Evening star., 1897-12-03
MADE THE EARTH TREMDLE.
Fall of n Meteor That Left Three
Giant Cloud Rings in the Sky.
From the Helena Herald

Giant Cloud Rings in the Sky.
From the Helena Herald.
Some interesting information concerning
the recent fall of big meteor is furnished
by r. l.. Fisk. who returned Saturday
from a two months trip into the game dis
tricts on the Blackfoot and Flathcad.
Speaking of the occurrence, Mr.. Fisk hal
this to say:
I'VE were bound into the Flathead coun-
try in search of big game. The party con-
sisted of George Miller, postmaster at Lin
coin, my brother and myself We broke
camp above Ovando on Friday morning.
September H. and took what is known as
the Falls trail up the south fork of Mon
tour creek The trail is awful one for
pack horses even, and progress was very
slow Just before o'clock in the afternoon
halted at some old elk wallows directly
the water shed. Here unpacked,
built fire, and started to cook supper
about twenty. minutes past the ground
Under foot shook and yibrated, and
reard distinctly three reports. the first
sounding more ike the crash of some fall
ing monster cliff weighing thousands of
tens from one of the numerous peaks sur
rounding us th;.n anything else, and the
other to the ringing echoes sent back from
he steep mountain sides. The horses even
noticed the trembling OF the earth. and
stood with pointed ears and dilated 1ostfils,
,ittering startled :norts My brother re-
marked somewhat facetlously:
Get down on your marrow bones, ycu
fellows, the mountains are turning over
I'VE stood awaiting the next act, lis
cussing the profa.,le origin of the strange
noise. Happening to glance slSyward
straight north of our camp, behcll q
peculiarly shaped cloud, whitisn gray in
color and resembling three interlockad
rings. With our field glasses We could
make this out ever so clearly.
Va Il la,, i,o 70,
had witnessed rather felt. the re-
suits attending a meteor's fail. Mr.. Miller
looked at his watch and announced the
time as G:23. From our camp it appeared
TO us that the meteor had fallen on the
range were then on. We didn't know
any one else had witnessed its fall until we
got back into civilization about week ago,
and all of us counted On giving the interest
ing occurrence to the press. The smoke
cloud was discernible long as daylight
lasted
The next day, fust after we struck Sal
mon Trout creek, a tributary Of the North
Fork of the Big Blackfoot, We encountered
:; bunch of Flathead Indians They We're
Louie Ashley, a half-breed: Kootenai,
stepson of the old Flathead chief, Arlee,
and another brave whose Indian name
meant coyote some other of the wild
beasts of the region, have forgotten what.
They had their sqiaws and children with
them. All were excited, and Ashley re-
marked:
"Indian mu2h scared. Think world COM
ing to end. Get away from mere
"They were rnaEim3us in the opinion
that the meteor, for we told them that was
what 1t was, had fallen on the range or
watershed betwcel the North Fork, VII
low creek a tributary of the South Fork
of Flathead and Montour creek, and be-
lieve such was the case.
1T Is easy to account for the story that
it struck near Hay Stack Butte, in this
county. A circle drawn with n circum-
ference of fifty miles, with it's central point
on Willow creek. will cover the headwate:s
of dozen different streams flowing in as
many different directions. 1t is but eight
niles from Willow creek over onto the
headwaters of Sun river.
"If the formation of the country counts
for anything in deciding just where it fell
it was somewhere in the range l have re-
ferred to. Ircn predominates, with con-
siderable slate ana lime and other baser
rock ] honestly believe If any one wants
to discover that meteor that the place to
look for it is in the big range situated as
stated. / do not believe that the meteor
as u whole landed anywhere. The first re-
port was very cahar as if the meteor had
exploded in rni1Air and then rained its
broken fragments on' ALI sides. We estf-
mated the smoke cloud to oe about fifty
miles above the rang7i and compaSSsS riac-
ed it directly north. b From the vibration
of the ground we cosiciuled that some of
the fragments struck within few miles
cf our camp.
Several days later met two white
men named Mcknight and Belts, both we'll
known at Ovan1o, who were cutting hay
in a big meadow on Willow creek, EXPECT
ing to winter stock on shares, though they
had not solved che problem as to how they
were to get the stock in there, and both
said they had witnessed the strange scene
of the Friday before and that it appeared
southwest of their Cabin
Mr. Miller ard r.. c. Fisk both confirmed
the above The Indians named, when at
he me, can be found at the station of Ar
lee. on the Northern-P Pacific west of Mis-
scua.