Family of divers recover old wagon relic

A local family that loves snorkeling in the Flathead River recently came up with a great historical find — a wooden wagon wheel that could be a hundred years old but is in pretty good condition.

Cory Hoerner and his children, Otto, 17, Morgan, 14, and RJ, 11, have been diving in the Flathead River for years. They’ve dove around a sunken train car in Bad Rock Canyon below the railroad tunnel and pulled up parking meter heads around the middle pier of the Old Red Bridge. They even recovered a wooden bumper off a Model T Ford.

“There’s cars in the river all the way to Kokanee Bend,” Cory said.

Cory is an admitted history nut. The bookshelves in his home on Middle Road are filled with Western and local history books. Old bottles and cans that his family has discovered can be found around the home — including a half-gallon sized clay jug that came out of a barn on the old Talbott estate.

James Talbott is considered by many as the “Father of Columbia Falls.” The Hoerner family bought the Talbott estate in the 1930s and the big family moved into the old mansion and two other homes on the property. The Hoerners farmed on land they owned from the Red Bridge all the way to the Montana Veterans Home. It’s all subdivisions and schools now.

Otto first spotted the wagon wheel about two years ago, Cory said, just downstream from the Red Bridge near an old path leading up to the former Talbott estate.

“We went back four times but couldn’t find it again,” he said.

Then, on Aug. 6, Cory spotted it again from a kayak.

“He freaked out,” RJ said.

Cory said he mentally marked the spot by noting a large root ball nearby. The family returned home, made a plan and returned to the site.

A broken piece of rope was still tied to the wheel, and a pry bar was laying nearby, so Cory figured someone else had tried to raise it. Otto made several dives in 12-feet deep water, got a rope around it and used a claw hammer to dig rock and gravel away from the wheel.

Not too far away from where the wheel was recovered is a strange rock formation on the Columbia Falls side of the river. Cory says it resembles concrete and is visible in an old photo he has of the ferry boat that used to cross the Flathead River there. It could be part of the original landing, he said.

Cory figures the wagon wheel fell off the ferry while it was crossing the river. The ferry was eventually replaced by a wagon bridge built by Talbott.

The wooden bridge used rock-filled crib piers that Cory says are still visible by divers. The wagon bridge was wiped out by a flood and replaced by the steel truss Red Bridge.