By Alkali Springs Correspondent
The beginning of next week is a milestone for us in two ways. First, the 20th of March represents the first day of spring in this great country and it is the day 26 years ago that the first Howdy Beaver Column was printed in the Havre Daily News. In another way, this is column number 1251 in a row. No all of them have been "home runs" so to speak but even we we have noticed that as the years roll on, they do seem to be getting a tad better until these days, most of them are almost readable and some of them, you can almost understand what we are trying to say.
It has been great for the telephone that we have never signed our name to them. Saved us a lot of hassle. However, we have found we were going to get some heat, we did not get any heat at all. That must be because the vast majority of folks sort of agreed with what we were saying. Those columns specifically were about logging which we called the rape of the Bear Paw Mountains.
On time we did write a hot one that we never would have have dreamed was hot. It was a story that a fellow had spotted a wolverine in the head waters of Alkali Springs Canyon. the just of the complaints were that wolverine information is private and no one should know they exist in the Bear Paws.
Through the years and without a doubt the columns which have gotten the most comment for us are the Bee Lucke and C.L. Stuart columns. To answer a couple of questions about those two. Yes, they really did exist. On was our father, the other out grandfather. And while some of their exploits have been embellished a little, (remember we are legend and lore folk), most of the stories have a grain or two of truth somewhere along the way.
The Glacier Park columns have always been popular, particularly with elderly people who spent summer after summer in Glacier and cannot get there anymore. Reading about the park through the eyes of someone else brings it all back and give joy to quiet lives. That same thing happens with Bear Paw columns. We know for when we lived in Glasgow and someone was writing about Beaver Creek Park when we couldn't be there, it was sure nice to read about it.
And we tell you honestly that the columns we best love to write are about flowers, birds, and coyotes serenading. Second best are columns about drifting and dreaming in from of the fireplace on a cold winter night. We never tire of them and every time this time of year we hear geese flying over, on their way north, we feel like writing something at that moment.
Worst of all is writing about the name Bear Paws and getting into that mess. It seems to come up about once a year and if we never wrote again about it, we would be quite happy. Maybe we are getting mellow or more forgiving as senility sets in but we feel like the old timer who said, "I don't care what you call me just as long as you don't call me late for breakfast."
So, it is the first day of spring and another year of columns about these beautiful mountains.
We know that you are as lonely to get to camping in old Beaver Creek Park as much as we are.
