Bigfork's patrolman ready to retire

Bigfork doesn’t have a police force. The village relies on the county sheriff’s department and Montana Highway Patrol when it comes to law enforcement.

Whether it’s a burglary, assault, or just making sure drivers are sober and not speeding, Bigfork has been highway patrolman Roger Dundas’ primary territory for the last 15 years.

Now, after 20 years of working with Montana Highway Patrol, Dundas is ready for retirement. During his time in the valley, Dundas has seen major changes in how Montana’s highways are kept safe, and in the people they are protecting.

“The Flathead is a difficult place to work, there’s such a seasonal fluctuation in the population,” Dundas said.

Although he is primarily stationed in Bigfork as part of Northwest Montana’s District 6, Dundas helps cover incidents in Flathead, Lake, and Lincoln counties, all the way up to Canada and west to Idaho.

When he first started with the highway patrol on July 1, 1992, the state’s population was smaller and tasks such as surveying crash sites could take several hours with crude drawings. Now those surveys can be done in a matter of minutes with precise measurements and detailed reports.

“We had a number of people that their craftsmanship skills were unbelievable,” Dundas said. “They could do a beautiful drawing and do it quickly.”

Changes weren’t the only things Dundas saw during his career. A typical day means responding to traffic and accident calls, including fatalities. But every once in a while a routine day would quickly turn into a memorable one.

While working in Helena, Dundas responded to a call involving a teenager who was doing strong-armed robberies at convenience stores. The teenager was reported to have been using a pistol and shooting holes in ceilings.

Dundas said the teen had limited escape routes in the convenience store and he was able to pick which one and was able to stop him.

“I could probably write a book, there’s been a lot of high risk stops that were memorable,” Dundas said. “I was lucky, and talked fast, and those people got arrested instead of shot.”

A local incident that stands out during his career occurred about 8-10 years ago on the Swan River bridge between Bigfork and Ferndale. Dundas was approaching the end of his shift during the summer and had his windows rolled down as he headed home when he spotted headlights on the bridge.

“I thought to myself, ‘it’s almost quitting time, I am going home and it was probably just grandma and grandpa with a flat tire,’” Dundas said.

But, as he pulled in to check it out he could heard the people from their car.

“I could hear them yell,” Dundas said. “And that kind of piqued my curiosity a bit,”

The two people were attempting to dump a wall safe from a local business over the bridge. This stop led to solving a series of burglaries in the Flathead.

Not all of his experiences were suspenseful, some led to more humorous outcomes. One of those times occurred in Helena when a call was made regarding a Pizza Hut that was being robbed at gunpoint. This event occurred in the early 1990s, and at that time it was acceptable for patrolmen to double up in one car.

Dundas and Wade Fischer responded, Dundas drove about 126 mph while trying to dial in the Powell County Sheriff’s Office on the radio. When he looked up from the radio, the car’s left tires were about to go in the ditch.

“I looked at Wade and his fingernails are dug into the dash like a cat with his tail in a trap,” Dundas said with a laugh. “I went to him and said ‘damn it Wade, would you run the radio so I can do the driving’ and he unlatched from the dash and did a real good job of that.”

Dundas said the most rewarding moment in his career happened when pulling over a female driver on Montana 206 just moments before a crash occurred just ahead of them. Dundas let her go so he could go deal with the crash, and she later called him back to thank him for saving her life.

“It didn’t matter how much trouble I got into that day, you couldn’t make me not smile,” Dundas said.

His official last day with Montana Highway Patrol won’t come until after he and his wife sell their home on Peaceful Drive in Bigfork.

After that, the couple plans to build a home on their property on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.