A Wykoff Run Bear Hunt In The Early Days "Tall Tale"

A Wykoff Run Bear Hunt In The Early Days "Tall Tale"

Dear Editor, Recently at the Cameron County Historical Society we uncovered this amazing tale from the late 1800's that resurfaced in the 1960's and we couldn't resist sharing during the current hunting season.

At the turn of the century there was a Club of "tall tales," that was flourishing in Sinnamahoning and was held forth at Blodget's Store in the Wyside section of Sinnamahoning. Contestants were chosen weekly and it was Sinnamahoning against Wyside. One of the famous contestants was George Washington Gore, a Civil War veteran. Comrade Gore's tale is listed below remains as one of his best.

"I had been out hunting with a muzzle loading rifle and was reloading and had rammed the wadding home over the powder when I realized that I was out of bail for the rifle. I put the rifle over my shoulder and started home on this a bitterly cold day. As I came down Wykoff Run I was going around a cliff above the run on a very narrow path. Out on the bow of the path I came face to face with a big bear and the path was too narrow for either one of us to turn. I always had an accurate eye and I just reached up and picked off an icicle that was the exact bore of the rifle. I thrust this into the bore and rammed a wadding down over it. It tool very careful aim and shot the bear right between the eyes. To my amazement I found that the heat of the powder coming through the wadding had melted the icicle which emerged from the muzzle in water form but, it was such a cold day that, before it got to the bear, it had frozen into a hard round ball and entered the bear's skull and the bear died of water on the brain."

Needless to say Wyside won that Saturday night long, long ago and the win was duly chalked up on the board. Mr. Blodgett the keeper of the little store was the judge.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. 

 Cameron County Historical Society