Cole and Waugh Mountain Bull Rack - 1965
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10/4/2004 3:45:45 PM Mountain Daylight Time
From: Cole
To: Glenn

The antlers are from Waugh Mountain, north and west of Canon City, near the Stirup Ranch. Henry, Charlie and I were hunting there one fall and I ran onto a bear and followed it to where it had made a kill. Henry and Charlie cut the rack, feet and ivory out and Henry and I went back a couple days later to take the bear. When we returned the weather was still bad and it had dropped another two feet of snow on top of the first foot. We had a hard time finding the site as the bear had moved the carcass another fifty yards down hill and had been sleeping with it, along with the crows and the coyotes. When we saw the size and the shape of the bear paws in the snow Henry said " If you see that SOB coming, empty your rifle because we'll never out run him in this snow and as high up in the trees as he's been swatting at the crows he'll reach us for sure."

I have some pictures of Henry and I holding up the rack on Kenny's picnic table. He was down working on Margaret's kitchen and we hadn't taken any pictures up to that point. Maybe I can send them to you to scan, but they're kind of old and Henry and I look like a couple of kids in them.

The rack hung in Henry's garage for many years until Charlie got the six point at Tarryall. I had the cape tanned and had it mounted. It scored 360 something but still wasn't large enough for Boon and Crockett.

We never got the bear. Waugh Mountain is just east of Black Mountain, where Old Mose was killed, Colorado's legendary grizzly, notorious for killing livestock and humans ( The death of Jake Radcliff and Old Mose), back in the early 1900s. I swear the one I saw was his son. The guy I was with when we saw the bear, asked me what we were going to do with it when we caught up to it as the tracks were bigger than ours in the snow.

The Stirup Ranch used to be owned by Rick" Goose" Gossage who I went to school with. Goose later ended up pitching for the New York Yankees.

There is a book on Old Mose if you are interested I have a copy.

Cole