JUNE 2025 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter LANDUSKY ON THE OUTLAW TRAIL Clothes were rationed in Britain and the U.S from June 1, 1941. This limited the amount of new garments people could buy until 1949, four years after the war’s end. Fabric restrictions also put a new emphasis on legs and hemlines. Many women during this time were then able to take an old dress and mend it into a new style.— Courtesy of Frontier Montana Museum From The Harlem News, Jan. 7, 1944 Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ B y D o n F . K l e p p e r The old Outlaw Trail, which in its entirety ran from just south of the Montana-Canada border to El Paso, Texas, has, like those who rode it, faded into the past. In Montana there remains a visible link to that trail and its notorious users-the crumbling little town of Landusky. In the summer of 1893, Powell “Pike” Landusky and Bob Orman, prospecting in the foothills of the Little Rocky Mountains, discovered gold in a small streambed. News of the strike soon leaked out. By 1894, the influx of prospectors and boomtown followers had created a town which, in deference to one of its founders, was called Landusky. By that time, Pike apparently had given up prospecting and was proprietor of the Landusky Saloon. Previous to his prospecting excursion into the Little Rockies, Pike Landusky, a native of Pike County, Missouri, had fashioned a reputation in the gold camps of Virginia City, Alder Gulch and Last Chance Gulch. He was a big, tough man with a violent temper. Because of its proximity to the Outlaw Trail, the town of Landusky became a stopping-off place for those seeking supplies, the hard liquor of Pike’s saloon, or just a place to hide out. The nearby Little Rockies and the Missouri River breaks offered quick sanctuary to those evading the law. A few miles south of Landusky there lived a ranch family of three sons, John, Loney and Harvey Logan, and their mother. The sons exhibited wild traits at an early age. Harvey eventually picked up the assumed name “Kid Curry,” Photo Courtesy of Lewistown Public Library
P a g e 2 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r presumably due to his admiration of Flat Nose George Curry, a well-known Wyoming outlaw who rode the Outlaw Trail. The Logan family was thereafter known as the Currys. Recreation for the Curry boys consisted of riding into Landusky and shooting up the town or riding their horses into business establishments. Jew Jake’s Saloon was a favorite target. One encounter between the Currys and one-legged Jew Jake is reported to have lasted several hours with Jake winning the battle by blasts from a shotgun, which caused the Currys to retire with perforated skins. I visited Landusky in the summer of 1987. As I gazed down the deserted main street with its twin rows of tumbling down false-fronted buildings, I tried to visualize the volatile mixture of humanity which had trod its environs during the gold-rush days: the miners, the last of the meat hunters, freighters, cowboys from distant ranches seeking any available entertainment, a few Indians, such riders of the Outlaw Trail as the Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy, Deaf Charlie, and, of course, the Curry bunch. The only representative of the law within a hundred miles was the town constable, Pike Landusky. Presumably the owner of a business catering to those on the wild side could not have been expected to be overly diligent in enforcing law and order. There are as many versions of what brought about the bad blood between Pike Landusky and Kid Curry as there are accounts of the actual shooting of Pike by the Kid in 1894. One account states the incident took place while the two were engaged in a fistfight in Jew Jake’s Saloon. Another- places the scene at Landusky’s Saloon, where, after an argument, a quick-draw gunfight took place in which Pike came in second and died instantly. Another version claims he was shot in the back. Having killed the representative of the law, Kid was now a fugitive from the law. He and Loney joined the Wild Bunch riding the Outlaw Trail, robbing trains and banks from northern Montana to the far Southwest. The original Landusky gold strike petered out, and the town quieted down to a mere supply point for area ranchers. The coming of Prohibition removed the last vestiges of the old wild days. The giant Pegasus Gold Inc. is on the mountainside just above the old town. The open-pit mine produced millions in gold, silver and zinc. Below it, the little town on the Outlaw Trail fades slowly into its violent past, and the remains of its founder rest in peace in the grass of the Landusky graveyard.—Courtesy of the Eastern Montana Outlaw News in Cooperation with Missouri River Country. To learn more about all the adventures awaiting you in northeast Montana, visit: https://missouririvermt.com The killing of Pike Landusky by Kid Curry, as pictured by O. C. Seltzer, Great Falls artist who was widely known for his paintings and drawings depicting western life. Courtesy of The Kevin Review, Aug. 30, 1928, Accessed via: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
P a g e 3 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r The Most Fantastic Times I Remember By Ted Clarke Ted Clarke was born in Eureka, MT but lived mostly along the west Kootenai. He went to the Rexford School, which was relocated when the Kootenai Dam went in. Eventually his family home was inundated by Lake Koocanusa. They relocated to the new Rexford town, and Ted’s dad, Ed, worked as a school bus driver in the winter and for the Forest Service in Rexford in the summer. Ed’s first lookout job was in 1955 at Webb Mountain Lookout, above Eureka. For eleven-year-old Ted, this was a new experience that has stayed strong in his memory. It was his first time with pack trains, hauling water from a spring his dad developed a quarter of a mile below the lookouts, sleeping on the lookout’s wood floor with younger brother Dave, and learning to help with lookout duties, like using the alidade, taking the weather, and watching for storms. Photo Courtesy NMLA Photo Courtesy NMLA Ted remembers his dad building a cold storage box out of flat rocks with screens on two sides to store butter, milk, cheese, and other foods because they had no refrigerator. The box was still there in the ‘80s when Ted visited the lookout. Mother Pearl, Ted, Dave, family dog with water packs, and homemade rock cooler. Ted and Dave spent much time at the lookout gathering huckleberries and morel mushrooms, making pets out of “chuckamucks”—golden ground squirrels, crows, learning to play pinochle, and playing with their dog. They also found many ways to keep themselves occupied. They always had slingshots in their pockets, and they fished Boulder Lake, near Boulder Mountain Lookout. They also developed their own “slide.” Said Ted, “One summer, I don’t know which one, maybe in 1955, Dave and I made a slide out of some of the old #9 telephone wire strung through the trees and now abandoned. ..The single line ran down the east face of the lookout and somehow got to Rexford for the communication link. My Dad hiked the line for a while doing some repair, but found a bull moose had gotten tangled in the line and died during the winter or spring. In any event that was the demise of the #9 link. We began using a short-wave two-way radio from then on. A remnant 100’ piece of #9 was salvaged and tied to a tree uphill and the other end to a tree downhill. Before attaching the wire, we’d run the wire through a piece of ½” galvanized pipe about 12” long…that was what we’d hang on to. By starting at the top of the slope and hanging on to the pipe we’d let gravity take over and slide the 100 feet, dropping into a pile of limbs at the bottom tree. If you dropped too early you would fall in the rockslide and seriously hurt yourself. If you didn’t drop into the brush pile at the bottom you would slam into the tree…. either the tree or the
P a g e 4 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r fall into the rocks would get you into the doctor. Fortunately, we were never seriously hurt and soon abandoned the slide, took it down and went on to other things.” In the three years their family were on Webb Mountain, they experienced some rainstorms that kept all four of them busy. One such storm demonstrated to young Ted the importance of the lightning protection on the lookout. “About noon one clear sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, the gable mounted lightning rods began to hum, soon getting louder and louder until they buzzed like a bad continuous electrical short. A few hours later thunderhead clouds began to form in the southwest beyond Libby and the Cabinet Photo Courtesy NMLA Webb Mountain and Wimpy, the family Woody, from Ted’s cover page of his memoirs. Mountain range, and you could see an occasional lightning strike. The lightning rods began to form an electrical charge that soon became visible about the size of a volleyball. It was an iridescent gold color and made a noise you could hear from several hundred feet away. It would move up and down and horizontally along the rods, all the time being discharged through the ¼” wire system. I remember Dad saying don’t touch anything metal in the lookout. We knew we were in for an all-night lightning storm and recording of strikes. The clouds continued to form, more and more strikes could be seen but too far off for us to begin registering, being in the southwest districts of Libby and Idaho yet. As the storm system moved toward us, the discharging of lightning from the clouds must have lessened the charge in the lookout and the gold static ball left us alone, but now we began recording the strikes at hand. There were too many strikes for one person so each of us took one exposure only and that became our responsibility. There were so many strikes at the same time it was nearly impossible to record the altitude and we could only identify the azimuth before the next person had to record their azimuth in their exposure. The alidade wheel was constantly moving for several hours before the storm subsided. Several strikes were recorded that appeared to set fires.” When Ted was fourteen, his father got a job on Black Butte Lookout, where the family stayed until his dad died in 1964. Later in high school, Ted worked for the Forest Service spotting and putting out fires. One memorable time, he and another firefighter got sent on a small night fire. After putting a line around it, they were too late to leave. “We only had one sleeping bag. It was a paper sleeping bag you know those things? They kept some of the breeze off you and about all it did. So, we were sitting around one little hot spot there that we can kind of stay warm. Finally, we got cold and we got tired and we both tried to crawl into that sleeping bag together. We made it but it was not very comfortable.” Later in his teens, the Forest Service wanted Ted to staff Pinto Point Lookout, but he was dating
P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r his future wife, Ina, at the time, and ended up on a brush and trail crew instead. However, he did work a short while on Red Mountain Lookout, which allowed him to go down at night and date Ina. Today, Ted lives in Pleasant Valley and talks of returning with his wife and family to Webb Mountain, which is now a cabin rental. He enjoyed sharing his memories with his grandkids which, Ted says, “… I will NEVER forget.” – Courtesy of The Northwest Montana Lookout Association, For more info, visit their website at: https://www.nwmt-ffla.org/ Photo Courtesy NMLA This article by Beth Hodder is based on an interview that is part of the NWMT-FFLA Oral History Project to preserve the stories associated with the lookouts (people and places) of Northwest Montana. This and other interviews will be archived at the University of Montana Library, and can be found online at https://scholarworks.umt.edu/nwmt-ffla/ HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY-continued From The Livingston Enterprise, January 1, 1900: Livingston Flouring Mill Company, Merchant Millers. The flouring mill industry of Park county is just in its infancy, the present interest being stimulated by the building up of the agricultural resources. In June, 1898, the foundation was laid for the construction of the Livingston Flouring mill. It consisted of a stock company of the principal business men of Livingston, with A. W. Miles, president ; Wm. Grabow, secretary, and Frank Huot, manager. The mill was completed November, 1898, and all the construction work and placement of the machinery was done by Mr. Huot. The building is 40x50 feet, built of native stone, and consists of two floors and a basement, while it has a daily capacity of seventy-five barrels. The basement contains the drive pulleys, main shaft and one smutter. On the first, or grinding floor, are four double stands of E. P. Allis Co.’s rolls, one feed mill, one cockle machine, one flour packer, a way hopper and one complete steam generator and heater. In the northwest corner of the room is located the electric motor, which, with a forty-horse power, gives the necessary power throughout the mill. It is the only motor of the kind in the state that is used in flouring mills, giving a satisfaction that far exceeds that of steam. On the second floor are located two E. P. Allis middling purifiers, a perfection dust collector, one universal bolter, one round reel and two centrifugal reels, two wheat separators, a brush machine and oat clipper. The products of this mill are competing with high-grade eastern flour, with the following brands : Old Faithful, Yellowstone, Tourist, Livingston Royal, Ivory, Starlight, Livingston Pastry, with a specialty of Barleytine. That these brands have been appreciated is shown by the present demand far exceeding the supply. William Grabow. William Grabow, secretary and manager of the Livingston Flouring Mills, is a son of the Father, Ed Clarke, and granddaughter in 1960 at Black Butte Lookout.
P a g e 6 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Fatherland, born in Goldewin, near the town of Gustrow, August 16, 1850. During his thirty years of life in his native country he was principally engaged as agricultural superintendent of large farms, which required a special education in agriculture, horticulture and a general knowledge of stock, his education being obtained in Germany by private tutoring and in the public schools. As his occupation required his moving in the best and most extravagant society, and finding that he was unable to lay up a bank account, Mr. Grabow decided on emigrating to America, locating at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1880. While here he did service with the Standard Oil company, subsequently joining a colony who went to Glen Ullin, North Dakota, and engaged in ranching. Being dissatisfied in his location here, he took up his active business at Livingston, Montana, in the spring of 1884. For six years he was engaged as a general laborer, accumulating sufficient capital, thereby, to engage in business for himself, which consisted of a general lodging house, with restaurant and liquor refreshments, and was known as the Tivoli. Just west of the city Bauman and Grabow run a building brick factory, but when the panic of 1893 came Mr. Grabow moved farther up town, locating his Tivoli permanently at the corner of Main and Callendar streets. In May, 1898, Mr. Grabow was elected as secretary of the Flouring Mill, and in October, 1899, his office was absorbed in the general manager. In the spring of 1895 he was elected alderman for the First ward under Mayor Beley’s administration. He was married to Miss Lizzie Burmester of Spokane, Washington, in 1890. He is an active member of the Sons of Hermann, being the present secretary. His family consists of three sons and one daughter, and belong to the Lutheran church. Frank Huot. The present miller of the Livingston Flouring mill was born in 1850 at the junction of the Mississippi river and Lake St. Croix, Wisconsin, now the city of Prescott. When three years old the family moved to Trimbell, Wis., where the father was engaged in the saw-mill industry. When twenty- seven years of age the subject of this sketch embarked in business for himself by purchasing a flour mill of C. W. Hackett, of St. Paul, but in the spring of 1877 high water destroyed everything while in a flourishing condition. Mr. Huot now removed to Lac Qui Parle county, Minnesota, and established the first flour mill in that county. After a stay of some two years there he was temporarily located at Watson, Minnesota; Desmet, South Dakota, and Parker, South Dakota, in quest of a suitable location, finally accepting the management of the Nickel Plate Roller mills at Oakdale, Nebraska. After five years of ser vice at this place, and with a good record behind him, Mr. Huot again started in business for himself by leasing a mill at Springhill, Montana. After re modeling the mill, and after establishing a good custom, the mill burned and everything went up in the flames. William Grabow
P a g e 7 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Still following his favorite pursuit he did excellent service for a time in the flouring mills at Big Timber, Montana, finally locating at Livingston in the fall of 1898, where he has since been doing satisfactory service in his present situation. Frank Huot Mr. Huot is a wide-awake business man, while on the other hand he is as well up in the social circles. He is an active member of the Minneapolis Head Millers’ association and the Minneapolis Operative Millers’ association, besides a member of the A. O. U. W. Lodge for twenty-two years and the Modern Woodmen for seven years. He also belongs to the Royal Highlanders and K. of P’s, for the latter having been deputy grand chancellor, also deputy head council for the Modern Woodmen. The ancestors of Mr. Huot have all been pioneers, his father having been engaged in ’42 and '43 with the American Fur company, wintering at Fort Alpen, Montana ; while his mother was born on the present site of St. Paul in 1829. Furthermore, his grandfather became a citizen of the United States by the treaty of 1803, which made him a citizen of Minnesota. In 1881 Mr. Huot was united in marriage to Miss Clara Gilberson, who is a distant descendant of Gustavus Adolphus, the king of Sweden, who was killed in the battle of Luten. They are the parents of six children—four girls and two boys. -Read More in Next Month’s Issue! Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Pursued by the U.S. Army since June 1877, approximately 800 Nez Perce men, women and children traveled over the Bitterroot mountains and camped in the Big Hole Valley. Thinking there was no immediate pursuit by the army, this familiar site was a perfect place to rest. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz As dawn broke on the morning of August 9, 1877, the 7th Infantry, led by Colonel John Gibbon, attacked. Nez Perce warriors rallied and fought back. The overwhelmed soldiers withdrew to a nearby grove of trees. Warriors surrounded the soldiers as Nez Perce survivors hurried out of the Big Hole Valley. In less than 24 hours this tranquil setting became a scene of chaos and terror. Now considered sacred ground; this is the final resting place for many of those who lost their lives here.- Big Hole National Battlefield
P a g e 8 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r First Missoula Cemetery In the summer of 1974, a Missoula homeowner was adding a porch to his house on Cherry Street when he got a big surprise. The backhoe digging the foundation unearthed something that should not have been there: human bones. The coroner confirmed the discovery of two sets of bones encased in the decayed wood of old-fashioned coffins. Authorities determined that no foul play was involved. These were simply historic burials, the individuals placed in the ground by loved ones hoping for their eternal rest. The pieces of metal hardware, splintered wood, and bone fragments were collected in a box that today sits on a shelf in a University of Montana laboratory. The bones serve as teaching tools for anthropology students. Those who have studied the contents of the box have solved some of the mystery. Historic maps of Missoula and newspaper clippings show that Missoula’s first cemetery was located in the area in 1865. It fell into disuse with the opening of the current city cemetery in 1884, and the last burial there occurred in 1895. When the land was subdivided in the 1940s, traces of the old cemetery disappeared, but, according to city records, most burials were not removed. This is not particularly uncommon. Other Montana communities have subdivisions located on historic burial grounds. Helena’s Robinson Park and its adjacent residential streets, built over the town’s first Catholic cemetery, is one example. But to whom did the two sets of bones belong? Students determined long ago that one was a child and the other a female adult. Coffin hardware fragments were consistent with nineteenth-century caskets styles. But whose eternal sleep was so rudely interrupted? That is a part of the mystery that will probably never be solved. -Ellen Baumler Ellen Baumler was an award-winning author and Montana historian. A master at linking history with modern-day supernatural events, Ellen's true stories have delighted audiences across the state. The legacy she left behind will be felt for generations to come and we are in debt to her for sharing her extensive knowledge of Montana history in such an entertaining manner. To view and purchase Ellen’s books, visit: http:// ellenbaumler.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html Would you like to receive our digital quarterly magazine for free? Just send an email with MAGAZINE in the subject to ghosttownsofmontana@gmail.com My/Donor Information: SUBSCRIBE TO THE GHOST TOWNS AND HISTORY OF MONTANA NEWSLETTER! Renewal? Y/N Send a Gift to: NAME____________________________________ NAME___________________________________ ADDRESS__________________________________ ADDRESS_________________________________ CITY______________________________________ CITY_____________________________________ STATE__________________ZIP________________STATE_________________ ZIP________________ Yearly subscriptions are $19.95 (published monthly). Please make checks payable to Ghost Towns & History of MT, LLC and send with this clipping to 99 Lampert Ranch DR, Anaconda, MT 59711 ©2025 Ghost Towns and History of Montana, LLC. All rights reserved.
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