Flathead Lake Lodge

The well known ‘TV night show host David Letterman’ owned a big ranch in Choteau, Montana, where he had a noted presence in the small town. At one point, a man tried to kidnap his young child at the ranch for ransom. He was soon apprehended and sent to Montana State Prison.

Years later, the potential kidnapper and a fellow inmate, while working outside duty on the prison ranch, a minimum-security setting, slipped off and escaped.

After their escape, they stole some weapons and were considered armed and dangerous. The escapees were all over the news. The Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge is 150 miles from Flathead Lake Lodge, so nobody felt endangered, yet were following the news story.

Several days later it was a typical morning at the Ranch, the Swan River fishing trip was departed early towards the wilderness valley with six fishermen and guide. After they departed, the Lake County Sherrif called, who I knew personally, and said “Call off your fishing trip,” as he was familiar with our river trips. He explained that the two men were spotted bathing in the river by a game warden, exactly where our trip launches in the river. The men were spooked and ran off, naked, without their guns. The river launch site was so remote that our Ranch radios couldn’t communicate with the fishermen and we couldn’t call off the trip. The fishing party arrived at the river, loaded the rafts and went off for a great day of fishing unaware of the naked prisoners on the loose in that area. Well, that was just the start of the story.

Back at the Ranch on the same day, it was the typical Wednesday afternoon, where we saddle up and guests ride horseback to a steak cookout in the mountains through our private elk preserve.  As the wranglers were gathering the herd of horses to saddle up, other staff were preparing the food and logistics for moving 200 people to the mountain BBQ setting. Once again, the sheriff called with alarming news. He said they had captured one of the men in Woods Bay, just a half mile south of the elk preserve. The other man escaped and ran towards the Ranch property. Amazingly they had traveled 150 miles from the prison to the river launch site, and last night after being spotted walked almost 10 miles over the top of the mountain range in heavy brush and grizzly habitat to reach the highway along the east shore of Flathead Lake. They were bare footed, still naked and pretty scratched up. The Sherrif said he and his deputies were being called to another serious incident in Polson and asked if we could assist and watch for the other escaped prisoner and were authorized to arrest him if found. Well, in true Montana spirit, we took the challenge. I got on the radio and asked for senior staff to go home to get their guns and meet me at the barn. Ya! Nobody had to go home. They had been following the news story about dangerous prisoners on the loose and all had their guns in their trucks. Next came the decision, do we call off the BBQ or go for it? Kevin, our manager and I decided it would be a bit wimpy to tell the guests we weren’t going to the BBQ, spoiling their favorite event of the week based on the chance a naked prisoner might jump out and try to take someone hostage. Without question, we decided to carry on as normal, not telling the guests of the situation. The next issue was do we tell the mostly female wrangler team leading the trail ride about the danger. We thought best to inform them what was going on, but to keep it quiet. We gathered the wranglers to inform them a naked prisoner may jump out of the brush and who knows what he might do. The reaction from the female wranglers was memorable. The lady wranglers were a confident bunch that weren’t going to be intimidated by a naked dangerous prisoner.  We quickly decided the senior staff would set up as sentries in the timber along the 3 miles of trail to the BBQ, ready with their guns if needed. What could go wrong with this plan?! The wranglers and staff all had radios and agreed that if the prisoner was spotted, we would converge on horseback, subdue him with cuffs and call the sheriff to deal with him and trail ride would continue to the BBQ. Well, our cowboy adventure fell flat as the man was spotted very close to where the BBQ was being held and taken into custody by other citizens. Just another day on the Ranch.