A handful of years ago when Zach Block moved back to the Flathead Valley with his family, he was browsing through boxes of his grandfather’s belongings when he came across a manila envelope he recognized.
Inside the envelope he found decades of his grandfather Daniel G. Block’s writings, including a completed manuscript of his encounters living 70 miles up the North Fork of the Flathead River, six miles south of the U.S.-Canada border where he homesteaded near Trail Creek in a post-World War II era.
After flipping through the first few pages of the manuscript’s 16 chapters, Zach speculated his grandfather’s reflections on the North Fork would resonate with readers and started working toward its publication.
With help from a local North Fork historian, a few hundred copies of “Trail Creek: A North Fork Saga” were printed in time for Christmas.
As a retired University of Montana Western biology professor, Dan Block documented his life at the homestead he built with his wife, Gerane, recounting fishing for bull trout, hunting elk and surviving grizzly bear encounters.
Dedicated to Gerane, the memoir also serves as a tribute to his wife, who was the youngest postmistress in the North Fork and was always dressed to the nines, whether posing with bull trout or sitting on top of old vehicles for photos. One of her duties was to hold the flashlight for her husband while he shot packrats in the cabin with a .22 rifle in the middle of the night.
“She was quite a fancy-looking lady 70 miles up in the woods,” Zach said.
While he clarified there was “nothing tragic” about his grandparents’ lives up the North Fork, he described a somber tone in the memoir, which he said could potentially be attributed to the loss of wilderness that new generations won’t get to see.
Since reading his grandfather’s manuscript, Zach said it’s had an emotional impact on his family and has served as a reminder to balance an authentic life with adventure and exploration.
“My grandpa had a big life and to see that he was the same person he was at 26 as he was at 96 as he sharpened through the years — he was the same guy,” Zach said. “He had the same ambitions. He wanted to strike into the unknown while being respectful to his surroundings.”
Although he doesn’t recall his grandfather pursuing the manuscript’s publication, Zach felt it was important to share his poetic and philosophical outlook on life up the North Fork, which he believes will resonate with younger generations.
“I think when somebody sits down to put their thoughts on paper, they obviously want it shared,” he said. “It’s had a pretty emotional impact on my family and it’s had an impact on my friends and people who didn’t know him. I assume he’d be thrilled.”
Today, the Trail Creek homestead remains in the Block family, which Zach said looks almost the same as it did when it was built 80 years ago, with the original floor and handcrafted fireplace, serving as a time capsule of his grandparents’ North Fork legacy.
“I think this was an end-of-life epitaph,” he said, referring to the manuscript.
“Trail Creek: A North Fork Saga” can be purchased at all local Flathead Valley bookstores, as well as at Last Best Books and Fact and Fiction in Missoula. It is also available on Amazon.