Trego's Mountain Ear

"Serving North Lincoln County"

Tag: railroad

  • The Quality of Numbers

    Not all numbers are suitable for math, yet we can still use them. Section, Township and Range allow us to find a location on a map, or travel to a specific location. It’s usually expressed in terms Like T37W R25N S19 – which translates to Township (36 Square Miles) 37 W (west of the point of origin) Range 25 North (of the point of origin, section 19. That’s a numeric system that has been with us since 1785 – we have had the rectangular coordinate system longer than we’ve had the Constitution. At the northwest corner of the state, it’s pretty easy to use. Down by Virginia City, around the point of origin, you have to be real careful about the N,S,E and W. I found myself off by six miles a couple times when I got careless there. For those who can’t handle that system, we have street names and numbers. There are still some advantages to street numbers – on Fortine Creek Road, the street numbers show distance from the railroad track crossing at Trego.

    In some cases – social security numbers, for example – the number exists only as an identification. When I couldn’t get decent data on migration, I started using U-Haul rental rates as a substitute. For example, renting a U-Haul 15′ truck from Los Angeles to Eureka shows up as $4,817. Taking the truck back from Eureka to LA is $1,112. I can’t turn that into precise migration data – but I have no problem inferring that there is a lot more migration from Los Angeles to northwest Montana than the other way around. It’s valid – but I have had people dismiss the conclusions because the data is not adequately precise for them. For me, U-Haul provides a great resource on migration. I can find more specific numbers – but not as current. So we have numbers that are only useful as identifiers, and we have numbers that are useful in determining locations, and I can even use U-Haul prices to determine migration trends (and in this application I have had the mathematically illiterate question my conclusions).

    Ordinal numbers show position in a list – or first, second, third in a contest. My street address shows not just my position on the street, it also shows the distance from the railroad crossing at Trego. The U-Haul prices show that there is a lot more migration from Los Angeles to NW Montana than vice-versa. There are a lot of times when I can’t get perfect data – but I can get usable data. Usable data beats non-existent data.

    In the movie “Tombstone” Doc Holiday describes gambling: “Poker’s an honest trade – only a sucker bucks the tiger.” There are different significant numbers in various forms of poker. In draw poker, where the hand is not seen until the end of the game, the odds have been calculated, published and frequently memorized. In five card stud, where a single card is concealed and the next four are dealt one at a time, face-up, you can develop a rough estimate of each hand’s statistical probability. Draw poker is an honest trade – stud poker even more so – it is a statistician’s game (I ignore the psychological aspects of the game). The numbers have a different quality when four cards in each hand are visible.

    There are people who think they aren’t good at math – I think that they were taught by people who didn’t share all of the wonderful ways to use numbers. Of course, I am the guy who used a rather large set of loaded dice to help teach statistics. One of my former students asked where the dice were when he visited campus, and I explained my daughter had taken them with her when she moved to study at USD. His comment still puzzles me – “I guess that she doesn’t call home for money very often.” Language can be as confusing as numbers – and, as Doc Holiday said, “Poker’s an honest trade.” Dice usually are – but I guess most teachers don’t use loaded dice.

  • Trego History – The Middle Years 1926 – 1945

    The Depression came early to northwest Montana – including Eureka and Trego. This section of Trego’s history is fragmented – while I met and knew people who had the information, I was young and not inclined to write the histories their stories covered. This section is important – but I am hoping that other people will provide more details.

    Again, Trego’s history is a story not of great men, but of social trends. Basically, the Great Depression hit Trego and Eureka early – when the big mill in Eureka shut down. Instead of a major employer driving logs down Fortine Creek, stacks of hewn ties, and ties milled by small mills, began to stack up near the railroad sidings – instead of the single large employer, it was individual entrepreneurs, often owning only a double-bit, a broad axe and a crosscut saw. By 1931, small sawmills had pretty well replaced these low investment entrepreneurs.

    Wylie Osler explained the tie shack as housing – the switch ties (longer) went to the back wall, while regular length ties went for the sides and the front, leaving enough space for a door. Stories told of tie hacks who could turn out a hundred ties in a day – a 7 inches per tie, a dozen ties could stack up and make a seven foot wall, so a day’s work would produce a crude cabin that could be disassembled and sold when the tie hack moved out. Unfortunately, I didn’t make notes of what those older neighbors said when I was a kid. I remember mention of the Pinto Swede – but not what his accomplishments were. The name “Wobbly” Johnson tells its own story about membership and believing in the Union – the Industrial Workers of the World.

    The sawmill camps had standardized bunk houses and cook shacks – we still have a couple stashed close to the old service station (it was 1966 construction, but the logging camp buildings were of a previous era). The camp numbers and names remain attached to locations that were once remote. Today, the best examples of the buildings associated with logging camps are sold to go with model railroads.

    There’s a shift in the population that began in the mid-1930’s. The influx came from the prairies, several families from the area around Great Falls. The post-World War II influx came in from 1945 to the early sixties. Octav Fortin’s family (direct line and collaterals) gradually diminished – I recall two Fortine girls and a boy in Trego school in 1960, but by 1963 (when I graduated 8th grade, the name Fortin(e) was gone.

    Those middle years showed School District 53 responding to the needs of the community in an unusual manner. Homes and stump ranches stretched up the creek, and the roads were mostly dirt. During this time, District 53 included a school at Stryker, an Edna Creek School, and a Swamp Creek School, along with Trego School. Before electrification (1948) it was more effective to build a one-room school than run the long bus routes of our modern era.

    Stryker was accessible by road, and had a railroad crew working there (still does, but the priorities have changed). The railroad employment, school, and Post Office kept the small town in the loop. (Stryker school closed in the late 1950’s, Edna Creek school after the end of World War II) The record is incomplete here because Trego School burned – and was replaced, complete with electricity, running water, and flush toilets after Lincoln Electric brought power in.

    Any information that can fill the missing spaces between 1925 and 1950 will be appreciated.

    Next Chapter: Electricity, Modernity, and a Boomtown Again