Comstock Miners, Bulls, and Bears in August 1871

As many people know, miners working in the Comstock’s deep underground hot water shafts led dangerous lives. For some reason too, in 1871, they also enjoyed brutal entertainment.

An article in the book, “Miners: True Tales of the Old West” written by Charles L. Convis, reveals one of the pastimes in a chapter titled, “Bears, Dogs and Wildcats.” I am hopeful that this type of “fun” no longer exists in our society. But it reveals the harsh times of the “Good Ole’ Days.”

Both fights were performed at the Piper’s Opera House on Sunday, Aug. 6, “pitted a fight between a bull and a bear.” And there was standing room only two hours before the fight began!

“At 8:20 the gate to the wire cage opened as the center of the arena slid up, and the bear walked out leisurely. He was a large brown bear from the California Coast Range. He sniffed at the bars of the cage and stood at the opposite gate where the bull entered. The crowd cheered. The bear cowered and the bull attacked but all in all, after a few hours, the bull seemed to be in charge. After a few prods here and there at one another, while time raced and the audience wanted more action, the wild animals did some attacking to each other and soon tired of the fight."

Although the two animals appeared to be to be worn out, their audience was not.

“The miners could see the bear’s fright, and the bull’s reluctance to continue so some of them crawled onto the roof of the cage and poured blood down onto the bull who pawed slowly, his eyes glaring at his adversary, Others fastened a red cloth to a pole and waved it back and forth near the bear but both animals stubbornly kept the peace. The miners continued prodding them but the bear remained in his cage and moved to the rear but then moved to the front of the cage and laid down and they continued poking him with whips and iron bars but he just got mad at them, roaring and striking at them,” wrote the author Convis. “However, and at last, after the miners had prodded both animals with poles, instead of charging the bear, the bull crashed against the bars of his cage, shaking and ratting it! When the two bars bent apart, and a large gap showed, the nearby spectators fled in panic.”

But the miners still did not have enough and one of them fired a round and the bullet split on a bar with a piece hitting a spectator who also had a rifle in his hands. He was not seriously injured. But now, the miners left the bull alone and tried to stir up the bear but it was not responding and would not get up onto his feet. At this time, the show’s promoter announced, “The bull wins. The bear is nearly dead.”

But the spectators hollered “the fight must go on.”

By then, though, the gas had been turned off, some spectators left, but most of them stayed, with over one hundred of them rushing to the cage, shaking the bars and trying to stir up the two animals. At last, the promoter turned the lights on and came down to the cage amidst hissing and hooting, noting he had done all he could to make the two animals continue fighting, adding, “If you can do better, name a committee to do it and I’ll pay for the gas if you want to go all night.”

The committee took control, asked for firecrackers, with which they would use but the owner again asked them not to use them to burn down the theatre. So, they used bayonets and knives mounted on poles to prod the animals. At last, they gave up, realizing that the animals would never respond.

The local newspaper finished the story: “Our people have now seen a bull and bear fight and we venture to say, they would never care to see another one – prodding the animals to make them fight is cruel business.”

However, the next fight was staged six weeks later in Dayton. Two wildcats captured near Dayton, were matched against a local ranchers’ bulldog, Hero. Five hundred dollars in coin was bet on the wildcats against 10 oxen that were pit up by the rancher Mr. Gee. A 10-foot by 12-foot fence of iron bars, 10 feet high with a back and roof of boards was the place of combat. Gas jets lighted the cage interior so all spectators could see. The female of the wildcat pair was thrown in first. Hero, an intelligent white bulldog soon followed and bets were made.

Unfortunately, Hero lost to the wildcat. As a result, some promotors kept the wild cat to use in other such matches.