Remember When

40 YEARS AGO • JUNE 24, 1982

CHANGES BRING DECLINE TO HERON

By Jan Fraser

Continued from last week…

Georgia Knott MacSpadden related how her family arrived in 1889 from Hope. Her father was a section foreman on the railroad. She recalled Heron’s first newspaper, printed in 1906. At that time, no county seat had been chosen, so all the towns (Plains and Thompson Falls) were promoting themselves. J.A. McGowan, who favored Plains as the county seat, started the newspaper in Heron to promote Plains as the best place for the county seat.

Georgia remembered Heron’s first school, a room off of the Bureau Building. The school was in session for the three summer months and the teacher received about $50 for the term. Another school, built across the tracks was later turned into a church. The present gym and lunchroom was at one time a two-storied school, built in 1914. Grandview school was moved and is now the new library, River Echos, located at the east end of the Brooks property and the Elk Creek school at the corner of the Brent Fitchett property, provided Heron youngsters with their basic education.

When Georgia was 17, she became the teacher at the Elk Creek school. Georgia had attended high school in Missoula, as that was the only around at the time. Margaret Daffy Brooks and Elsie Dunn taught at Grandview for some time. But the eight originals decided that Lois Laffay had the most impact on them of any teacher. She taught at all the schools at one time or another, walking from her home in Heron to the school across the river or up Elk Creek.

A hot lunch program isn’t something new either. The former students remembered taking a potato to school, or meat and vegetables, and having a stew cook all morning on top of the wood heating stove, or maybe just baked potatoes.

During the 1920s, students ready for high school could attend the boarding school at Thompson Falls. Parents soon learned it was cheaper to board out their children, costing $16.50 a month in 1924. Students came home for the holidays on the “Dinky,” a two-car train. Later, the Galloping Goose, just one car, transported the students home. To drive took over three hours. What we know today as the backroads were once the main highways.

The trains brought the mail to Heron, recalled Georgia. The sacks would be hung on a crane near the depot for outgoing mail. Occasionally, one of the crew wouldn’t get a secure hold on the bag as the train went through and mail would scatter along the tracks. When mail was dropped off, anyone nearby could grab the mail bag and take it to the post office.

During the depression, picking huckleberries and bootlegging kept many people busy and with money.

The trail going up over the Montana-Idaho Divide was used frequently by the bootleggers, as Joe Dobravec recalled.

Huckleberry businessmen included the Flemmings and Ovniceks. Adolph (Buck) Ovnicek recalled some of the cleaners built by him and his brothers. After going through this, the best berries would have the stems and leaves removed. The culls would drop on through the cleaner, but they weren’t wasted. Some of the berries were used for jam and jelly, but the majority went into the 50-gallon keg for the winter’s wine.

Berries were picked, crated and shipped all on the same day, to points throughout the states. At one time, more berries were shipped from here than any other place. The business slacked off in 1938, when other jobs offered more money.

While the south side of the river was being settled, people were moving onto the north side also. Many homesteads were filed, while others bought land from the Blackfoot Land Co (a subsidiary of Anaconda Mining).

The Claytons moved to land up Blue Creek in 1917, arriving from Kansas in box cars on immigrant trains. Austin Clayton recalled how his family and another, the Dunns, had to shovel snow in March of that year to get their teams through. They spent a good deal of that late winter with Hazel Brooks, who owned the homestead next to the Claytons.

Ater getting settled, the families built a log schoolhouse, named River Echos.

Another family in the area were the Duffys, having arrived from Anaconda. Emil Dettwiler, a Swiss immigrant had settled up the river from them in 1907. He provided Heron with fresh vegetables taking them across the river on a rowboat, even though it was extremely risky.

For the settlers on the north side of the river, Cabinet offered a store, post office and saloon.

To be continued…