Adventures with Indians and Game: Or, Twenty Years in the Rocky Mountains
William Alonzo Allen
eBook
This fascinating narrative has come forth as the result of years of the participation in hunt, in defending against hostile Indian attacks, and in nature studies, by Dr. W. A. Allen, a typical oldtime Westerner, who, for over a quarter of a century, has taken part in the wild life of the West, being in the early days the trusted leader of immigration, a keen enjoyer of the sports of the chase, a crack rifle shot, who won and successfully maintained an enviable record as a fighter of bravery and distinction. This volume will be welcomed by those interested in the life history of the "old-timers" of Montana and Wyoming for its lifelike retrospect of the days when every man held his life in his own hand, and peril lurked on the bank of every stream, glanced out from every mountain side and lay in wait everywhere amid the rich grasses of the plains; by all lovers of their country, true Americans, and for its descriptions of the different animals that were once the occupants of this then strange, mysterious, unknown country, since that time wrested from the wilderness for the establishment of civilization by that class of tireless, brave and heroic pioneers, of which the author is a notable example. He stands prominent, not merely in a local way as one of the founders of the city of Billings, Montana, but also as a leading student of physical, natural and geologic history, and as an acknowledged authority on the flora and fauna of the Rocky Mountain region. He is known as a "dead shot" hunter, and such journals as the Turf, Field and Farm esteem him as a valuable correspondent and contributor to their columns.In 1877 he started for the Black Hills. At Spearfish, now in South Dakota, he joined an emigrant party of 250 persons, here commencing his twenty-five years of adventurous western existence and hunting exploits.Starting for Bozeman, in far off Montana, the strenuous existence of the frontier soon came to the party in full vigor in attacks of savage Sioux Indians, in which a number of the company were killed and others wounded, Doctor Allen being among the latter. Returning to Spearfish to reform their organization, Doctor Allen was made the commander of the train, which he divided into four companies. Their route took them up the Belle Fouche River, past old Fort Reno, through Wyoming, by the site of Buffalo and old Fort Kearney, thence up Goose Creek, where, in a spiteful attack by Indians, one man was killed and others wounded.In the locality of the historic last battleground of the gallant General Custer, they remained three days, which they profitably passed in a careful study of the grounds, tracing accurately the various movements of the contesting foes until they ended at the pile of bones that showed where the last white survivors met their death. Here the party divided, one part going to the Crow agency, another by Pryor's Pass, Sage Creek and Stinking Water crossing to Wind River, the others, with Doctor Allen, going to Camp Brown and to Bozeman, the end of their journey.The genial Doctor is a true "old-timer," a man of honesty and integrity, charitable and generous to his fellow men. He has ever been a total abstainer from intoxicating liquors. Honored as a citizen, reverenced as a pioneer, few people of the state of his adoption stand higher in the estimation of the public.He writes: "As I look back after many years spent on the plains, mountains and rivers of the Northwest, the trail seems long and full of dangers of every description. Many personal accidents, hazardous undertakings, conflicts with Indians and wild beasts in a strange land, loom up large as I recall my past days. I can see the trail running through fifty years, from childhood's day, and, in that time, the Great West has undergone many changes."