History of Flathead Valley
Settlement of the Flathead Valley : Reprinted courtesy in the US Forest Service
The original inhabitants of northwestern Montana were, of course, Native Americans. One of the centers of Kootenai activity was the Tobacco Plains along the Kootenai River. Prior to 1850 the Kootenai hunted seasonally at Flathead Lake, competing with the Pend d'Oreilles, but after that time they lived there permanently, replacing or intermixing with the original population (Malouf 1952:2).
The Hellgate Treaty of 1855 established the Flathead Indian Reservation in the lower Flathead Valley for the Flathead (or Salish), Pend d'Oreille (or Kalispel), and Kootenai tribes. Most of the bands of these tribes slowly moved onto the Reservation. The creation of the Reservation opened the door to permanent non-Native American settlement of the valleys of western Montana. In 1887 the Dawes Act divided the rich bottomlands of the Reservation into individual allotments, and the land considered surplus was given to Euroamerican settlers (Historical Research Associates 1977:6-7).
The W. W. DeLacy map published in 1870 showed a "half-breed" settlement located north of Flathead Lake, where a Native American trail crossed Ashley Creek. The small settlement had been established several decades earlier. In 1845 two French Canadians joined the Kootenai living at the north end of the lake and built a cabin on Ashley Creek, spending most of a year there. Two years later, four more French Canadians arrived, including Louis Brun, a Quebequois, and his Kalispel wife Emily. When gold was discovered in California, they and other families, including a man named Benetsee Finley, left for the gold fields. Most of them returned to the Ashley Creek area in 1850. Men who came and returned to the Flathead in 1850 may have included Joe Ashley and Francois Grevelle, both of whom are mentioned often in histories of the early settlement of the Flathead Valley.
Joe Ashley, for whom Ashley Creek is named, had come to the Flathead in the mid-1840s. He and Angus McDonald (an HBC trader), Peter Irvine (a Shetlander), Francois Finley, and Laughlin McLaurin and several others farmed in a small way at the head of the lake. McLaurin (also spelled McLaughlin, McLaren, or McGauvin) was among the first traders at a post near the head of Flathead Lake. Ashley succeeded McLaughlin as trader, under the supervision of Angus McDonald of Fort Connah. In the late 1860s several of the families living at Ashley Creek left the area because of Blackfeet raiding, some only temporarily. Ashley stayed on, later moving to the foot of Flathead Lake
and then selling out in the 1880s and leaving the area (Shea 1977:39-40; McCurdy 1976:71-72; Johns 1943 1:35).
Development of the area was slow and uncertain. Supplies came to the Flathead by pack train from Walla Walla, The Dalles, or the Missoula area. The first post office was established at Scribner (or Flat Head Lake), near Flathead Lake, in 1872, but it was only open until 1875 (Robbin 1985:15, 65).
In the 1870s several Euroamericans visited the upper Flathead Valley, some remaining a considerable time. In the winter of 1871-72 a number of men from the Missoula area, including Harry Burney, A B. Hammond, and others wintered on the meadow subsequently filed on by Burney. Although most of them left the following spring, Burney stayed and raised cattle and horses. He was the only Euroamerican man living on the east side of the Flathead River until 1883, when several families located on that side. Burney was originally from Ireland and had participated in gold rushes in California and then in British Columbia. He recalled that a number of Flathead settlers left in the late
1870s when it was reported that Sioux leader Sitting Bull was returning from Canada via the Flathead (Lang 1923:1-3; Isch 1950:19; Johns 1943:III, 35; Ingalls ca. 1945:1).
In the late 1870s a few men entered the upper Flathead in order to push the cattle range north of the reservation. These included former placer miners Nick Moon and Thomas Lynch. Moon later became the first in the valley to raise vegetables and to use irrigation for farming (see Figure 10). The lack of transportation continued to be a problem, however, and according to the 1880 population census there were only 27 Euroamericans living at the head of Flathead Lake. All were livestock men except for one woman, two girls, and a blacksmith (Isch 1950: 19; O'Neil 1990:12; Ingalls ca.1945:1-2; Biggar 1950:86-87; Johns 1943:VI, 66).
The next limited wave of settlement began in 1880, when John Dooley came to the Flathead. In 1881 he opened a small trading post called Selish on the Flathead River. For a number of years the Selish post office served people from Marias Pass on the east to the Idaho boundary on the west and the Canadian line on the north. In 1884 the post office at Ashley was established (the town of Ashley was later absorbed by the newer town of Kalispell). Mail was carried on horseback from the south along the west side of Flathead Lake. Daily mail for the upper Flathead was not established until steamboating on Flathead Lake became regular (see Figures 11 and 12) (Isch 1950:20; Johns 1943:IX, 14-15; Elwood 1980:7).
Although some settlers were moving in, the relatively few residents of the Flathead in the early 1880s were mostly quartz miners from Butte and other areas, a few trappers, some buffalo hunters, and a number of French Canadians. According to Frank Linderman, "Without the least knowlege of farming these men, many of them confirmed bachelors, took up claims and became farmers as though they had reached the realization of a lifelong dream." Many family men found it necessary to leave their wives and children behind in the Flathead to prove up on their 160-acre homestead claims while the men worked in the mines in Butte, lumber mills, and so on. Others would live on their claims for the shortest time required and then make cash entry proof and return to their jobs (Linderman 1968:45; Mauritson 1954; Duncan ca. 1923:5).
The early stockmen tried to discourage farming in the upper Flathead, telling newcomers tales of early frosts, low rainfall, and vicious mosquitos. Until the late 1880s, in fact, very few agricultural products were raised in the area; most were brought in from Missoula. Since the early market for produce was local only, many farmers also spent much of their time logging (Mauritson 1954; Elwood 1980:6).
In the 1880s the Flathead Valley was largely wooded. Scattered through the dense forest were natural prairies, occasional groves of ponderosa pine, and small lakes. The first area settled was the high ground to the north and northwest of Kalispell because it was dry and not heavily timbered; some of the areas that are now good farmland, such as the Creston area, were too wet and swampy to till in the early years (Murphy 1983:142).
After the Northern Pacific Railroad reached Missoula in 1883, more and more people began coming to the upper Flathead Valley, some of them railroad construction workers looking for a place to settle. By 1890 the upper Flathead Valley reportedly had 3,000 occupants. Walkup and Swaney established a trading post on Ashley Creek along the Fort Steele-Kalispell Trail in 1883. At that time, the round trip from the post to Missoula took about three weeks. In the early years of settlement of the Flathead Valley, various bands of Native Americans camped in the valley tanning hides and selling moccasins and other products to settlers. According to a woman who lived in the Flathead in 1883, "except for the nomadic Indians, life for the most part, centered around the trading posts, a few ranches, and an occasional trapper's cabin" (Isch 1950:20-21; Patterson n.d.: Ch. 15, p. 2; Beck1981).
Relations between the Native Americans and the incoming settlers were generally peaceful in the Flathead Valley. Two Kootenai were lynched in Demersville in 1887, however, and three prospectors were killed on Wolf Creek by Native Americans that same year. African-American soldiers from Fort Missoula were sent to the Flathead in 1890 as peacekeepers for several months, but they were not really needed and spent most of their time clearing trails and roads (Isch 1948:72;Elwood 1980:10-11).
In 1885, when the first school census was taken in the area, only 95 children lived west of the Flathead River, north of the Flathead Indian Reservation, and south of the Canadian boundary. Three years later, according to Flathead Valley old-timer George Stannard, there were about 100 families living on valley ranches (Johns 1943:III, 115; Vaught Papers 1/IJ).
T. J. Demers founded the town of Demersville in 1887, located at the head of navigation on the Flathead River. For a few years, until the rise of Kalispell in the early 1890s, Demersville was the largest town in the upper Flathead. The first newspaper in northwestern Montana, the Inter Lake, began publishing there in 1889. Settlers flowed in and out of Demersville, most of them trying to reap profits from the Flathead's abundant resources or from each other (McKay 1993).
The original inhabitants of northwestern Montana were, of course, Native Americans. One of the centers of Kootenai activity was the Tobacco Plains along the Kootenai River. Prior to 1850 the Kootenai hunted seasonally at Flathead Lake, competing with the Pend d'Oreilles, but after that time they lived there permanently, replacing or intermixing with the original population (Malouf 1952:2).
The Hellgate Treaty of 1855 established the Flathead Indian Reservation in the lower Flathead Valley for the Flathead (or Salish), Pend d'Oreille (or Kalispel), and Kootenai tribes. Most of the bands of these tribes slowly moved onto the Reservation. The creation of the Reservation opened the door to permanent non-Native American settlement of the valleys of western Montana. In 1887 the Dawes Act divided the rich bottomlands of the Reservation into individual allotments, and the land considered surplus was given to Euroamerican settlers (Historical Research Associates 1977:6-7).
The W. W. DeLacy map published in 1870 showed a "half-breed" settlement located north of Flathead Lake, where a Native American trail crossed Ashley Creek. The small settlement had been established several decades earlier. In 1845 two French Canadians joined the Kootenai living at the north end of the lake and built a cabin on Ashley Creek, spending most of a year there. Two years later, four more French Canadians arrived, including Louis Brun, a Quebequois, and his Kalispel wife Emily. When gold was discovered in California, they and other families, including a man named Benetsee Finley, left for the gold fields. Most of them returned to the Ashley Creek area in 1850. Men who came and returned to the Flathead in 1850 may have included Joe Ashley and Francois Grevelle, both of whom are mentioned often in histories of the early settlement of the Flathead Valley.
Joe Ashley, for whom Ashley Creek is named, had come to the Flathead in the mid-1840s. He and Angus McDonald (an HBC trader), Peter Irvine (a Shetlander), Francois Finley, and Laughlin McLaurin and several others farmed in a small way at the head of the lake. McLaurin (also spelled McLaughlin, McLaren, or McGauvin) was among the first traders at a post near the head of Flathead Lake. Ashley succeeded McLaughlin as trader, under the supervision of Angus McDonald of Fort Connah. In the late 1860s several of the families living at Ashley Creek left the area because of Blackfeet raiding, some only temporarily. Ashley stayed on, later moving to the foot of Flathead Lake
and then selling out in the 1880s and leaving the area (Shea 1977:39-40; McCurdy 1976:71-72; Johns 1943 1:35).
Development of the area was slow and uncertain. Supplies came to the Flathead by pack train from Walla Walla, The Dalles, or the Missoula area. The first post office was established at Scribner (or Flat Head Lake), near Flathead Lake, in 1872, but it was only open until 1875 (Robbin 1985:15, 65).
In the 1870s several Euroamericans visited the upper Flathead Valley, some remaining a considerable time. In the winter of 1871-72 a number of men from the Missoula area, including Harry Burney, A B. Hammond, and others wintered on the meadow subsequently filed on by Burney. Although most of them left the following spring, Burney stayed and raised cattle and horses. He was the only Euroamerican man living on the east side of the Flathead River until 1883, when several families located on that side. Burney was originally from Ireland and had participated in gold rushes in California and then in British Columbia. He recalled that a number of Flathead settlers left in the late
1870s when it was reported that Sioux leader Sitting Bull was returning from Canada via the Flathead (Lang 1923:1-3; Isch 1950:19; Johns 1943:III, 35; Ingalls ca. 1945:1).
In the late 1870s a few men entered the upper Flathead in order to push the cattle range north of the reservation. These included former placer miners Nick Moon and Thomas Lynch. Moon later became the first in the valley to raise vegetables and to use irrigation for farming (see Figure 10). The lack of transportation continued to be a problem, however, and according to the 1880 population census there were only 27 Euroamericans living at the head of Flathead Lake. All were livestock men except for one woman, two girls, and a blacksmith (Isch 1950: 19; O'Neil 1990:12; Ingalls ca.1945:1-2; Biggar 1950:86-87; Johns 1943:VI, 66).
The next limited wave of settlement began in 1880, when John Dooley came to the Flathead. In 1881 he opened a small trading post called Selish on the Flathead River. For a number of years the Selish post office served people from Marias Pass on the east to the Idaho boundary on the west and the Canadian line on the north. In 1884 the post office at Ashley was established (the town of Ashley was later absorbed by the newer town of Kalispell). Mail was carried on horseback from the south along the west side of Flathead Lake. Daily mail for the upper Flathead was not established until steamboating on Flathead Lake became regular (see Figures 11 and 12) (Isch 1950:20; Johns 1943:IX, 14-15; Elwood 1980:7).
Although some settlers were moving in, the relatively few residents of the Flathead in the early 1880s were mostly quartz miners from Butte and other areas, a few trappers, some buffalo hunters, and a number of French Canadians. According to Frank Linderman, "Without the least knowlege of farming these men, many of them confirmed bachelors, took up claims and became farmers as though they had reached the realization of a lifelong dream." Many family men found it necessary to leave their wives and children behind in the Flathead to prove up on their 160-acre homestead claims while the men worked in the mines in Butte, lumber mills, and so on. Others would live on their claims for the shortest time required and then make cash entry proof and return to their jobs (Linderman 1968:45; Mauritson 1954; Duncan ca. 1923:5).
The early stockmen tried to discourage farming in the upper Flathead, telling newcomers tales of early frosts, low rainfall, and vicious mosquitos. Until the late 1880s, in fact, very few agricultural products were raised in the area; most were brought in from Missoula. Since the early market for produce was local only, many farmers also spent much of their time logging (Mauritson 1954; Elwood 1980:6).
In the 1880s the Flathead Valley was largely wooded. Scattered through the dense forest were natural prairies, occasional groves of ponderosa pine, and small lakes. The first area settled was the high ground to the north and northwest of Kalispell because it was dry and not heavily timbered; some of the areas that are now good farmland, such as the Creston area, were too wet and swampy to till in the early years (Murphy 1983:142).
After the Northern Pacific Railroad reached Missoula in 1883, more and more people began coming to the upper Flathead Valley, some of them railroad construction workers looking for a place to settle. By 1890 the upper Flathead Valley reportedly had 3,000 occupants. Walkup and Swaney established a trading post on Ashley Creek along the Fort Steele-Kalispell Trail in 1883. At that time, the round trip from the post to Missoula took about three weeks. In the early years of settlement of the Flathead Valley, various bands of Native Americans camped in the valley tanning hides and selling moccasins and other products to settlers. According to a woman who lived in the Flathead in 1883, "except for the nomadic Indians, life for the most part, centered around the trading posts, a few ranches, and an occasional trapper's cabin" (Isch 1950:20-21; Patterson n.d.: Ch. 15, p. 2; Beck1981).
Relations between the Native Americans and the incoming settlers were generally peaceful in the Flathead Valley. Two Kootenai were lynched in Demersville in 1887, however, and three prospectors were killed on Wolf Creek by Native Americans that same year. African-American soldiers from Fort Missoula were sent to the Flathead in 1890 as peacekeepers for several months, but they were not really needed and spent most of their time clearing trails and roads (Isch 1948:72;Elwood 1980:10-11).
In 1885, when the first school census was taken in the area, only 95 children lived west of the Flathead River, north of the Flathead Indian Reservation, and south of the Canadian boundary. Three years later, according to Flathead Valley old-timer George Stannard, there were about 100 families living on valley ranches (Johns 1943:III, 115; Vaught Papers 1/IJ).
T. J. Demers founded the town of Demersville in 1887, located at the head of navigation on the Flathead River. For a few years, until the rise of Kalispell in the early 1890s, Demersville was the largest town in the upper Flathead. The first newspaper in northwestern Montana, the Inter Lake, began publishing there in 1889. Settlers flowed in and out of Demersville, most of them trying to reap profits from the Flathead's abundant resources or from each other (McKay 1993).
Published 9 Apr 1925
This next article was taken from the Daily Interlake with a beginning publication date of 23 Dec 1925. It was run in a serial format. Although some of the parts seem to be missing, we have tried to include as much of the history as possible.
This old timers tale was included in 1926 from the 4 -5 of Jan.