after a time to slay two and cripple one, which went off into the forest with howls of pain. The remaining wolf seeing his companions done for, took to the high places, leaving Odam the sole living being in that place, much to his relief. With the skill born to a western man he repaired his broken skee and started on his journey rejoicing in his narrow escape.

Cenntennial Post, Dec. 1913: Eastern Paper Tells Wolf Story Laramie, Dec. 12.—A Johnstown, Pennsylvania paper prints a thrilling wolf story the scene of which is near this city gives the impression that Laramie is situated in a perilous neighborhood. Here it is: “Going to the aid of a man who had been trapped m a cave by a large pack of timber wolves, Miss Marie Louise Walker, of Latrobe. Pa., who is visiting her relative Dr. J. V. Delaney of Laramie, Wyo. stood off the attack of the wolves and drove them away, with nothing but her steady nerve and a Winchester rifle between her and death, according to a story received here.

Eleven of the wolves were killed by the plucky girl before the pack beat a retreat. Miss Walker was attracted by the howling of the wolves while hunting. She dismounted from her horse when she neared the cave and the mount took fright and galloped away. Later the horse fell a victim to the pack’s blood-lust. The man in the cave was found to be: T. Adolph VanCamp of Chicago, one of a party of hunters encamped at the ranch. He had become lost in the darkness while tracking deer the night before. The hunter had been nearly frozen from exposure and was assisted by Miss Walker to a deserted miner’s cabin. The Latrobe girl then tramped three miles through the snow to the nearest ranch and summoned medical aid, Miss Walker has the pelts of five of the wolves she killed that were not devoured by the pack.

Humans and wolves have lived together for many centuries. Some, like the Native American’s, made them a part of the spiritual belief system, calling them ‘brothers’ and consider them sacred. However, being survivalists, they would kill the wolves if necessary to protect themselves and their food. Early day sled dogs were often a quarter to a half wolf.

Ranchers due to the depredation on livestock, declared war on the wolf. The April 1907, Sheridan Post said the state reports show that in 11 years, including 1906, 20,819 wolves were killed in Wyoming, and the sum of $67,866 paid in bounties. This did not include a large number of wolves killed on which no bounties were paid.

Due to this war on the predators, the wolf was exterminated in the lower 48 states. However, in 1995, admit much controversy, the wolf was re-introduced into the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Wolves tend to travel, and today there are again a few wolves in the Big Horn Mountains. However, the numbers still are few, and at the present time there is little livestock depredation caused by wolves. In Sheridan County. Here, and in many other Wyoming counties, wolves are considered predators, so it is doubtful that Sheridan County will even face the sheer numbers of wolves that one used to roam here.

But, wolves were a problem in the Sheridan area 123 years ago.