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TwoGuns

Cowboys roping a Bull Elk

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My wifes grandparents gave me these pictures the other day. Her grandpa is an old cowboy that has lived in or around Camp Verde since he was born in 1920. He used to work up by Long Valley with several other guys, and one day they decided to have some fun with a 6x6 bull that they jumped from its bed. They first started chasing the elk on Buck Mtn, which you can see in the background of some of the pics. They chased the bull for about 5 miles before they got it to slow down enough to rope it. One guy roped one antler, and the other guy roped the oppossite antler. They tied off the ropes to two small pine trees and took some pictures. In the end, I think they just cut the ropes and let it go free. It was great getting to hear the story from someone that was there. And I think it is amazing that the pics are still around....I cant find something I had in my hands yesterday.

 

Anyway, here are the photos he gave me. I tried to clean them up as best I could.

 

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Twoguns

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Those pics are an absolute treasure! Take care of those.

I'm sure those guys would get a citation for doing something like that today, Harrassing wildlife or some such.

Some western artist ought to do a rendering from a compilation of all those pics.

Thanks for sharing!!

Mike

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I don't mind hearing of stories like this from the past. My grandfather used to rope wildlife as well and I just loved hearing the stories. I have a pic of him sitting in the saddle with a bobcat at the end of his rope.

However, it gets to me when I see this stuff happening now days. I saw 2 cowboys chasing a bull last year trying to rope it and I just didn't get that same feeling as when grandpa told his story.

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Hopefully you retracted those pics to keep them from being spread all over the entire world and becoming "Public Domain".

You should look into copy right protection.

Mike

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Great photos!

 

I have a long-dead uncle who roped a big mule deer by himself in the 1930s, and had a devil of a time because it kept charging his horse. He said he eventually dragged the buck off its feet and got it snugged up to a tree. He didn't want to lose his rope so he killed it with a hatchet he carried in his saddle bag.

 

It wasn't legal, of course, but there wasn't the stigma of killing game out of season 75 years ago as there is now. A lot of people then thought there was nothing wrong with taking a deer or two for food, and many viewed anyone who could hoodwink a warden as a Robin Hood poaching the king's deer. They were wrong, of course.

 

Seeing those photos reminds me of Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jones, who brought bison to Arizona. He herded them from a railhead south of Salt Lake City a couple hundred miles to his ranch in House Rock Valley. Some of his bison also were shipped to Raymond Ranch and what became Fort Huachuca.

 

His claim to fame came from roping and capturing wild animals, though.

 

In North America, he roped mountain lions, deer, elk, black and grizzly bears and muskoxen, and when a rich Democrat wanted to ridicule Theodore Roosevelt's much-publicized safari he sent Jones and two Arizona cowboys to East Africa to rope what Teddy shot. They roped and captured (not counting lesser game such as warthog and antelopes) a lioness, an elephant, a rhino and a giraffe. They shipped the lioness to a zoo.

 

Interesting guy. He was one of the last buffalo hunters, and served as the model for several of the heroes in Zane Gray's novels. He also rode in the Oklahoma Land Rush and Buffalo Bill's wild west shows, was named Yellowstone's first warden, and wound up in the Cowboy Hall of Fame. He died in bed of malaria in Kansas after an unsuccessful West African safari to rope a gorilla.

 

They don't make them like Jones, my uncle, and the guys who roped that elk any more.

 

Bill Quimby

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Dangit! No pics for me!

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Bill,

 

You are so lucky to grow up in an era of true heros. I have such an admiration for the heros of the past but in an age of computers and cellphones it's hard to relate to these great men and women.

I wonder how my kids are going relate to a time that seems more like a fairytale to their generation?

I've had the privlege of knowing and talking with men from your generation like my grandfather. To hear from you and others about your heros and your life experiences is a privlege.

Who will be able to influence future generations the way my grandparents and people like yourself have influenced myself is a mystery to me.

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