Canyon Secret (3 page)

“OK, Mommy. Papa can read to Uncle.”

Tomas walked out of the hospital room into the hallway and sat in one of the chairs. He placed his hands over his face as he wept and mumbled to himself. “Why did all of this happen to us? What did little Anna do to deserve this terrible disease? And now we’re leavin’ Anna and Katya when they need us most.”

Mikhail came to the door and called Tomas into the room. “We’re goin’ Son. Time to say goodbye.”

Tomas walked around to the other side of Anna’s bed. He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Get better, Butterfly. We’ll ride the roller coaster at The Gardens when I get back. Understand?”

With a breathy quiet voice, Anna replied, “You’re a big chicken, Uncle. You get scared on the hills.”

“I’ll just have to close my eyes and hold your hand when we go down the hills.” Tomas faked a forced smile and walked over to his sister.

Katya burst into tears as she firmly hugged her brother. Through her tears she whispered, “Be good to my husband. He’s a good man. Tell him how much Anna and I love him.”

“I will, big sister. Can’t promise what our dad’ll do. But I will, I promise.”

Anna looked up at her grandfather and said, “Papa, why is everybody crying?”

Nothing in his life prepared him for this moment. Not even his rough childhood after his dad died. Not even this horrible strike and the scene at the union hall prepared him to leave his beautiful little granddaughter lying in a mechanical tube. “We cry cause we’re sad to leave.”

“I’ll get better Papa. Okay?”

Mikhail Anzich embraced and kissed his daughter and walked out of the room. His life totally flipped upside down. He walked by the nurse’s station and hurried down the stairs to the parking lot.

Tomas read aloud the May 6, 1952 edition of the
Hungry Horse Newspaper
that his brother-in-law David mailed to him. Mikhail drove as Tim Nolan slept in the back seat with his mouth wide open.

 

The Hungry Horse Project is a combination power and flood control project that was contemplated as a result of a survey of the area by the United States Geological Survey in 1934-35. The name of the project came from Hungry Horse Creek, a small tributary that entered the river about two miles upstream from the dam. This creek obtained the name when several half-starved horses were found in the snow-filled valley during the early days of the region.

Hungry Horse Dam is on the South Fork of the Flathead River, fifteen miles south of the west entrance to Glacier National Park and twenty miles northeast of Kalispell, Montana. The dam site is in a deep, narrow canyon approximately five miles southeast of the Fork’s confluence with the main stem of the Flathead River. The dam will play an important role in the program for meeting the growing need for power in the Pacific Northwest and a storage system for controlling devastating floods.

The South Fork River is diverted through a thirty-six foot diameter horseshoe shaped tunnel about one thousand feet long through the right abutment during the construction of the dam.

Tomas stopped reading as Nolan passed some foul gas. Nolan opened the fly window in the back. “Sorry boys, too much chili at the Chili King last night. Throw that in with the ton of Butte Special Beer I drank, a man’s gonna have some gas.”

Mikhail shook his head as he looked over at his son. Tomas laughed and rolled down his window to let out the rotten odor.

“Can’t imagine what the dam looks like, Dad. It’s almost finished. About five months or so to go.”

“Can’t neither.” His thoughts quickly changed to his son-in-law, David. It was a lot to ask to accept a job from him. “David most likely won’t let us forget what he’s done for us. Even though we’re working to help his daughter. I don’t trust him, but we got no other choice. He comes from good people. Don’t make sense how he turned out. We just got to make the best of it. Five months ain’t too bad a time.”

The rustling of the wax paper in the backseat caused Tomas to turn around and Mikhail to look into the rear-view mirror. Nolan dug into the tuna sandwiches on homemade bread that Katya prepared for them. Mikhail couldn’t pass up the opportunity to kid Nolan, “We only gone hundred miles. Food’s to last us until tomorrow, go easy on it.”

Between mouthfuls, Nolan came back, “I’m all in from all the back seat driving I’m doin’. Maybe you could keep it on the road some so a man wouldn’t have to work so hard. Then I wouldn’t have to eat just to keep up my strength.”

Tomas laughed again as he folded the newspaper and slid it under the front seat. “Once we get past Missoula up there, it’ll be the farthest I ever been away from Butte. Isn’t that something?”

Through a mouthful of sandwich, Nolan jumped back into the conversation, “Oh it’s something alright, Kid. Maybe your dad over there could get up off his big, brown Slovene ass once in awhile and take you someplace.”

Tomas wondered how Tim Nolan teased his father and got away with it. No one else ever said a harsh or teasing word to his father. Yet Nolan said anything he wanted and his father just smiled and shook his head. They must be real close friends all right. It’s a good thing for me and my father that Tim Nolan is along. He makes it a lot easier. I can take my mind off Katya and Anna once in awhile when he’s around.

N
amed for its shape of the number five, Lake Five was well known for its incredible color of blue, the beautiful variety of pine trees, and the spectacular backdrop of the peaks in Glacier National Park. A small town nearby, known as Egan, consisted of a boxcar depot, a sawmill, a company store, and housing for the railroad workers. The Western Fruit Express Company operated the Lake Five ice harvesting business during the winter. At times, as many as eighty men harvested ice from the lake. Ice was loaded into railroad cars and shipped to the division point in nearby Whitefish, Montana. Tourist cabins that opened in the 1920’s hosted train travelers from east of the Rocky Mountains who came to tour Glacier National Park and vacation at Lake Five.

Standing barefoot and wrapped snugly in her grandmother’s patch quilt, she stood on the back porch and waved goodbye to him as he drove away in his new Ford pickup. Warm sunny afternoons and rainy evenings of spring greened up everything nature allowed to live following the harsh winter of 1951-52. Cottonwood and birch trees sprung new branches and leaves almost overnight. The early evening smell of the red ocher dogwood and the fresh breeze off the lake permeated her senses as she deeply inhaled. A mating pair of loons swam gracefully through the still water in the bay in front of her long, sloping yard that led to the gravel shoreline.

This was her favorite time of the year. The dark, cruel winter finally left. A fresh start. A new beginning. Her thoughts shifted from the beauty of Lake Five to the complicated man who drove away from her log cabin. “What in the world am I doin’ with this married man? My husband’ll be home tonight. He’ll come driving up as soon as the train from Havre drops him off after his twenty-four hour shift. I hope and pray he’s so tired he goes right to bed. I don’t think I could stand it if he demands sex.”

Her thoughts of the last four hours and the incredible love making that she came to need and treasure burst into her mind. “Damn him, he’s so irresistible. I never knew it could be like this. But we can’t continue like this. Now, his in-laws are coming to work the dam. I can barely keep track of my husband’s schedule, run this string of cabins, volunteer for everything in Martin City and carry on with David. Now, I need to wait around until his in-laws go to work so he can call and set something up. I’ll go nuts keeping track of everything.”

As she walked back into her bedroom, she continued her self-talk. “Why can’t I just let him go? He’s no good. I know he pays for it with the girls at Mabels whenever he wants. He gambles, drinks, and spends too much money. He has a family in Butte. When did I lose my nerve? How did he take me over? Goddamn you David! Let me off the hook.” She burst into tears and returned to her bedroom.

By August 1946, two-hundred thirty-five business lots were leased, a park and playground had been platted, and water mains were laid. Over the next six years, twenty-five hundred residents settled down in Martin City. A third-class post office was built along with a four-room school and a jail. A forty-seat movie theater built of logs opened in 1947.

A women’s dress shop, two drug stores, a taxi, gas stations, grocery stores, cafés and bars, a variety store, hardware stores, apartments, a pool hall, a sporting goods store, a barber shop, barracks for the dam workers, an electric shop, a car garage, a lumber company, a rooming house, a confectionery store, and a butcher shop opened their doors for business in less than one year. All fifty-six businesses opened to accommodate the workers for Hungry Horse Dam.

As planned, David stopped his pickup in the parking lot of Bill’s Texaco Gas Station at the entrance to Martin City. He arrived an hour and a half late. David expected his father-in-law to make something of him being late. If it wasn’t this, it’d be something else. Mikhail leaned against his black Chevy with his arms folded. A patented scowl on his face greeted David as he approached. “Long ways to drive for you?”

“Good to see you too, Mikhail. Where’s Tommy?”

Mikhail straightened up and stretched his neck and shoulder muscles. He spoke in a low, deep voice, “Tomas’s usin’ the can in the station.”

He looked at Mikhail’s powerful arms and huge hands. David’s stomach nerves jumped. He visualized what Mikhail would do to him if he knew what he did for the last few hours. David mentally shifted gears and chased leftover thoughts of Lila standing on her porch. “You eat yet, Mikhail?”

“Your wife made us sandwiches.”

David’s stomach turned even more. “Kat is a beauty alright. I sure miss her cookin’.”

Mikhail winced every time David called his daughter Kat instead of Katya. He disliked everything about David, but when he called her Kat, Mikhail boiled inside. “Katya said to tell you, she and Anna love you.” He walked into the Texaco gas station and waited outside of the men’s room for his son.

Badrock Canyon is located in the northeast corner of Flathead County, along the southern boundary of Glacier National Park. The Canyon area follows the course of the Middle Fork of the Flathead River for approximately thirty-six miles. Early towns sprung up near the railroad. The towns of Hungry Horse and Martin City developed with the building of Hungry Horse Dam.

The locals in Martin City called it the most scenic boomtown in America. It was situated fifteen miles from Glacier Park and four miles from the Hungry Horse dam site. The canyon boomed in the summer of 1948. A wild west character of the canyon boomtowns soon became evident. Gambling, prostitution and liquor came with the big influx of dam workers. Thirteen bars gave the town of Martin City an old Montana look of gold rush days.

The Deerlick Saloon was one of the first buildings in Martin City. Mikhail disliked going into bars and being around men while they drank. He noticed Tim Nolan standing at the far end of the bar talking and laughing with the bartender and another man. Two ten-cent beers lined up side by side in front of him. He approached the three men but only looked at Nolan. “Time to check into the barracks. Let’s go.”

Nolan finished off the beer in his hand and picked up another. “Whoa there. Do ya know who I’m talking to here? This here is Billy Socolich.”

“You’re on your own.” Mikhail turned his back and walked out the door. His head throbbed, and he desperately wanted to get into bed. He slept poorly the night before. Thoughts of leaving his daughter and granddaughter punished his mind and robbed him of sleep. Visions of the men at the union meeting penetrated the insides of his eyes. He hated any indebtedness to David, and now Nolan complicated things. Nolan didn’t have a job waiting for him or a place reserved at the barracks.

Mikhail saw Tomas sitting in the front seat of the pickup talking to David. His son hadn’t learned to hate, distrust, or despise anyone, let alone David. Tomas trusted and liked everyone. Many people told Mikhail that his son was the most peaceful man they ever met. “If Tomas spends much time with David, he’ll learn how to distrust and hate in a hurry.” Mikhail climbed into his car and fired up the engine. He started to pull away, but stopped suddenly as Nolan banged on the backseat window. Mikhail didn’t acknowledge him as he took his place in the front seat.

“You’ve a good-size bug up your ass, Mikhail. Couldn’t be that you need a stiff drink and a good screw to clear your head, could it?” He laughed and drank from the glass of beer he stole from the Deerlick.

Mikhail ignored Nolan and followed David’s truck up the Martin City Hill toward the barracks. As he approached the top of the hill, Nolan enthusiastically pointed out his window at a house with two smaller buildings a few feet away. “There’s Mabel’s. Right at the top of Sugar Hill, just like Billy told me. I’ll be takin’ my nephew there on payday to lose his silver bullet.”

Mikhail swirled his head, “No, you won’t!”

“Ya, I will. Only three bucks. I might lay down a ten and let one of those nasty little girls take him ‘round the world. It’d be good for him. He’s nineteen now. It’s time.”

Mikhail slammed on the brakes, glared and then growled at his childhood friend. “He don’t get it that way! He’ll find somebody good, and that’s soon enough.”

Nolan yawned before he took his final swig of the beer. “We’d better get goin’. Davey boy took a left up there.”

David and Tomas stood outside of the truck and waited for the black Chevy to join them. David lit a Camel and leaned against a post attached to the porch of the barracks. Nolan walked up to him and said, “So, Davey, you still screwing good people over every chance you get?”

David hated being called Davey. He knew Nolan called him that just to get his goat. “I’ve jobs for my family, but not you. You might be out of luck, Timmy.”

“Oh, I don’t know. They made a chickenshit Croat into a boss. Can’t be too tough to get along up here. I’ll probably be runnin’ the place before the week’s out.”