The Bounty of Texas Page: 41
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The Bounty of the Woods
around fifty members and their share would only have been $25 of
the $1,300 they had offered as bounty. Some thought $1,300 was too
much for a stinking ignorant trapper! The other members kept their
word and paid the $1,000, as cattle at that time (before the 1929
crash) were high and they could afford it.
Well, Frank was mad, and before he left town he found out where
the non-payers' ranches were located. When he got back he wrote to
Rex and Uncle, who were off trapping wolves under government
contract. He asked them to save alive a pair of young wolves. We
soon had a letter back from them asking us what to do with the pair.
They now had two nice young tame wolves caught in New Mexico.
Frank and Mancel went to Taos, New Mexico, to get the pair and
then took them to the Scruggs Ranch, shot a fat calf, and turned the
wolves to feeding on the carcass. In two weeks the pair had set a
pattern of killing a calf every fourth day.
Scruggs sent word to us right away that he wanted us to trap on his
land, but we sent word right back that him being so tight, we were
afraid he might want half the furs we caught. Boy, he was enraged and
came blustering into our camp armed with a Colt .45 automatic, but
when he was met by four men as well armed as he was it had a very
calming effect on him. Frank told him why we wouldn't trap for him
and further that he hoped the wolves ate all his cows and him, too.
Then picking up a 1903 army rifle he invited Mr. Scruggs to leave our
camp. And light a shuck he did, quickly!
Setting Up Shop on the Rio Grande
HAV ING NO W depleted the fur and game in a twenty-mile
circle, we moved down the river to the Rio Grande where the Capote
rim and the river came together. There was not really room enough
there for four trappers. One line up the river and back under the
Capote rim and one line down and up to the rim completed two
circles, so Mancel, for a share of the catch, agreed to take care of the
camp and set a few traps right around camp. Frank and Jim agreed to
that, so I took the trade goods I had bought in Ft. Stockton, moved
across the river on the Mexico side, stretched a little tent up, and
opened a store.<41>
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The Bounty of Texas (Book)
This volume of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society contains a miscellany of Texas, Mexican and Spanish folklore, including information about hunting, canning, cooking, and other folklore. The index begins on page 225.
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Abernethy, Francis Edward. The Bounty of Texas, book, 1990; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38873/m1/53/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.