Whitefish
In 1901 the Great Northern Railway announced that its line through Kalispell would be replaced with a line passing just south of Whitefish Lake and crossing a lower divide with fewer curves. In 1902 Fred B. Grinnell bought 167-plus acres, surveyed it, platted it, and in July 1903 the Whitefish Town-site Company was incorporated. Whitefish became the division point, and the railroad required that permanent employees live in Whitefish. About three hundred Kalispell railroad workers and their families immediately moved by train to Whitefish.
( Stumptown to Ski Town by Betty Schafer and Mable Engleter)
Dorothy M. Johnson arrived in Whitefish with her family in 1913 at the age of seven. She wrote about her new neighbors, the Francos, who were “foreigners,” not long from Italy who spoke only a little English. The Great Northern Railroad had imported teams of foreign construction workers from Europe and the Orient. There was open land adjacent to the Franco’s property,
“…with some fire-blackened stumps and old rotting logs and wild roses and wild grasses that grew knee high.”
“Mrs. Franco, with everything else she had to do, was always dragging a goat around at the end of a rope from one good grazing spot to another. She walked fast, whether the goat liked it or not, and as she pulled the balky animal along she looked dreamily contented. Such a good place to live! So many things free. But she cannily kept the goats off some of the grassy places, and when the proper season came, she made hay. Mr. Franco cut it with a scythe, and they put it up in great thick braids…. Great twisted braids of it hung on the Francos’ fence to cure before they put it in a shed for winter feed.
“Coal was free too. There were chunks of it along the railroad track, spilled out of coal cars, just going to waste, and Mr. Franco, that good provider, kept track of its location. Now and then he and his wife walked three or four miles in the cool of the evening carrying empty gunny sacks, into which they carefully dropped the waste coal. When they had a good load, they walked home, with Mr. Franco well ahead and his wife dragging the biggest sack-full and both looking triumphant. Such a good country! So many things free!”
(Dorothy M. Johnson, When You and I Were Young, Whitefish, 1982)
If you would like to know more visit: Stumptown Historical Society
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
Photos courtesy Stumptown Historical Society
( Stumptown to Ski Town by Betty Schafer and Mable Engleter)
Dorothy M. Johnson arrived in Whitefish with her family in 1913 at the age of seven. She wrote about her new neighbors, the Francos, who were “foreigners,” not long from Italy who spoke only a little English. The Great Northern Railroad had imported teams of foreign construction workers from Europe and the Orient. There was open land adjacent to the Franco’s property,
“…with some fire-blackened stumps and old rotting logs and wild roses and wild grasses that grew knee high.”
“Mrs. Franco, with everything else she had to do, was always dragging a goat around at the end of a rope from one good grazing spot to another. She walked fast, whether the goat liked it or not, and as she pulled the balky animal along she looked dreamily contented. Such a good place to live! So many things free. But she cannily kept the goats off some of the grassy places, and when the proper season came, she made hay. Mr. Franco cut it with a scythe, and they put it up in great thick braids…. Great twisted braids of it hung on the Francos’ fence to cure before they put it in a shed for winter feed.
“Coal was free too. There were chunks of it along the railroad track, spilled out of coal cars, just going to waste, and Mr. Franco, that good provider, kept track of its location. Now and then he and his wife walked three or four miles in the cool of the evening carrying empty gunny sacks, into which they carefully dropped the waste coal. When they had a good load, they walked home, with Mr. Franco well ahead and his wife dragging the biggest sack-full and both looking triumphant. Such a good country! So many things free!”
(Dorothy M. Johnson, When You and I Were Young, Whitefish, 1982)
If you would like to know more visit: Stumptown Historical Society
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
Photos courtesy Stumptown Historical Society