One of Wyoming’s most beloved and colorful characters was Wildcat Sam, a prospector and trapper who made the Liars Club of New York look like a children’s Sunday school class.
“You might forget some people you knew years ago, but no one who ever knew Wildcat Sam ever forgot him,” Thermopolis pioneer Jess Robinson wrote in 1953 for the Thermopolis Independent Record. “He was a teller of tall tales that people loved to hear, but nobody believed.”
His real name was Samuel Abernathy, and even his true age was doubted by those who knew him.
According to Robinson, Wildcat carried an 1839 coin, carefully wrapped, that he said was minted the year he was born. It was believed that he got his nickname from a story about fighting off several bobcats with his bare hands.
Robinson said that the way Wildcat Sam told his stories kept them spellbound.
“I think he told this tale first and it has been used by many since,” Robinson said. “It was about the time a band of Indians chased him and four other prospectors into a box canyon.”
The story would take about 15 minutes for Wildcat Sam to tell how they fought hand-to-hand, ran, and fought some more. His listeners were breathless, and one finally asked how Wildcat got away.
“Hell, we didn’t, they killed every one of us!” said Wildcat Sam.
Tall Tales Proved True
Not all Wildcat Sam’s stories were tall tales.
Over time, reporters uncovered that there were a few truths to some of his yarns, including his involvement with the Johnson County War.
The reclusive trapper also had a pet wolf and coyote that nearly proved deadly for one young man, according to the 1953 Independent Record.
Wildcat Sam had made his living as a trapper around Buffalo in the 1800s, and when he would visit town would drive the streets in a wagon that carried all his possessions.
“Attached by a chain to the wagon he kept a grey wolf and a coyote,” the reporter said. “One of Wildcat’s visits to Buffalo proved disastrous for his pet wolf.”
Linnie Howe was just 13 years old when he started bothering the wolf, which was chained to a tree near Wildcat Sam’s camp.
The wolf succeeded in reaching the boy and got him down. Sheriff Danny Mitchell saved the boy’s life when he heard the commotion and arrived in time to shoot the angry pet wolf.
Bear Hunt
Wildcat Sam’s fascination with wolves dated back to a strange council he witnessed in 1894.
Herbert Andrus was just a teenager when he found signs of a bear in the Powder River country, and seasoned hunter Wildcat Sam agreed to go with him to hunt the beast.
Andrus later shared the strange event with J. Elmer Hanson that was recorded in the book “Powder River Country” by Margaret Brock Hanson.
After spending the first night at the old KC Ranch, their next stop was at Lone Tree Spring on the Dugout Flats.
“From here we rode east to the killing ground I had discovered, where we found fresh kills,” Andrus said.
They set up camp on Salt Creek at the mouth of Dugout and Meadow Creek since there was shelter and fuel and in the middle of the country the men planned to hunt.
They were following an old roundup trail when a storm struck about noon and they were forced to find shelter under a high bank. They set up their tent to wait the passing of the storm.
“During the afternoon, we heard a peculiar barking sound which we could not understand,” Andrus said.
After the storm passed, they found a log cabin and an oil rig where a Pennsylvania company was drilling an oil well in what afterward was known as the Shannon Field, the forerunner to the famous Salt Creek Oil Field.
“The noise we had heard was the exhaust of the engine on the drilling rig,” Andrus said.
They set traps for the bear, although by this time Wildcat Sam believed that they were too late and the bear was already hibernating for the winter.
After setting their traps, the men built a dugout in the north bank of the creek using logs for the front. They constructed a fireplace in the north end with a chimney of green sticks plastered with adobe mud, a roof of poles covered with dirt and using canvas for a door.
Soon after moving into the dugout, snow began falling, and Wildcat Sam regaled his young companion with his many tales of life on the early frontier.
Arrival Of Unexpected Guests
“Outside the dugout about 10 o’clock, I heard a band of wolves apparently on Powder River near the mouth of Salt Creek,” Andrus said, according to Robinson's account. “Soon, the howling became louder, and it appeared from the sound that it was a large band, probably two or more bands joined for the prowl.”
The men listened to the howls and surmised that the wolves were coming up the creek and were traveling fast, apparently heading for some particular place.
“We put out the fire in the fireplace and waited for them,” Andrus said. “Then more howling was heard far up on Meadow Creek and soon other bands were answering from different directions till we counted seven different bands.”
The first band was close to them, and from the sound, Andrus said that they estimated there were about 25 or more wolves. These wolves stopped on the flat opposite the dugout and set up a terrific howling.
“Some were moving around keeping up a continuous baying while others sat in one place uttering one prolonged howl after another,” Andrus said. “Two or three, presumably the leaders, gave the peculiar gray wolf call which is a loud booming sound gradually dying to a long-drawn-out wail that seemed to tremble on the air.”
The other bands kept answering at intervals every few minutes and soon began arriving, one at a time to the flat near the dugout.
Each arrival was greeted by an outburst of howling.
The two bands the men had heard on Castle Creek seemed to have joined each other and were traveling down Salt Creek. They were the last to arrive and were greeted by a tremendous howling that lasted several minutes.
Council Of Wolves
“There were no more long-distance calls, evidently all the guests had arrived,” Andrus said, the Record reported. “The dirt roof and walls of the dugout afforded us a lot of protection, but at the peak of the howling, the sound that came through the door was terrific.”
Andrus described the wolves as moving continually around the ground all the while howling at intervals.
There was constant snarling and snapping with occasional disturbances which seemed to be free-for-all-fights.
“We hoped the moon would come out or the wolves stay until daybreak but were disappointed,” Andrus said. “About 3 o’clock, they began to leave with a few parting howls and then all was quiet.”
Even as a teenager, Andrus said he had a feeling that they had been a witness to something few men were fortunate enough to witness and somehow it gave him a new understanding of wolf nature.
In the morning, Wildcat Sam and Andrus rode circle to learn how many wolves had taken part in the meeting. They had counted seven bands coming in but only five going out. Wildcat Sam surmised that it was possible that two or more bands were still traveling together.
From the count, they estimated that more than one hundred wolves were at the meeting, twenty-three being counted in the band that headed toward the Tisdale Mountain.
At first, Andrus said that they thought this gathering of wolves was a prearranged affair, however, he said that the gray wolves, especially in the plains country, traveled in bands usually from eight to fourteen.
Wildcat Sam explained to Andrus that each band had a particular circle and made the round in about fourteen days, seldom varying more than two days and often passing a given spot on its circle within two hours of its regular time.
“These circles naturally overlapped and crossed so that several bands traversed the same territory,” Andrus said. “Since the baying of a large band of gray wolves can be heard quite plainly at a distance of 9 miles under favorable atmospheric conditions, and no doubt much farther by the sensitive ear of the wolf, it is probable that the different bands were attracted by the calling and left the regular circle to come to the meeting.”
With Andrus as his witness, this strange council of wolves was one tale of Wildcat Sam that folks grudgingly acknowledged wasn’t so tall.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
