Recalling North Fork's Ben Rover

Hal Rover remembers his uncle Ben Rover as a “real gentile man who was a farmer and retailer” living in the North Fork of the Flathead River.

Ben Rover, along with his wife, Annette, owned the Polebridge Mercantile for a time just after World War II. The cabin bearing his name, where he later lived, sits along the Flathead River just outside Glacier National Park not far from Polebridge.

Hal recently returned to Montana visiting Glacier and the cabin.

The Rover family, of Norwegian decent, came from North Dakota to live in Polson. Eventually the family of seven children split, with most going to live in California, while Ben stayed moving to the North Fork.

Hal Rover, who grew up in San Diego, visited his uncle when he was a young teenager. His family came to stay with Ben, who at the time lived in a cabin next to the Mercantile, which is now the Northern Lights Saloon.

“We spent a couple weeks there and it was like being in heaven,” Hal said. “It was special and it hasn’t changed much.”

Hal remembers helping his uncle feed cows that produced milk for the store and using horses to mow fields of alfalfa. There was one time, while Hal was riding along, that the mower hit a piece of wire and it snapped the tongue. Ben cut down a tree and repaired the mower. As a kid, Hal was struck by the calm Ben had dealing with the broken equipment, but recalling the story as an adult, he realizes how self-sufficient Ben had to be living in such an isolated place.

“He made a new tongue and went on mowing,” Hal said. “You either had to know how to fix it yourself or know somebody that could help.”

Ben remained mostly in the North Fork, though Hal recalls he did spend a couple of winters in San Diego with the family.

“Ben couldn’t leave the land,” Hal said.

Hal remembers his family being intrigued by letters from Ben as he described life in wild Montana. Once Ben wrote about the time a grizzly bear came to the cabin door trying to get inside. Ben wrote saying there was so much noise in the room because what he didn’t realize at the time is that he had been yelling in fear.

Ron and D’Ann Wilhelm purchased the Ben Rover cabin in the 1970s from Ben and they sold it in the early 1990s to the Flathead National Forest, which owns the cabin today. The cabin was constructed in 1955, according to the Wilhelms.

When Hal returned to visit Ben in the early 1960s, he stayed with Ben at the cabin. Then a newlywed, Hal brought along his wife Angela and the couple stayed on a fold-out couch in the living room.

Hal and Angela recently spent a few days staying at the cabin. They previously returned in 2008 looking for the cabin, and to their surprise, found it with a sign out front designating it as the Ben Rover Cabin.

On this most recent trip, they were excited to stay in the cabin. They speculated that the cabin must have been expanded because it seemed much larger than the cabin in their memories. The Polebridge Mercantile seemed to have more food on its shelves during their 1960s visit and no souvenirs for tourists. But the people were just as friendly, they said.

“I want to come back and bring the whole family,” Hal said.