Old Missoula

Skyline Ranch On Mount Sentinel Didn’t Last Long – But Permanent “M” Did – 1915

Skyline Farming

Driving in from Fort Missoula today, glancing from one peak to another of the majestic mountains that circle the north, east and south of Missoula and contemplating this scenic beauty, my eyes centered upon a little white speck with a small black line stretching from it like a pencil mark on the side of Mount Sentinel half-way up and just a short way south of the university M. Curious to know what that little mark was, I stopped in to ask my friend John Anderson, whose homestead shack sets out conspicuously way up on the steep side of that mighty mountain. John was not home, but his father was. “Why, that is John’s farm,” said he in answer to my question. “He found a fine spring right there and thought he had better begin breaking in that vicinity as he wants to get in his garden this year. He has five acres already plowed and will plant potatoes next week. There are about 50 acres up on that bench which he can cultivate, and it’s the finest soil you ever saw.”

Today I was astounded, to put it mildly, for although I have been in almost every nook and corner in western Montana I have never even tried to climb up that apparently perpendicular slope; and yet way up there toward heaven is a dandy homestead of 168 acres with 50 acres tillable and level enough to cultivate.

As I reached the Higgins avenue bridge I turned around and again looked for the tiny speck which had almost disappeared from view. As seen from Missoula it is hard to imagine that some day that seemingly steep slope will be covered with farms as now may be seen on the distant southern hills. Yet I am told Mount Sentinel’s evident perpendicular reaches are an optical delusion and there is much of it that is level enough to cultivate.

Many, many times have I looked toward those hills to the south and wondered how high up those sky farms would eventually reach, for every succeeding spring the dark patches standing out conspicuously in the wake of the plow, extend further and further up until now they have reached the timber that crowns the peaks, in the march of progress, that marks the success of the dryland farmer.

John Anderson is the pioneer farmer on Mount Sentinel, and some there were who laughed at his sky farm, when he homesteaded two years ago, but I venture to predict that in a few years he, like Dick Whittaker on the South mountain, will be surrounded by neighbors.

Great crops have been harvested on those hillside farms south of Missoula and today their owners are probably as prosperous, or more so as a class, as those in any community in western Montana. Dry farmers they are, yet often their crops equal the yield of the irrigated farms in the valley. Thirty bushels of Turkey Red fall wheat is not uncommon; 50 bushels of oats and two cuttings of alfalfa on an average, pays them well. Conspicuous from Missoula is the farm of D. Pickens, to the west and toward the east and heaven, comes Henry Buckhouse, George B. Hanson, Jim Shields, Dick Whittaker, Jule Angst, H. W. Schreiber, John Swartz, John S. Caine, J. P. Rasmussen; and way up, almost on the topmost peak, sets old Grandma Buckhouse in her throne of glory, like a fairy godmother watching over her children in their successful efforts to make Missoula county the most productive and prosperous garden in Montana.

F. M. Lawrence

 

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on May 4, 1914.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349148679/?terms=john%2Bswartz

 

Misfortune struck John Anderson not long after the printing of the article above.

 

Anderson’s Home’s Destroyed By Fire On Sentinel’s Slope

Yesterday forenoon fire destroyed the house and an adjoining shed on the homestead of John Anderson, the drayman, on the slope of Mount Sentinel. Some men working at the place made a fire in the kitchen to cook lunch and then went back to work until the stove was hot. The next time they looked at the house it was in flames. There being no water except that furnished by a spring, the men were unable to cope with the fire in the house and were only able, after hard work, to prevent its spreading to the other buildings and to the grass on the mountain.

Anderson’s homestead was one of the unique places about Missoula. High upon the hillside he had found a spring and a little flat where he raised a good garden this year. His loss will amount to several hundred dollars.

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on September 22, 1915.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349005179/?terms=john%2Banderson

 

Coincidentally, a permanent “M” on Mount Sentinel was built in October of the same year.

 

Freshman Class Builds An “M” Of Rock

New Emblem Constructed On Side of Mount Sentinel Will Last.

The freshman class of the university constructed an “M” on the side of Mount Sentinel yesterday which promises to stand the test of time.

The emblem is built of shale rock and measures 100 feet from top to bottom and is 60 feet wide. The legs of the “M” are eight feet wide. The emblem has been partly whitewashed and the job of filling in the outline with rock and completing the whitewashing will be done next Saturday. The “M” is easily discernible from all parts of the city.

It is claimed that 150 boys of the freshman class assisted in the construction. The work was started early in the morning, under the supervision of Leslie Chobe, president of the freshman class. A line of students was strung up the side of Mount Sentinel and the water and other necessary ingredients were passed up this line.

 

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on October 17, 1915.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349014868/?terms=mount%2Bsentinel%2Bproperty