A serious moose attack

News stories last week told of two cases of women being trapped by moose, at a house in Alaska and in a car in Lincoln County. This motivated me to dig out the facts of a bad moose/human conflict in the Flathead back in 1965. My late friend, Gerald Rose, was the victim and I relived every detail with him. This is history I must recall from a long ago column:

It was July 28, 1965 when Gerald was seriously injured at Shafer Meadows Ranger Station. I reported the story and a co-worker, Keith Granrud, brought me a picture he took of the incident.

Gerald and Keith were walking to the remote corral when they noticed the station dog harassing a barren cow moose. Moose are part of life up there, so they weren’t concerned for their safety. Gerald took a salt block and tossed it out to the moose as an act of friendship. It had the opposite effect.

The big cow exploded in a frenzy and charged. She reared up on her hind legs, striking Rose with her front hooves. Her hair was on end and her ears laid back. The only weapon handy was a bridle and Gerald fought the animal by hitting her with it. Even hard strikes didn’t slow her down and Rose was taking a beating.

Meanwhile, Granrud jumped on the station tractor and started driving it towards the moose. That’s when he snapped the photo. When I later asked him why he took a picture, He said he didn’t know what else to do.

After several minutes of fighting for his life, Rose managed to make an escape. His clothes were torn and he was cut and bruised, but the worst injury was to his spine. During violent contortions to avoid the flailing hooves hitting his head, he had fractured a disk. That injury crippled him to the point where he couldn’t do physical labor and he suffered from the disability for the rest of his life. He and his wife lived at McGregor Lake.

I told Granrud I could sell the story to Sport Afield if he would let me use the photo.

I wrote it up and sent it in. A month later, it was returned with the standard rejection slip. I got on the phone to the top editor, Ted Kesting, who had bought several stories from me in the past.

I started right in on Ted. “Kesting, what the heck is going on back there? You guys had the only photo on earth of a moose attacking a man and you sent it back without a ‘fare thee well.’”

Kesting said, “Well, George, I only got a glimpse of the picture and one of the editors said it was probably some kind of semi-tame moose hanging around a farm.”

Ted, that moose attack took place in the wilderness. There are man-made structures visible because it was at a ranger station. Somebody didn’t read the story. Do you want me to send it to Field and Stream?”

“No! Send it to me and I’ll put it in the magazine.”

I did and he did.

As for that tractor, I helped haul it into Shafer in 1950 about the only C-47 ever flown in and out of the original short mountain strip. I was one of two smokejumpers dumb enough to volunteer. Veteran Johnson Flying Service pilot Warren Allison was at the controls.

To have the best air, we went early in the morning and came out just before dark. That’s another scary story, but not as scary as Gerald Rose’s.

G. George Ostrom is an award-winning columnist from Kalispell.