CHARLES DARWIN'S BEAR - REVISITED:

"Don't Deface the Bear", Purgatoire

River Canyon, Colorado. Photograph

Peter Faris, June 1991.

In 1874, the great Charles Darwin received a letter with an accompanying photograph from a G. J. Anderson. This letter read as follows:

“From G. J. Anderson

Fort Lyon, C. T.  U. S. America

May 24^th 1874

Mr. Charles Darwin, F.R.S. & c.

Hon. Sir;

It is with a feeling of great diffidence that I forward you by this mail a photograph of a natural curiosity found near this post, in Lat 37° 30’ N, Long. 103° 20’ W., as I hesitate to intrude my ignorant curiosity on your valuable time.

The object in question is a very accurate representation of some animal not unlike the Grizzly Bear found hereabouts, except in the peculiar formation of the mouth & nose.

The image is painted----as it were----on a perpendicular face of a very soft grey sandstone rock, about 40 feet from its base & 38 feet from its top, but may be easily reached----to the level of the bottom of the picture----by climbing over the debris at the foot of the bluff.

The coloring matter appears to be iron (probably Fe³O⁴) and penetrates the rock to a depth of more than ½ inch.

The image is in length, from nose to tail, about 8½ feet; it was found here by the first white settlers who came to the country, & Indian tradition refers to its origin to a most remote past. Among the Indians----who hold it in the highest veneration----it is called a “”Bear””, & worshipped as such. The color is noticeably dark near the shoulder, growing gradually lighter toward either extremity.

I have forwarded copies of the photo. To several scientific men in this country, & from a few have received acknowledgements. Prof. Henry of the Smith’n. Instn. Suggested that it is a work of Indian art, but the color----which is the same as that with which the rock is in many places stained----seems to have withstood the action of the weather too well, & to have penetrated too deep into the rock to add confirmation to this theory.

Prof. Kendrick of the U.S. Mil. Acad, at west point, thinks it a lusus naturae.

I am Sir with great respect, Your most obedient & Humble servt.

Geo. J. Anderson 2^nd. Lieutⁿ. Cav U.S. Army”

(Clarkson, Rosemary, 2009, Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9466,” accessed on 3 August 2019)

(Note: At that date the C.T. in the originating address would have stood for Colorado Territory. I have reproduced Anderson’s abbreviations and punctuations as accurately as my keyboard would let me.)

I first wrote about this in a column on June 3, 2009, titled “Charles Darwin’s Bear” in which I reported that I had conversed about this with Larry Loendorf and he and I agreed that, given the size, it was likely to refer to the great Picketwire “Don’t Deface the” Bear. The color of that bear is wrong, but Loendorf said that it used to be called the “cinnamon bear” so the color has apparently changed with age.

Actual location of the site

in Anderson's letter by his.

coordinates, Google Earth.

Now I do not have accurate enough maps to work out the exact distances but I believe that 37 deg. 30' North by 103 deg. 20' West places this site in the northeast corner of Las Animas County, Colorado.

Close-up of the actual location

of the site in Anderson's letter.

Google Earth.

My August 4, 2019, inquiry with Las Animas County got this response: "The lat. lon. location is North of Kim, CO, just west of Hwy. 109 in Las Animas County. It appears the property is owned by (name withheld for personal privacy.)" (Lucero 2019)

The bear in Purgatoire Canyon is 25 miles or so from the site of the exact coordinates reported, however, we have no way of knowing the accuracy that Anderson could have achieved in his calculations and, until we get better information I have to assume that Anderson could have been 25 miles off, after all he did not have GPS.  It would be of great interest, however, if someone would visit the site of the precise coordinates and see if there is a bear pictograph there. Bear pictographs are common in southeast Colorado, but not bear pictographs 8½ feet long as reported. Until proven otherwise I believe we will just have to assume that Charles Darwin's Bear is the large "Don't Deface the Bear" in the Picketwire (Purgatoire) River Canyon and that Loendorf was correct all along.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them.

REFERENCES:

Anderson, G. S.,

1874 Personal Correspondence, From the Darwin Correspondence Project Archives: DAR 159:58, Cite As: Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9466,” accessed on 3 August 2019.

Clarkson, Rosemary,

2009 Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9466,” accessed on 3 August 2019

Faris, Peter,

2009 Charles Darwin’s Bear, June 3, 2009, RockArtBlog, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Darwin

Loendorf, Larry

2009  Personal communication.

Lucero, Paula,

2019 Personal communication.