Montana oil and mining journal., 1940-10-26

Wesley ID. Curnett, who farmed
a ranch a few miles south Of
Waller, was one Of the real old
time ~skinners" who drove every
animal YOU could hitch to a line
and who Is recorded as being the
last man in the state TO adopt
modern cultivation methods and
dispose of his working oxen.
Curnett told some interesting stories
Of the old freighting and staging days.
when he used to string out 10 span OF
bulls on the trail from Fort Benton
to White Sulphur I'VE used to have
plenty of hardship" he says, "but
somehow there's no life for me but
that In the open Sometimes when
the roads we're heavy we freighters
would think we never would get TO
the end of the road. At Benton lake,
north OF Great Falls, I've seen so
outfits stuck in the g1mbo till the
flat looked like a new town was be-
ing started. But somehow we always
made it, and there was lot Of salts
faction getting our load in, and there
was a good time awaiting us. We had
plenty of the kind Of fun we liked
those days
"Then there was the staging, which
comes next to freighting with me. On
the old stageline between Gilt Edge
of 81 miles, and for 35 miles there was
only one house. Pretty lonesome work
on a cold winter night, yet somehow
I'd like to be doing it again now.
One Wild Ride
stage drivers used to have plenty
Of queer experiences Of one kind ana
another. I remember one time was
driving six between White Sulphur
and Townsend. 1t was a cold night
in December, and I had three cases
of eggs stacked up inside the coach
on one of the seats; There were no
passengers when left, but a few miles
out of White Sulphur I picked up
the state superintendent of schools,
whose name has slipped me now. He
wasn't used to much hardShipS,
guess. for he did a lot of kicking about
having to ride In a stage at night,
the cold weather and anything else
that happened to occur to him. he
was up in front with me Tor aWnue,
but finally decided to ride inside and
try to nap little, and he told me
to drive as carefully as possible.
well, everything went smooth
enough till we came to place where
someone had let gate down In q
fence and left post lying out toward
the road. This scared the leaders, and
in a second the whole six were run
ming couldn't stop them, but tor
a while it didn't disturb me any as
Il was a pretty good road and I
figured they'd wear themselves out IN
a couple of miles at the gait they
were hitting. But suddenly a coyote
lodged out on one side of the road
and the leaders swung out and
couldn't herd them back into the
trail. Then it occurred to me that a
little ahead there was a couple OF
-t,o1l1rr 3r~rieo tim ditrhpC that haN
Just been dug, running parallel about
SO feet apart, and the road crossed
them on two narrow bridges. What
made it worse was that the stage road
took a turn just before it came to
these bridges, and it wasn't the best
kind of a place to take on the dead
run.
Scrambled Eggs
Then, all of a sudden, as 1 was
irving to yank the leaders back toward |
the road, I saw the bitches ahead OF
me, a whole lot nearer than had
figured What was worse wasn't
headed for them square. I just had
time to think once, and the idea that
struck me was that our only chance
was to hit those bitches straight on
and not sideways. I couldn't DO noun
bv vanking on the ribbons when they !
was running hog-wild that way, SO
/ made the silk end of my whip-lash |
pop against the off leaders right ear
TIL he must have thought 1t was
bomb busting. Anyway 1t turned them |
the way I wanted and we hit that
first ditch. / didn't know whether
we had a wheel left the way that
coach was bouncing around. From the
wells coming out Of the professor, L
could tell he wasn't dead yet When
I got the outfit stopped he buzzes out
of that door like a hornet. He was
covered from head to foot with scram-
bled eggs, and I sat there and /
laughed till the stock was about to
start another stampede. Talk about
a mad school tsacher-he sure ap-
peared to be irritated, and 1t didn't
do much good to tell him he was
lucky he wasn't dead.
iSThat story went all over Montana,
and I'VE heard at least three other
stage drivers tell it and claim 1t was
them that was driving when 1t hap
pened" !"