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| The Tale of Old Ephraim -- the Great Grizzly of the Cache National Forest. |
| Courtesy of Cache Valley Tourist Council. (Links Added) |
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"Old Eph"
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Introduction. In the early 1900s, bears were a problem for sheepherders. One grizzly bear had developed quite a name for himself. Sheepherders called him "Old Three Toes", for a deformity on one foot. This grizzly's distinctive tracks made his tracks easy to identify. The bear wandered from Soda Springs, Idaho, and as far south as Weber County, and finally settled in Logan Canyon. "Old Ephraim" was named after a grizzly in California described in a story by P. T. Barnum. Frank Clark, born in 1879 in Cherry Creek, near Malad, Idaho, was an energetic, nature-loving man. He was an excellent shot with his trusty .25-35 caliber rifle. His constant companion was his little sheep dog, Jennie, and of course his string of horses. He was partowner of the Ward Clark Sheep Company. During Clark's first summer in Cache National Forest (1911), he counted over 150 dead sheep. He killed over fifty bears in his crusade against them. Old Ephraim was the smartest, fastest, strongest of them all. Mr. Clark became very well acquainted with "Old Eph's" habits during the years. By 1914, Mr. Clark was determined to get Old Ephraim. He set out with this as his main objective. He set trap after trap in the grizzly's favorite wallows, but each time the trap was either removed, un sprung, or flung many yards away. He tried all the tricks he knew, but could never get "Old Eph" in his trap, nor could he get many glimpses of him. Always around the herd, there was the evidence of dead sheep. Old Ephraim was getting bolder and bolder, and more of a ruthless killer as the years passed. In Frank Clark's own words. I listened and could hear the chain rattle and so did my teeth. I decided to get up on the hillside and wait for him. I spent many hours up there; I had no way of knowing how many, listening to "Eph's" groans and bellows. Daylight came at last and now it was my turn. "Eph" was pretty well hidden in the creek bottom and willows, so I threw sticks in to scare him out. He slipped out and went down by the tent and crawled into the willows there. I tracked him down there, and when I got close to the tent, I could see a small patch of hide. I fired at it and grazed the shoulder. Now for me to get the greatest thrill of my life. "Ephraim" raised up on his hind legs with his back to me, and a 14 foot long, log chain wound around his right arm as carefully as a man would have done it, and a 23-pound bear trap on his foot, standing 9 feet, 11 inches tall. He could have gone that way and have gotten away, but he turned around, and I saw the most magnificent sight that any man could ever see. I was paralyzed with fear and could not raise my gun. He was coming. still on his hind legs, holding that cussed trap above his head. He had a four foot band to surmount before he could reach me. I was rooted to the earth and let him come within six feet of me before I stuck the gun out and pulled the trigger. He fell back, but came again and received five of the remaining six bullets. He had now reached the trail, still on his hind legs. I only had one cartridge left in the gun and still that bear would not go down. |
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| "Old Ephraim in Chains" |
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I started for Logan, 20 miles downhill. I went about 20 yards and turned, "Eph" was coming, still standing up, but my dog, Jennie, was snapping at his heels, so he turned on the dog. I then turned back, and as I got close, he turned again on me, wadingalong on his hind legs. I could see that he was badly hurt, as at each breath the blood would spurt from his nostrils, so I gave him the last bullet in the brain. I think I felt sorry I had to do it. The horses had all been scared away and I was alone; but, I wanted to see someone badly. I finally found a horse down in a wash where the others had knocked it in their flight. I rode three miles to the other camp of another herder and had a rest before returning to "Eph". We buried "Eph" after skinning him. Boy Scout Troop No. 43 dug him up and sent his head to the Smithsonian Institute. I have a part of the hide, but souvenir hunters got everything else. I wiII now give you a few facts: "Eph" bit a 6-inch, aspen log off in one bite, that was 9 feet, 11 inches above the ground. He also bit a 13-foot log, 12 inches in diameter, into eleven lengths, as if they had been chopped. Conclusion. During the actual confrontation, Clark probably didn't have time to consider how he felt about killing Old Ephraim, because the bear would have killed him. But according to Clark's niece, Thelma Daniels, her uncle later spoke of regrets, because the grizzly was such a magnificent animal. "If I had it to do over again," he once said, "I wouldn't do it." Clark remained a bachelor all of his life and died in 1960. The trail to Old Ephraim's Grave. The skull on display at USU Merrill Library, Special Collections, Reading Room. A few months after the kill, Logan scoutmaster George R. Hill Jr., took his Boy Scout Troop into the canyon to dig up the skull of the bear. Hill wanted to submit it to the Smithsonian to document the bear was indeed a grizzly, says his son George R. Hill III of Salt Lake City. The boys found the grave -- following directions provided by Clark -- and unearthed the skull, carrying it out on the end of a long pole because "it stunk like mad," Hill says. The Smithsonian confirmed the skull was that of a grizzly, and Hill says his father's troop received $25 for its efforts. The skull remained in Washington, D.C. until 1978, when it came back to Utah for display at Utah State University Merrill Library's Special Collections. The skull is on loan from the Smithsonian Institution. Poem To Old Ephraim by Nephi Bott. To the King of the forest Cache Valley Tourist Council |
| Compiled by G. William Wiersdorf |
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