In 1919, the act creating the Grand Canyon National Park provided that cattleman who had run stock within the proposed Park boundaries would be permitted to continue to do so with certain restrictions. One of the restrictions was that stock would be kept away from the village area. A permittee was Martin Buggeln whose cow brand was a large Dollar sign ($) that made for just about the ugliest brand I have ever seen on a cow critter, especially when the brand was burned right smack dab in the middle of a cow.

At this late date, I do not recall how many head Martin ran but he claimed a white face bull that had been born in the village prior to the creation of the park, who just couldn’t be kept out of the village area, fences or no. That bull was a big one-I wouldn’t want to guess his weight. The bull soon became a nuisance, not alone to Buggeln’s boys who tried to keep him out of the village area, but to those in the Park Service who attempted to do the same, spurred on by complaints received at Park Headquarters about the Roaming Romeo. Between roundups, he would invade the village area trampling through yards and/or scaring the everlasting daylights out of dudes who were innocently strolling through the timber. Because of his size, it always took several men to "bust" him so that he could winched on to a truck and taken outside the park boundaries. I’m willing to swear that on occasion he beat them back to the park.

It got to the point where Buggeln decided to get rid of the bull come the next roundup, but when that time came the bull could not be found. Nor at the next one. That bull was just too smart-he knew when to make himself scarce.

One day, Ed Howell, one of our rangers was on patrol riding through the timber and here came the Dollar Mark Bull heading for the village. Ed was riding his Dixie mare that day, and decided to take on the bull by his lonesome. He took down his ketch rope, built himself a loop and turned ‘er loose, making his catch. The bull took off on a long lope, the Dixie mare set up and then the cinch busted. When it did the saddle left Dixie, and Ed left the saddle. The last he saw of the latter was it bouncing along on the end of his ketch rope with the Dollar Mark Bull making tracks for the tall timber at the other end of the rope.

Poor Ed was afoot and had to walk in to headquarters, and when he got there he was madder’n the proverbial wet hen. It was dark by the time he got in, so next morning a couple of us saddled up and went saddle-hunting with Ed to see if we could find his N. Porter. We did-but it wasn’t a pretty sight having been chewed up by the rocks it hit and the brush it was pulled through while being towed by the bull. Ed vowed that some day, come hell or high water, he would get his revenge.

One day, just before the Fall roundup Ed came into the mess hall as we were sitting down to supper and announced to one and all the Dollar Mark bull was no more, that the poor critter had died of a severe case of lead poisoning. Ed had gotten the revenge he had promised.

For some time after,whenever Martin Buggeln came to the Park he would ask of all and sundry whether they had seen the Dollar Mark Bull, and the answer was always the same, "No" - and that was the truth. As far as I know, until the day he shoved off this mortal coil, Martin Buggeln never learned that Ed Howell had managed the disappearance of that Dollar Mark Bull.

Used by permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society.

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