North Fork's challenging terrain

GLADYS SHAY / For the Hungry Horse News

Mike Berne came to Columbia Falls just as the town was getting started in 1890. Town site survey was completed Feb. 28, 1891.

A photo in the June 18, 1965, Hungry Horse News showed him with J. G. Edmiston, bank president, and Alvina Garlough, teller. Mike deposited a $20 bill as first depositor in the new Bank of Columbia Falls. Actually, he had been a patron of bank since it started in 1891.

Bricks from his brickyard were used for Columbus School, Canyon Hotel, original St. Richard's Catholic Church and other buildings.

Memories of the North Fork were still vivid when Dudley W. Greene interviewed Mike Feb. 28, 1958.

Dudley questioned as to how men got up the North Fork in the 1890s. Mike explained they walked as horses could not get through and there were not any trails. He was among North Fork homesteaders.

Following is Mike's narrative from that interview:

"We started to go out through the woods and that is all there was to it. When night came, we cut a tree down and made a fire. We had to pack everything on our backs. We used to cut trees down when we went back and forth in the winter time. Then we would go up the next spring and the stumps would be about 20 feet high.

"We went up there and homesteaded there and talk about grief, we got it. We had to be there every six months or somebody would jump you.

"We was coming out of there on one trip. A bunch of us went up and we was walking up along the river bank on the edge of the ice along through to keep away from the edge of the mountain because the snow was so deep.

"We started out one day and was out about two or three miles. We ran into a snow slide and it carried the timbers down clear to the bottom. We laid on the top of it and moved along with it and we was all right as long as we stayed on top of it. We slid down and so we turned round and came back. After awhile we started out again. There was one pair of snowshoes he had. I took and split out some slivers of wood and made two skis that I could walk on. We came down and crossed Coal Creek. We had a foot log and this log was slipped down and had about 10 feet of snow on it, I suppose, sitting right on top of that log.

"Kelly went across with it with his snowshoes. I knew I could not make it with them boards, so I packed down the snow about half way over. Damned if the snow did not break and down I went. There was a log right on the edge of the water. I must have went down about 20 feet. I lit on that slippery log and never fell off. I crawled over on the edge. Kelly got over and gave me his snowshoe and shoved it down and I came up out of that hole."

Gladys Shay is a longtime resident and columnist for the Hungry Horse News.