TALES OF BEAR FORK: HUNTERS CAPTURE ELK IN 1914 - Belgian Fox Rare Specimen, Man Lost In Wilderness 17 Days

(05/19/2022)
Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm of the Calhoun Chronicle dated 10/01/1914.

Baby Elk Captured

A party of hunters composed of Mark Farnsworth and Perry Cox, of Auburn, and Army Hardman, of Harrisville, passed through Glenville a few days ago with a subject of the animal kingdom now unknown in wild state in West Virginia.

  The party, including the wives of the members, was returning home from an eight-month camping trip on the waters of Bear Fork and Steer Creek.  They had a live baby elk -- perhaps the last to be captured in this state -- which was the chief object of attention among a whole menagerie of living denizens which had been captured.

Another very interesting specimen was a Belgian fox.  This animal, a native of northern regions, is about twice the size of our native fox.

For seventeen days Mr. Hardman was lost in the forest.  The last two days he spent in prayer to which, he said, he owed his deliverance.

The hunters had quite an array of small arms.  Ten shotguns, eleven rifles, one French machine gun, firing 100 shots a minute and many smaller arms constituted their armament.

A Mockin and rifle, which had been presented Mr. Farnsworth by ex-President Roosevelt and used by him on his South American trip, attracted a great deal of attention.