November 1996 Blazer

The killing of Old Ephraim

THE HISTORY BLAZER 1 1YE115 OF UTAH'S PAST FROAI THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grai~ de Salt Lake City, tTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 The Killing of Old Ephrairn FRANKC LARKH AD m DIN THE ERA of the mountain men his name might be as well known in Utah history as Antoine Robidoux or perhaps even Jim Bridger. But Clark was a quiet, rather unassuming sheepman caring for his flock rather than a wilderness adventurer, and so he did not become known as Frank ' Bear Killer" Clark with a host of legends attached to his name. He was born too late for that. It was August 22, 1923, when he killed a legendary grizzly bear in Cache Valley- Old Ephraim. And before that he had killed a lot of brown bears that were bothering his sheep. Clark was born in a cabin on Henderson Creek in Idaho in 1879. Like many children of that time he had few educational opportunities, but he did attend a school at East Portage, Box Elder County, Utah, for a short time. He was, though, an avid student of nature as he worked on the open range from about age 12. In 1911 he started to herd sheep in the forests of Cache County. His most famous exploit, the killing of Old Ephraim, was evidently recounted many times but never to Clark's satisfaction. Some accounts were probably too dramatic to suit his taste. He wrote his own version of the story for Lee Kay, editor of the Utah Fish and Game Bulletin, who published it in the September 1952 issue. When Clark moved into the Cache area it was ' infested" with brown and grizzly bears. Many of them killed sheep, and he recalled that one summer 150 sheep from one herd were lost to bears. In 19 12 alone he killed 13 of the predators. But one bear proved elusive: ' . . . Old Ephraim.. . was a grizzly bear. The.. . name was given to him, I think, because of an outlaw bear found in California that had been written up. .. . Old Ephraim was well known, mainly because everyone who saw his tracks recognized him. He had one deformed toe. Many weird tales were told about him. He was supposed to have ranged all the way from northern Utah to the Snake River. .. in Idaho, but I never found his tracks more than two miles from the range that I was using." Nor was Old Ephraim a wanton killer of sheep. Clark said that the dreaded bear rarely killed more than one sheep at a time and that he " never seemed to pick on the same herd twice in succession, but roamed around for several miles in the proximity of the spring where he bathed and would take only one or two sheep from each separate camp." Clark began to set traps for the big grizzly in 1914, but for nine years Old Ephraim evaded I and outsmarted him. The bear had scooped out a pool in a 1ittI. e canyon, ' and at least once a week he would wme there to wallow .... I set my trap in the pool thinking I would catch him, but every time I set it and the bear visited the pool, he would ' pertly' pick it up and set it on the side of the pool. " In 1923, though, the bear dug another pool below the first one, and that proved fatal. On I ( more) the evening of August 22 Clark set a trap in the bear's new wallow, stirred the mud to cover it, and then returned to camp about a mile downstream. He was awakened that night " by the most unearthly sound I have ever heard." Stopping only long enough to put on his shoes and grab his rifle- he did not fully dress because he thought the bear was very close- he soon saw the bear's tracks in the moonlight. He followed the tracks and the bear's roar until ' there came rushing out of the creek bottom the giant form of Old Ephraim walking on his hind feet. He was carrying on his front foot the large trap that weighed 27 pounds and the 15 feet of log chain neatly wrapped around his right forearm. As he came towards me, it chilled me to the very bone and for several paces I didn't even attempt to shoot. Finally, more out of fear than any other passion, I opened up with my small 25- 35 caliber rifle and pumped six shots into him. He fell at my feet dead, and as I looked at the giant form of Old Ephraim I suddenly became sorry that I had killed this giant bear." Clark retraced the bear's trail from the wallow and found that it had walked on its hind feet for over a mile carrying the trap and chain. In its torment it had ' cut down" quaking aspen up to six inches in diameter in its path. Old Ephraim's body was buried near Clark's camp ' until it was unearthed and his skull sent to the Smithsonian Institute [ sic] where it remains today. " The Boy Scouts placed a wooden marker by the grave stating that the grizzly was 9 feet 11 inches tall and weighed approximately 1,100 pounds. Later, Nephi J. Bott erected a stone monument as tall as Old Ephraim at the site in Long Hollow, Temple Fork, Logan Canyon. Bott also wrote a song about the bear that pictured it as a temble killer in league with the devil. Other writers added many dramatic details not found in Clark's version of his exploit, and one can see why he wanted to tell the story his way. As F. M. Young recounted it, for example: The bear staggered after each rifle shot but moved relentlessly toward Clark, its muzzle covered with froth! Then Clark heard his dog, Jenny, barking wildly and nipping at the bear's heels; this brief diversion gave him time to steady his rifle against a tree and place a fatal seventh shot ( using his last shell!) behind the bear's ear. The next day Clark's herding companion, Sam, returned to camp, and they examined the fallen giant only to find that ' two of Clark's bullets had actually pierced the heartwonot a serious enough wound, according to Young, to fell an enraged grizzly. Clark and Sam buried the bear because its presence, even though dead, alarmed the horses. Clark did not try to capitalize on the killing of Old Ephraim or the alleged 43 bears he killed while herding sheep. Moreover, his attempt to set the record straight in 1952 did not succeed in stopping others since his time from adding dramatic details to his story. Sources: Utah Fish and Game Bulletin, May- June and September 1952 issues; Coralie McCarty Beyers, " Old Ephraim, " Western Humanities Revz* ew 4 ( 1 950); F. M. Young, " Utah's Old Ephraim" in Man Meets G r i e Encounters in the Wildfiorn Lauis and Clark to M o d - Times, comp. F. M. Young, ed. Coralie Beyers ( Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980); Historic Monuments and Markers Project files, Utah State Historical Society, THE HISTORYB LAZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( MBM)