Our History

Indian Cave Drawings

A Lazy H Outfitters utilizes trailheads and facilities along the Rocky Mountain Front from Glacier Park in the north to the Dearborn River in the south.  Before us, hunting, fishing, and exploring has long been a cornerstone of inhabitants of this area.  Since the last ice age this area has been prime hunting grounds for American Indians and their ancestors.  Because settlement took place so late here (ie 1860+) and people densities have always been low, there remains quite a bit of evidence of American Indian and pre-historical activity.  Cave pictographs can be readily found in area caves, buffalo jumps, or pishkins, are common as are the centuries worth of boneyards at their base.  Teepee rings are very common most anywhere along the Rocky Mountain Front, as are other artistic features who's meaning has been lost to us.  Early settlers and trappers used Indian trails to first explore the mountains.  When the first trappers from the Hudson Bay Fur company first appeared in the18th century they found the rivers and streams full of valuable beaver pelts and other fur bearing animals.  They left their indelible mark culturally and geographically.  They often married Indian women and old families in the area have common French surnames.  More obvious, the trappers put the first European names to mountains and rivers in their native French Canadian language.  

The transition zone from mountains to foothills provide additional rain in the spring and summer, and the foothills captured additional snowpack in the winter.  In winter, the proximity to the mountains generated persistent winds which blew the snow free in many places, giving access for winter forage.  The Chinook winds, or "snow eating" warm winter winds melted snow and warmed temperatures giving respite from the bitter cold in the deepest days of winter.  This cycle and the importance of this area to native game species is as important today as it has been for tens of thousands of years. 

All manner of native game (elk, mule deer, big horn sheep, grizzly bears, and bison to name a few) frequented this area as prime wintering grounds as well as in the summer for lush grass which lasted longer than the drier plains.  As a result, the Front was an eternal battle ground for the various Indian tribes vying to control these precious predictable hunting grounds.  The Blackfeet Indians had a strong presence, and were vigilant about warding of intruders from the Cheyenne Indians from the south and Sioux Indians from the east.  However, the most troublesome for the Blackfeet were the Flathead, Nez Perce and other Indian tribes from the western mountain valleys that would cross the various mountain passes on the Continental Divide and come to the Front to hunt.  They would hunt, harvest, and process their kills during the summer then head back into the mountains in the early fall before the snow closed the passes.  Ocassionally, they'd steal a couple of unsuspecting horses as well.

Rocky Mountain Front west of Dupuyer

East Fork Strawberry Elk 1936

One of these passes, Gateway Pass, is among the lowest on the Contintental Divide, and was the site of many fierce battles between the Blackfeet and the Flathead.  The mountain names in the immediate area, such as Bloody Hill, attest to the outcome of the clashes between these tribes.  We cross Gateway Pass from the east as we ride into the Big River Meadows area and our early season hunting camp just below the meadows.  The Big River Meadows area has for at least several hundred years been strategic to travelers, hunters, explorers, and early settlers.  Indians used this pass extensively as it is very low and easily navigated.  Also, there are natural campsites along this route from west-east which afforded good grazing for their stock.  The first explorers from the east arrived in the form of fir trappers, often from the Hudson Bay Company in Canada.  Hidden away nearby are lean-to shacks and trapper cabins used by trappers in the early 1800's as they moved about the country checking their traplines.  Later, the early cattle ranchers ran summer cattle in the lush mountain valleys.  

Big River Meadows Hunting Party 1938

Sabido Cabin (former Lineshack) near Gateway Camp

They often  hired cowboys to check on the cattle and keep them in the mountains.  There is a remnant of a "lineshack" cabin in nearby Big River Meadows, which was used 1900-1930 for a place for the range riders to stay as the gathered cattle in the mountains before moving them down the prairie in the fall.  The lineshack was abandoned and another rebuilt near our camp around 1930, and was used until the grazing leases were abandoned around 1960.  The cabin is still there and is used as an administrative site by the US Forest Service for overnight stops for their trail crews.  The old drift fences have largely been removed now from the country, but the trails the cowboys used to get up high to spot for cattle have been repurposed as meat trails and access trails to hidden hunting areas.  Every now and then when we're off the beaten path exploring or hunting, we come across the random artifact of these bygone days.  Sometimes it's a fence remnant, or a rotted cabin footprint, pigment drawings on a rock recess, or the random arrowhead or rock hammer lying in the dirt.  All these are direct links to our predecessors and fascinting in their own right.

While there were few homestead attempts in the late 1890's, and fewer successes, there are some places where we explore the old homesteaders.  These were tough, but often misguided, individuals who attempted to "lay claim" to 160 acres for agricultural purposes.  They mostly failed in their attempts to "prove up" on their claims and get title to the property.  The growing seasons are very short, and the winters are absolutely brutal.  Temperatures drop to 40 and 50F below zero, and the snow can be 15 feet or more in many places.  Often their cabins were literally buried in snow and they'd have to dig down to get to them.  There is a homestead attempt at Gates Park, where a couple of original buildings still stand.  This is now the Gates Park Rangers station used by the Forest Service for trail maintenance crews and rangers.  The cabins are about 1/2 mile from our Gates Park camp on the Sun River.  Other homestead attempts are at Danaher Meadows on Danaher Creek, as well as at Murphy Flats at the junction of White River and the South Fork Flathead River.

Gates Park Ranger Station homestead barn near Gates Park Camp