Remembering the Kootenay Ram

The subject of bighorn rams comes up often in Montana. There have been at least three recent magazines featuring photos of extremely large rams carrying horns that have to be compared to “Krag the Kootenay Ram” made famous years ago by noted author Ernest Thompson Seton. One of those photos on the cover of Sports Afield was taken by my friend who may be the leading wildlife photographer currently in North America, Donald M. Jones, of Troy.

This has me wondering if somewhere there is a new world record bighorn, a fact considered impossible for many years. There is no way I’m going to ask Don where he got the shot but I am terribly curious. This new discovery about monstrous bighorns motivated me to dig out my column from Dec. 31, 2011:

It is mysterious why some of us become deeply obsessed with wild creatures. It came naturally for me. Early on at Camas Prairie we only had a few species, like bluebirds, meadow larks, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and woodchucks. After moving to the Flathead Mine in 1935 there were black bears, lions, wildcats, and deer; but, an entire new world opened up for me when I read Ernest Thompson Seton’s “Lives of the Hunted.”

Lead story in that wondrous volume written in 1901 was “Krag the Kootenay Ram.” I checked out the book at every opportunity from the Kalispell Library. Frontispiece was Seton’s majestic drawing of what I felt was the most fascinating wild animal in the world. Read it over and over until almost memorized. There came a day when I had to return it or face a fine I couldn’t afford.

With shame in my heart, I carefully removed the treasured frontispiece and put it in my secret cigar box. Began wondering if the librarian would notice anything missing. Would she call the sheriff or ... the FBI.

Until high school, I thought “Lives of the Hunted” might be a work of fiction. I’d seen bighorn photos in magazines but never actually saw a real one. My senior year I learned of mountains in the North Fork of the Flathead named after the book’s author, Thompson Seton, as well as for main characters, Krag, Krinklehorn, and Scotty. Later heard enough from old timers to know there had been such a mighty ram. Got scattered info about where he ranged and how he was hunted constantly by a Tobacco Valley man named Scotty MacDougall. The mystery continued to haunt me through the years.

Once heard of a man in Colorado trying to raise money to seek the great ram’s mounted head, supposedly hanging in a palatial castle in England. Got no results from effort to contact him.

Searches of used book stores eventually produced an original edition of “Lives of the Hunted” when I was 50 years old. Relived boyhood memories ... while still wondering about the great ram’s life.

On the 19th of this December (2011), at a booksigning for local authors to raise money for brain injured people, I met Darris Flanagan, a retired school teacher who grew up on Graves Creek, south of Eureka. He could view peaks associated with Krag’s life and experienced the wonder of that famous animal as a boy reading “Krag” ... only he did something about it, wrote a small book. He found actual pictures of Krag’s mounted head, as well as taxidermist measurements of those great curving horns.

Adding to my elation, Darris has an enlarged reproduction of the Seton drawing on the cover. I am going to tear it out and hang it on the wall. No secret cigar box.

In his introduction, Darris suggests before reading his book, you should get “Lives of the Hunted” and read it first. He makes that recommendation so you too can experience the wonder and mystery before learning the rest of the story. I agree.

As for my youthful crime of defacing a library book. It always bothered me, until the 1960s when I helped acquire many books for the library including personal donations. Eldest daughter Heidi helped pay for “the sins of her father” by serving on the library board.

Besides.... the statute of limitation has run out.

G. George Ostrom is an award-winning columnist. He lives in Kalispell.