The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-12
IHE FLATHEAD COUNTRY,
Ths Big Monopoly Which q Half
Breed IL Enjoying at the
Ravalli Station.
Scenes Along tho Way From the
Railroad to the Steamboat
Landing.

psmsrsvil,e Fast Assuming the Air of a
f5enuins ont Boom Town-Kalis-
pei and Columbia Falls.
,sHaye ron been to the Flathead coun-
tryg'
fare You going to tho Flathead coun-
try?"
For several weeks these two questions
been leading ones, not only in Helena, but
also ia other portions OF the state. Many
answer yes to the first, and these who do
moi are almost sure to do SO to the second.
Outside Of hunting parties but few people
have gone INTO this section until the last
YEAR. the rush now being occasioned by the
fact that the Great Northern extension will
run through the country and the probable
itv that somewhere in northern Missoula
county q new and prosperous town will DO
started. Leaving the question of specula-
ton aside the trip is one we'll worth max
Inc by any person who has never witnessed
boom times on the frontier. You leave
Helena by the Northern Pacific at 1:50 pm,
buyinpa ticket for Ravalli-cost. S.. At 9:15
the same night you are at Ravalli, when the
first intimation Of what is in store for you
Il given. The station is ON the Flathead
reservation, and the only stopping place is
kept BY Big Mcdonald, q half-breed. The
Recommendations he has to offer guests are
comprised in a two-story log cabin, which
il nicely furnished and lucky is the traveller
who ID assigned to quarters in the cabin.
Beside the cabin the hay sheds and some
smaller cabins are used for dodgers, while
the proprietor and his wife, a ~full-blood
Indian, sleep in a tepee. McDonald's re-
ceipts have been from $40 to $50 q night
for the past two weeks, and this is gradu-
ally increasing. For a place to sleep one
dollar is the charge, while meals are 50
cents. A half dozen Cinnamon attend to
the restaurant business for the proprietor,
and they feed every day from $50 to 500
people. The majority of the guests are
freighters, engaged in hauling merchandise
from Ravalli to the lake. Besides McDon-
AIDS place, the only other buildings are
Che store and postofice, and the half-breed
has one of the best paying monoplies in the
state to-day. :.
Some idea of the amount of goods of all
kinds which il going into the FIathead
country is gained by the traveller at Ravalll.
There are forty loaded cars on the track all
the time, and though $50 head of horses,
with enough men to handle them. are en-
gagged in freighting to the lake, there is no
appreciable diminution of the vast quaint
ties Of freight brought by the railroad.
Besides the freight at Ravalli. there are
simply waiting the chance to get them on
the Ravalli sidetrack. 1t costs from 40
cents to 81 . hundred to get goods from the
station to the lake. Five miles from Ravalli
is the mission farm, in a high state OF cul
tivation. TIL work is all done under the
.-..,:o~ 80 tho Cofbolic fatharc and tina
sisters. and the government has furnished
all the improved farming implements
and men to handle them, and to show the
Indians how to farm SUCCESSFULLY: In the
school at the mission are 124 girls and 149
boys, including those in the kindergarten.
Al the stage leaves Ravalli at five o'clock
in the morning, but few of those now going
to the Flathead take the trip to the mission
and thus lose one of the most interesting
sights in Missoula county.
After a night spent at the Hotel Nc
aboard q four-horse Concord coach, on his
Donald, at five a. m. the fortune hunter is
way to the foot of the lake. The fare is
Rs, and by II O'Clock the same morning you
are ready for the boat-ride. The journey
across the reservation at this season of the
is level, the road good, while the scenery il
magnificent. TIL first glimpse of the bis
lumber country is had on this trip, the tree:
ranging in diameter from eighteen to forty.
eight inches and from forty to eighty fee
in height. The country is well watere'
- i've feet deep, and howin'
swiftly. During the trip the Mission rang
is in plain view, with its snow-capped peak
Rlistening in the sun. These peaks are 800
or 5000 feet high, and are among the sight
of the country.
Twenty -four miles from Ravalli is a rela
station, kept by Charley Allard, a hall
breed, and the owner of the stage lin
Allard is a bright business man, the owne
of 2,GAO acres of land, occupies a nice hous
comfortably furnished. has 600 or sc
horses, 5000 head of cattle, and is takin
in $500 a day from his stage business. BIZ
what Allard values most highly is a herd {
buffaloes. ~ifty-six in number. He has bee
offered $500 for the herd, and $500 fe
single animals, but has refused all offer
the largest herd Of buffalo in North Anne
lea. to adding q big sum to h
bank account. The ride acroI
the reservation is of one the plea
ATTEST parts of the journey to tt
Flathesd country, if one will but keep h
manity of all sorts and conditions is seel
from the well-to-do business man in h
own conveyance, to the tramp. trudgin
along with his belongings done up IN
handkerchief. They are of all national
ties. and of all ages, and all bound for tt
pkO SouiAtAJ LIN hhS y
not know what they will do when they g
there. but they are going anyway. Son
say they will stop at Demersville, othei
believe kalispel is to be the great tow
while yet others pin their faith to Colun
bia Falls.
Arriving at the foot of the lake at
O'Clock the traveller has three hours to wa
for the steamer. During the interval
may get his dinner at one of the three /
cabins owned by half-bteeds, for 80 cen
n spend the balance of the time sizing
the freight pile, of which there is enough
the shore to fill fifteen or twenty cars. The
is no system in handling freight at the lal
and the freighters simply unload one lot
top of another and pile it all together
discriminatory. The result is that mt
chants who want their goods keep a IN
on the ground TO sort their stuff out a
forward it. Unless this is done the chanc
of getting it through within sixty or nine
DAYS are very meagre.
Up to date the Tom Carter has been t
only steamer plying on the lake, but so
two others will take her place. The Cart
built to carry at the outside thirty pass
gers, makes room for 100, and IN additi
tows a barge loaded with 100,0 600 pounds
freight, beside carrying 10000 pounds b
self. The Tom Carter is owned and run
Capt. Kerr, j, w. Cheney and Nm. Houst
and takes in for her owners every day
the month. Sundays included. 800. I
boat to take the place of the Carter v
cost $4,000. be 10 feet long and TWEEN
six feet beam, with a number
ototaro,oo and mill corry ION tome