Peaks & Valleys: Market yields historical connection

Nothing spells the end of summer like when the Kalispell Farmers Market pulls down its outdoor tents at Flathead Valley Community College. On top of the seasonal bounty this year, I savored a new connection.

Mark Hatfield had stopped me there on account of my Northwest Montana History Museum T-shirt. We chatted briefly, and Hatfield said he had some history to share.

He then invited me and a couple of carloads of museum folk to the storied Frank Bird Linderman house on Flathead Lake — his great-grandparents' place. 

Sun glinted off the water as we spied the log cabin peeking through trees, built from the native tamaracks in 1917 by Linderman and two French-Canadian loggers with a team of horses. Charlie Russell was the first to sign the guestbook.  

Two years after completion, Linderman would be on the roof in stocking feet fending off forest fire while his 80-year-old dad pumped water from the lake. Linderman had already sent his kids and wife out in a rowboat and coasted his Studebaker out of the home’s lower level to submerge it in the water for safety. 

Luckily the wind changed, the water worked and the place was saved, along with the most important part: the people. 

It’s a tall order to sum up Linderman’s cultural legacy, and I am embarrassed to know so little. Hatfield, a retired schoolteacher, never tires of sharing the stories of his family and the property. With a grin, he said, “I read ‘Montana Adventure’ every year,” referring to Linderman’s recollections. 

Linderman came west from Chicago at 16 in 1885 with two others. They built a cabin near present-day Ferndale but apparently Linderman’s friends said, “Enough of this wilderness stuff,” and took off. Even though he wouldn’t see his parents for 25 years, Linderman made Montana work. And work he did: Whether it was as a trapper, journalist, assayer, mine watchman, insurance and furniture salesman, or politician, he hustled to serve growing communities while keeping ties to the tribes.  

If life’s purpose is to share one’s skills for the common good, Linderman must have been satisfied. Hatfield showed where he penned many books, including biographies of Pretty Shield and Plenty Coups, after interviewing them in Plains sign language. As a young man, Linderman lived among the Salish and Kootenai and throughout his life advocated for Indigenous people. 

He bridged cultures and brought history forward. Linderman’s books remain the top sellers in the museum bookstore; yet they had this humble beginning, scratched out on a simple wood desk. Over his left shoulder, Linderman could see visitors coming down the road, such as Russell. 

Hatfield said Minnie Linderman, his great-grandmother, admonished Russell for his table reach with knife, saying, “Charlie, whales are harpooned, not my biscuits.” 

Though Hatfield no longer roller-skates on the unfinished top floor, where dances once took place, the house reveals many connections. Passing through the kitchen, Hatfield pointed out a vintage Frigidaire Flair oven, “That was a down payment from the Bitneys,” he said, “when the property was starting to be subdivided.” 

Sometimes history is as close as the farmers market. Or the library, where my hold on “Montana Adventure” just came in.  

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at [email protected].