Early Days in the Forest Service Volume 4

THE GRAVE ON POLLACK HILL
By Lou Hartig

Several years ago I thought it might be of interest to the inquisitive of the future to have the facts regarding who is buried in the grave on Pollack Hill and why. I wrote this story, which never did reach a finished form.

As far as I know Pete Potvin, Kingman, Arizona and I are the only living members of the burial detail. Gunefson, Peters and Kern are dead. I lost contact with Landerville and Monty years ago. Both were my seniors by several years. (Signed, Lou Hartig)

Otto Trojanowski, Frank Monty and Jim Trexall spent the 1933-34 winter in and around Wallace, Idaho. With the arrival of balmy spring weather in mid-April they welcomed the opportunity to leave Wallace when offered work at the Independence Mine where all three had been employed the previous summer. Monty and Trojanowski as laborers and Trexall as cook. Their immediate assignment was to go to the mine camp which had been shut down during the winter and make preparations for a larger crew that would arrive some time later.

The mine was located on Independence Creek on the Kelly Creek Ranger District. It lay two miles east of the old Moose City (1) diggings where mining took place in the late 1860's and early 1870's. In 1934 this locality was deep within the Clearwater National Forest. The year before a road had been punched through from the Montana side up Trout Creek over Hoodoo Pass and down Long Creek to Cedars Ranger Station on the North Fork of the Clearwater River. On the west side of the Forest, also the year before a Civilian Conservation Corps crew had begun construction of a road from Bungalow Ranger Station up the North Fork toward Kelly Forks. (2) However in the spring of 1934 the roads were still blocked by snow. From the Wallace country the old route from Rivulet, Montana, via Fish Lake and Pollack Ridge (3) was the shortest way to the mine.

Rivulet was accessible by rail or auto. From there travel was by foot. Since the overall distance from Rivulet to the mine was about thirty-four miles the men had to plan on at least one and perhaps two over night stops. They went prepared accordingly.

Although the 1933-34 winter had been unusually mild the men did encounter snow in the Fish Lake country, which lies at an elevation of around 6000 feet.

It was a fatiguing trip for the three men. Trexall was by profession a cook. He was middle aged and heavy set and appeared to be in good physical condition. Frank Monty was the smallest and most wiry of the three but he, too, was past his youth. Otto Trojanowski was a tall, husky, graying man who appeared to be in robust health. On the afternoon of April 19 they were making their way down Pollack Ridge. Otto began to lag behind, taking frequent rest stops. The others took part of his pack and adjusted their pace to his. Late in the afternoon Otto urged his companions to proceed on to the mine and get the cookhouse open for occupancy. He would follow at his own pace and arrive either that night or some time the next day. The two left him thinking only that Otto was tired. They arrived at the mine shortly before dark exhausted and hungry. These men were all self-reliant outdoor types so there was no alarm when Otto failed to show up during the night.

All day of the 20th while the men recovered from the wearisome trip they expected Otto to arrive momentarily. Late in the day Frank Monty went back over the trail to Osier Creek. There was no sign of Trojanowski. As it was nearly dark and Monty had no artificial light he returned to the mine. Monty and Trexall were now worried and apprehensive. Early on the morning of the 21st Monty again left the mine in search of Otto. He found him dead on the trail less than a mile from where they had parted from him on the 19th.

Monty decided that his best move would be to make a trip to Kelly Creek Ranger Station at the mouth of Moose Creek. If the Station was opened for the summer he could get assistance there.

On the way he met Forest Service employee Andy Kern who, with another employee, Harold B. Brown, was doing maintenance work on the Moose Creek trail.

Kern was one of a four-man party including myself that had arrived at the Ranger Station on April 19th - the same day Trojanowski had last been seen alive. I was an Assistant Ranger on the district, and with an advance crew of five men, had been sent by Ranger John Gaffey to open the station and begin maintenance of trails and telephone lines in preparation for the summer season. Men in the party were Kern, Clarence Gunefson, Everett Haney and brothers Frank and Harold "Heck" Brown. Frank Brown and Haney were working out of Barnard Cabin. The others, myself included, had finished what work we could from Kelly Forks Cabin before moving to the Ranger Station. As yet neither the telephone nor trail was maintained to the station. The nearest operable phone, at Kelly Forks, was twelve miles down stream. Short wave radios were not yet in general use by the Forest Service.

Kern brought me word of Trojanowski's death at 3:00 p.m. on the 21st. Knowing that the County Corner should be notified, I left shortly by foot for Kelly Forks. Except where maintenance work had been completed the trail was in wretched condition. Snow slides from both sides of the canyon had deposited great piles of logs, rocks and snow across the trail. Some of the snow slides were up to one-fourth mile across and up to twenty-five feet in depth in the trail. In other places sections of trail were missing - washed away by high water from side streams.

I arrived at Kelly Forks Cabin at about 6:30 p.m. Fortunately I soon made contact with Bungalow Ranger Station and was switched through to County Coroner Wayne Herres at Orofino. Upon learning what I knew of the circumstances he authorized me to conduct an investigation and if no evidence of other than natural death was indicated to proceed with burial of the body on the spot.

On the morning of April 22 I began the return trip to Kelly Creek R.S. I tried to tie the telephone line together between Barnard Cabin and the station but finally had to abandon the attempt as much wire was missing - torn out by snow slides. Monty was at the station when I arrived. We made plans for investigation and burial on the following day. He then returned to the mine.

On the morning of the 23rd Gunefson, Kern and I went to the mouth of Osier Creek. Here we met Monty. With him were miners Charles Peters, Pete Potvin and Oliver Landerville (4) who wanted to attend the burial and help in any way they could.

We made the steep climb toward Pollack Hill arriving at the body at 9:30 a.m. While Gunefson, Monty and I made the examination and inventoried Otto's meager personal effects the others selected a gravesite in a grassy opening on the brush covered hillside and began digging a grave. It appeared that Otto had taken off his packsack, perhaps to sit and rest on a wind thrown tree that lay across the trail. He lay beside his pack by the windfall. Appearance indicated a sudden collapse perhaps a heart attack.

The body was wrapped in a canvas pack cover and bound with a rope. When the grave was completed Otto's remains were gently lowered to his final resting place. Frank Monty who knew him best delivered a short eulogy while the others stood by with bared heads. After the grave was filled a wooden marker was placed to mark the site.

Otto's only known relative was a sister, Mrs. Carrie Niemeyer who, if I remember correctly, lived in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Due to remoteness of the grave plus transportation difficulties she decided to leave the body where it was buried. At a later date she had a concrete headstone erected at the grave. The Forest Service built and maintained a wooden fence around the grave for a number of years. The last I heard the fence was no longer maintained.

So beside the trail on Pollack Hill in NW-SW-1/4, sec. 31, Township 40 North, Range 22 West, Boise Meridian the passer-by may see the lonely headstone that marks the grave where Otto Trojanowski lies in eternal rest.

(1) Moose City, where gold was discovered by Thomas O'Brien and William Shepard, at the height of its popularity in 1869 boasted a population of 600. Moose City lived and died with little fanfare.

(2) After a road was completed into the area parts of both, Independence Creek and Moose Creek were dredged, apparently with some success as dredging continued for several years.

(3) Pollack Hill was named in memory of Frank Pollack who was a trail construction foreman on the Kelly Creek District until his death in the late 1920's.

(4) In addition to the miners mentioned in the story others who were still finding gold in this area in 1934 were Hans Ehert, Walter McCluskey and Joe Uzellac. Many others came to the area each summer to prospect the streams and search for the mother lode.

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