One of the perks of being an author is connecting with readers who not only love our books but enjoy interacting with us, as if we’ve been friends for a long time. Thanks to venues like Facebook Messenger and Facebook groups with all the parties they enable, readers often share with us personal glimpses into their lives, their worries, or even their knowledge.
Jeffrey Ward is one of those readers. (Yep, he’s a guy who loves and reads romances voraciously.) I first ‘met’ him when I was doing the Love Train series, and he wrote me a lovely review for my book, CHRISTIANA. I even used a quote from him in my marketing. I’m pleased to say he joined right in with the Pink Pistol series, too. Loyal and intelligent, an avid patriot, a loving husband . . . I could keep gushing, but you get my point, right?
So after reading ARMED & MARVELOUS, in which the Prologue opens with a bear-hunting excursion, Jeff sent this article to me about the grizzly bears Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with their men, encountered on their famous expedition across the wilds of our country.
I found it fascinating. Both Lewis and Clark kept meticulous records, and thankfully for us and the pages of history, they did. With Jeff’s permission, I’m sharing a few snippets of their encounters with wild bear.
(You’ll note that the spelling and verbage was as written at the time and was not corrected for modern reading.)
On 7 October 1804, at the Moreau River, about 15 river-miles below present Mobridge, South Dakota, the men noticed the first evidence of the presence of a grizzly. Clark wrote:
“… at the mouth of this river we Saw the Tracks of White bear which was verry large.”
Between this point and their last encounter with a grizzly on 6 August 1806, near today’s Williston, North Dakota, the total number sighted cannot be known. Forty-three were definitely killed, and an unknown number were wounded.
PAM: 43 bears? Yikes!
On 13 April 1805, at the Little Missouri River, Lewis wrote:
“the Indians give a very formidable account of the strength and ferocity of this anamal, which they never dare to attack but in parties of six, eight or ten persons; and are even then frequently defeated with the loss of one or more of their party. the Indians attack this anamal with their bows and arrows and the indifferent guns with which the traders furnish them, with these they shoot with such uncertainty and at so short a distance . . . that they frequently mis their aim & fall a sacrefice to the bear. . . . this anamall is said more frequently to attack a man on meeting with him, than to flee from him. When the Indians are about to go in quest of the white bear, previous to their departure, they paint themselves and perform all those supersticious rights commonly observed when they are about to make war uppon a neighbouring nation.”
PAM: I found this fascinating, too, since the Indians were true warriors and TOUGH. I admire their attempts to defend and kill a grizzly when they had the most elementary of weapons.
On 5 May 1805, in the vicinity of Wolf Point, Montana, Lewis wrote:
“Capt. Clark & Drewyer killed the largest brown bear this evening which we have yet seen. it was a most tremendious looking anamal, and extreemly hard to kill notwithstanding he had five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts he swam more than half the distance across the river to a sandbar & it was at least twenty minutes before he died; he did not attempt to attact, but fled and made the most tremendous roaring from the moment he was shot.”
Lewis took measurements:
“We had no means of weighing this monster; Capt. Clark thought he would weigh 500 lbs. for my own part I think the estimate to small by 100 lbs. He measured 8 Feet 7-1/2 Inches from nose to extremity of the hind feet; 5 F. 10-1/2 Inch arround the breast, 1 F. 11 I[nches]. arround the middle of the arm, & 3 F. 11 I. arround the neck; his tallons which were five in number on each foot were 4-3/8 Inches in length.”
PAM: These measurements are shocking for their size! It’s almost inconceivable that a bear could survive being shot 10 times and still manage to flee across the river, and even then survive another twenty minutes.
On 11 May 1805, a few miles upstream from the mouth of the Milk River, one member of the party had a hairbreadth escape from death. Lewis recorded the details:
Private William Bratton, who was not among their best hunters:
“. . . had shot a brown bear which immediately turned on him and pursued him a considerable distance but he had wounded it so badly that it could not overtake him; I immediately turned out with seven of the party in quest of this monster, we at length found his trale and persued him about a mile by the blood through very thick brush of rosbushes and the large leafed willow; we finally found him concealed in some very thick brush and shot him through the skull with two balls. . . . we proceeded dress him as soon as possible, . . . we now found that Bratton had shot him through the center of the lungs, notwithstanding which he had pursued him near half a mile and had returned more than double that distance and with his tallons had prepared himself a bed in the earth of about 2 feet deep and five long and was perfectly alive when we found him which could not have been less than 2 hours after he received the wound”
PAM: Amazing that the bear’s instincts were to dig itself a hole that large, which would have taken a formidable amount of strength after having been mortally wounded!
Certainly, their interludes with grizzly bears didn’t end there and were a constant threat during their expedition. It’s a wonder the explorers weren’t killed, but perhaps survived only by their wits, their weapons, and the safety of their limited numbers.
If you’d like to read more, here is a link to the page: https://tinyurl.com/2p8ruc74
I am the biggest wimp. I avoid stray dogs and bugs and anything else that crawls. I could not imagine defending myself against a massive bear!!!
Have you encountered a scary animal? What living thing freaks you out?
Chat with me, and I’ll give away a copy of ARMED & MARVELOUS, Book #8 in the Pink Pistol Sisterhood series, your choice of ebook or paperback.
After a terrible tragedy, wild game hunter Rexanna Brennan returns home to her family’s ranch to heal. She never expects to learn her crazy aunt has left her a pink pistol with an even crazier legend. But more unsettling, a Hollywood cowboy has moved onto the ranch, stealing her family’s hearts and maybe her legacy, too.
False accusations throw Roan Bertoletti into scandal and yank him out of his movie star life. His reputation shredded, he grasps at the second chance the Brennan family gives him. With his roots firmly planted, he’s living his dream to be a cowboy again, and he has no plans to leave the ranch anytime soon.
But Rexanna’s grief pulls at him. So does her insistence she can’t stay. Can he convince the beautiful heiress to claim what has always been hers? Time is running out, and so are his options.
Except for the pink pistol . . .
