A Turtle on the Rampage – 1890
A Turtle On The Rampage.
Last Wednesday a lady living below Frenchtown was horrified on seeing a great shock of wheat apparently undoing itself by falling all around and a particular sheaf leaving the others and moving away at a slow pace from the wheat patch towards the oat patch. Her husband was brought to the scene by her frantic cries of “ghost! ghost! ghost!” Her excitement did not permit her to explain in words, but pointing with her right hand towards the moving object of her terror. This soon got her husband in a great alarm whose voice soon brought no less than ten men to the haunted spot, amongst them Mr. F. X. Hicotte, who had two hours before cut the grain with a self-binder and remembering having seen a turtle under his horses’ feet, not having been able to see any more of it, had given up the hunt and proceeded with his work. On stating the facts, an examination was made and sure enough there was Mr. Turtle safely tied around the neck, having got tangled up in the grain, and was hunting its former residence, the slough. It was captured, dressed, and out of the meat the cook made a dandy dish of soup for the evening dinner.
The above article appeared in the Missoula Gazette, September 1, 1890.