Books
Dusting Off the Old Ones was published in 1961 by W. B. Clarke, Miles City, Montana.
The Monkey and the Bronc
Some time, just after the turn of the century, a circus came to town. Among the spectators at this show were four cowboys who had other things on their minds than just seeing the clowns perform, for they had a clownish idea of their own. That idea was to own a monkey. We have never heard the particulars as to how it happened, but when the circus pulled stakes, it was short one monkey. After some little time, rumors kept coming to town that there was a monkey in the Kinsey country who could and did ride broncs and perform other feats which were usually left to the human species. Then one day a Miles City resident, riding in that country, came upon a quartet of cowboys pulling a rodeo of their own at a corral located about where the big silo at the other end of the Kinsey flat now stands. The chief attraction was Mr. Monkey chained to a saddle horn of a bronc and doing a credible job of riding. He tried to get away from that bronc, but his efforts to jump over the fence were futile, as the chain was quite an impediment. When he was thus frustrated, he seemed to make the best of the situation and do his best to ride Mr. Bronc by grabbing the horse's mane and hanging on for dear life, squealing as only a monkey can during the ride. The story is told that Ray Lowe, a well known cowhand of those days, made a buckskin suit for the monkey, and when he was thus adorned, George Costello was heard to remark that Mr. Monkey was the best looking cowboy on the north side of the river. During his stay in that country, the monkey was kept mostly at the Gilmore ranch ard was in the care, custody and control of Hood McHugh, Tony Loftus, Ralph Gilmore and Dick Anderson. He was kept in the house mostly, where he had a bed in one corner of one of the rooms, from whence he would emerge at the break of day along with the other cowhands, and would yawn and stretch just like a human. What became of the monkey is not told, except that after he bit one of the youngsters at the ranch, it was necessary that he be disposed of.