Elk Mishap in 1955 Idaho

[Brians356]

This photo is from the 18 June 2020 Lewiston Tribune.

Caption: "Joe Hahn takes a closer look at the decaying body of a frozen elk in this photo taken by his son, John, one day in about 1955. The father and son were up on the frozen Lochsa River a few miles above Lowell when they discovered the elk, and John took this photo of his dad holding onto an antler. The Hahns figured the elk was crossing the frozen river and fell through the ice, and the elk's antlers kept its head above the ice after it died. John Hahn lives in Craigmont."

This would have been a few months before I was born in Lewiston, Idaho. Mr. Hahn is almost certainly wearing the woodsman's uniform Filson Mackinaw wool cruiser jacket.
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[lb-ft]

Love those old B&W photographs. Fascinating!

 

[ronsatspokane]

Woodsman's uniform indeed. My father was born in Kamiah in 1929. He wore a jacket like that during cold weather up until the day he died a number of years back. I remember my grandfather wearing a similar jacket while out hunting with him in snow up to my waste. Of course I was young and that snow was probably only 2 feet deep. My fathers last version of that jacket, along with the knit cap he wore when it got real cold, is still hanging in my shop behind the drafting board he used while working as a mechanical engineer and had setup when he moved in with us in his later years. I think the original red and black checkered one is there as well. He sat at that drafting board in that jacket, drinking beer, reading and playing with guns for last last ten years of his life. I was kind of pissed when he sheepishly told me that he'd shot a hole in the side of my shop one day while I was at work. He was a good guy.

 

[riflewoman]

Woodsman's uniform indeed. My father was born in Kamiah in 1929. He wore a jacket like that during cold weather up until the day he died a number of years back. I remember my grandfather wearing a similar jacket while out hunting with him in snow up to my waste. Of course I was young and that snow was probably only 2 feet deep. My fathers last version of that jacket, along with the knit cap he wore when it got real cold, is still hanging in my shop behind the drafting board he used while working as a mechanical engineer and had setup when he moved in with us in his later years. I think the original red and black checkered one is there as well. He sat at that drafting board in that jacket, drinking beer, reading and playing with guns for last last ten years of his life. I was kind of pissed when he sheepishly told me that he'd shot a hole in the side of my shop one day while I was at work. He was a good guy.

View attachment 1185513

when you remember him, he’s still alive and with you. Cherish those memories!

 

[Brians356]

@ronsatspokane,

My dad was also born in The Clearwater Country, in Elk River, ID in 1925. He passed away in 2016 at age 90. I have his old Filson cruiser, black/white check pattern, but alas it's too small for me, even though he (like most others) bought it too large for himself. As you know, they have a double layer on the shoulders/back, which with side entries forms a built-in day pack. He stuffed a lot of pheasants in there when we hunted the "chinks" around Lewiston. It also held our baloney sandwiches, sardines, and candy bars while fishing the lower Clearwater for steelhead and small-mouth bass.

His own father was a timber cruiser for the Potlatch company, an occupation for which the cruiser jacket got its name. The job entails scaling (estimating board footage of) a timber allotment to assess its value for bidding or planning purposes. Grandpa Harry would "cruise" the timber in that rugged country on snowshoes for a week or two at a time, carrying his beloved cocker spaniel "Rusty" on one of his showshoes. He had a heart attack doing that and died at age 59 in 1950, before I was born (in 1955). Sure wish I could have known him. He had been around timber and lumber all his life, and in WW-I ran an Army sawmill in France cutting spruce for aircraft construction.
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[ronsatspokane]

Those old timers were tough old bastards who'd been through the hell of world wars, Korea and the depression. Never heard one of them (my grandfather, his brothers or my father) complain about anything. After what they'd been through everything they encountered was a cake walk. My dad told stories of his uncle and father killing deer in Kamiah to feed people in the town during the depression before WWII started. One story has it that they had a couple deer covered with blankets on a sled being pulled by a horse. They ran into the game warden. They felt the game warden knew what was under the blankets but he never asked to see. They parted ways and nothing was ever said.

 

[Brians356]

The game wardens in small rural towns during the Great Depression were part of the community, and much was overlooked when hunger was the motivation. There was really no trophy hunting, it was all subsistence, and many a big buck or bull was passed over in favor of a doe or cow for table meat. My dad owned a dry goods store / butcher shop / meat locker in Pierce, ID, for a few years in the early '50s, and he would have never shot anything with a big rack, nor would the hunters for whom he stored meat.
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[CT10ring]

Woodsman's uniform indeed. My father was born in Kamiah in 1929. He wore a jacket like that during cold weather up until the day he died a number of years back. I remember my grandfather wearing a similar jacket while out hunting with him in snow up to my waste. Of course I was young and that snow was probably only 2 feet deep. My fathers last version of that jacket, along with the knit cap he wore when it got real cold, is still hanging in my shop behind the drafting board he used while working as a mechanical engineer and had setup when he moved in with us in his later years. I think the original red and black checkered one is there as well. He sat at that drafting board in that jacket, drinking beer, reading and playing with guns for last last ten years of his life. I was kind of pissed when he sheepishly told me that he'd shot a hole in the side of my shop one day while I was at work. He was a good guy.

View attachment 1185513

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Ya know, there are woodsmen around still. Maybe you can one see in the mirror, shaving.

 

[ronsatspokane]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Ya know, there are woodsmen around still. Maybe you can one see in the mirror, shaving.

Not so much. It's been over 70 years since most of the western world has known any real hardship. The kind of hardship felt at a global level that involved life or death choices often on a daily basis. Over half the population today has never known life without a cell phone and even people like me who were born in the 50's have known nothing but expanding economies, increasing conveniences, more and better technology, more disposable income and more choices to spend it on than any of the previous generations could have dreamed of. We've come to expect that the good times will continue on into perpetuity. About 15 years ago I was doing a remodel and burning the scrap from the tear out. I went to throw a 2x4 on the fire that was busted up and I didn't want to reuse it. As I threw it on my father said: when I was a kid we would have killed for a board like that. I believed him.

Don't get me wrong, many will get out into the wild to hunt and fish but they are, more often than not, wrapped in a North Face or Cabelas weather proof jacket, goretex pants, boots and gloves, a nice cap and pockets loaded with high tech chemical hand warmers, LED flashlights and sporting a high tech ultra light rifle or carbon fiber fishing pole. And they don't really need anything they catch or kill. They can get it at the local store for considerably less than the cost of the equipment and time they put into the sport. Times have changed and people have also changed. What was a necessity and even a way of life has become recreation. Lets hope that the modern man never needs to develop the skills and fortitude our fore fathers often needed for basic survival. Many would not be able to make the cut. I may well be in that group.

 

[CT10ring]

Not so much. It's been over 70 years since most of the western world has known any real hardship. The kind of hardship felt at a global level that involved life or death choices often on a daily basis. Over half the population today has never known life without a cell phone and even people like me who were born in the 50's have known nothing but expanding economies, increasing conveniences, more and better technology, more disposable income and more choices to spend it on than any of the previous generations could have dreamed of. We've come to expect that the good times will continue on into perpetuity. About 15 years ago I was doing a remodel and burning the scrap from the tear out. I went to throw a 2x4 on the fire that was busted up and I didn't want to reuse it. As I threw it on my father said: when I was a kid we would have killed for a board like that. I believed him.

Don't get me wrong, many will get out into the wild to hunt and fish but they are, more often than not, wrapped in a North Face or Cabelas weather proof jacket, goretex pants, boots and gloves, a nice cap and pockets loaded with high tech chemical hand warmers, LED flashlights and sporting a high tech ultra light rifle or carbon fiber fishing pole. And they don't really need anything they catch or kill. They can get it at the local store for considerably less than the cost of the equipment and time they put into the sport. Times have changed and people have also changed. What was a necessity and even a way of life has become recreation. Lets hope that the modern man never needs to develop the skills and fortitude our fore fathers often needed for basic survival. Many would not be able to make the cut. I may well be in that group.

Some dam tough sons of guns here. Central Idaho. Heck, all of em. Days of yore continue, yup. I'm an outlier. I save the wood scraps from the house build job I'm working on - for kindling and have carted off a lot of 2X4's, 2X6's that were headed to the refuse container. Don't give up the ship... I have some Filson gear. It's pretty good. double cape coat - must weight 12 lbs. (!) and a hat with ear flaps - looks goofy but a guy's best friend when the wind blows and the snow flies.

 

[Will Henry]

I still wear on of those coats with a triple layer over the shoulders. On a wet day, that sucker will weigh 25 pounds. I bought the coat in 1974.
Regarding the dead elk: About twenty years ago, we were driving out the driveway, on a cold January morning, when a small herd of twenty-some elk came down off the hill and crossed the driveway. One cow jumped right over the hood! They then stampeded down over the bank and into a tangle of spruce and poplar in the draw. We went on into town and I thought no more of it since it was a fairly common occurrence. A couple of days later, I was taking the dogs for a walk up this same draw when I saw the hind end of a cow elk, she was standing, not moving, with her head and shoulders obscured by brush. I took the dogs out around her, giving her a wide berth so as to not startle her. About fifty yards further on, I looked back and she was still standing there, with her head down and still not moving. Curious, I circled around and approached her from the front. She seemed oblivious, which was quite understandable since she was dead!
She had jumped over a deadfall which was about 3 1/2 feet above the ground. As her front feet hit the ground, her neck wedged into the intersection of another pair of small poles which formed an "X" at a level which just allowed her fore feet to touch the ground. The horizontal log she had jumped supported her so that her hind feet also just touched. She was probably choked out in seconds and died right there. She was frozen solid (the temp was about -25) and looked like she was just napping on her feet. Being frozen, there was very little scent and she was invisible from the air so neither the coyotes nor the ravens found her until the spring thaw. This was a classic case of "s--t happens"! WH

 

[Brians356]

I still wear on of those coats with a triple layer over the shoulders. On a wet day, that sucker will weigh 25 pounds. I bought the coat in 1974.
Regarding the dead elk: About twenty years ago, we were driving out the driveway, on a cold January morning, when a small herd of twenty-some elk came down off the hill and crossed the driveway. One cow jumped right over the hood! They then stampeded down over the bank and into a tangle of spruce and poplar in the draw. We went on into town and I thought no more of it since it was a fairly common occurrence. A couple of days later, I was taking the dogs for a walk up this same draw when I saw the hind end of a cow elk, she was standing, not moving, with her head and shoulders obscured by brush. I took the dogs out around her, giving her a wide berth so as to not startle her. About fifty yards further on, I looked back and she was still standing there, with her head down and still not moving. Curious, I circled around and approached her from the front. She seemed oblivious, which was quite understandable since she was dead!
She had jumped over a deadfall which was about 3 1/2 feet above the ground. As her front feet hit the ground, her neck wedged into the intersection of another pair of small poles which formed an "X" at a level which just allowed her fore feet to touch the ground. The horizontal log she had jumped supported her so that her hind feet also just touched. She was probably choked out in seconds and died right there. She was frozen solid (the temp was about -25) and looked like she was just napping on her feet. Being frozen, there was very little scent and she was invisible from the air so neither the coyotes nor the ravens found her until the spring thaw. This was a classic case of "s--t happens"! WH

Heck of a story. But you didn't harvest any meat, not even the backstraps?
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[Will Henry]

I suppose I could have whittled on it with the chainsaw or an axe but I wasn't that hungry. When I say frozen solid, I mean SOLID! Eventually, the ravens and coyotes had their feast. There have been times when I would have been desperate for the protein but this wasn't one of them. WH

 

[300_whisper]

Nature is the cruelest of the cruel. Send this pic to anti hunters. Still pretty amazing photo.

 

[300_whisper]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Ya know, there are woodsmen around still. Maybe you can one see in the mirror, shaving.

I see what you did there...that’s deep.

 

[CT10ring]

I see what you did there...that’s deep.

How are you faring, Southern man? Yeah stuff gets deep out here in cattle country. Cattle drive on HWY 75 south of Challis, Idaho. pic from 2019.
Had a chat w a ranch hand driving ( last guy - after them beeves had headed south) and honestly laughed my azz off. Sitting in my parked truck, to be clear. 10 minutes? Yeah I can wait, to see this version of the U.S. Why I'm here.

 

[300_whisper]

I love the southeast, but I am starting to see the NE move down here and I want to get away. I wish I could live out in the dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, or maybe even New Mexico.

 

[6ShotsOr5?]

Most of the Filson gear is never gonna wear out.

 

[CT10ring]

I love the southeast, but I am starting to see the NE move down here and I want to get away. I wish I could live out in the dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, or maybe even New Mexico.

I'll tell you - MT, ID, WY. have cold hard long winters. 1st hand. Wyoming - darn, that's an ESPECIALLY hard place and more when its it's cold. North Dakota is the ultimate hardship - in the winter. I used to shoot on ranches there (still do, but less) and we'd exchange letters - Ranchers and me - let me tell you - it's a hard earned life in the Dakotas in the winter. I have a suggestion. For a way of life - not freezing. Check out Twin falls ID and Hagerman Idaho. Boise Idaho is a great little city, plus Eagle ID. You can be out in stunning wild country in 2 hrs. I mean, really- get lost and die - drainages. where I cut firewood. .357 serving suggestion. [ATTACH=fu

 

[ronsatspokane]

View attachment 1186032
I'll tell you - MT, ID, WY. have cold hard long winters. 1st hand. Wyoming - darn, that's an ESPECIALLY hard place and more when its it's cold. North Dakota is the ultimate hardship - in the winter. I used to shoot on ranches there (still do, but less) and we'd exchange letters - Ranchers and me - let me tell you - it's a hard earned life in the Dakotas in the winter. I have a suggestion. For a way of life - not freezing. Check out Twin falls ID and Hagerman Idaho. Boise Idaho is a great little city, plus Eagle ID. You can be out in stunning wild country in 2 hrs. I mean, really- get lost and die - drainages. where I cut firewood. .357 serving suggestion. View attachment 1186031

Boise is getting big. The last time I was through there I thought I'd made a wrong turn and ended up in a big city. Now north of there and you're talking. Places like Cascade and McCall are the size I long for.