FIGHT: The bear and the bull are all about Wall Street, right? Well, Bradford’s history is a bit more colorful.

“The Illustrated History of Bradford” has a story we had to share, about a bear and bull fight arranged at Custer City “for the benefit of the frolicsome oil men. Opinion varied as to the comparative “hooking” and “hugging” qualifications of the two animals, and the discussion of this disputed point was conducted so publicly that news of the prospective contest reached the ears of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”

An agent came from Philadelphia to stop the battle.

“The event was a ludicrous and disagreeable disappointment. Neither animal at first displayed any signs of belligerency. The bear merely blinked at the row upon row of faces surrounding the ring and uttering an indifferent and gutteral grunt, would have gone quietly to sleep had not the bull, goaded by the attendants, made a charge which caught Bruin squarely amidships.

“A fierce bellow and a mighty toss and three hundred pounds of angry bear meat was projected plump in the midst of the audience. Thoroughly frightened the people scattered in every direction, leaving the bull in undisputed possession of the arena.”

While the Philadelphia agent and a constable named Crittenden “procured warrants for arrests on a wholesale scale,” the constable found himself arrested on a trivial charge, locked up and when released, “exhibited an astonishing and unaccountable lapse of memory, and the prosecution was finally discontinued.”

“The innocent bear, kept for a time at the expense of the authorities, was finally turned loose and the incident was closed.”