Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-09-18
EASY" RANGER
JOB TURNED OUT
TO BE HARD ONE

III BIZ HAkU UNE
Continued from Historical Page)
interested. since she appeared to be
experienced, to say the least, in the
line Of alterations. She produced a
revolver. She began to wave it around,
just bit casually
Saw Man Murdered
Since the revolver spent about so
percent OF its time being pointed at
the mathematical miner, and the
other so percent Of the time being
pointed in Derrick's direction, Derrick
moved back from the ringside, he says.
Dutch Matt shot once toward the
floor; it was only the next day that
Derrick learned she had plugged her
companion in the foot. At the same
time her companion kept right on
listening to her without batting an
eye" Once-in-the-foot wasn't enough
for Dutch Matt, apparently. Suddenly
she raised the gun and shot out the
miners eye He fell dead.
About this time Derrick suddenly
realized that for quite awhile he had
been the only unofficial witness to
the alteration. The one official wit
ness, the bartender, was the only other
'uninvolved" person remaining in the
place.
So it was that for awhile Derrick
divided his time between gold assay
ing and appearing as star witness in
frontier murder trial. Dutch Matt
was given 10 years.
Later in 1905 Derrick accepted a Job
with another mining company, the
name of which he can no longer re-
member. Its headquarters were some
where in the vicinity of Princeton,
Mont. Four days after he reported for
work the mine closed down-phut! Out
of job, and no income.
Well, as Derrick explains. that was
just little too much to be taken
lightly from mining assaying as a ca
reer, coming on top of the necessity
Of spending periods of time at COW
punching, etc. He was getting pretty
fed up" on the whole setup Thus it
was that when he received word from
the brother-in-law in Neihart regard
ing the formation of forest reserve"
in the Little Belt mountains, and the
possibility of jobs for young mer in
this new national venture, Derrick was
definitely interested. Almost anything
would be better than the uncertainties
of the mining career he had expert
enced so far.
Prior to that time the forest service
really hadn't been much. But under
the administration of President Theo-
dore Roosevelt its status was changed
from division administered under
the United States general land office,
department of the interior, into q
service of bureau standing under the
department of northumberland Presi-
dent Roosevelt declared his intention
of seeing more and more forest re-
serves"
Took Examination
In June, 1905, Derrick went to Mis-
soula to take the examination for for
est ranger. He was "a years old He
sat and walked the examinations with
% other candidates, since at that time
the test was a three-day affair, con-
sisting of one day of written exam
nations and two days of field work.
About one-third of the candidates
passed. Three besides Derrick later be-
came national forest supervisors. Der
skin of my teeth" He was informed
tAAoU AlC WOO CllC4G4Co w Vic pOSlUlOll
of ranger at 5000 per annum. But there
was a catch.
Forest reserves were few and far
between in those days and he had
to wait for another to be created be-
fore he could go to work. Almost a
year after passing the examination,
Derrick reported in what was then
called Helena forest reserve"
A. fDv- lao ILL.,
purely hypothetical. Sometimes he
conducted his business from the saddle,
or in such space as he could clear
away in his bedroom. Office equipment
in those days consisted Of "a few
printed forms from Washington, a
notebook, a pencil, and the old use
book which contained all the national
forest rules and regulations that had
been promulgated up to that time"
Derrick says.
This book was about by 6 inches
and half inch thick A ranger didn't
read 1.-THE memorized it. That thin
tome was the daddy of the national
forests manual, which is currently re-
ferred to as the five foot bookshelf
Even administrators did their tray
cling in those days on horseback. In
thlck forest they went by loot. There
were no official automobiles. trucks.
or other vehicles as we now interpret
the term, with the possible exception
of blackboard which a couple of
rangers might use, if they were lucky,
for their shopping expeditions down
to civilization and back. And civil
ization' might be many miles away
from the ranger station
Returned to Helena in 1909
July l, 1908, Derrick was transferred
to the Deer Lodge forest, and in June,
1909, when the Helena forest was en-
larged by the addition of the Big Belts,
he returned to Helena.
He was appointed deputy supervisor
of the old Beartooth forest, with his
office in Billings, Oct. 6, 1916. R. T.
Ferguson was supervisor at that time.