The Mormon Munching Mexican Brown Bear That Killed Hyrum Naegle

Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks. Today’s episode takes us to the old west setting of the high canyons and mountains of Chihuahua, Mexico. There was a Spanish settlement there by the name of Colonia Pacheco. This area comprises three distinct geographical areas. An extinct volcano named Cerro Mohinora is the highest mountain in the Sierra Madre Occidental ranges which makes up ⅓ of the area. The rest is plains and desert. The animal life includes While tailed deer, wolves, bears and cougars plus smaller animals like bats, foxes and raccoons.The native plants include Lechuguilla, Mesquite, Guayule and ocotillo. The elevation averages around a mile high which is the same as Denver, Colorado, back in the states. At the time the state of Chihuahua had 18279 people and 97,000 square miles meant there were only 5 people per square mile. That leaves plenty of room for big predators to roam, like Brown Bears.

George and Hyrum Naegle were brothers and in the early summer of 1892 they were helping out on one of their family's many ranches. They were Mormon settlers pushed into Mexico after they were chased out of Missouri in the US. The ranchers had been experiencing a rash of calf and colt predations and the area was loaded with plenty of culprits. They had estimated a $300 loss so far this spring, and in those days, that amounted to several thousands of dollars.

On the Saturday before the day in question, Hyrum had been out hunting down predators by himself. He came home and told George and the others that he had run into a really big brown bear, also called a grizzly bear. The two brothers decided they would go get that bear on Monday.

They headed out to the area, on Monday, to where the bear was spotted and split up to search for him. They would regularly meet back up and discuss the plentiful sign and tracks in the area. They also found several carcasses of their calves consumed by the bear with track evidence present.

By Wednesday, June 22nd, 1892, they decided to hunt along the Gavilan River and pull all of their cattle from the area to ensure their safety. The brothers split up for a while and found some of their herd, and headed them down a small canyon. As they came out onto the side of the hill, Hyrum spotted the big brown bear again. He yelled out “hey there it is over on the point!”. The brothers dismounted their horses and grabbed their rifles. Hyrum shot a 44 Winchester lever action rifle and George shot a 45 Marlin.

Hyrum opened up the shooting and hit the bear in the vitals, followed by a good shot by George. The brothers continued to fire several more shots and were certain they were hitting the bear, but it continued to walk along the bottom of the canyon. The bear headed up the other side of the canyon and George sent one more bullet in his direction. That bullet hit pay dirt and sent the massive bear tumbling back toward the bottom of the canyon, bawling the entire way. George worked the action of his rifle and managed to jam one bullet into the backside of another. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocketknife and beagan unjamming his rifle.

The bear lay motionless on the ground for a few moments, but quickly struggled to his feet and crawled back up the hill about 30 yards to an oak tree, where he collapsed again.

Hyrum hollered “that got him!, let’s leave our horses and take him on foot!” and immediately began to pursue the bear. George had fired all three of his cartridges and was still working on clearing his last jammed cartridge, so he lagged behind by several minutes. George yelled at Hyrum not to follow so close to the bears trail as the men were now equally placed on opposite sides of the canyon.