Bear Creek

“ Below him, generously looped, Bear Creek tumbled out of the southeast, and roved between noble borders of silver spruce into the shadows of the Blue Mountains of the north, half a dozen miles across and ten long of grazing and farm land, rich, loamy bottom land scattered with aspens.
Beyond, covering the gentle roll of the foothills, was grazing land. Scattering lodgepole pine began in the hills, and thickened into dense yellow-green thickets on the upper mountain slopes. And so north and north the eye of Vance Cornish wandered and climbed until it rested on the bald summit of Mount Discovery. ”

“ While the sky tints round the peaks deepened to purple with the coming night he climbed cañons, traversed rock ridges, and went down and up rough slopes of shale. Always the trail grew more difficult, for he was getting closer to the divide where Bear Creek heads. ”

“ He said if it was built within a mile of his cabin it would be because they was somebody on Bear Creek which had a quicker trigger finger and a better shooting eye than what he did. So after some argyment in the course of which five of Bear Creek's leading citizens was knocked stiff, we decided to build the schoolhouse over nigh the settlement on Apache Mountain. That was the thickest populated spot on Bear Creek anyway. ”

“ The folks on Bear Creek ain't exactly what you'd call peaceable by nature, but Erath Elkins and his brother-in-law Joel Gordon had always got along well together, even when they was full of corn juice. ”

“ On Bear Creek you always took your babies to a very late affair, because you had no nurse or maid, and Indians sometimes left their reservations, and the babies might wake up at home and want you. So little Alfred and Christopher lay there among wraps, parallel and crosswise with little Taylors and little Carmodys and Lees, and all Bear Creek offspring that was not yet able to skip at large and hamper its indulgent elders in the ballroom.
"Why, Lin ain't hyeh yet!" said the Virginian, looking in upon the people. ”

“ It is said that a divide used to separate the two lower from the three upper lakes, and the flow from the latter descended through Bear Creek, past Deer Park, into the Truckee River and thence into far-away Pyramid Lake in Nevada.
From this point the trail is clear and well defined, being traveled constantly during the season by guests of Deer Park Springs. Passing through a fine nursery of beautiful and exquisite red firs we drop into the canyon of Bear Creek. To the left are great andesite crowns on the mountain tops. ”

“ You hardly need be told that a Canadian "discovered" one and a Yankee the other. "Whisky Hill," "Squabblers' Bench," "Paradise Hill" has each a story of its own and the names hint at it. Mastodon Gulch with its remains of bone and ivory found in the ever-frozen gravels takes us back to the giant Tuskers of those prehistoric ages before the northland was gripped by the frost. Bear Creek suggests an adventure resulting perhaps in a juicy bear-steak or a hurried scramble up a tree. All Gold Creek, Too Much Gold, and Gold Bottom have the optimism of their discoverers boldly disclosed. ”

“ I'd covered a lot of distance and was getting into country I warn't familiar with, but I didn't have no trouble follering his trail, and finally, late in the evening, I come out on a narrer dusty path where the calk-marks of his hoss's shoes was very plain.
The sun sunk lower and my hopes dwindled. Even if I got the thief and got the gold, it'd be a awful push to get back to Bear Creek in time to prevent mayhem. But I urged on Cap'n Kidd, and presently we come out into a road, and the tracks I was follering merged with a lot of others. ”

“ I said, buckling the cinches on Cap'n Kidd, "I've done learnt not to jedge outsiders by the way they takes their licker on Bear Creek. It takes a Bear Creek man to swig Bear Creek corn juice."
"I hopes for the best," sighed pap. "But it's a dismal sight to see a young man which cain't stand up to his licker. Whar you takin' him?"
"Over toward Apache Mountain," I said. "Erath seen a exter big grizzly over there day before yesterday." ”

“ Thinks I, it's the wild man, and he's on the war-path. So I waded into him and he waded into me, and we tumbled around on the rocky floor in the dark, biting and mauling and tearing. Bear Creek is famed far and wide for its ring-tailed scrappers, and I don't have to repeat I'm the fightin'est of 'em all, but that cussed wild man sure give me my hands full. ”

“ Beyond the stream we ascended Yellow-Creek Hill, a steep chain which divides the versant of the Bear River eastward from that of Weber River to the west. The ascent might be avoided, but the view from the summit is a fine panorama. The horizon behind us is girt by a mob of hills, Bridger's Range, silver-veined upon a dark blue ground; nearer, mountains and rocks, cones and hog-backs, are scattered about in admirable confusion, divided by shaggy rollers and dark ravines, each with its own little water-course. ”

“ Bear Creek had sure come to Chawed Ear.
"Whar is he, you mangy coyotes?" roared pap, brandishing his rifle. "What you done with him? I war a fool and a dog, desertin' my own flesh and blood to you polecats! I don't care if he's a thief or a liar, or what! A Bear Creek man ain't made to rot in a blasted town- folks jail! I come after him and I aim to take him back, alive or dead! And if you've kilt him, I aim to burn Chawed Ear to the ground and kill every able-bodied man in her! _Whar is he, damn yore souls?_"
"I swear we don't know!" panted the sheriff, pale and shaking. ”

“ Bear Creek, which runs through the city, was named originally Stewart River for Captain Stewart, an army officer who was killed in a fight with the Indians on the banks of the stream on the 17th of June, 1851.
And now, as the years roll on, let us not forget the brave and self-reliant men and women who brought civilization into the wilderness and made it possible for us to have peaceful homes in the Rogue River Valley. ”

“ BEAR CREEK, Wallowa County. This important tributary of Wallowa River heads in the Wallowa Mountains in township 3 south, range 43 east, and flows into the Wallowa just west of the town of Wallowa. The name, Bear Creek, for this stream has been adopted by the USBGN. The principal tributary of Bear Creek is Little Bear Creek, flowing in Rist, and no creo
from the east. Pioneer settlers in the Wallowa Valley found many bears along this stream. The wild animals were very destructive of cattle. ”

“ Masterson and Mr. Wright, there arose no one to contradict him. Made bold by silent acquiescence, and exalted of further drinks, Bear Creek drew about him an outcast coterie in the rear room of Mr. Webster’s Alamo. It was there, with Bear Creek to take the lead, they laid their heads together for the day to come.
There be men on earth who are ever ready for trouble that, specifically, isn’t trouble of their own. They delight in dancing when others pay the fiddler. Numbers of such gathered with the radical Bear Creek ”

“ So purty soon a man led the pinto out of his stall, and swung aboard him and rode off. It was purty dark, but if us folks on Bear Creek didn't have eyes like a hawk, we'd never live to get grown. I seen it was the cowboy I'd seen in the Apache Queen and outside the restaurant. Onst he got clear of the wagon-yard, he slapped in the spurs and went racing through the village like they was a red war- party on his trail. ”

“ The mob was there, all right, with torches and guns and ropes-- backed up agen the jail with their faces as pale as dough and their knees plumb knocking together. And facing 'em, on hosses, with guns in their hands, I seen pap and every fighting man on Bear Creek! Some of 'em had torches, and they shone on the faces of more Elkinses, Garfields, Gordons, Kirbys, Grimeses, Buckners, and Polks than them Chawed Ear misfits ever seen together at one time. Some of them men hadn't never been that far away from Bear Creek before in their lives. ”

“ They warn't a gal on Bear Creek, not even my own sisters, which could swing a axe like her, or fry a b'ar steak as tasty, or make hominy as good, and they warn't nobody, man nor woman, which could outrun her, less'n it was me. ”

“ No, but we could beat them in. I know where Lee is working, for I went up last winter with Constantine and his dog-team, over a short cut by way of Black Bear Creek. We took it coming back, and I could find it again, but Lee doesn't know that route, so he will follow the summer trail, which is fifteen miles farther. You see, his creek makes a great bend to the southward, and heads back towards the river, so by crossing the divide at the source of Black Bear you drop into it a few miles above his cabin. ”

“ Cap'n Kidd made the hundred miles from the Mezquital Mountains to Bear Creek by noon the next day, carrying double, and never stopping to eat, sleep, nor drink. Them that don't believe that kindly keep their mouths shet. I have already licked nineteen men for acting like they didn't believe it.
I stalked into the cabin and throwed Dick Blanton down onto the floor before Elinor which looked at him and me like she thought I was crazy. ”

“ We then enter a ravine or cañon through which flows Bear Creek, a tributary of the Platte.
Along Bear Creek are ranches where good crops of wheat are raised, and butter and milk made for the Denver market. The grass in this region makes the most delicious butter ”

“ I said indignantly.
"That bull's beller may pass for a whisper on Bear Creek," says he, wipin' off the sweat, "but I bet they can hear it from one end of the Gulch to the other'n, at least."
It's a pitable sight to see a man with a case of the scairts. ”

“ I rode up in the hills towards where the howl had come from, and purty soon I lit and throwed Cap'n Kidd's reins over his head, and walked on into the deep bresh, from time to time giving a long squall like a cougar. They ain't a catamount in the world can tell the difference when a Bear Creek man imitates one. ”

“ In the morning we continue our journey, passing through a tall forest until we reach a rugged mountain defile leading up to the summit which we are to cross. The mountain peaks rise high above us. Five miles from our last night's camp we leave Bear creek, a branch of Beaver river, and follow a small stream to the south. Half a mile further brings us to the summit. We are now 4300 feet above the sea, surrounded by mountains of all forms, pyramidal, conical and serrated. ”

“ Truly, if one can only efface one's self in the apparent solitudes, it will be found that there is much going on around you."
Baloo Pass—Name: By Topographical Survey with reference to Bear Creek (Baloo, Indian for bear) .
Altitude: 6,681 ft.
Location: At the head of Beaver Creek Valley, north-westerly from Glacier House, and leading to the Upper Valley of Cougar Brook.
Route: A pony trail up Bear Creek Valley leads over the Pass and connects with the trail in Cougar Valley near the Caves of Cheops (Nakimu Caves) . ”

“ So far as appearances go, this cavern is better adapted for occupancy than any other which has been examined. The depth of earth shows it to have been open for a long period. If nothing can be found here, denoting extreme antiquity of man, it would seem useless to make further search in central or western Kentucky.
Bear Creek.—A very large rock house is on the right bank of Bear Creek, 3 miles above its mouth. It would afford good shelter to a large number of people, except in rainy seasons when they were most in need of it. After heavy storms the creek covers the entire floor. ”

“ I was handicapped by not wanting to kill any of my kinfolks, but they was so mad they all wanted to kill me, so in spite of my carefulness the casualties was increasing at a rate which would of discouraged anybody but Bear Creek folks. But they are the stubbornest people in the world. Three or four had got me around the laigs again, refusing to be convinced that I couldn't be throwed that way, and Erath Elkins, having pulled hisself out of the rooins of the fence, come charging back with his bowie. ”

“ This Englishman took my girl and ruined my education, and filled my neck and spine with burns and bruises. A Elkins never forgets?and the next one that pokes his nose into the Bear Creek country had better be a fighting fool or a powerful fast runner. ”

“ I'm goin' to 'tend to my own private affairs for a change. I told Glory McGraw early this mornin' I was goin' to git me a town-gal, and by golly, I meant it. Gwan on back to Bear Creek, and if you see Glory, tell her I'm headin' for Chawed Ear where the purty gals is as thick as honey bees around a apple tree. ”

“ What we must try to do is to give the cut-throats a lesson that they and their children and their children's children will remember as long as the sun makes the days. I therefore propose that we ride down Crooked Creek into Upon-the-Other-Side Bear River, right into the stream bed, and follow it to the edge of the big grove. ”

“ What's a prison term to a man which has jest been disowned by his own blood-kin?"
He pulled back from the winder and I heard him say to somebody: "It ain't no use. Them Bear Creek devils are the most uncivilized white men I ever seen in my life. You cain't do nothin' with one of 'em. I'm goin' to send some men back to look for the gold around that creek we found him climbin' out of. ”

“ On leaving Thompson's creek we passed two small islands, and at twenty-three miles distance encamped among some timber on the north, opposite to a small creek, which we named Bull creek. The bighorn is in great quantities, and must bring forth their young at a very early season, as they are now half grown. One of the party saw a large bear also, but being at a distance from the river, and having no timber to conceal him, he would not venture to fire. ”