The 10-Year-Old Girl Who Tracked the Mountain Lion That Killed Her Mother for 6 Months and Slept in Its Den to Kill It, Colorado, 1907
August 1907. San Juan Mountains, Colorado. Hattie Mae Cole, 10, was picking berries with her mother, Luanne, 32, when a 180-pound mountain lion took her. Dragged her off in ten seconds. Dad was in Denver. Hattie Mae found blood and tracks. She took her dad’s .32-20, her mother’s shawl, and followed. For 6 months she tracked that cat. She learned its kills, its water, its den. Winter came. November. She crawled into the den while it was out. Slept there. Smelled like it. When it came back, it didn’t attack. It laid down. She put the barrel behind its ear and fired. Dragged it 8 miles home. Wrapped her mother’s bones in the hide. Buried her in it. The town called her “Lion Girl.” She never married. Died 1973. The hide was her blanket till the end. She told the paper, “It took her. I took it.” #Colorado #1907
