A long ago mistake

Exactly one year ago we read about a young George Ostrom editing a school newspaper at the Flathead Mine in 1941. Remember?

One of my classmates had saved one of those papers and after 63 years . . . she mailed copies of them to me. In the column about that wonderful surprise, I used the old quote, "The mills of the Gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small."

It is amazing after all these years of communicating with the world I am constantly being surprised by anecdotes out of the past. The latest one was a shock and leaves me with mixed feelings . . . including guilt.

Roughly 30 years ago President Gerald Ford flew to Northwest Montana to dedicate the giant new Libby Dam. Thousands of folks came for the celebration. Mike Mansfield was also there to speak along with Governor Tom Judge and high-ranking Canadian leaders. Top reporters were present from locals like Mel Ruder and George Ostrom down to big time anchor boys from CBS, NBC and ABC.

Naturally, Mike Cuffe, then owner of the Libby paper was present that day, and he's the one with the story that comes back to haunt me. Norm Kurtz and Mike dropped by KOFI last Monday, giving Mike and I a chance to renew our friendship. Mike asked me if I remembered taking a picture of a service station along the highway between Libby and the dam.

"Vaguely," I replied. Then he said, "You took a picture and ran it in your paper the next week over a cut line decrying the owner's lack of business acumen. You wondered what was the matter with a gas station guy so far out in the boondocks who wasn't open on the busiest day that highway would ever see."

"Well Mike, if I remember right, I had let my gas gauge get low but was told by a friend in Libby there was a station on the way to the dam. I was pretty upset when nobody was there."

"George! The owner WAS there, but nobody knew it for about two weeks until it was discovered he had died the day before the dedication."

The first time I ran into Don Jones was several years ago at a book signing in a Kalispell bookstore and I just flat out told him, "Jones, I have been working for years on what was planned to be 'the finest wildlife photo book ever done' and now you have ruined my life."

Jones had just published his "Montana Wildlife Portfolio." He is a nice young man and told me he was sorry. Don lives in Troy with his wife and two sons. He will be at the National Bison Range Saturday the 25th signing a neat new photo book he has done about the Range. The managers are inviting people down for a day of visiting and exploring the beautiful 18-mile tour over Red Sleep Mountain. There are lots of new little animals and wildflowers, too. I'll probably make the trip even though my boys and I have been there a couple of times already this year.

I am anxious to see Chris Peterson's new photo book, even though it may be a final death knoll to my dreams of "The finest wildlife book."

Speaking of wildlife photo books, you'll hopefully recall, I recently did a column about the wonderful and amazing grizzly book done by friend, Stephen Cole. Though one along the trail to Ahern Pass chewed him in 1993, he still likes the big bears.

Last week he had a run in with a federal magistrate at Yellowstone Park headquarters. He was accused of sneaking up on a grizzly bear and her cubs last summer. The magistrate looked over the evidence and then threw out the charges, so Stephen was off the hook.

His defense was that he came upon the bears inadvertently, snapped some pictures and backed off.

I took a couple of shots of a big female and her half grown cub in Glacier last Thursday, but they were so far away no ranger could have said I was sneaking up on them. They are just two dark brown spots on the hillside. Parks have rules about how close people can get to bears, but none about how close bears can get to people. That may be what saved my friend Stephen.