Wise River: The Rest of the Story...

As the sign suggests first came the fur trappers, then the miners and early settlers. Pioneers such as George Pettengill, the infamous "Wild Man" of Wise River. Colorful and mysterious Pettengill roamed the area for about 40 years. Said to be harmless, a hermit who shunned civilization for apparent personal reasons still he struck fear in the relative few he allowed to get close enough to get a look. No doubt many of his habits are more fiction than fact he reputedly ate his meat raw, loved the fruits of the forest, lived in a brush wikieup in summer, denned in a cave over winter and alleged to have staked a mine over the mountains near Twin Bridges. Once promised "all the raw meat and fruits you can eat" he was put on display in the window of a Butte drug store. But too shy to face the throngs of gawkers he soon fled back home to Wise River. Later, so the story goes, an enterprising visitor tried to lure him to Chicago to be put on display in "a cage eating raw meat" but supposedly he declined the offer. Tall, lean, barefoot, dressed in rags, long red dreadlocks down to his ass one thing hard to argue ol' George left a lasting impression--a local legend for sure. (click photos to enlarge)

Just downstream from here, Joe Maurice, another early pioneer, left a considerable mark on the local history.  Maurice was a Belgian immigrant who moved his wife and two young sons into the valley at the confluence of Gold Creek, about the same time Pettengill arrived. From the get-go things did not go well. A horse kicked out one eye; then his wife grew gravely ill and Joe rode 60 miles to fetch a doctor; she was dead before they got there. Not long after the two boys died of diptheria. Undaunted Maurice persevered, kept the ranch going into the 1960s until friends moved him to a rest home where he died in 1963 at age 97.

At the headwaters beginning around 1919 Montana's largest and final silver mine began operation, and the town of Coolidge grew up around it. An ambitious and expensive narrow gauge railroad, the last such built in the U.S. carried the ore 40-miles to Divide. Barely up to speed the national economy took a downturn and silver prices plummeted. In 1923, the mine operation was in receivership. W.R. Allen lost his personal fortune and control of the property. In 1927 a Montana Power Company dam (Pettengill Dam) failed and water washed out twelve miles and several bridges of the mine's railroad. Five years later the mine and the town were essentially history.

Obviously, there is much more to Wise River than its fly fishing. Best thing is should you find the fish in an uncooperative mood well hell, poke around a little, as I say, there really is no end of things to discover...

...such as this...common ol' dandelion...right? No not quite, for this I discovered just yesterday is none other than a "false dandelion." Imagine!

And...and if you are real lucky and observant as hell, you might even get to gaze on this beauty...the western tanager. Whose arrival in June all true blue fly chuckers know is the harbinger of the long awaited, much bally-hooed hatch of all hatches...the SALMON FLY...Hooray. Sorry, I sometimes just can't help it...

Fly Fishing: The Quack Coachman

Royal Wulff/Brown Wulff (click to enlarge)

The Hair-wing Royal Coachman, aka Wulff Royal Coachman, or the more common label, Royal Wulff. was not the brainchild of Lee Wulff as is commonly related. Rather, in 1930, it first fell from the vice of Reuben Cross, a well-known and talented fly tyer, at the bequest of one Q. L. Quackenbush a disciple of the venerable Beaverkill Trout Club. As the story goes Ol’ Quack’s beloved Fan-winged Royal Coachman had fallen from grace largely due to the fly’s notorious frail wings. Looking for a better mousetrap so too speak he engaged Cross to build a more durable version. Cross tied up some using stiff, white, kinky-haired impala tail hair for wings and the rest is as they say history. 

Blond Wulff/Ausable Wulff (click to enlarge)

Call it what you will “The Quack Coachman,” as it was lovingly christened by his fishing pals remains even today one very effective dry fly; a must have to complement any dry fly box. Ditto all of the Wulff Family—which over the years has grown considerably in number to now include Wulffs of just about every conceivable color variation. Commercially Wulffs are tied from huge size 8s and 10s down to itty-bitty size 22…anyway the smallest I have ever seen. While I find the smaller sizes quite useful, and highly effective at times, I find tying any Wulff smaller than a size 14 to be…well, a royal pain in the arse. Since I don’t tie ‘em you won’t find many itty-bitty Wulffs in my meager collection. So there you have it…

Travel: Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument Interpretive Center, Fort Benton, MT

(click to enlarge)



In 1976, Congress designated 149 miles of the Missouri River in Central Montana as Wild and Scenic. The added exposure drew visitors from around the country and recognition as a national treasure soon followed. Not only among the best preserved examples of Central Montana Prairie Ecosystems the river corridor was a premier segment of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, as well as a significant segment of the Nez Perce National Historic Trail. Remote and still wild the corridor provides habitat to a wide variety of wildlife-some threatened and endangered.


In response to requests from Montanan's and others who had visited the area and were awed by its beauty and remoteness, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt toured the area in May 1999 with Senator Max Baucus, author/historian Stephen Ambrose, and author Dayton Duncan. Following Babbitt's trip, the Central Montana Resource Advisory Council (RAC) held meetings throughout all the towns in the area over a five-month period and developed recommendations pertaining to management that were sent to the Secretary in December 1999. More than 800 pieces of testimony were collected by the RAC and reviewed by the Secretary. Local and national support for National Monument designation was overwhelming. Babbitt's office consulted with the Governor and the Montana delegation throughout the process.

Babbitt returned in the spring of 2000 and held another meeting with the RAC and members of the public. In June 2000, Babbitt met with the Montana delegation in Washington, DC to discuss the status of the proposal, legislative options, and the importance of holding true to the recommendations of the Resource Advisory Council.

Opposition to the Monument came from individuals and organizations who had economic and personal interests in maintaining the status quo. These included local ranchers with grazing leases, oil and gas companies with leases or the desire to hold leases within the proposed Monument, and motorized vehicle users who believed that the Monument designation threatened their recreational activities. Some ranchers organized into a group called the Missouri River Stewards. They asserted that their livelihoods and historic use of the public’s land would be harmed by the Monument designation.

However, despite howls of angry protest, on December 22, 2000, Secretary Babbitt recommended to the President Clinton that the area be designated a national monument. It became official on January 17, 2001.

Unlike other national monumets which are managed by the National Park Service the UMBNM is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This was done to avoid stirring up more debate as other national monuments are managed consistent with the mission of the Park Service and some traditional uses would be eliminated. Secretary Babbitt had something different in mind for this “crown jewel” of BLM land, as well as others which he called “landscape monuments.” His vision was to give the BLM the primary role of managing and preserving these areas for future generations and thereby shift the culture of the BLM toward managing for preservation of these special landscapes rather than serving as an agent for the extraction industry as has been widely hinted in the past.

(click to enlarge)

Besides providing visitors information on the Monument itself there is much to learn about the flight of the Nez Perce some of the conflicts with the U.S. Army who pursued them. Here Gale is reading about the so-called Cow Island Incident. On September 21, 1877 13 Fort Benton troops, of Company F, 7th Army, and two volunteers loaded a canon onto a steamship. Aided by 38 volunteers on horseback they headed downriver to defend Fort Claggett and protect the supplies at the Cow Island steamboat landing from a band of Nez Perce reported to be heading that way.

Too late they found the supply wagons had already been looted and burned. Outnumbered the troops and volunteers turned tail and returned to Fort Benton.

(click to enlarge)

In addition there is also much to learn concerning the often hazardous steamboat journeys, what the early days in Fort Benton were like and many other interesting tidbits of what really was one of the more fascinating tales in Montana history. 

Travel: Fort Peck

Peck's Tyranasaurus...

...is but one of many highlights at the new Fort Peck Interpretive Center situated at the base of the dam beside the giant twin towers that house five turbines which crank out a nameplate capacity of about 185,000 kilowatts per day.  Fort Peck dam is the largest of six major dams spanning the Missouri River. Roughly 21,000 feet long and over 250 feet high it is the largest hydraulically filled dam in the U.S. Fort Peck Lake, is 134 miles long, with some 1800 miles of shoreline (California boast about 800 miles) and ranks as the fifth largest man-made lake in the country, by far the largest in Montana.

Fort Peck was a major project of the Public Works Administration and a major player in the New Deal. Construction began in 1933 and reached its peak in 1936 when over 10,000 workers were employed. The dam was completed in 1940 and began generating electricity in 1943. Known as "the government town" Fort Peck was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers with considerable help from workers employed to build the dam itself. Not much remains of the original town but a few buildings, such as the rec center and theatre are still utilized today. Interesting to note the theatre throughout construction showed movies 24-7 as well as live entertainment on a regular basis.

As time permits I'll be posting more interesting tidbits on this special Montana place...stay tuned.