POW, Government Trapper and Search and Rescue

 

Frank Haacke Military photo courtesy Ann Allen

Located across the valley, near the base of the Antelope Hills six miles south of Philipsburg was located the Haacke place. Frank E. and his wife Emily “Pat” ( Kidder) Haacke settled there after Frank came back from the WWII prison camps. Originally, Frank’s parents Henry A. and Estella (Stella) Rose Whittier Haacke settled on a homestead on Little Trout Creek. He was the fourth of seven children born to Henry and Estella. Frank’s grandparents, David and Harriet Louisa (Phelps) Haacke, homesteaded outside of Stevensville at the base of the Burnt Fork Trail and were known to bring sacks of flour from their grist mill by a mule train over the Sapphire Mountains on what was then called the Bitterroot Direct Trail. This trail came from Burnt Fork through a pass and dropped down into the Stoney Gulch coming out on lower Rock Creek. Frank attended the East Fork School and one year in Philipsburg. He left school after the sixth grade and began working on the local ranches. He also did some rodeoing with his rough-neck peers. 

Frank joined the Army when WWII began and during the Battle of the Bulge was captured by the Germans. He escaped with some other prisoners after at least nine months in the camp and ran for the Russian lines. The Russians helped them get to the Americans. After being discharged in Maryland, he rode a Harley Davidson back to Montana, by way of Texas. A later article stated Frank spent time in California recovering before he returned to Montana. I remember when he arrived back in Granite county and was almost a skeleton. His daughter related to me that his weight was 72 pounds. He told about digging many tunnels trying to escape including one where on the escape night the prisoners were confronted with a note from the Germans saying “Boys, please stay for Christmas.” The prisoners were then locked into a “sardine packed box car with fellow prisoners that traveled for seven days…The day the train stopped and Frank’s feet touched the ground an Allied bombing raid began. It gave him his run for freedom.” He was awarded a Combat Infantry Badge, three major battle stars and a good conduct medal and released to find his way home. Named “Shell Shock” during WWII, he was on his own to find ways to cope with PTSD. 

An article written about Frank in the Mail, July 16, 1992 detailed his life after the war. During this period he trapped for the Government and contracted with the Walt Disney Productions to trap a bear for the starring role in “Yellowstone Twins.” Frank also raised at least one wild sheep, named Rambo. My father often hunted Mountain Lions with Frank and he always joined in with Dad, Ceal, Martha and others at the dances at “Uncle Tom’s,” where Frank played his fiddle. Frank became a member of the Montana Fiddlers and took first and second place twice in the Virginia City Fiddlers contest during his lifetime.

Numerous persons lost in the National Forest’s in Granite county were found by Frank and his bloodhounds. Two of those people I can recall. Gerald Barney’s body was found in the Fish Lake area after an extensive search and Duane Cape was more fortunate. At the age of fifteen, Duane went hunting on Mount Amerine and did not return to the car at the appointed time which triggered an extensive search. Duane was found at 4 a.m. sitting by a bonfire he had built to keep warm. After the Gerald Barney incident concerned citizens of Granite county formed a search and rescue committee. This group purchased a female bloodhound pup and presented it to Frank to own and train. The news article on December 13, 1957 stated that in three weeks a male pup would be presented to Frankie Haacke and he would be in charge of training that animal. Father Frank had many bloodhounds in his life. 

He ran for Granite County Sheriff on the republican ticket according to the May 21, 1954 Mail and lost to Nick Munis. Frank and Pat had three children before they separated and Pat remarried; they were: Frank H., Patsy (Bahsteter) and Wally who died July 4, 2007 in Umpqua, Oregon, at the age of sixty-one with nternment in the Philipsburg cemetery with Military honors on July 13. 

Frank suffered a stroke on the first day of hunting season in 1999. After a stay at Fort Harrison and some time with Patsy, he was admitted to Granite County Nursing Home and died on February 17, 2009 at the age of ninety-three. Besides his two children, Frank was survived by thirteen grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren. .