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Montana historian John Fraley has recently retired from the Montana Fish and Game Department and is coming out with another of his captivating books about settling the last real wilderness section of the lower 48 states. To provide some substantial historical background for those interested in history, we are running a piece written about 40 years ago:
How We Got Here
Every 10 or 20 years, I run this info for our newer Flathead settlers and younger citizens:
Because the Flathead was blocked off from the early white pioneers by geological barriers as well as hostile Indians, it is usually considered the last major area in the lower 48 states to be settled. This is a list of dates having historical significance in the settlement of Northwest Montana.
1806 – Meriwether Lewis came up the Marias River east of the Rockies and looked southeastward towards Marias Pass, where highway 2 now runs.
1810 – David Thompson of the Hudson Bay Company wintered at Thompson Falls and explored what would later be Mineral, Lake, Sanders and Lincoln Counties, and in 1812 made diary notes about observing a large lake (Flathead).
1813 – Ross Cox, a teenage employee of the American Fur Trading Company, came from Spokane House to the confluence of the Clark’s Fork and Flathead Rivers on Christmas day and established a trading post.
1829-30 – Joshua Pilcher and eight men of the Missouri Fur Trading Company camped for winter on the west shore of Flathead Lake. Pilcher compared the area to Switzerland and predicted “roads soon.”
1836 – The Flatheads and the Nez Perce sent a delegation to St. Louis to talk to the “white man.” All were killed by the Sioux. A second delegation met the same fate in 1837.
1839 – A third delegation of Flatheads made it to St. Louis leading to the coming of Father DeSmet to the Bitterroot Valley in 1841, where first church services drew 700 Flathead and Nez Perce.
1846 – Fort Connah was built by Angus McDonald for the Hudson Bay Company in the Mission Valley.
1850 – Explorer Robert Greenhouse published a map showing Marias Pass.
1853 – Isaac Stevens sent Tinkham to find a “northern pass” and Tinkham got lost. Did not know about Greenhouse’s map.
1857 – Joe Ashley built a cabin and store at what is now the southwest corner of Kalispell.
1860 – A few hardy settlers arrived from the south with difficult time getting around the west shore of Flathead Lake.
1872 – The upper Flathead’s first post office was established at Scribner on the river just above the lake.
1883 – The Northern Pacific Railroad reached Missoula, pushing west.
1885 – A wide “trail type” road was built from NP rails at Ravalli to the foot of Flathead Lake and the first steamboat, the U.S. Grant, began runs up the lake.
1886 – Head of navigation on the upper Flathead was set at Greggsville, later named Demersville.
1870 – Threat from Blackfeet Indians ended with the “Baker Massacre” of Chief Heavy Runner and his starving band on the Marias River.
1890 – Jim Hill’s railroad was approaching Browning and an 18-year-old scout named Duncan McCarthy found a construction townsite on Bear Creek west of Marias Pass.
1891 – Great Northern tracks crossed Marias Pass and headed down the Middle Fork River to the Flathead Valley.
1892 – A silver spike was driven at Kalispell in January to commemorate the arrival of the tracks. The first passenger train came on April 17.
1893 – A 23-room mansion was built by C.E. Conrad on a 72-acre estate in his Kalispell townsite.
1905 – The first automobile arrived in the valley and Kalispell soon made a 15-mile-per-hour speed limit. C.I. O’Neil drove to Hot Springs and back in 1906, a difficult accomplishment.
1910 – The Flathead Indian Reservation was opened to limited homesteading by non-Indian settlers.
1911 – The first airplane flew into the valley.
1914 – A road along the east shore of Flathead Lake was completed to Bigfork using state prison convicts for labor.
1928 – George Ostrom was born, thus completing the civilizing of the Upper Flathead area.
G. George Ostrom is an award-winning columnist from Kalispell.