It’s sometimes hard to imagine our world as it was 150 years ago. In what today is a region marked by big agriculture, bustling communities, and busy highways, was once a desolate wilderness that was both fraught with hardship and bursting with natural beauty. In McLeod County, a place where the woods met with the prairie, the splendor of organic wilderness was on full display. Here, a settler could live out his or her days unburdened by the shackles of civilization and, in some ways do so as one with the wilderness around them.
The settlers living on the land were, of course, not alone. The region, albeit sparsely populated, was home to other people as well as millions of animals that inhabited the land. The people living in the McLeod County wilderness would soon find they shared the land with an array of “big game” animals. The woods and the prairie were home to both predator and prey, the former of which were often seen as a nuisance and a danger. Among the predators were wolf packs, cougars and of course, black bear.
Bear were a common sight for settlers living along the edge of the “Big Woods”. Typically, a black bear would, and still does, mind its own business and shy away from humans. The rule of thumb was, and still is, when a human enters one side of the woods, the bear exits the other. Their elusive nature aside, however, bear attacks were a reality, especially when a person found themselves between a sow and her cubs. It was an attack like this that became a famous tale when it unfolded on the banks of Buffalo Creek back in the 1850s. That famous incident lived in the minds of settlers across the region and struck fear into them when they sighted a bear.
By the 1870s, as more settlers began coming to the region, the area’s natural predator population began to decline. Farmers and herders were always on the watch for hungry predators and usually did not hesitate to kill them. Be that as it may, the clearing of land and the influx of people were pushing wildlife further away from civilization. It’s not to say that sightings didn’t happen, as the land still had pockets of “wilderness” about it, but they were becoming fewer with each passing year.
Perhaps one of the more common predators to sight during the decline was still black bear. Bear are known to travel far and wide to forage for food, and in 1874, it was one of these hungry bruins that encountered McLeod County pioneer Fred Dewing.
Fred was out north of Hutchinson gathering the cattle he had put out to pasture earlier — with the region being somewhat sparsely populated, it was common for livestock owners to drive their herd out of town and let them graze undisturbed. While Fred was trying to herd his cattle, he came across a large black bear that was unhappy with Fred’s presence.
There was a small tree nearby, and Fred raced for it, climbing as high as he could. The tree was narrow, and lucky for Fred, was too small for the bear to climb. It didn’t stop the big bruin from standing tall and nipping at Fred as he clung to the treetop.
As was often the case, Fred had traveled with a dog, and the dog did not take kindly to the bear nipping at its master and angrily bit the backside of the bear. The black beast turned on the dog, presumably chasing it off. It gave Fred the chance he needed to escape the situation and run back to town. Unfortunately, what happened to the dog remains a mystery, but as a canine owner I like to think it was able to outmaneuver the bear and escape.
As the years passed, bear sightings became fewer and fewer until it became so uncommon to sight a bear in central and southern Minnesota that most people never gave it a thought. As fate would have it, bear sightings have been on the rise in recent years and those sightings are moving farther south each time. Several bear sightings have occurred up in Stearns County and most recently one was seen rooting through the DQ dumpster in Litchfield. Perhaps bear populations are rising and they are becoming more accustomed to humans — I guess next time you find yourself in northern McLeod County, be aware of a bear!
— Brian Haines is executive director of the McLeod County Historical Society and Museum, 380 School Road N.W., Hutchinson. To view the canoe and other artifacts, the museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, call the museum at 320-587-2109.
