Woods Bay author’s book delves into secrets of Flathead Lake

When Butch Larcombe was a kid, he spent his summers out on Flathead Lake, fishing. A fourth-generation Montanan raised in Malta, along the hi-line, Larcombe found escape from the heat and wind when he visited his grandparents in Lakeside. He also found mysteries hidden in the deep, cold waters.  

“I used to spend a lot of time on the lake fishing with my grandfather and my dad, and I would hear little snippets of stories, some of which I kind of fleshed out in [‘Historic Tales of Flathead Lake’],” Larcombe said.  

Larcombe’s new book, “Historic Tales of Flathead Lake,” is a collection of these stories; including the Flathead Lake monster, the blowing up of Medicine Rock, the journey of the grizzly bear that swam the lake, Wild Horse Island’s history and more.

One such story, which Larcombe first heard fishing the Flathead, is that of John Eahart, a young Missoulian who flew out over the lake in an F9F-8 fighter jet and disappeared into its darkest depths during the spring of 1960. Larombe’s telling of the tale relies on old newspaper reports, interviews and photographs to delve deeper into the mystery. 

“I’ve heard from people that have bought the book and emailed me that they grew up in the Flathead and they didn’t know about some of this stuff and they really appreciated learning more about it,” Larcombe said.  

Larcombe’s favorite find throughout his two years of research was a seemingly simple photo; the Knights of Templar in full regalia on Melita Island in 1937.  

The island was once owned by the Masons and run somewhat surreptitiously. In all his research, this was the only photo Larcombe was able to find. He was able to locate the photo’s owner in an online chatroom and obtained permission to use it for his book.  

“The guy didn’t want his name to be used with it, adding to the mysteriousness of it all,” Larcombe said. In 2004, an anonymous donation allowed the island to be purchased by the Montana Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  

Many colorful characters fill the pages of Historic Tales of Flathead Lake. The cover features a photo of Thain White; author, photographer, map maker, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and museum operator; hauling sheep in a rowboat from Papoose Island, now known as Cromwell Island.  

“I went and interviewed his daughter and she told me also that as part of his kind of quirky personality he kept a pen of live rattlesnakes in their front yard,” Larcombe said.  

With a background as a history teacher followed by years as a journalist, Larcombe was in his element writing Historic Tales of Flathead Lake, his third book.  

“It was fun to do, it’s interesting to me, and hopefully you can tell it’s interesting to me when you read the story. Sometimes history can be boring, I used to be a history teacher. That’s why I like the individual stories rather than a chronological history from the dawn of time,” Larcombe said.  

The book is a collection of Flathead Lake’s best stories, written in a fresh perspective with historic and modern photographs. It is accessible to those who have lived in the Flathead all their lives, and those just passing through.  

“I look at Flathead Lake as kind of everybody’s favorite Montana lake,” Larcombe said. “I’m proud of the research too, I’ve written about some of these things that nobody’s really written about before.”

Historic Tales of Flathead Lake is available at local bookstores Bay Books and Prints in Bigfork and The Bookshelf in Kalispell, as well as at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  Larcombe plans to host talks in Polson and Bigfork in the future.