Cosley's back
DAVE RENFROW / For the Hungry Horse News
The first year-long public exhibit in the Vault at Glacier Discovery Square in Columbia Falls opens Friday, July 23. This year's display, Cosley's Return, is an official Glacier National Park Centennial Event. The Vault at Glacier Discovery Square has become a handsome display venue. Joe Cosley's original art and artifacts, along with early park photographs will be on display.
Joseph C. Cosley (1870-1943) was a well known French-Canadian and Mtis' trapper, mountain man, artist, decorated WWI veteran, romantic, endurance athlete, regional celebrity and park ranger who frequented Columbia Falls in its robust infancy. Joe often played cards with Charlie Russell at the famous Gaylord Hotel on Nucleus Avenue and would entertain locals and tourists with stories and sketches of the high country. He routinely ran as many as 30 miles daily, sometimes more, along his trapline in the Belly River area, or to attend a dance at a distant community in Montana or Alberta.
Columbia Falls, as an exciting point of embarkation where extraordinary people gathered, welcomed Joe's appearances from about 1889 until his famous escape run in 1929.
The Columbia Falls newspaper, the Columbian, heralded Joe's summer arrival April 7, 1910:
"Joe Cosley's in Town: arrived in town Monday morning to greet old friends. He relates some harrowing experiences while crossing the main range."
The 1910 boundaries designating Glacier Country as a National Park remained blurred in the eyes of early settlers who hunted and trapped the area. Many did not immediately stop the practice. Old habits die hard especially when subsistence living was the norm. Joe's notoriety came because he had signed on as one of the first park rangers, dedicated to upholding the new laws of a National Park. After 20 years of legal trapping in the region, Joe continued to supplement his meager wages as a ranger with what he knew: trapping at times illegally.
In recounting Cosley stories, Columbia Falls' native daughter and historian Dorothy Brading fiercely defended Joe as a good person. He was intelligent and thoughtful, entertaining but quiet-spoken. Dorothy's greater point was that times changed around Joe. Joe did not become a bad person; his world changed. In her eyes he was not a criminal in the societal sense, but a friend who did not adapt to change.
Joe Cosley's life story is often now told under the amplification and emphasis of his arrest for trapping; similarly to the memory we keep of any modern day notables when their indiscretions become known. The tags read Joe Cosley, mountain man, ranger, poet, artist, athlete, war hero, entertainer, romantic and OUTLAW. The arrest and his remarkable snowshoe escape from Lake McDonald across Ahern Pass to the Belly River and Canada, to some, speak loudest. However, no life is one-dimensional. Joe trapped after the law changed. And his camp was notoriously messy. There were blemishes among the more polished facets of a truly extraordinary person.
First Best Place proudly proclaims, after 81 years that Joe Cosley is back in town!
Among Joe's artifacts on display are Cosley sketches of bronc-busting men and women, Joe's saddle from his famous horse crash over the cliffs of Ahern Pass, J C Cosley engraved and carved pearl handled 32-caliber Winchester revolver, Joe's traps, pelts, Cosley original post cards and tree carvings from Glacier and Waterton areas.
Many thanks to all volunteers, donors and museums who made this exhibit possible.
Display viewing hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. The exhibit is also open during the Thursday farmers market and during special events.
Friday, July 23 at 6:30 p.m., Chas Cartwright, Superintendant of Glacier National Park, will perform the ribbon cutting for the display.Author Brian McClung will hold a book signing and the new edition of his popular book "Belly River's Famous Joe Cosley" will be available for sale.
Following the ribbon cutting, current and retired rangers and historians from Glacier and Waterton, family members and Cardston Historical Society will provide storytelling and histories of Cosley and other early park pioneers.Causley family members and donors will be official Grand Marshals in the Heritage Days Parade, Saturday, July 24.
- Dave Renfrow