20 South Side Cayuses Wreak Havoc
“Dam,” said a respected and upright citizen of the south side yesterday morning as he viewed the wreck of his lawn and flower beds which had been accomplished during the night by a band of marauding cayuses. “Dam,” said he again as if he were afraid there might be somebody who had not understood him the first time. And, as he turned and saw fresh evidences of their awful devastation he deliberately and with clear enunciation said: “Dam.” If the residents of the south side forfeit entirely their chances of salvation, it would be on account of these wandering, marauding, devastating, trespassing, invading, offending, desecrating cayuses. There are 20 of them and they have banded together for mutual protection and for more effective operations. Most of the lawns on the south side are open, but the mere matter of a fence does not make any difference to these ruthless destroyers; they will walk through a fence with ease that demonstrates the strength that lies in union. And when they have entered the premises of a beautiful home, they get busy; they eat what they can and paw up the rest. There is nothing sacred to them and the south siders are organizing a vigilance committee that will either put 20 dead horses on the market or else put the owners of the beasts into jail. The situation is desperate and calls for radical action. The good man whose brief but effective remarks were quoted at the outset of this discussion is a type of the south side householder. He is a pious, law-abiding, church-attending citizen, but yesterday morning, even though it was Sunday, he could not refrain from the use of the expressive expletive to which he gave utterance.
The above article appeared in “The Daily Missoulian” on June 21, 1909.
A cayuse was usually considered to be an untrainable “Wild” horse, 700 to 900 lbs. of various colors. Flathead Indians herded thousands of them at different times. Missoula’s south side at that time included the beautiful Bonner mansion near today’s Hellgate High School. Both the area’s wild cayuses and that mansion, though offered to the city practically for free, were destroyed in the name of progress.