Holt Collier Guiding Roosevelt through the Mississippi Canebreaks by Minor Ferris Buchanan four-mile stretch took them under an Collier was annoyed that the stand open forest carpeted with a knee-high had been abandoned. “That was eight When Holt Collier was chosen to briar tangle. The towering forest of o’clock in the mornin” when I hit the guide President Theodore Roosevelt virgin oak, ash and cypress was woods an’ roused my bear where I on the now famous bear hunt of 1902, majestic. Then came the long stretch knowed I’d fin him. Den me an’ dat he was a legend in Mississippi. He of Coon Bayou, a mud gully which bear had a time, fightin’ an’ chargin’ had cut roads into the wilderness and attracted all types of wild game. On an’ tryin’ to make him take a tree. Big was known to have killed in excess of the other side of the bayou, lay the ole bear but he wouldn’t climb nary 3,000 bear. primal Delta swamp with briars and thickets 30 feet Theodore Roosevelt had become a high and knit so tightly noted hunter by founding the Boone that the passage had been & Crockett Club and hunting almost cut through like a tunnel. all types of American game including grizzly bear, buffalo and pronghorn The camp was pitched on sheep. One trophy that eluded him the west bank of the Little was the Louisiana Black Bear. He Sunflower River, desperately wanted to experience the described then a fast- thrill of the mounted bear chase. flowing, mud-banked Though Roosevelt and his company stream of clear water. had immeasurable finances and Between the tents, in the manpower, almost every aspect of the center of an open space, hunt was the responsibility of the was a great cypress log, uneducated 56-year-old Collier. He against which the camp found a site on the banks of the Little fire was built. Dogs were Sunflower River in Sharkey County, everywhere. Someone had about 15 miles west of the Smedes brought a large rustic Station, a small farming platform. armchair which was named the ‘Throne’. The Through the Mississippi towns of President was an Tunica, Dundee, Lula, Clarksdale, imposing figure in it. Bobo, Alligator, Hushpuckena, Roosevelt announced that Mound Bayou, Cleveland, Leland, in the woods he was to be Estill, Panther Burn, Nitta Yuma, addressed only as Anguilla and Rolling Fork, the train ‘Colonel’. carried Roosevelt and his entourage the maximum speed of 70 miles per Roosevelt wanted to hour. participate in the chase, but his demands for a shot on the tree. I could have killed him a At Smedes Station, several hundred first day and the timidity of his hosts thousand times. I sweated myself to spectators greeted the President. condemned him to a stationary blind. death in that canebrake. So did the Almost all were children and He was placed to have a clear shot bear. By keeping between the bear grandchildren of slaves. Holt was when the bear, driven by Holt’s pack and the river I knew he’d sholy make immediately impressed by the man of about 40 dogs, would emerge from for that water hole where I left the and his manner. Roosevelt was short the cane. Cunnel. but seemed palpably massive being a full 200 pounds of muscle. According Roosevelt and companion Huger After a while the bear started that to Collier, the President introduced Foote waited on the stand all way and popped out of the gap where himself by walking straight to him morning. The sounds of the dogs I said he’d go. But I didn’t hear a with his hand extended. “He say, ‘So faded and increased in intensity as shot, and that pestered me....It sholy dis is Holt, de guide. I hyar you’s er Holt’s pursuit ranged great distances pervoked me because I’d promised great bear hunter.’” in the canebrakes. After mid- the President to bring him a bear to afternoon the hunters broke for camp that log, and there he was.” The party set out immediately on a to have a late lunch. field road that took them four miles At the very spot Holt had planned for through the plantation. A second the kill, the bear went to bay on the Holt Collier dogs. Collier was in a dilemma. He had been given specific orders to save the bear for Roosevelt, who was not to be found, and he had to protect the dogs from the deadly beast.

Holt dismounted, shouting at the bear. He quickly approached the bear with his rifle in his left hand and the lariat in his right. A rider rushed to camp for the President.

The dogs and the bear fought in a ferocious chorus. It wasn’t until the bear rose to his full height that Holt noticed his prize dog caught in the beast’s mighty death grip. He clubbed the rifle and leaped into the battle. He shouted again, and swung the stock of his gun through an arc that landed at the base of the bear’s skull. The bear was shaken, but he rose up, released the lifeless dog and stood a head higher than Holt. With the barrel of his rifle bent and useless, Collier had only one option. He positioned himself beside the raging animal, put his foot between the bear’s legs, and dropped the lariat over his neck. The injured bear was soon tied to a nearby willow tree.

Minutes later Roosevelt and Foote arrived. Roosevelt dismounted, ran into the water, and though everybody urged him to kill the bear, he declared that he would not shoot an animal tied to a tree. Roosevelt was in awe of the feat he was witness to.

For the entire hunt, Holt Collier was the center of attention. Sitting apart, he spoke simply and fearlessly, unmindful of any difference in social guide invited ridicule. The account of Morris Michtom saw the Berryman status from the powerful men about Holt Collier’s heroic efforts received cartoon and designed a toy bear. He him. He told the story of his life, how detailed coverage. called it ‘Teddy’s Bear.’ His success he had killed white men and had gone selling the toys for a dollar and fifty unscathed, how he had met Union At the conclusion of the hunt, cents resulted in formation of the soldiers in hand-to-hand conflict, and Roosevelt declared that Holt Collier Ideal Toy Corporation in 1903. When how he fought off a band of vigilantes. “was the best guide and hunter he’d Michtom died in July 1938, the His background and experience held ever seen”, and that “before he is company was selling more than the President’s imagination as he told three years older, he will go back to 100,000 bears each year. stories of his years as a slave, his the Little Sunflower, and, with Holt service as a Confederate scout, and Collier as his only guide, will chase his many years hunting bear. bears until he comes up with one and This article is a condensed version of kills it, running free before the dogs.” excerpts from the biography of Holt The press had a field day with the Collier by Minor Ferris Buchannan. story. Headlines and cartoons Clifford Kennedy Berryman ran two depicted the President as having editorial cartoons of the incident on been unprepared by satisfying his the front page of The Washington appetite. The story about the Post. The cute bear cub he drew President being out-played by a lowly immediately became a popular Roosevelt mascot.