TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
JONATHAN RINEHAU'l'
Okanogan County
'rhe journey across the plains gave me an appetite for thrills. Only
my age keeps me from being up and at it now. In 1872, when I first
left home at the age of 17, I went to Boise, Idaho. There I got a job
riding, down on the Weiser River. The cowboys lived just below the
mouth of the river. I was resting up and talking with another kid
rider, when the "Old Man"~ our boss, came in bloody, and excited because
his cattle were poisoned from eating larkspur. He had just
"bled n fiftv head of cattle. He showed the boys how to slash the
• •
animals under their tails. If the blood spurted, the animals recovered.
No blood, no cure. The cowboys each bled fifty to seventy-five each
day, and saved the herd.
Later, when riding for Phelps and Wadleigh, I saw larkspur being
mowed for fodder, and warned them that it would kill the herd. I
was laughed at for advancing such a crazy idea. But one night Phelps
called out his cowboys. Nine hundred head were down and unable to
get up. It was a terrible sight. One vicious steer, eight years old,
was fighting mad, but could not struggle to its feet. I was always
looking for a bet, but had only about a minute before the steer would
be dead. I was able to raise sixty dollars on a wager that I could get
the beast up and on the run. The bleeding operation brought a bawl
and quick action. The steer was up and on the way. Most of the
herd was saved.
Phelps had raised cattle for twenty years, but had never heard of
larkspur poisoning.
In 1877, Cayuse Brown, of WalIa Walla, and I drove 1,100 head of
horses to Alberta, Canada. We went by way of Omak. I returned to
Oregon and in 1878 fought in the Bannock and Piute war nearPendleton.
I took a turn with General Howard's men as a volunteer Indian
fighter in Washington.
In 1879 I was again back in Okanogan. In 1889 I helped drive the
1,000 remaining head of the Phelps and Viadleigh herd to Ainsworth
(Pasco). The winter of 1889 had killed the rest. The fall before this
2,800 calves alone had been branded. I thought the 1,000 remaining
cattle were plenty, as swimming them across the river was a business
raIling for skill.
This winter bankrupted the biggest cattle men. Others were years
in recuperating their losses. Stock men had never had to feed before
this time, and so no hay was stored. Cattle were caught in snow drifts
and died in their tracks.
126