COVE â 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. âHe was the man of the mountains and the Kit Carson of the Pacific Coast,â 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.