The 'oldest profession'

This writer is not going to speculate "why," but to my knowledge Northwest Montana has had no commercial sporting palaces since Libby Dam was completed in the late seventies. Well, maybe a small one in the Yaak. Wasn't always like that. From the first settlement days in the Flathead until those few years ago, there were always "houses." Many of them.

In the mid sixties, when I was a banker, a well-dressed lady came in and said she wanted to apply for a loan. When we got to the part of the application asking for current employment information, she calmly stated, "I run a house of prostitution in Seattle." Said she found a suitable roomy house in Lincoln County and wanted to tie it up with a large down payment, then activate the loan next spring. Said she wanted to prepare her place before all the men started coming to work on the Libby Dam.

When asked why she wanted to wait three months before activating the loan she replied, "I won't be moving until my kids get out of school in Washington, where I'm selling my present business operation."

Took application and presented her request to the loan committee the following Tuesday. They discussed it back and forth, and one officer said that would be the first time we knowingly made a loan on a whore house. Another noted the lady's income seemed steadier and more reliable than for loggers or farmers.

The committee agreed it seemed like a low risk loan, until we realized no one was sure how many "houses" would be "tolerated" in Lincoln County during dam construction. The loan application was put on temporary hold until that issue was checked out.

As I recall, the loan was eventually made. The Libby Dam's "nocturnal recreation area" was limited and kept upriver out of town. Our "business customer" obtained a separate place in Libby ... for her kids.

Had one other experience with ladies of the night while in banking. A tall, friendly, red head sat down at my desk and stated she operated "the house" just south of Kalispell and was looking for expansion money. Explained her business was growing enough she needed more room and was putting on another employee; in fact, she had "the new girl" with her, a brunette who appeared to be in the middle thirties. I took the application and told them someone would be out next week to appraise the property.

Two days later, front-page headlines in the local daily paper led a story about "the madam of an alleged house of prostitution" located south of Kalispell being sued by an angry man from Polson. The complaint filed in district court said "Big Red" had lured the plaintiff's wife into leaving him in order to work in the sporting house business, and the offended man was charging "alienation of affections." He sought a judgment from the court to get his wife back, and award him remuneration for punitive damages, legal fees and court costs.

Don't recall what the court ever decided. Maybe I never did know; however, I do know Kalispell's last "almost legal house" was immediately closed and all the girls skedaddled. In those days, there existed an unwritten understanding that a discrete madam could operate outside the law so long as her business kept a low profile, while avoiding problems which publicly revealed to the community that shameful hanky-panky was actually going on. (This unofficial policy was far more relaxed in Martin City during Hungry Horse Dam construction.)

Some locals figured Big Red's mistake was not going far enough out of town to recruit personnel; however, a few local wags speculated, "She angered Helena bureaucrats by not hiring through the State Employment Office."

And that's the way it was ... not so long ago.

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.