Sixteen Wives and The Garden Wall

G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News

Lone Walker is a majestic mountain on the Continental Divide in a remote area of Two Medicine Valley. It is among too many Glacier peaks I'll never get climbed; however, the name brings up a question, "Who was Lone Walker?" To describe this "bigger than life" character, I site Jack Holterman's carefully researched book, "Place Names of Glacier/Waterton Parks":

Lone Walker was a tall, handsome man of great dignity, a leader of the Small Robes band in the early 1800s. In the Blackfeet language his name was Nit-awahka. James Willard Schultz said he was a friend of Mandan Chief, Mahtotopa, who greeted the Lewis and Clark expedition in North Dakota, so Lone Walker was well traveled, but that's not what I found most fascinating.

Lone Walker had sixteen wives, occupying five tipis, and one of the wives was Bird Woman, the mother of Hugh Monroe's wife Sinopa'. He walked about camp carrying a lance, followed by two pet bears. When Hugh Monroe first went to live among Lone Walker's people, he was afraid to pass through the door of the tipi with the bears lying there. So, Lone Walker spat into Hugh's hands and rubbed them over the heads and the mouths of the bears. "Presto! Bear problem solved." Holterman reminds us, "This technique is not recommended for Park visitors."

For those not into Glacier's history, Hugh Monroe was the first white man to explore it, as a trapper for Hudson Bay Company in 1832. He later showed those mountains to the young, well educated adventurer James Willard Schultz. We don't know if the pet bears were black or grizzlies, but it seems either would be risky … unless Walker was trying to get rid of a few wives.

Got to reading the fascinating Holterman book through a quirk of fate. Daughter Wendy and husband Shawn recently went with friends for a relaxing weekend at the Outlook Bed and Breakfast above Somers. Wendy told me the place was run by Michelle and Todd Ahern and Todd is related to Lt. George Ahern, the famed Glacier Park explorer who led a troop of Black Calvary up through the precipitous "Ahern Pass' in 1890. In my book "Glacier's Secrets-Vol. II," there is a large photo of the pass and a note, "Jack Holterman quotes someone as calling it, 'A route fit only for a crazy man,' but Holterman is kinder, calling Ahern a remarkably kind and courageous man."

On the chance they might not know much about great uncle George Ahern, I called Michelle and she was pleased to learn of the Holterman book. Found a spare copy and gave it to her. Turned out good for me because she bought a copy of Glacier's Secrets and a DVD.

Back to Holterman's book of 169 pages. This week I read it all again.

"A party of tourists directed by Grinnell was camped at Grinnell Lake in the 1890s and gathered for an evening of songfest around the campfire. A song then popular was 'Over the Garden Wall,' and someone joked about the nearby Divide, 'There's one wall you won't get over.' Thus we got, "The Garden Wall."

Wynn Mountain: Frank Wynn was a scientist, killed during a climb of Mt. Siyeh in 1927. Wynn is a spur of Siyeh and Grinnell had named it Point Mountain. Then it took the name of mining town Altyn. But in 1927, the map makers transferred "Altyn" across the valley and called this spur Wynn.

Kalispell: "Louis Brun was a French Quebequois (from Quebec) who came to the Flathead Valley very early and married the daughter of Kalispel Chief Goshea. He and his family may have been the first settlers of the upper Flathead in 1847. The Bruns went to California when gold was discovered but drifted back to Montana. The story goes that Charles Conrad was authorized to locate a new railroad town in Flathead County; Louis' daughter Emily suggested the name of her mother's tribe, Kalispel. Conrad is supposed to have added the extra 'L' for emphasis."

We've speculated in the past about a human's best attributes for leading an interesting life. Top picks were "enthusiasm" and "curiosity." Just found a wonderful quote from the late British/American broadcaster, Alistair Cooke, "Curiosity is free-wheeling intelligence."

Life is good.

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.