"The Long Search For Sam Adams"

[----]

Dad pulled this out on Christmas, from the dustiest corner of the dustiest shelf he could find. He couldn't remember the original publisher, but he's thinking Field and Stream.

Ed Hodges was my Grandfather, and Cal Trusty was his uncle, although they were of similar age. I've hunted the area in the story, but not as much as I probably should given my family's history there. The cabin in the story was built by the group of men on FS ground, and was burned at some point in the late 60's due to it's illegality, Grandpa never wanted to hunt that country much after that.

I thought you all might enjoy the read over the long weekend.

 

[Ben Lamb]

tl;dr

 

[LCH]

Wow. What a story. Amazing that all those searchers didn't find him. Thanks for sharing.

 

[johnp]

Cool story, I have hunted in that area as well . Never heard that story . I was a timber faller south of Ovando in 1979. Always kept an eye open for Griz. Never saw any but north of the hwy there was and still is plenty of them!

 

[belly-deep]

That's a good read. Too bad for Sam, though.

 

[JLS]

Thanks for sharing Randy. What an intriguing read. I've been a member of a number of search parties, and have always wondered what it would be like when it's a friend or family member.

 

[Tradewind]

Got me, I clicked on the header thinking you were talking about beer :hump:

 

[bobbydean]

I would frame the story and hang it a favorite place. I wish I had something like that in my family.

 

[7mm08mo]

Good read, on a side note I have a book about trophy hunts and it has a story about a guy hunting Montana sheep in sanders county in 1969 I believe and it mentions a logger named al wulfekuhle.

 

[Nameless Range]

Randy, this is an awesome piece of family history. When I first moved to Missoula I hunted the area in the story, but moved on and never returned. I was trying to map the story in my head, but think there may be some errors in the descriptions of where things occurred. I was wondering how familiar you are with the places mentioned. I looked at some 1950s topos to see if the names mentioned in the story were on the map, but didn't see many of them other than Elevation Mountain and Chamberlain Meadows. I could be way off. Here's the area in question I think.




From the article:

The Horns – a grassy point on the long ridge running north from Elevation Mountain. To the north are many ridges running in haphazard directions

The Bottles – a mile south of the Horns and a rocky open point

Bear Wallows – Beyond The Bottles and highest point on the ridge

East side of the ridge- avoided by hunters, and old burn young fir as thick as dog hair in the 1950s

Chamberlain Meadows- five miles south of The Horns ( I'm wondering if the "south" in the article should be north)

Where Sam Adams was found – along the ridgetop above the horns, a quarter mile toward the the bottles, they started down the east slope of the ridge into the dog-hair

My guesses:


Thanks for sharing. It's really cool.

 

[sbhooper]

That would not be a very good scene to walk up on. Neat story.

 

[noharleyyet]

That's a haunting piece of scrapbook tragedy Randy. I'd imagine your Grandfather kept a heavy heart. Was it spoken of within your family?

 

[Gerald Martin]

Wow, what a story. I missed this the first time around.

I helped look for a lost Amish girl @ St. Ignatious who was suffering from depression and mental illness. It was the second day of the search and the momentum had started to shift from rescue toward recovery. In the afternoon S&R showed up with a bloodhound to help track her down. It still brings a lump to my throat to remember the scene of the dog going out through the pasture with the girl's father following behind. The hollow grief and despair on his face was even more heart wrenching when the dog lost the track and couldn't pick it up again. Thankfully, that event had a happy ending. After four days she was found walking down a nearby road. She had broken into an abandoned cabin and was hiding in the basement.

 

[----]

Randy, this is an awesome piece of family history. When I first moved to Missoula I hunted the area in the story, but moved on and never returned. I was trying to map the story in my head, but think there may be some errors in the descriptions of where things occurred. I was wondering how familiar you are with the places mentioned. I looked at some 1950s topos to see if the names mentioned in the story were on the map, but didn't see many of them other than Elevation Mountain and Chamberlain Meadows. I could be way off. Here's the area in question I think.

View attachment 66173


From the article:

The Horns – a grassy point on the long ridge running north from Elevation Mountain. To the north are many ridges running in haphazard directions

The Bottles – a mile south of the Horns and a rocky open point

Bear Wallows – Beyond The Bottles and highest point on the ridge

East side of the ridge- avoided by hunters, and old burn young fir as thick as dog hair in the 1950s

Chamberlain Meadows- five miles south of The Horns ( I'm wondering if the "south" in the article should be north)

Where Sam Adams was found – along the ridgetop above the horns, a quarter mile toward the the bottles, they started down the east slope of the ridge into the dog-hair

My guesses:
View attachment 66174

Thanks for sharing. It's really cool.

This is Fantastic Bret, thanks for doing that. I was looking at a current topo map the other day trying to follow it, and I was getting pretty similar to you. I hadn't made the authors corrections though which make sense.

The names are unquestionably made up names that only they used.

My dad and I drove by where he thought the cabin was quite a while ago, and it was in one of the canyons to the East off the Scotty Browne/River junction road. Which makes sense for the through-hikes they mentioned.

I think I'm going to have to take my dad up there this spring and see if we can find these spots. No doubt a lot has changed in 60 years. My dad was born the year before this story took place.

 

[----]

That's a haunting piece of scrapbook tragedy Randy. I'd imagine your Grandfather kept a heavy heart. Was it spoken of within your family?

I don't think I knew about this when my grandpa was still alive. My dad has mentioned before that my grandpa was never a hundred percent convinced Sam was killed by the bear, rather died of some other ailment and scavenged on.

 

[Oak]

A compelling piece of history. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

That is a remarkable story, Randy. Glad it popped back up, I missed it the first time.