John Fraley Livres

"Author John Fraley tells thirteen pioneer stories of the Middle, North, and South Forks of the Flathead River in and around the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park. In Rangers, Trappers, and Trailblazers, Fraley brings alive more than a century of history--old-timers, quirky characters, and mountain landscapes. The stories feature a love triangle and fatal shootout, tangles with grizzlies, a few unsolved mysteries, daring ranger patrols, six dead trappers, backcountry plane crashes, an unmarked mass grave, and a "war on predators" that extended across the Bob Marshall backcountry. Read along and learn the stories of Cowboy Chick Grimsley, tough Henry Thol (the ranger's ranger), Madame Queen, the Galloping Finn, and many other colorful historical characters from the Flathead River forks. The stories spring from dozens of interviews, site visits, and extensive research conducted over nearly a decade. This book honors these historical figures and preserves their uncanny stories before they fade from our collective memory."--Provided by publisher.

Follow author John Fraley as he traces the lives and times of past and present heroes of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, from old-timers like Joe Murphy, to Smoke Elser, and on to the present. Over the past century, these heroes have ridden, packed, and hiked from one end of the Bob to the other, and they’ve helped make the wilderness what it is today. You’ll ride along on horse and mule treks and wrecks, and discover the sport of trout wrangling. You’ll meet the fluorescent hunter, White River Sue, and the black-clad backpacker. You’ll battle packrats, fish-eating deer, tricky bears, and a tree-hugging criminal. Sit back and read about a dog rescue, smokejumper adventures, kids raised in the wilderness, and the first study of grizzlies in the Bob. Witness a tense moose-lassoing rodeo, and meet a backcountry rooster named Bob Marshall, the first live chicken to attempt a traverse of the Bob. The heroes in this book have ridden and hiked hundreds of thousands of miles through the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Now, come along with them and celebrate their contributions, their challenges, and their fun times.

As young men, John Fraley and Terry McCoy were kindred spirits, drawn to Montana's most remote, rugged, wild places. Tragically, one of them died young, his wilderness dreams cut short. The other went on to a forty-year career studying fish and furbearers in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. My Wilderness Life tells of John Fraley's life-long love of all places wild, and his obsession with uncovering what happened in August 1974 when Terry McCoy's airplane crashed in what would become the Welcome Creek Wilderness. Join Fraley on a frantic search to find his friend, and on epic treks to traverse an impassable river canyon, snorkel with pure westslope cutthroat trout, retrace the footsteps of conservation icon Bud Moore, track lynx and mountain lions across the Great Bear Wilderness in winter, hike 42 miles through the Bob in a single day, and much more. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, My Wilderness Life reveals how one man's unfulfilled dreams can inspire another's adventures.