Hank Mason & The Bear

From the author of Murder on the Plains: The Killing of Diamond L Slim Clifton comes the story of Henry “Hank” Mason, a Black Hills buffalo hunter, gold prospector, and sawmill owner.

Arriving in the Black Hills along with droves of fellow gold miners during the 1876 gold rush, Mason sought gold riches, only to fail like countless others before and since. Resorting to hunting with fellow frontiersman George Mattox, the men formed a formidable hunting partnership until they parted ways in 1879. Mason’s journey would take him from Deadwood to the banks of Stockade Beaver Creek in Wyoming Territory. It was in Wyoming where the legend of the man would begin.

Hunting buffalo in the early 1880s along the Belle Fourche River in present-day Campbell and Crook counties of Wyoming Territory, Mason’s hunting came to a sudden halt with the near extinction of the bison. Forced to end his nomadic hunting lifestyle, he took up ranching near the base of Inyan Kara mountain and joined the ranks of settlers attempting to earn a living from their land. With a strong work ethic and reputation among his peers, Mason became a founding father of Crook County and an early discoverer of oil in northeastern Wyoming. Mason’s tenure as a sawmill operator along Stockade Beaver Creek beginning in 1889 cemented his place in history.

May 19, 1893, was the day the mighty Hank Mason met a massive silver-tip grizzly bear, earning his place in Black Hills folklore. From his humble beginnings along the banks of the Hudson River to his final years in Wyoming, the true stories of