Wild Sports in the Far West

Even that mighty hunter, Gordon Cumming himself, must own himself completely surpassed by this young German, Gerstaecker. -"The" Illustrated London News, 1854. "One of the first men to come hunting in Arkansas." -Bass, For the Trees (1981). "Frederick Gerstaecker, the German hunter, tramped all over the State from 1839 to 1842." -Shinn, Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas, 1908. Called "The White Bear" by Indians, because of his reputation as a great hunter, Frederick Gerstaecker (1816–1872) hunted bears, panthers, and wolves in the sparcely populated wilderness of Arkansas during the years 1839 to 1842. In 1859, Gerstaecker published a narrative of his life as a backwoodsman in Arkansas titled "Wild Sports in the Far West." The book contains entertaining accounts of close scrapes with bears, panthers, and wolves as well as rough hard-drinking frontiersmen and pioneers. (Goodreads)