The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1930-07-11

Dy a the spring
Edwin Thompson, who had just
come here from Illinois, was
swept into the stream and
drowned. After 1917 the pwontoon
bridge as a means of crossing tbs
Missouri was abandoned. 1t had
been an expensive experiment
Wolf Point business men having
spent more than $4,000 in their
attempts to maintain it. A ferry
boat was called into service and
has been in operation ever since.
From time to time the river
took it's toll of human life, and
each time the voice of the com
munity would exclaim, 1--WE need
a bridge. But the muddy stream
rushed on, during the June rise
one year biting out a huge chunk
of ground here, another there to
form a new channel, then perhaps,
after the rise had subsidized, going
back again to the old channel.
Bridging the Missouri was not
considered practical at this point.
Revetment work, it was said,
would take a vast amount of mon
ey in addition to the cost of the
bridge in order to hold the river
to it's channel. A permanent
bridge was a dream whose reaii-
cation posterity might see, bat for
the present generation it would
be only a dream.
Then one winter night James
and Rolla Cusker went down.
Their home was in northern Nc
Cone county and they had driven
across on the ice to attend a
basketball game in Wolf Point.
Going home, their car slipped in
to an airhole where the ice had
blown out after they had crossed
on the way to town. That was IL
February, 1926. AS hundreds Of
people stood around on the ice
while workers tried with crap
ping hooks to locate the bodies.
the cry: Eve need a bridge" be-
came We've got to have a
bridge"
Shocked into Action
It takes tragedies like that
sometimes to shock a community
into action. The bridge project
only simmered during the sum-
mer of 1926, but the Commercial
club was at work laying the
groundwork for it's campaign. In
October, that year, R. J. Moore
and w. L. Young, representing
the Wolf Point Commercial club,
met with the state highway COM
mission at Helena and laid before
them the urgent need of a bridge
the Missouri here. AS a re-
suit of their visit the highway
commission unanimously adopted
the following resolution:
BE it resolved, That the com
mission recognizes the large inn
portance of a bridge over the
Missouri river at Wolf Point, as
we'll as the desirability of an adj
highway south from Wolf
Point to Circle, these two i'm
.provements being necessary to a
satisfactory handling of the agri- !
production of this section
If the country. These improve
nents should be brought about as
,oon as funds can be secured for
he work. This road mileage
should be included in the federal
highway system ultimately if the
'equired mileage shall in any way
become available under the feder-
u statute"
During the latter part of Octo-
,er, 1926, Henry Good of the high
way commission visited Wolf
POINT and spoke on initiative
Measure No. 81. He was taken
'ver the road between Scobey and
yircle. He saw the long lines of
rucks and wagons waiting to
on the ferry, wheat-laden
rucks on the south side, empties
the north side. The ferry
huttled back and forth across the
liver, but it couldn't keep up with
be queue of vehicles bringing Nc
,one county's wheat crop to
larket. Mr.. Good went home con
inced that Wolf Point needed a
Young Home via Snowden
No story of the bridge car be
.mplete without relating the
art played by w. L. "Bihll' .
Dung. The following incident hap
ened early in the bridge cam
align, and what impetus it gave
Mr.. Young's efforts to aid in
scuring the bridge can only be
lrmised. Bill Young drove 10
)rdan and Circle on Nov. Is,
,26. Returning Nov. IS, he found
at slush ice was running in the
issouri and the ferry boat was
llled up on the north bank for
e winter. There he was within
mile of his home, almost with
shouting distance, and no way
get across. He knew it might
: three weeks, or ever more,
fore the ice was safe to cross
} he made that mile trip by way
Snowden, driving lore than
0 miles to reach home. On that