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 sett