The Bull and the Coyote

Wes Shirts

Memories of Linda Shirts Ferguson

Living in Mountain Home, Duchesne, Utah, life was very challenging for all ages. In 1917 or 1918 when Wes was around ten or eleven years old, it happened that a bull went missing.  His father gave Wes the responsibility to go and find the bull.  He mounted his horse and took off riding. He hunted high and low for the bull and could not find it. Just as it was getting dark, he found the bull down in a box canyon.   The problem was that the slope down into the area was made of shale.  Going down was not a problem for the bull. However, trying to get out was much more difficult due to the fact that the shale kept sliding. It couldn't get out on his own.  

 

I Shot My Brother Joe

King Wesley Shirts

as told to Garry Shirts

“He’d (John) go to the farm every day with a bob sled or saddle horse and this one time, why he came from the farm and he pulled in back of the  place where we had for the cows. He had a load of hay and he had a .22  rifle and I said. “Ill take that .22 rifle in the house.” It was just about dark, and he said, “ No, just leave it where it is.”  Joe was milking a cow in the  coral and I said, “I’ll take it into the house.” He said, “No, just leave it alone!” I said “I’ll take it, and I’ll   be careful with it.”  And so Dad said, “O.K.,  but don’t  touch it, just leave it like  it is.”