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AMAZING! 13

Joe Cosley.
COURTESY GLACIER
NATIONAL PARK

was ired for poaching near Lake Mc-
Donald. He apparently disregarded
his pink slip and kept working in the

park, and somehow the park contin-
ued to pay him.
According to author Jerry DeSan-
to, in 1913 Cosley spent $1,500 (about
$36,000 today) to buy a diamond ring
and proposed to a Canadian girl. Ac-
cording to historians, the woman’s

family was not impressed with Co-
sley’s poaching career and the ring
was returned. Some say Cosley was so
distraught that he buried the ring in
a tree and it’s still somewhere in the
park today. Others say Cosley dug
it out a few years later to buy more
gear.

By 1914, the park inally ired Cos-
ley for good and, with nothing else to
do, he joined the Canadian army and
went to Europe to ight in World War
I. According to legend, or at least
stories Cosley would later tell, he was
a sure shot and killed more than 60

enemy soldiers.
Upon his return to North America,
The Legend of Joe Cosley
Cosley went back to his favorite trap-
ping grounds and poached and guided
in Glacier for more than a decade un-
til 1929 when ranger Joseph Heimes
arrested Cosley for possessing traps,
irearms and pelts. In an account
More than a century ago, trapper Joe Cosley became one of Glacier
National Park’s first rangers and etched his own legend into Montana lore
Heimes wrote years later, the legend-
ary trapper tried to escape at least
three times, even after the ranger
“bumped his head up against a tree
and sort of knocked him coo-coo.” B
ran all the way back to Polebridge, Cosley would hike and snowshoe y JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Eventually, Heimes delivered his pris- just in time for work the following for miles to ind his catch, which he I
oner to West Glacier where he was morning.
would often shoot, skin and eat on n the 1910s, after a long day
ined and jailed. Soon after, a few The account of Cosley running 70 the spot. Members of the Blackfeet working in the woods near Po-

friends bailed Cosley out and then miles round trip to shake a leg, re- Nation called Cosley the “panther on lebridge, one of Glacier Na-
drove him to McDonald Creek where corded in the book “Belly River’s Fa- snowshoes,” according to local histo- tional Park’s irst rangers,
he ran deep into the park’s wilderness a fellow by the name of Joe Cosley, mous Joe Cosley” by Brian McClung, is rian Dave Renfrow. Cosley also left
toward his old camp near Belly River. hit the trail. Legend has it he headed just one of many amazing tales about his mark on the park by carving his
The rangers soon igured out Cosley’s north, running along Bowman Lake and one of Glacier’s irst rangers.
name into hundreds of trees over the
plan to grab his furs and guns and over Brown Pass toward Olson Creek. Cosley was born in Ontario in 1870 years.
head north, so they hopped a train Then he passed Lake Francis on his and was raised by a French isherman In 1910, when Maj. William R. Lo-

for the east side of the park. By the way to the Goat Haunt Ranger Sta- and an Algonquin Indian. While in his gan arrived to become Glacier Na-
time they arrived at the camp Cosley tion near the head of Waterton Lake. later years Cosley would spin tales tional Park’s irst superintendent, he
was already gone and “all tracks had There he turned north and ran along about his high-class eastern educa- hired Cosley and a rough-and-tumble
been carefully erased and everything the shore until he reached the town tion and beautiful mansion near the group of locals to serve as the irst
completely disappeared.”
of Waterton.
Hudson River, it’s likely he was edu- rangers. While hiring a known poacher
One of the park’s irst rangers When he arrived, still panting cated in a convent near Lake Huron. to protect the resources of a national
hopped the border and lived out the from his 35-mile jog through the wil- In the late 1800s, Cosley moved to park may seem unusual, in the words
rest of his life in Canada, never to be derness, he probably straightened Montana and made a living trapping of Logan, “It takes a poacher to ind a

seen in Glacier again. But the legend his shirt, brushed his hair and walked animals and selling furs. As a trapper poacher.” Cosley was assigned to the
and lore of Joe Cosley still echoes into a dance hall. And after he danced Cosley learned the ins and outs of the Belly River Ranger Station, deep in
through the park today.
the night away and swung a few part- land that would eventually become the northeast corner of the park.
[email protected]
ners around, Cosley headed south and
America’s 10th national park.
A year after he was hired, Cosley

The opening credits of Stanley Kubrick’s
The Yaak community is The average residence ilm “The Shining” (loosely based on
the northwestern-most time, or time that water
settlement in the state.
lingers in Flathead Lake, Stephen King’s novel) featured the !
!
S
S
T
is 2.2 years.
Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National T
C
C
Park. Kubrick was not in attendance A
A
during ilming because he hated to ly and Glacier Park has
Ross Creek Cedars
F
F
refused to leave England.
131 named lakes
near Troy began growing At an elevation
within its of 1,892, Troy is
boundaries.
around the same time the lowest point in
the New World was Montana.
discovered.