Old Missoula

Village of Schley Has Real Mystery

Unidentified Species of Animal Seen Grazing on Mountain Tops

The town of Schley, west of Missoula, on Evaro hill, has a real mystery.

In its front yard, which extends to the Mission range, high up on the mountain side, outlined against the deep snows, a strange animal wanders about in the early morning hours according to reports. The animal appears every morning at about the same hour. It is said to be too large for a deer, and bears no resemblance to an elk or moose. Those who have caught a glimpse of it say it is not a cow or horse as they do not frequent that region at this time of the year. Owing to the extremely deep snow on the steep mountain side it is almost impossible to make a close investigation.

The matter was reported to the sheriff’s office yesterday afternoon by a man who came to Missoula for binoculars with which to identify the “mystery animal.”

“It may be a prehistoric animal,” he told Under-Sheriff Ralph Herrick. “Tell me where I can get a good, strong glass.”

“I would suggest that you hold that bottle of moonshine up – the bottle you must have had when you were ‘seeing things,’” was Under-Sheriff Herrick’s reply, thinking the man was joking.

“I am serious,” the man insisted. “Several of us have seen it and watched it for a number of mornings.”

The visitor, slightly peeved, because his mission was not taken seriously, stamped out of the sheriff’s office, to resume his search for the binoculars.

In the event investigation reveals a new “unknown animal,” a party of sportsmen from Missoula, with cameras and guns plans going into the mountains to investigate.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on May 28, 1922.

 

While the reporter never mentioned Mountain Goats, it is likely that is what was being observed in this article. There were an estimated 70 to 80 Mountain Goats in the Mission Range in 2018, according to an article in The Missoulian on Sept. 14, 2018. Some of these are from a native population. They are still observable in the Rattlesnake Wilderness area.

The village of Schley is hardly known today. It was located about ½ way between Evaro and Arlee, just west of Hwy 93. The site was located in 1899 by officials with the N.P railroad. It was named in honor of a Spanish American war hero, Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley.

Incidentally, Admiral Schley visited Missoula in 1903, while on his way to Helena by train. He and his traveling companion, Col. Alexander K. McClure, stopped at the depot where hundreds of people were gathered. Schley spoke to the crowd briefly, noting that he was not a professional speaker, “It is the officeseekers who make speeches, and I am not running for office. Men in my profession do their talking with guns.”

His companion, Alexander K. McClure was, however, a very prominent speaker and political figure. He was also an outsized individual whose career figured in such things as befriending President Lincoln, organizing troops during the civil war, meeting Robert E. Lee, and starting and owning a prominent newspaper in Philadelphia, Pa. He also spent time in Montana during the gold rush era of Virginia City and was a friend of the Col. Sanders and the vigilantes. He gave a lecture on the notorious X Beidler while in Helena. McClure wrote several books during his lifetime, including “Recollections of Half a Century,” and “Three Thousand Miles Through The Rocky Mountains”, which are available on the internet at the links below.

https://archive.org/details/colonelalexander00mccl/page/n5

https://archive.org/details/threethousandmil00mccl/page/n10