The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-08-02
HILL RETREAT OF
OLD PETER KARST
HIS BEACON LIGHT OF WELCOME
HAS FLASHED In GALLATIN
CANYON FOR % YEARS
Picked the Spot When He Was a
Stage Driver; a Half Way House In
the Old Days; Now it is a Summer
Camp.

ONAuRs
Remote from the beaten trail, yet
with Bozeman to the north and Vel
lowstone park to the south, easily
accessible by good auto road, snug
gled in the p~recipitous Alpine setting
of the famous Gallatin canyon. is
Karst's camp, which, during the
present season, has more than ever
become the Mecca for discriminating
Butte tourists in search of a change
of scene and a refreshing recreation
al environment that is unique.
For 90 years the beacon light OF
home has flashed a welcome to the
occasional traveller from the cabin
of Peter Karst, pioneer settler of the
Gallatin canyon. During all these
years, practically without publicity.
but with the habitual hospitality OF
the "old timer" Karst's Camp a
continued to grow in favor n in
popular patronage.
Although today he is a LANDED
proprietor" with flocks and herds
roaming the nearby range, with more
than a score of spotless cabins scat
tered beneath the whispering pines
and a picturesque hotel of logs in the
making, with a modern electric light
and power plant functioning all over
the premises, with a Sawmlll, an
open-air swimming pool and all the
rest of the formidable gear that goes
to make up a modern hosiery, it is
the same old-fashioned, sincere and
large-hearted Peter who welcomes
the coming and speeds the parting
guest or doles out the groceries and
soft drinks within the little log store
that is an important part of the
plant.
Years ago, before the mind of man
ever dreamed of planting a perma-
nent foot within the forbidding walls
of the canyon, Peter Karst drove the
leasurely mail stage from Bozeman
to Eldridge. Peter had plenty OF
time to study the landscape in those
days as he cracked his bull whip over
the hide of the reluctant steed. Win
ter and summer he traversed the can
yon and noted the high spots in the
panorama of scenic grandeur thai
marked his comings and goings. The
spot that he picked out % years ago
is still his home and it is still the one
compelling show place of the far
famed valley of the West Gallatin.
OF the great trinity of rivers, the
Madison, the Jefferson and the CAL
latin, the Gallatin alone has left the
most rugged and compelling evil
dences of travail in its birth and
adolescence high up in the mountains
of Northwestern Yellowstone park.
Winding tortuously from the higher
reaches, it booms it's way over buried
boulders and ~gravelly shoals until it
reaches the very climax of beauty
in the little glen at Karst's. Here,
fringed by stately conifers, thanking
lush meadows, it is poetry made visi-
BILE and beauty become audible, in its
rock-arrested descent to the Missouri
and the sea.
In such a setting and with such
a host, it is little wonder that prac-
tically all Bozeman motors to Karst's
on Sunday or that a distinguishing
caravan from as far away s Butte nd
Anaconda is making this idyllic spot
its go1 for weekend or longer tarry-
ings. Perhaps nowhere else in the
state will one find such delightful en-
tertainment so free from commercial
ization.
To put it in a simpler way, Peter
Karst is emphatically of the "Old
West" He is far less a landlord
than he is a personal friend and host
to all who come his way.
OF course, there is abundant OPP
portunity in the immediate vicinity
for hikes, horse back jaunts and es-
~pecially, and above all, for rare good
fishing, not only at Karst's but for
several miles up and down stream.
and rainbow trout await with
equal impartiality the lures of the
skilled angler or the youthful tyro.
And in the fall, when the frost is
the pumpkin and the folders in
the shock" when the elk and deer
and bear and mountain sheep are fat
beneath the hunters moon,
the exodus of fishermen and summer
visitors is followed by the coming
of shrewd Nimrods from all parts of
the state, who never fail to bag their
quarry and secure their legal share
of the trophies of the chase.