Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-01-30
SWIFT CURRENT
PASS IS SAFE
BUT AT ONE TIME THIS GLACIER
PARK TRAIL WAS DANGER
GUS TO TRAVEL
Followed Path Made BY Mountain
Goats Originally But In 1883 Was
Worked Over With Dynamite So
That Pack Horses Could Follow 1t.

Until 1912 passes in Glacier park
had for the most part been left in
their natural state. Indians had used
them in crossing back and forth to
hunt or fight or pay ceremonial calls
in rare intervals of armistice.
Swith Current pass In 1883 was
worked over with dynamite enough
SO hazardous crossings could be made
with pack horses. This was because
of mining claims on FlattOp noun
tain owned by the seattle queen"
Mrs. Collins.
The route followed mountain sheer
and goat trails and in many places
followed a natural ledge along high
rock cliffs, with barely room for 8
horses pack to brush along the rock
wall on one side, with a sheer drop
of a mile on the other. At the foot
of these drops many bleaching bones
showed where pack horses had made
missteps.
In 1910 the government sent a party
Of officials to inspect the area that was
to become Glacier park, with Chief
Clerk Ukker Of the interior department
as the head.
Josiah Rodgers, who now lives at
Columbia Falls, furnished the pack
outfit and was head guide. Starting
north from the Lewis hotel on Lake
Mcdonald, they followed the north fork
of the Flathead river to Bowman lake,
crossed the Rockies at Browns pass,
the most northern in the park; fol-
lowed Olson creek to Waterton lake,
recrossed the mountains at Flattop
pass and followed Mineral creek to the
foot of Swift Current pass.
During the trip, Rodgers advised
against taking the outfit over Swift
Current pass, asking instead that they
go down Mineral creek to Lake Nc
Donald and make a side trip to Gun
sight pass. Ukker and his associates,
not approaching danger at Swift Cur
rent, insisted on following the route
they had outlined and by the time they
had camped in the little meadow at the
foot of Swift Current peaks, where
the Granite park chalets were later
built, the argument had nearly pro-
duced hard feelings. Pack horses were
worth 500 each and Rodgers protested
that he could not afford to lose any Of
them.
ohhCi DiOtlPtiy 16lNIO w pay VIZ
500 for each horse lost and Rodgers
asked to have the agreement in black
and white. BY the light of a camp
fire, the contract was made and
signed.
The next morning Rodgers persuaded
all men in the party to walk and let
pack horse loads be shared by saddle
horses. 1t took the whole day to make
the one mile down the mountain as
the ponies. sliding again and again.
in spite Of their most cautious stepping,
had to pick their way from one narrow
ledge to another. Not a horse was
lost.
At supper that night Ukker looked
back up over the way they had come
and remarked. when l get back to
Washington, l am going to put things
in motion TO have the head Of that
so-called pass blown out with dyna-
mite SO no other man will try TO cross
it,"
Instead OF this, however. slight i'm
proyements we're made there in the
course Of the next Two years and in
1918 jim Galen. who was then super
intendent Of Glacier park and an en-
gineer experienced in mountain con-
ditions, built q wide trail over the
pass. This trail is safe for the most
unaccustomed riders. 1t is known to
old-timers as Galen's ladder because Of
its nearly three score switchbacks.
Swift Current today is the most
popular and one of the most beautiful
passes.