The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1932-02-12
Memories Daus Mhen...
The Gordon Brothers we're Trappers in he Rockies
Ry Charles Gordon)
(By Charles Gordon)

lished by the board of railroai
commissioners, l noticed in Powe,
county Gordon Mountain" an
Gordon Creek" This brough
memories of a hunti-g and raT
ping trip made by my brothe
James and myself about 1900. w
probably were the first white mel
to winter in this region. 1t is nov
within the boundaries of the Lewis
and Clark National forest. In tho
u. S. survey maps there r pass
es and lakes named after is. Al
expedition sent out by the Smith
sonian Institution, Washington, d
C. made their headquarters in ouI
abandoned camp a year after we
left.
We got together an outfit of six
packhorses at Great Falls in the
beginning of August, going by way
of Cascade. across the Dearborn
river, over the main range of the
Rockies by the Cadotte Pass,
through the Lincoln Valley, then
a country of gigantic yellow pines,
on by Ovando, the Salmon and
Seeley Lake country and so around
to the base of the continental div
ide. At Ovando, then the last out
most of civilization, we took on 100
email traps and three bear traps.
We made 20 miles a day in single
file. After leaving Cascade we
lived in the open, although we had
d tent in case of storms.
Then up the mountain. At the
top of the range we paused. From
this peak all streams on the west
flow to the Pacific ocean and on
the east to the Atlantic. We were
on the backbone of the Rockies,
and for mountain splendor this re
gion is unsurpassed. Here we had
Il first sight of Rocky Mountain
goats. They looked at us with
mild interest and leisurely walked
away. Marmots whistled from the
rocks and signalled our approach
to their fellows ahead. We went
down the valley and next day pick
The location for our cabin in an
open place below timber line, clear
ed through the timber by a former
snowslide. For the next few days
we were busy building our log cab
We shingled them with
Shakes and built a stone chin
new of flat stones from the nearby
creek. How many now know what
shakes" are, or a 'frow" or a
Dutch oven? We took a white
pine log. GU it into four foot
lengths, pounded it on the cut cur
face with a wooden maui, and the
length sliced off into beautiful
flakes fit for shelves, shingles or
.able making. Six miles down the
valley we built our lower cabin,
below a spring where deeply worn
game trails c%onverged.
Next we set our trap lines. To
find IL trap trees in the forest,
we bIazed one small mark on a
tree trunk every few hundred
Yards and then on the trap tree
three blazes. We nailed a STICK
10 a tree four feet above the ground
and set the trap on it. When 1t
sprung. the trap fell off and the
catch hung suspended. Bear traps
chained to a big loose log
With a baited pen. When a bear
got caught, it travelled off with the
railing log, leaving a plain track
IS he went. 1t was an easy mat
err to follow and shoot it. Setting
/ bear trap is a ticklish business,
IS in case of c-arelessness the set
.er might get caught in its jaws.
Mountain lions were always a.
.ound us but we rarely caught
,ight OF them. They had q habit
following us. Sometimes one
II us would start out ahead on
,nowshoes in winter and the other,
coming behind. could see the tracks
a mountain lion which had fol
owed behind the first traveller
One lion made a practice of prowl
ng around our cabin at night.
Failing to surprise it, we bnilt a
zen outside our cabin. set a rifle
with a string attached to
he trigger and got him.
In front of u cabin on the east
mountain was a glacier. At its
}ase was a deep blue lake. The
glacier ice at the base was blue in
,olor. changing to white higher up,
until at the top you could see lay
RS made by SHOWS of successive
winters.
Above our upper cabin Rocky
goats could be seen ev-
dav. When we surprised them
hev did not u away but walked
once we surprised them in q
,arrow box rocky canyon. We did
p want to shoot them, and to see
hat they would do, advanced on
hem. They slowly retreated, and
=, 4hnu nIimheh I'M the al.