Stump Town to Ski Town
By
Jill Evans, Administrator of the Stumptown Historical
Society
Whitefish has
entered its second century and it’s important to be
study the history of its first century. Although
Whitefish was incorporated in 1905, important events of
the nineteenth century created the foundation on which
our town grew.
“In the 1880’s the northwest end of
the Flathead Valley was uninhabited, though bands of
Indians roamed it frequently. They came to hunt and fish
and some of then camped regularly at the outlet of
Whitefish Lake into the Whitefish River.”
The water flow out of Whitefish Lake was a fast flowing
creek that the Indians built brush weirs across to catch
the native “whitefish” so named because of the color of
its flesh. That is where the name of the lake and
subsequently the town came from. Whitefish was never
called “Stumptown”. It’s a nickname you’ll find out
about in later columns.
In 1883 John Morton built a cabin at the rivers’ mouth
where an ancient Indian campground had been.
1890 The Hutchinson brothers, loggers from Michigan
arrive and build near the lake; they also start a saw
mill located about ¼ miles east of our current train
Depot.
1891 the Butte and Montana commercial Company built a
Dam at the outlet of the whitefish river to create a
boom for floating logs to the saw mills at the new town
of Kalispell the south.
In 1892 C.E. Ramsey builds a hotel just west of the
river outlet for sportsmen and women who came in by
horseback or on foot over the Columbia Falls and
Kalispell trails. He featured fishing, dancing, boating
and croquet.
JOE BUSH |
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In 1887 a trapper
named Rudolph Werner (Joe Bush) homesteads at the head
of Whitefish Lake. There are many stories about him to
come. Here’s a taste from a letter found after his
death, written in 1923. “Came to the Flathead in 1887,
and have lived here ever since at the head of Whitefish
Lake for 36 years….I is getting $10.00 a month Old Age
Pension…august 22, 1934, Joe committed suicide. Want to
know how and why?
1889 The first of the five Baker brothers arrive. They
are also loggers from Michigan and are an important part
of the early days in Whitefish. Baker Street is named
after them.
Both the Hutchinson and Baker brothers became permanent
Whitefish citizens and started families. They not only
cleared the virgin forest for the town site, they built
much of the city with their hands and their hearts.
See more of their
story in the Whitefish museum, located in the Train
Depot.
Note: The quoted
material is taken from
Stump Town to Ski Town, by Betty Schafer and
Mable Engelter, written in 1972 and reprinted by the
Stumptown Historical Society in 2003. It is available
for sale in the Whitefish Museum located in the Train
Depot.
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