MANNERS & MORALS: Biggest & Bloodiest

MANNERS & MORALS

For 17 days Colorado's valleys and pine-clad mountain slopes had echoed the whap-whap of rifles. The big game season was on, and it was Colorado's biggest ever. About 100,000 armed men roamed the fields, hundreds poked their guns through barnyard fences to take pot shots at anything that moved.

Many were experienced huntsmen, but the high price of meat had also attracted fledglings to the field. When the season ended, the bag was the biggest in Colorado's history: 68,000 mule deer, 12,000 elk, 99 bears — along with countless cattle, horses and sheep, 17 dead and 13 wounded hunters.

Colorado's...

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