Jack: And. . . when we first built that cabin, we got all of the logs from up at what we called South Canyon, and there was a standing dead forest up there—of mostly spruce and firs—that apparently had been killed from fire heat, but not charred. And they were all cured.
BH: Um hum.
Jack: And we would cut those down, and then snake 'em down with a chain—down to the so—called road—and load 'em on wagons there. And bring maybe. . . oh, I don't remember. . . maybe ten or twelve at a time, from there clear down to where the cabin was built, which is a good four miles or so. And that was quite a trip, for a team of horses or mules—see that sign cutting those logs.
BH: I would imagine!
Jack: Now that wagon, that we used during that time, ended up on the Navajo Reservation. So ah. . . but it was not. . . it was a relatively new Sears wagon. It was not the wagon that they came in with.
BH: Okay. Did your parents live in that cabin? Did your folks live in that cabin for a little while?
Jack: Oh, yeah. We lived in that cabin for. . . golly, I don't know. I spent. . . I spent at least five summers in it—or six. And then. . . we had built the new house up above. . .
BH: Um hum.
Jack: And my brother got married, and he had lived in it. My mom was there, too. And ah. . . just trying to think if any of the hired hands lived in that down there. I can't remember. But, at the time we were living in it, before Bill got married—why we needed another—we needed a tack room, and we needed a bunkhouse. And over by Little Medano were the remains of this little bear trap. Which ah. . . I think I wrote it down in there. And we took that down, these were all dried pitch logs. And ah. . . moved them over there in this wagon, and used them to build another log building, which on one side we kept feed and tack, and the other side was a bunkhouse—a couple of beds in it. Which we used off and on in the summer when we had guests and so on coming in. And. . . you know, there are a lot of people who would not understand the term "bear trap" in this case.
BH: One of those triangle things?
Jack: No. It was built just like a single room log cabin. Just a square. And, it was built up. . . oh, I don't know. . . six, seven feet, anyway.
BH: Um hum.
Jack: And it had one door into it—one small door. And what they would do, if they had bear problems, would set maybe three or four big traps in there. And then, in the middle, to entice the bear in, they'd put part of a deer, or some kind of animal. I won't say elk—because I never saw an elk up there. (Laughs) till later.
BH: Yeah.
Jack: And the idea was that if the bear got in there, and he got in one trap, then he would spin around fighting this, and get in another one. And hopefully, they'd get him by two feet—sometimes three. And that way, it was easier for them to kill the thing, and from what I have read later about that period of time—it confirms my—to me it confirms my first suspicions that these bear traps, and there's one right south of us here. I showed it to a rancher who had homesteaded it—he didn't know what it was—and he had homesteaded in 1911.
BH: Oh, my goodness!
Jack: And he said, "What do you suppose that was ever built for?" And I took one look at it, and I said, "That was a bear trap." And I showed him. But what I started to say is that I feel that those were built for grizzlies.
BH: Really?
Jack: Because a black bear wouldn't give you that kind of a problem. And I. . . I feel 99% sure that that was why they did it that way. It'd make sense. . .