Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-09-18
EASY" RANGER
JOB TURNED OUT
TO BE HARD ONE
". J. DERRICK TOOK POSITION
IN FOREST SERVICE AFTER
TURN AT MINING

IN FOREST SERVICE AFTER
TURN AT MINING
Walter J. Derrick was raised on the
plains Of Dakota territory, and he al
ways wanted to go back-and he did,
only to find that the mountains of
Montana had made a confirmed noun
tain man out Of him. Maybe, he
thought. 1t was because his grand
father had been guide in the Alps of
Switzerland
So he came back to the mountains
Of Montana.
He worked as an assayer at gold
and silver mines. Then, one day when
he was fed up" with mining as a
career, he heard Of new kind of Job.
The United States government was
hiring young men to be something
called rangers" in what were then
new-fangled things referred to as for
est reserves" the forerunners of the
modern national forests.
It sounded like an easy job. All you
had to do was ride around on horse
back and look at trees in the noun
tairls. And he'd like that. So he took
the examination at Missoula. After
he'd been told that he'd passed, he
had to wait the best part Of a year
for another of the rare reserves to be
established before he could begin his
job. Finally the proposed reserve be-
came a fact, and he became a ranger.
Almost at once he found out there
was more involved than riding horse
back and looking at trees. 1t was hard
work, with a whole lot OF responsible
DIT l,o
liked it. And he stuck, because the
forests as we'll as the mountains got
hold" Of him.
Now Derrick, supervisor of Custer
national forest. is about to retire after
SO years in the service.
Thirty-six years Of caring for the
nations timber reserves, and fighting
fires, and providing grazing for live
stock, and developing and protecting
the recreational value of the woods
it's a long time. Long enough. any
how, for Derrick to have witnessed the
growth of the forest service from an
awkward pioneer baby in our national
life into its present impressive stature
where it is recognized part of every
citizens welfare, and right now, a per-
tinent factor in the war effort.
In those 36 years both the general
field of practical and applied science.
and the specialized science of forestry,
made big strides. Derrick watched
those strides and helped forestry keep
apace-especially in what is now
known as Custer national forest, with
administrative offices in Billings.
Lived in Switzerland
81 fnfI ,ay-
Francis Walter, spent many years in
his native Switzerland as an Alpine
guide before he turned to America as
a land of greater opportunity. When
he came to the United States, he set
tied in the middle west and followed
the occupation of furniture dealer and
undertaken.
Derrick, the present supervisor OF
the Custer forest, was born Nov. 20.
1880, in Detroit. At that time Detroit
was only one of the towns" in Michi-
gan. AS a matter of fact, where now
are located some of the vast automo-
tive formerly automobile, in wartime
airplane) industries, Walters father
operated a stock farm.
When he was l year old, the father
moved to Dakota territory. That was
quite a while before the territory was
divided into North and South Dakota
and admitted to the union as two
states. The family settled in what later
became known as Sphinx county, near
the present town of Condo. In 1892
they moved to Webster, where Walter
entered, and later was graduated from,
the local high school.
IT was here that he learned how
to herd sheep, and wait on customers
in a drug store, and later a contec-
tionery store. His father died when
Walter was 10, and the boy had TO
help support the family of mother,
three sisters and two brothers.
Left for Neihart at 10
When Derrick was Ito be SPECIFIC,
on July IL, 1900-he set out Tor Mel
hart, Mont, where sister and proth-
er-in-law had settled. Derrick found
employment with the Diamond-R
Mining Co., which operated silver
mines in the neighborhood. First OF
all he was an office boy, later a nlgnt
Waterman, and later still he was put
into the assay office. Here he learned
to do the fire work. as opposed 10
the chemical work, in assaylng Tor
silver and gold. His duties consisted
of running analyses by heating speci-
mems in crucibles and judging the re-
suits according to the assay routine
in vogue at that time.
In the spring of 1902 Derrick went
to Philipsburg for an affiliated COM
pany. He served as assayer for the
sunrise and Bunker Hill gold mines.
However, his employment was season.
al. and sometimes he was forced 10
supplement his earnings by tours as
cowpuncher, stock feeder or just PLAIN
garden variety of hay hauler. He
worked for the Basin Gulch placer
mines, 20 miles southwest of Philips
burg during the summers of 1903 1894,
and for the Granite Con-
solidated Mining Co., Philipsburg, IN
1905.
It was in Philipsburg in 1905 that
Derrick inadvertently became par
ticipant in an old-time mining town
incident. AS he describes Philipsburg
at that time, Its heyday as tough
frontier mining camp was beginning
to wane, but it was still wild, woolly