The original hungry horse

G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News

We've all read stories of how Hungry Horse Creek got its name in 1896. We also know of may exciting things which happened up the South Fork in years that followed; a newspaper was started; near the canyon that ran; through the town that was founded; below the dam that was built, by the creek running there; and they were all named Hungry Horse. With that local history to refresh recollections, let me give you an interesting and relevant yarn I just discovered in C. D. O'Neil's booklet, "Timber 'n Injuns." Following is C.D.'s story, verbatim:

"In the spring of 1895 I bought a buckskin horse from an Indian for $6. All summer I used him to ride to work at the B and M Mill. When fall came and the mill shut down, I had no use for the horse, so he ran at large in the streets and alleys of Kalispell. He was a great pet and called at many a back door for a hand-out.

"I was out of debt except for one bill of $8.00 which I owed to my older brother, Charlie. One day I said to him, 'I will give you my horse for the eight dollars I owe you.' He agreed and we made a trade, each feeling that he had made a good deal. In just a few days, Jack Johnson, the Chief of Police came to me and asked about my horse. I told him I no longer owned the horse as I had sold it to my brother. So Jack went to C.I. and said, 'Lew Switzer and others are complaining about your horse hanging around the back doors of their stores. You will have to take him up and feed him.' Charlie suggested the police put the horse in the pound and sell him, but Jack insisted that since the horse belonged to Charlie, Charlie would have to care for him.

"About this time a prospector from the South Fork of the Flathead River came to town to buy supplies to take to his copper and gold prospect 40 miles south of Coram. C.I. told the prospector, 'You can have that pet of mine if you will take him with you out of town.' The horse was just what Bill the prospector wanted — a gentle animal to pack in winter supplies — as he hoped to be able to run a tunnel in the mountain during the winter.

"When spring came two horses were found in the vicinity of the prospect. One was dead but the other, a buckskin Indian cayuse, who had learned to rustle for himself, had survived on snowballs and brush. The party that found him called the nearby creek Hungry Horse Creek and it still goes by that name."

There we have it, C.D. O'Neil's story, written down about 60 years after the actual incident. The passage of time could help explain minor points that differ from other memories of a now famous undernourished pony. Whatever the details, that horse certainly got his share of fame and notoriety down through the years. Talented artists such as Larry Blake and Ace Powell did wonderful carvings of their version. Many cartoonist have drawn their ideas of a starvin' stud image and businesses use them as a logo. Those activities will be going on for hundreds of years into the future.

If C.D. had known what a famous horse he was selling, maybe he would have tried to get a couple more dollars out of his brother.

Should citizens be allowed to legally curse and swear at cops? Mary Catherine Roper of the American Civil Liberties Union thinks that is just fine. She says, "Cursing at a police officer is tantamount to criticizing the government, and being able to do that without going to jail is one of the most important freedoms we have in this country." That is a "most important" freedom? Oh My!

I like the laws in Pennsylvania, where 750 people were arrested or summoned to court each year for some kind of "bad language," usually involving threats of violence. Flathead cases I have discussed in past columns also included the use of threats. A California appeals court has overturned the conviction of two men who used profane language against Yosemite Park Rangers and ACLU has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania to stop the cursing arrests there.

Regardless of the ACLU's ongoing efforts to remove 'respect for law" from the meaning of freedom, I think anyone who cusses out a cop is … really dumb.

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