The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

I don't remember a lot of this story but I think I have most of the facts straight.

The story came to mind after hearing and writing about the mussels in some of our Montana lakes and reservoirs.

Matter of fact this was such a large story that there were several books written about it. Of course I can't find mine now so I will have to tell you a tale that starts out great and ends up very sad and the tale is not over yet.

For many years around the time that we celebrate Thanksgiving a remarkable thing was occurring year after year after year at McDonald Creek as it passes through the tiny town of Apgar in Glacier National Park.

Salmon would come up from Flathead Lake, swim up the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and then into McDonald Creek and then into large Lake McDonald itself in Glacier National Park.

I had read of this remarkable occurrence when the Stoney Indian tribe which resided most of the summer on the peaks between Waterton and Glacier would come down to the area now called Apgar when those salmon were swimming up into the lake in such huge numbers that the Stoney Indians smoked hundreds of salmon all winter long and spent their winters in that special place, only returning to the huge peaks in the late spring.

The salmon coming back into Lake McDonald happened year after year up to the 1970's I am guessing. By that time there was a huge gaggle of people mostly standing on the McDonald Creek Bridge watching this scenario play out for almost a month.

People were not the only things watching those salmon. There were hundreds of bald and golden eagles crying out from early morning, until late evening, as they went fishing. The fishing happened as long as as the salmon kept coming upstream or the creek did not freeze over.

But that was not all. There were always bears. Mostly black but a few grizzly who were not going to go down for their long winter's nap until they had eaten their share of those delicious salmon.

I guess you could say this had gone on for eternity. And it would still be going on but a terrible thing happened. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials discovered a tiny shrimp that they figured would feed the salmon and sort of fatten them up for fall. That is how I remember it anyway. The opposite happened. As I recall the shrimp ate everything that the salmon would have eaten, and that killed the salmon.

Maybe now, two score of years at least, those salmon are just now starting to come back.

So, there will be salmon back in Lake McDonald. It has just taken a long, long time. It just goes to show that when man interferes, horrible things can happen!