COVE — Northeast Oregon pioneer Anderson C. Smith was a man of short stature whose life story gave rise to tall tales.

It was said Smith once killed a 900-pound grizzly with a single shot near Minam and was such an accurate marksman he could knock an eye out of a grouse with a round from his Henry Rifle.

“He was the man of the mountains and the Kit Carson of the Pacific Coast,” the Mountain Sentinel, an old Union County newspaper reported in its July 6, 1872, edition.

On a less embellished note, Smith reportedly built many stone fences in Northeast Oregon that were used to contain horses and cattle. The total may include one in Cove that still stands, but Smith has been denied credit for building it by historians because of geographic confusion. This is the belief of Jack Johnson of Cove, a retired National Guardsmen who studies local history.

The fence is on farmland 2 miles west of Cove and is close to 100 yards long.

“I believe it is possible that this fence was built by A.C. Smith,” Johnson said.

The Cove resident thinks that a number of historical documents mistakenly list this fence as being built in the Imnaha area. This is understandable, Johnson said, because early in Cove’s history it may have been referred to by some as the Imnaha area. He cites an 1864 township map that appears to indicate the Cove area was on the edge of what was then known as the Imnaha Forest Reserve.

Johnson is searching for verification indicating that the fence in Cove indeed was made by Smith. His case is strengthened by documented ties Smith had to Cove. According to the book “Gateway to the Wallowas” by Irene Locke Barklow, Smith and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah A. Whittington, lived in Cove from 1862-1872 before moving into what is today Wallowa County. This was when Union County included all of the land that in 1887 became Wallowa County.

A.C. Smith, a Civil War veteran, took a big step toward opening Wallowa County to settlers in 1872-1873 when he built a toll bridge over the Wallowa River near Minam. The bridge opened in February 1873, an event so significant it was reported in The Oregonian . John Harland Horner, who documented much of Wallowa County’s history in what is known as the Horner Papers, wrote this about Smith and the toll bridge according to Barklow: “The way into the Wallowas was practically opened by Captain A.C. Smith, the Daniel Boone of Wallowa.”

Smith, who was born in Franklin County, Illinois, in 1831, studied law for many years and in 1888 was admitted to the Oregon bar. He then began practicing law in Enterprise.

“This was remarkable considering that he never had any formal education,” Johnson said.

Smith came to the West during the gold rush in the 1850s before traveling to Northeast Oregon in 1858 where he lived in Cove and what is today Wallowa County. Smith later traveled east and served in the Union Army as an officer for a short time during the Civil War before he was slightly wounded. He then returned to the Northwest.

Johnson said Smith, who died in Enterprise in 1911, is a fascinating historical character, one he would have enjoyed meeting.

“He was very colorful and influential,” Johnson said.