The first appendicitis operation

On the wall in one of the County Sheriff's offices is a sign which says, "SUPPORT YOUR SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM—GET LOST!"

The new head of Flathead County's Search and Rescue operations is a very qualified young officer, Jordan White. Jordan also leads the scuba team which he organized a few years back. That group has successfully carried off some tough and dangerous underwater missions.

Current laws and regulations say search and rescue operations must come under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Department. There are very good reasons. We have in the past reported on some possibly well intended, but never-the-less incompetent individuals, who decided to take up the search and rescue business on their own. With the thousands of square miles of mountains in this and neighboring counties, we need real pros when there are serious problems.

To make sure Jordan gets in more ongoing and practical work leading the Search and Rescue Teams, I'm making plans to get lost in the Bob Marshall Wilderness fairly soon…maybe a week from Tuesday.

Last Friday on our morning radio talk show, I read a history note about Cornelious Hedges traveling by stage from Helena to Missoula as he went about the state on his job in November 1872. As Territorial Superintendent of Schools, he was checking on how the different schools were doing and what he could do to help them.

The story quoted from his journal says he arose at 3 a.m. and arrived in Missoula at 8 p.m. If we give him an hour to get dressed and on the stage, it would mean he traveled approximately 120 miles by stage coach in 16 hours. A little arithmetic says the stage had to average 7 1/2 miles an hour, including a long haul up the east side of the Continental Divide. On the radio, within hearing of God and everyone, I said that sounded impossible, and speculated "…such a trip would take the better part of three days."

"Not so," said an E-Mail received over the weekend. That message said there was evidence a stage had run for several years over the Lemhi Pass between Bannack, Montana Territory and Salmon, Idaho Territory every day, weather permitting, and the run was made in 16 hours. The distance was said to be 120 miles.

How many times did they change the teams? Did they ever make them gallop?

I don't know what to believe. Haven't got time for research. Can anyone help?

One of my most favorite grade school teachers was Jen Hollensteiner O'Connell. This past week I found an account she wrote in the middle 1960s about the Tetrault family:

"Francis and Valerie Tetrault were married in Chatham, Ontario in 1879. After losing three with diphtheria, they migrated to Frenchtown. In 1887, they moved to the Flathead with three children. …homesteaded in the wooded land north of Kalispell on the Old Whitefish Road. …built a log house with a roof covered with slough grass and a dirt floor… began clearing land for farming.

"Every week Mr. Tetrault walked the ten miles or so to Demersville to work at the Foy's mill where he cut rough lumber shakes which he helped put on the roof of the Cliff House. Mrs. Tetrault stayed home alone with the babies while Indians camped all around them.

"Some years later, Mrs. Tetrault had the first appendicitis operation in the Flathead. Dr. Duncan and Dr. Lamb moved the kitchen table to the living room and using chloroform performed the emergency surgery.

"Six more children were born to the Tetraults in the Flathead."

Were our pioneer ladies strong and courageous?

Unbelievably!