SCOUTING YESTERDAY: Federal bounty hunter ends 13-year chase for deadly, costly South Dakota wolf

This week in South Dakota history: July 26 - Aug. 1

Clyde Briggs and “Three Toes”

Turning in the most pests for bounty in the state with 370 gophers and 30 magpies on July 28, 1924, St. Onge rancher Francis McNeil netted $40. The gophers had a tendency to run in front of his mower, he said, while he and his sons shot the magpies, according to The Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times.

Pest bounties existed before statehood, with counties and private individuals placing a price on animals that posed a threat to the new agricultural future. In 1899, 10 years after statehood, bounties became state law, according to The Dakota Chief, when the state Legislature placed a price on wolves, coyotes and mountain lions.

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McNeil may have been the state’s most prolific pest exterminator 100 years ago, but at the time a threat existed on the other side of the rifle that had outwitted Harding County hunters and trappers for more than a decade.

Among the most infamous animals in South Dakota history, “Three Toes” evaded his bounty for 13 years. According to the Rapid City Journal, the gray wolf had escaped a trap during his youth, losing a digit in the process. That left the predator with an unmistakable track. That calling card of a track earned him credit for more than $50,000 worth of livestock killings before his capture. In today’s terms, that’s nearly $900,000.