Early Days in the Forest Service Volume 3

EARLY FLATHEAD FOREST
By Charles S. Shaw
(Flathead N.F.)

No story of the early Flathead would be complete that didn't include Frank Liebig.

Frank received his training as a forester in Germany and came to the Flathead area around the turn of the century. His first Ranger District assignment contained one million acres. It was the approximate area which is now Glacier National Park. This was in 1901. He was the first Ranger appointed to this area. He went to the Flathead National Forest after it was created and worked in various Ranger Districts and in the Supervisor's Office until his retirement in 1935.

Frank had two specific hobbies - taxidermy and botany. His private collection of mounted birds and animals was given to Glacier National Park by the family after his death and these are now on display at the Park Headquarters at West Glacier, Montana. He left behind several large herbariums. His work on plant collection and identification was a great contribution and will have its influence for a long time to come.

His personal herbarium was given to the Montana State University at Missoula. Mr. Liebig passed away in Kalispell in 1950.

History of Airplane Use on the Flathead Forest

The use of air travel for administration and fire control has become commonplace during the past few years. The use of aircraft for scouting fires on the Flathead dates back to the large fires in 1929. In one particular instance in 1929, Regional Fire Chief Howard Flint, piloted by Nick Mamer of Spokane, flew over the Sullivan Creek fire on the South Fork. Howard could see that the Spotted Bear Ranger Station was in the path of the fire and in grave danger. He wrote a message on a Forest Service form 877 and dropped it at the station. The message was to Charlie Hash, Flathead Fire Control staff officer, and said in part, "Save Spotted Bear Ranger Station at any cost." Hash pulled 500 firefighters into the station, sat up 20 Pacific Marine pumps and the station was saved. This fire burned for 101 days.

The first fire camp was dropped on the Flathead in Bunker Creek in 1939. The first smokejumpers (13) were dropped in Dean Creek in 1941.

The first patrol plane for aerial observation on the Flathead was stationed at Spotted Bear in 1946. The first use of a helicopter for fire control and administration was in 1957 on the Flathead Forest at Spotted Bear. The first year borate was used was in 1958. On the Frozen Lake fire one of the largest number of smokejumpers ever sent to one fire, that of Kah Mountain, was in 1947 when 75 of them were dropped.

The only fatality from airplane crashes to date on the Flathead Forest of forest personnel was that of Gene Guininga who was killed when the patrol plane crashed in the Mission Wild Area, September 11, 1955.

Flathead Forest

Like on most forests with large areas of back country, the early Rangers of the Flathead spent considerable time in the back country on snowshoes.

Until about 1940 all Rangers considered these trips as part of their winter assignments. These trips of from two weeks to one-month duration were made usually by Rangers traveling in pairs; occasionally there were three in the party. In many cases provisions and bedding had to be carried and they camped where night overtook them. The purpose was a general forest reconnaissance with special attention to wildlife observations.

Sometimes Rangers were stationed in the back country in pairs all winter, being separated from their families for six months at a time. Some of the early Rangers making these trips and meeting nature in the raw, who are still living, are Henry Thol, F.H. Neitzling, Tom Wiles, Roy and Ansley Hutchinson, Al Austin, and Charlie Shaw, just to mention a few.

These men have had many unusual experiences, many of which will never be recorded. Hardships as well as dangers from snowslides, rafting rivers and crossing on treacherous ice were taken in stride. Henry Thol and Roy Hutchinson could tell of the time their raft upset in the fast waters of the South Fork and they lost all their equipment and nearly their lives. Charlie Shaw rarely speaks of how, in 1937, he was caught in a snowslide in the Pentagon Creek area, was carried down the mountain side, and at one time during the descent was far below the surface of the snow, but came to rest unharmed at the bottom of the canyon.

One unusual event that is recorded is that of a trip made by Al Austin, Ansley and Roy Hutchinson into the Upper South Fork in February 1924. They came upon and entered an unlocked trapper's cabin in Youngs Creek where they found the trapper, Robert Marshall, dead. Death was from a self-inflicted gunshot wound about two weeks previously. After some debate it was decided to fashion a toboggan and take the body to the coroner at Ovando. This they did. It was over a mountain trail for a distance of thirty-five miles.

In 1925 Supervisor Hornby decided to experiment with the use of dog teams in the back country. The harness was purchased and the dogs were trained by Henry Thol, Big Prairie Ranger. The lead dog was Henry's German shepherd, named Horst. The first trip was made by Henry Thol, Roy Hutchinson and M.B. Mendenhall, and traversed the full length of the South Fork of the Flathead. The dogs were used on three different trips. They did not prove successful on sidehill trails in rough terrain.

Kaniksu N.F. Largest load of logs ever hauled in the West with two-horse team and sleigh, 144 logs, scaling over 22 M feet brought over ice roads January 21, 1922, at Dalkena Lumber Co. Camp #3, Priest River, Idaho.