SALISH (Dooley’s Landing)
“Honest John” Dooley arrived in the upper Flathead in the fall of 1880. He built a boat landing on the Flathead River known as Dooley’s Landing. In 1881 a post office was established with John Dooley as postmaster, and the name of the place became officially Salish, named for the Salish Indians.
Mail arrived once a week by pack horse from Missoula. In 1883 the first commercial boat on Flathead Lake, the sailboat Swan, took several days to travel from the south end of the lake to Salish. After one season the Swan was converted to steam and renamed the U. S. Grant. (Muscle, Grit, and Big Dreams, Carle F. O’Neil and Looking Back, Kathryn McKay)
Charlotte Stanton recalled the Christmas of 1884 in Salish.
“It was the very first social gathering of almost the entire population…and consisted of dancing, interspersed with songs…. It took place in the post office... [This] was in the log house which was also the residence of the postmaster, Mr. Dooley…. Everybody came from miles around…from the head of the lake to Half Moon Prairie.”
“. . . The floor was rough unplaned boards, the walls of log and the lights kerosene and few, but the music was gay and…rollicking…. We waltzed, schottisched and did the polka with feet shod in everything from gum-boots to moccasins, and no one was too old or too young to fill the sets…. Some, as guests, were invited by Mr. Therriault to spend the remainder of the night at his home, where we found on each side of the long dining room many beds spread down, of bear and deer robes and Hudson Bay blankets, warm and thick, into which we gratefully crept after removing our shoes…. We woke to the smell of hot coffee, frying bacon and baked beans, to find the sun brightly shining…. Breakfast eaten and the waiting horses impatiently shaking their bells, farewells were waved from the doorway as the half broken Cayuses plunged out of the yard and we were off on the 25 mile drive to the big stone fireplace that spelled home.”
(Charlotte K. Stanton, “Salish, Flathead Valley—Christmas, 1884”, presented in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Water Department, City of Kalispell, December 31, 1924. Muscle, Grit, and Big Dreams, Carle F. O’Neil)
History courtesy of Northwest Montana Historical Society in Kalispell, MT. Text and photos are from a newly installed History of the Flathead Valley exhibition at the Museum at Central School, 124 2nd Ave E, Kalispell, MT
Mail arrived once a week by pack horse from Missoula. In 1883 the first commercial boat on Flathead Lake, the sailboat Swan, took several days to travel from the south end of the lake to Salish. After one season the Swan was converted to steam and renamed the U. S. Grant. (Muscle, Grit, and Big Dreams, Carle F. O’Neil and Looking Back, Kathryn McKay)
Charlotte Stanton recalled the Christmas of 1884 in Salish.
“It was the very first social gathering of almost the entire population…and consisted of dancing, interspersed with songs…. It took place in the post office... [This] was in the log house which was also the residence of the postmaster, Mr. Dooley…. Everybody came from miles around…from the head of the lake to Half Moon Prairie.”
“. . . The floor was rough unplaned boards, the walls of log and the lights kerosene and few, but the music was gay and…rollicking…. We waltzed, schottisched and did the polka with feet shod in everything from gum-boots to moccasins, and no one was too old or too young to fill the sets…. Some, as guests, were invited by Mr. Therriault to spend the remainder of the night at his home, where we found on each side of the long dining room many beds spread down, of bear and deer robes and Hudson Bay blankets, warm and thick, into which we gratefully crept after removing our shoes…. We woke to the smell of hot coffee, frying bacon and baked beans, to find the sun brightly shining…. Breakfast eaten and the waiting horses impatiently shaking their bells, farewells were waved from the doorway as the half broken Cayuses plunged out of the yard and we were off on the 25 mile drive to the big stone fireplace that spelled home.”
(Charlotte K. Stanton, “Salish, Flathead Valley—Christmas, 1884”, presented in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Water Department, City of Kalispell, December 31, 1924. Muscle, Grit, and Big Dreams, Carle F. O’Neil)
History courtesy of Northwest Montana Historical Society in Kalispell, MT. Text and photos are from a newly installed History of the Flathead Valley exhibition at the Museum at Central School, 124 2nd Ave E, Kalispell, MT