Fred Splitt in 1971
Among the many personalities of Rock Creek was Fred Splitt. He always attended the dances at Uncle Tom’s Cabin and never danced with a partner. His dance was a jig which consisted of moving one leg to the rhythm of the music for a period of time and then changed to the other leg. He would begin with the first dance and leave to go outside at each intermission to have a little refreshment. As the evening progressed his jig got slowly less jig and more sway until he would just sit down on a bench and go quietly to sleep. Fred said he “was the very best dancer….well maybe there is one better…Fred Astaire.”
Fred was born in Duport, Wisconsin on March 6, 1887. It is unknown exactly when he came to Granite County. There is no record of him in the 1910 Federal Census and he was living in Wisconsin in the 1900 Census. He arrived before November 1, 1912 as he was is listed as a registered voter with his address as “Dearborn Ranch” in the Mail on that date. The Dearborn Ranch was located on the Middle Fork of Rock Creek at the mouth of Dearborn Gulch in Section 32. The buildings were destroyed by fire on March 30, 1927 when G.Z. Adams lived there according to the April 1, 1927 Mail. This may be incorrect because Adam’s had a homestead in that same area.
The December 26, 1913 Mail stated “F. E. Splitt came in this week from Seba siding near Anaconda, where he has just completed a big contract for getting out mining timbers. He will return there after the holidays and take another contract to cut on railroad land.” He was a known far and wide for his sawyer skills such as when he cut all the logs to rebuild the Allen Webb Ranch house after the newly built home burned to the ground.
Fred entered World War I in August 1918 after he sold his modern bungalow cottage on lower Broadway to Mrs. J.W. Sundberg for $2,800.00 detailed the Mail May 24, 1918. He was discharged August 1919 at Fort D.A. Russell in Wyoming.
By 1921 he was a well established biological survey hunter with his picture shown standing beside a one month catch of coyotes in an article in the Missoulian in February. The article described predatory animals costing stockmen more than $100,000 per year and acknowledged the work of federal survey hunters taking 25,361 animals for the year ending June 30, 1920.
On October 14, 1921 I found where Fred had a close call near the Six Mile House, when his Ford plunged off the grade and was wrecked with his body bruised.
Fred continued to trap coyote’s according to the December 8, 1922 Mail, and was credited with twenty-three trapped and two others shot when they failed to get into his traps. The paper goes on to say he hung all the pelts on a line and took a picture of them then sold them to a local fur house. At the time of the news the past week had a heavy snow storm, so all of Fred’s traps were snowed under and he was going to have to dig them out and reset them.
On February 26, 1926 the Mail identified Fred as the “Rock Creek Coyote-wizard” and stated he spent Tuesday in town. This was probably during the time Fred homesteaded in Antelope Gulch. After selling the homestead to Ed Sanders he bought the Foster Smith place at the west end of Eagle Canyon. Fred lived there until it was sold to the Lyon’s family about 1940.
One of his major means of income was building the Beaver Slide hay stacker and almost every ranch on Rock Creek and the Forks had a Beaver Slide, built by Fred. As the years progressed he taught the craft to a couple of protégé’s. But most of the ranchers believe they have either “the last” or “one of the last one’s” he built.
After living in cabins and trapping around Mount Amerine for many more years, Fred moved into Philipsburg. He was admitted to the “Old Soldiers” Veteran’s Home at Columbia Falls, Montana on an unknown date and died there at the age of eighty-eight on October 8, 1975 of Pulmonary Edema. His body was returned “Home” where he was given a full military graveside service with internment at the Philipsburg Cemetery.
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