Page 4 - MWC 9-10-20s

The Midwest Cattleman · September 10, 2020 · P4
When Lewis and Clark left
St. Louis in 1804, they had
very little idea what lay ahead.
After wintering in what is now
North Dakota, they pulled
their keelboat up the Missou- and killed an average of one
ri river, past the Yellowstone
and into what today is Central
Montana. There, they passed
through what is called the ‘Mis- by the end of the summer. We
souri Breaks’ until they came
to the ‘Great Falls of the Mis-
souri’. Although much smaller,
that section of Montana in some
ways resembles ‘The Badlands’
of South Dakota and even to
some extent… Arizona’s ‘Grand
Canyon’.
Today, wheat and barley are
grown right up to the very edge
of ‘The Breaks’. In some places
you can stand in a wheat field
and look almost straight down
and see the Missouri River. In
fact, if you search 'Harvesting
on the Edge' on YouTube , you
®
can see what it looks like today.
Take one step out of the wheat
onto the edge, and it still looks
very much like it did when
Lewis and Clark saw it two
hundred and fifteen years ago.
The bison are gone, replaced
by smaller herds of cattle, but
the mule deer, antelope, moun-
tain sheep, elk, and an occa-
My brother Doug, obviously years later, at the top, close to the very spot where we had decided
to “play” near the edge. This time, he stayed well out of the loose gravel.
sional rattlesnake are still all
there to see.
Growing up, our family grew
wheat, barley, and hay along the
edge, and we also ran cattle and
sheep down in ‘The Breaks’. It
was quite a ‘backyard’ - a great
place to ride, hunt, snowmo-
bile or, if you’re carefree young
boys, just play. Every summer,
between the last day and the
first day of school, my brother
Doug and I would walk or ride
horses all over that ‘backyard’
nearly every day. The last sum-
mer we were there, we spent
nearly every day with several first 20 feet is straight down.
hundred ewes with their lambs
rattlesnake every day. The rat- ‘loop’ over and over again in where Doug had fallen.
tlesnake ‘rattles’ we collected as
souvenirs filled a large ‘jelly jar’
often carried a gun, swam in the
creek, got bucked off of horses,
run over by cows, and there was
this one event with a dog, some
horses, and a little red wagon
that I won’t get into. I wonder
how we survived. So does our
dear mother. If she were to
weigh-in, she’d say, “You’re leav-
ing one off!” Not really Mom,
I’m just saving it for last.
One summer afternoon, we
were playing when we were
supposed to be watching a herd
of sheep. It must have been
hot that afternoon, because
most of the sheep had found a
shade-tree and we were well
above them, on the cliff, throw- bones and the only scratch he Lewis slipped on a hillside over
ing rocks off the edge as young
carefree boys will do. We found
a couple of sticks – which we
discovered resembled swords,
and like two musketeers, faced
off and began to spar.
I’m certain that what hap-
" No one can go off here and survive."
Just past the tallest pine tree on the left side – near the horizon, you can get an idea where my
brother Doug fell from. The distance from top to bottom is almost a football field in length – the
pened next has played like a wanted me to show him the spot
When I
my head thousands of times. showed him the spot, he at first
I saw my brother Doug step thought I had to be mistaken.
back, then slip in the gravel, “No one can go off here and sur-
and then tumble off the cliff vive.” He said. But then climb-
and disappear. In the moment ing down on the ledge below he
is ‘surprise’, ‘disbelief’, ‘fear’ and saw Doug’s hat. We climbed
a blue denim jacket. As I raced farther down, and I showed
to the edge, I could see his limp him where Doug had stopped.
body- like a ‘rag-doll’ tumble, He looked back up the hill and
bounce, slide and finally come was visibly shaken. “And then
to a rest far below me. he got up and walked back up
Years later, I retraced the this hill and then home?” He
route, the actual steps I had asked. Indeed - it was hard to
taken to reach him. The incline believe. It could have been bad,
was so steep I could not stand, but it wasn’t his time.
but on that particular day I Lewis and Clark traveled
had run down that hill like a from St. Louis to the west
mountain goat at a dead run - coast and back again and only
without giving it much thought. one man died – of appendi-
As I reached Doug, he was just citis. Somewhere in what is
waking up. He had no broken now Nebraska, Meriwether
had on him was just below one the Missouri river and nearly
of his eyes – he got three stitch- ended his young life and his
es. expedition before it got started.
When our mother had taken He recorded it in his journal.
Doug to the doctor (sixty miles) It could have been bad, but it
to get checked-out, my dad came wasn’t his time.
in out of the wheat field and, KwC
after hearing what happened,
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