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EARLY RECOLLECTIONS

ON THE FOREST

BY BEN SAINT • 1907-1929

I came to Montana the early part of March, 1907, with my father and was just past the age of 19. We came from Kansas where farming was the chief occupation and knew nothing of the mountains and the hardships we were facing. Father purchased a homestead from one of the early settlers near Noxon. Dealing in homesteads was, at the time, quite popular and quite profitable as well. The most of the claims had not been filed on and no one seemed to know that the forest had been created, but this we were to find out shortly.

The main means of livelihood was stealing Uncle Sam’s timber and selling it for what could be obtained and which at that time was very reasonable in price. This also came to an abrupt end when F.A. Silcox came to Montana and started rounding up the settlers for trespass.

After putting a stop to the timber stealing, Silcox picked a crew of men for the Cabinet Forest, mostly local men who had participated in the timber stealing. These men were trained for the early work of administration of the Cabinet Forest. The work was new to all, and there were numerous tangles and snarls that had to be ironed out. However, Silcox succeeded in getting the idea across to all that it was the duty of each and every one to protect the natural resources of Uncle Sam, in other words it was progress catching up with wanton waste and the people of the United States had been promised that in due course we would have a workable organization that would get results.

I was making posts, poles, piling, ties, driving team, hauling timber products and getting a liberal education in the ways of the west and this was far different from any thing I had ever done before. One day I was approached by one George Gardner, whom I had befriended by getting him a job, he in turn wanted to know if I would like to go to work for Uncle Sam at sixty per and board, and I was interested. In short order I was presented to F.A. Silcox who after asking me questions decided that I would do and informed me that I should report for duty with bed and sufficient clothing to stay in the woods for thirty days or more. This was about the 20th of September, 1907.

On the 23rd of September we were taken to the old Kootenai Trail near Smead and started work, our destination was Squaw Peak to be made a lookout. We worked one day on the Kootenai Trail while Silcox and Van Dyke scouted the country to find a feasible route for the trail. It developed that we were going up the wrong side of the mountain so we were moved to Star Gulch on Bull River and started all over again. We had two crews consisting of four and five men each, everybody worked including the cook. And when I say “worked” I mean just that. We had some men who had served in the Army and they insisted that we were all crazy, because Uncle Sam did not expect so much work from his men, however, that did not stop the work and those fellows were soon looking for another job.

There was plenty of money in those days and the main thing as I remember was to make a showing. There were no fires in 1907 and so we really got the work done for the time we had. 1908 was different, we started with telephone lines early in the year and not knowing much about what we were doing, made the mistake of getting the line too tight, tying it with solid ties to the trees. Then the wind came and down went the line. We had to change something so decided to cut the trees off above the line so the wind would not break the wire by swaying the trees. We were all green men but learning fast. The tree topping did not appeal to us at first but after a day or so it was not bad. Later they adopted what was then known as the split tree insulator which allowed the wire to pull through and keep the wind falls from breaking the line.

In August of 1908 we were all called out on fires, some of us were taken to other forests. Van Dyke and myself were sent to the Pend Oreille and I faced my first forest fire and while enroute I had considerable foreboding as to what I was going to do about it. I knew how to fight a prairie fire but a forest fire was different. Well, it was easy. I had walked and lead a pack horse loaded with supplies some 15 miles and when I arrived at the fire they were short a packer, so I was it. I had learned to throw a diamond hitch so I could pass the Ranger’s examination and it was lucky for me that I had. I took charge of the packing and supplied the fire crew with supplies for several days, then the wind came again and away went the fire. Many spots were started and I was given a crew of some six men and placed in charge of one of the fires. I packed the outfit on one horse and we took off to the fire. We arrived at a suitable campsite near the fire and pitched camp. Then my trouble started. I had no cook and packer so while I was scratching my head one of the men, a capable man by the way, suggested that as long as I could cook and pack both, that I do the packing and cooking.