TRUE MONTANA STORIES

by Carole Mackin

The Montana Sun Doing a Highwire Act

As the United States was about to face World War II, Montanans on isolated farmsteads were playing baseball.  The Outcasts were rag-tag ranchers who weren't good enough for the town teams.  So, they formed their own team and won their way into the playoffs at the  end of summer.

Montana ranchers during the depression battled hungry deer who destroyed whole stacks of alfalfa hay. The irony was that the deer starved as they fouled the hay. Montana's poaching laws were severe and enforced with a vengeance.  This pitted the sly wardens against the slippery poachers.

Cheka:  When a dog and a porcupine go bump in the night, extracting the quills is a dogowner's nightmare.

Slam:  A gentle soul faces down a shark.

Swirls on the surface of Fort Peck Reservoir were the only hint of what was down there blocking an intake to the Ft. Peck power house. Two divers suited up to take a closer look. When they were fished out, they struggled to describe the horror.

Epidemics of small pox swept through the frontier and hit homesteaders hard. One survivor wrote a letter to calm the distress of his family.

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