Link's gun was a semi-automatic

I really enjoyed G. George Ostrom’s recent column “Recalling the death of Slim Link.” I wrote two different versions of this same story back in 1988. The scariest version was Matt Brill’s.

This old homesteader was famous as a camp fire storyteller and was quick to admit to embellishing a story to make it scarier or funnier. His version of Slim’s death was, no doubt, more embellishment than fact.

The other version was from Charlie Wise, also a North Fork homesteader, and his story is pretty much the same as that related by G. George Ostrom. However, there are some differences, and a little bit more to the story.

Both Wise and Brill failed to mention homesteader Ike Chance as being involved in any way. Both of them credited Matt Brill, but since Chance Beebe mentioned four homesteaders, Ike and Matt could have both been there.

A third was the husband of Isabella McCarthy, who was also a North Fork homesteader, and Isabella gave pictures taken by Chance Beebe to her daughter-in-law Mary Kane, who passed them on to me.

They show the cabin and Slim’s first grave near the cabin. His remains were later dug up and reburied in Canada, and it was discovered that his real name was Meyers, not Link, and that he was a deserter from the Canadian army.

Although Beebe and Link did illegally trap in British Columbia, they also illegally trapped and built their cabins in the new Glacier National Park. According to Matt Brill, their problems with grizzly bears was caused by their habit of skinning their furs in the cabin and throwing the carcasses out in back. The collection of mink, otter, marten and especially beaver must have been a bonanza to an emerging bear.

Also, according to both Charlie Wise and Matt Brill, the pistol used in the bear set was a new German Luger — a 9 mm semi-automatic — which was unusual in Montana, where revolvers were the most common sidearm. Both Charlie and Matt surmised that Slim forgot it was a semi-automatic, and that caused the accident.

Matt’s story had the bear breaking into the cabin and killing Slim, but that seems unlikely due to the clothing and twisted plugs that were found in the cabin. Most likely the mortally wounded Link died in his bed, and after that the bear entered and had another meal.

But then, you and I are just like Chance Beebe, Matt Brill and Charlie Wise. None of us know how long the grizzly waited to finish what Slim had started.