Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-03-21

of the river near town and the flood
followed.
1.-The first of record is the flood of
81, made memorable by the fact that
the then existing conditions made for
a bigger excitement than was really
warranted. That winter GEO
and I'D was one OF very heavy snow
fall. 1t lay two feet on q level all over
the country hereabou.s but was par
TALLY 'chinOoked' early III February and
the river broke only to freeze up
again a few days after and make new
ice, thick and solid. Then about the
from up the creek, reaching here about
the third. A gorge formed in the bend
just above the present location OF the
Northern Pacific railroad bridge and
the water poured over the low banks
and through the town. Be-
cause Of the dire anticipations based
upon the evidence of the old cotton
woods, about two hundred people, most
ly women and children, vacated their
homes in favor of tents pitched upon
the inhospitable sides of Carbon Hill,
where they lived q cherries life for
about a week while the town fairly
riOted in new sensations. I'm
prepared rs W. were by experience for
the first flood, "a hours had not elapsed
before we had as numerous q navy as
the conditions demanded, including one
big flatboat that would carry q hum
dred passengers, which made frequent
trips up and down Main street under
the pretense of rescuing some marOOned
castaway, but as these were always
found in the vicinity of a House Of
Cheer, the presumption wa admissible
that rescue work was not the main rea-
son for leaving a safe harbOr and brav-
ing the terrOrS OF the deep"
No lives were lost in the high water
and the material damage was small.
1t was in the midst of such a watery
scene, sitting in the lobby Of the old
MacQueen hostelry, that x. Biedler
reminisced yer the perils he encount-
cred in winter travel from far-away
Fort Benton. He was a handsome man,
and lawbreakers came to know him as
possessed of iron nerve and an Off
GER who knew no fear. An early de-
scription given Of him says: EVERY
body knows x. Biedler, the United
States deputy marshal since the first
marshal came to Montana. He is get
ting gray in the service, yet still re-
tainS his manly beauty"
1t was the longest winter journey he
A1dO CFCA llldQC H. 1NOAlVdAld.' ~ WAC
the most severe, testing his physical
strength and power of endurance. 1t
was winter, all winter. The snow was
exceptionally deep, never thaWing, and
the cold often from 30 to 40 degrees
below zero.
The weather was bitterly cold when
he arrived at Fort A%Ssinnaboine. In
giving some of the details of his stay
at the fort, Mr.. Biedler said that at
night the stove was made red hot to
warm the party. They placed their
feet under it to thaW the snow and
ice from them.
when we got up in the morning"
said the marshal, "the host had the
stove red hot and the legs were gone"
1t was the first time, he said, he
ever knew the feet to freeze off a red
hot stove. He couldn't account for
their loss in no other way, for they
were on at night and gone in the morn
ing and the stove "a red hot all the
time.
Departing from Fort Assinnaboine
shortly after breakfast, the party of
travellers noticed a lot of cattle around
a big cottonwood tree. The tree stood
out alone by itself on a flat between
the bank of the Missouri river and the
bluffs adjacent. 1t was noted, said MI.
Biedler, that the cattle were looking
up at the tree while they kept contin-
ually tramping about it.
This singular action excited my cur
iosity," Mr.. Biedler remarked. II rode
up to where the cattle were describing
a parade around the tree, and also gaz-
ing upward could only discover a large
birds nest in it's branches. A few spears
of grass were dangling from the nest.
l concluded that this was what the cat
tie saw. So / climbed the tree and threw
the nest down to them. They ate it up