The Legend Of Old Ephraim

View pictures and Support us at Patreon Related Videos: Connect with Addicus: Find us on Twitter at ScaryBearAttax Connect on TikTok with us at scarybearattacks Connect on Instagram with us at ScaryBearAttack Check out our Merch Store Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! Today’s episode is a throw back to a prior time when grizzlies and humans existed and competed on much more even footing, if there could be such a thing with a massive and powerful animal. In the old west grizzlies terrorized remote ranches with relative impunity and southeast Idaho was no exception. This episode takes place near a small town called Soda Springs just north of the Idaho Utah border, but extends and concludes in north Utah near what is today Logan county and the thriving city of Logan, Utah. This area used to be filled to the brim with big ole grizzly bears and may still have a few. The Cache National Forest of today is a sprawling and primitive forest system which at the time, sheltered a grizzly of great cunning, appetite and power. The steep mountains here are packed with stands of pine, fir and spruce trees interrupted by quaking aspen where ever there is water. Along creeks, streams and ponds you will find willows and other dense bushes acting as screens for wildlife including mule deer, elk and moose. The predators of this area include coyotes, cougars, black bears, but no longer include big ole grizzly bears. On August 22nd, 1923 a grizzly hunter by the name of Frank Clark was following a very unique set of bear tracks. He had been stalking a bear known as Ole Ephraim for several years, for nine years to be precise. Frank was born in Cherry Creek Idaho, which is still on the state map today surprisingly. Most small towns from back then have disappeared but not Cherry Creek. Clark was part owner of the Ward Clark Sheep Company and the company had been experiencing a damaging influence on its bottom line. It seemed there was a cunning and hungry grizzly bear taking down the sheep numbers of the company as they grazed the mountains. Now, sheep aren’t the brightest of animals, which is probably what makes them such good farm animals and bear food. We all know the valuable and useful wool they yield each year which can be made into warm socks, gloves, hats and other garments, but they can also be a source of meat, to humans, and bears alike. Over the last several years, Old Ephraim had taken down and eaten untold numbers of domestic sheep from the area, and sheep farmers were at their whits end in dealling with him. He would outsmart every attempt at catching or killing him by sniffing out human scent on any traps left in his many wallows. Whenever he found a trap he would carefully pull the trap from the mud and fling it aside, allowing him to cool off in the muddy water. He was also a master of disappearing. Each time he would strike, his incursions would be marked with partially eaten sheep and his unique three toed tracks, but hunters wouldn’t find hide nor hair of the massive bear. Each time they followed his tracks he would disappear into the vast wilderness area along the state border just to resurface somewhere else and wreak havoc on sheep herds there. Legend has it that at one of his raids Old Ephraim went around swatting and biting sheep in a blood thirsty rampage that killed 50 sheep in a single night. As you can imagine this took a toll on the sheep farmers and getting rid of Old Ephraim was a main topic of conversation whenever they got together. Back in those days, local police and sheriffs deputies were trying to catch outlaws and were too busy to focus on killing a grizzly. That dangerous work was left up to the ranchers and farmers themselves. Clark had worked on developing and understanding Old Ephraim’s pattern of hunting and killing sheep. Typically the giant bear would sneak into a sheep herd and kill a single sheep, then carry it off into the bush a great distance to consume it. At first this behavior was a nuisance more than anything. Taking a single sheep from a herd might go unnoticed for a while by a sheepherder, but add it all up over a summer, and that herd might be down several head. Old Ephraim was cunning in that he wouldn’t return to the same sheep herd that he had hit anytime recently. He would wander many miles to find his next meal from another herd and disappear before his antics could get him killed. This elusive and calculating behavior was a statement to how well he understood the behavior of sheep herders. Somehow the big ole bear knew that if he spent too much time in one place, he would be on the receiving end of some very fast lead projectiles aimed at bringing his herd raiding antics to an end, so he continually moved from herd to herd.