Albion

Albion

by

Thom Cantrall

A few years ago, my mentor, Arla, and I along with Scott Nelson had been invited by Becky Cook to address a gathering in Pocatello, ID. After the conference, Becky took Arla and I to a special place of hers in nearby Albion… While there, we were observing sasquatch on the timbered hills at the right of this photograph… actually a panorama of three photos… While this photo makes it look quite innocuous, the top of that ridge is over 8,000 ft in elevation. Were we are standing is over 6,000 ft. Arla, who can talk crow better than most crows started a call by imitating the shrill call of a crow and morphed it into a sasquatch call… what happened was absolutely amazing!! There was a sizeable herd of the half wild range cattle that the locals run on these summer pastures inside the fence you see. These cattle have to fend for themselves against the predators of the area, cougar, coyotes, bears, both blackies and grizz… and as we were soon to learn, the sas people as well.

 

The moment her call morphed from crow to sas, every cow in the vicinity ran to a point about 100 yards inside that gate to the right of the angle of this photo, and formed a defensive phalanx. As soon as they had assembled, the cows in a circle, butt in and head out with the calves all in the corral they formed with their bodies when I heard a bellow from a bull and the crashing of brush adjacent to the small stream that ran from the mountains to the river far below… and here he came… a LARGE, stout and thoroughly agitated Angus cross bull charging out of that brush to the assembled cows to join them at the front of the side facing the mountain!! It was a sight to behold… and one I have never witnessed ever in my 75 years of life and a lifetime of being around cattle!!! Do you think they knew that call? There was no doubt in the minds of any of us gathered there that they did!!