Transcript

My father [David Edwin Bunnell] started for the valley of Salt Lake in the spring of 1852 and I had a grand time hunting Buffaloes, deer, elk and antelope. There were also plenty of very large wolves. One day when we were traveling along a buffalo came from the north. A man shot him and he jumped on the chain between 2 yokes of oxen and scared them. They stampeded and ran about three miles. But they kept the road and did no harm. Four of us were appointed hunters, for the company and we had plenty of the best of good meat until we got out of this country. One evening my brother and I went ahead of the train to find water and it it was late in the afternoon when we saw a man in red, I said to my brother, “There is a man or an Indian maybe he can tell us where we can find water,” so we started for him, as the sun was nearly setting and was nearly down, we hurried and he came down on all fours and started for us, we had picked up a stick apiece to use as walking sticks, as we were very tired, as we neared the figure it proved to be a large mountain lion, we faught him about 15 or 25 minutes. Every time he would get hold of our dog we would beat him with the clubs. my brother hit the lion on the back and he fell. The dog was very badly bitten, so badly that we had to haul him to Salt Lake.

We arrived in Salt Lake City, October the 5th, where we stayed until the 10th then went to Provo, where my father and my mother [Sarah Conrad Bunnell] died.