Excerpts from “Cabin Fever”
© Mildred Chaffin 1989. Reprinted with permission.
“Cabin Fever” is available on the Seeley Lake Historical Society (SLHS) website, http://www.seeleyhistory.org bookstore and locally at Cory’s Valley Market, Double Arrow Lodge, Grizzly Claw and Rovero’s.
A Dude Ranch or Cattle Ranch?
C.B. Rich shared some stories about the early days at the ranch. “’The dude buildings had been allowed to run down and we thought we budgeted enough to repair them. We didn’t, however, and maintenance and repair of the buildings were the problems we faced as long as we owned the property.
C.B. and Helen outfitted dudes that first season in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. They returned to their work of fence repair and building maintenance that winter. The Rich family was in for more surprises at Seeley Lake.
“To heat the lodge took a lot of wood. I had figured on being able to skid it out and haul it with horses the way we had in eastern Montana. We had four to five feet of snow that second winter, and we worked the horses pretty hard to get out a bare minimum!” C. B. said.
C.B. and Helen brought their Hereford cattle to the Double Arrow during their first winter at Seeley Lake. “We hauled the cattle in early February. We went down and gathered them from wind-blown winter pastures in eastern Montana. Helen had asked Bob Bandy to plow out a feed grounds at the Double Arrow. I still thank him for that. I doubt that we would have ever gotten those cattle off of the trucks. There was some four feet of snow and not a dry place to lie down anywhere. Those poor old cows walked and bawled for a week.”
The Riches learned the hard way that the Double Arrow wasn’t the most productive place to raise cows. Calf weights at sale time had averaged 500 pounds in eastern Montana. At Seeley Lake, the average calf weights went down to as low as 378 pounds. Besides that, they lost some cows that had developed asthma. “That was unheard of in eastern Montana,” Rich said.
“With that,” C.B. explained, “we decided that this wasn’t good cattle country, or that possibly our eastern Montana cows would never make the transition to it, so we sold them.”
In 1966, after coming up $100 short on a ranch payment, C.B. and Helen attempted to refinance their contract. They were unsuccessful. They sold the ranch to John Parker and Harold Mildenberger from Hamilton. The Rich family kept the pack outfit and leased the ranch back from the new owners.
“By that time, I believe every roof on the place was leaking, some of the foundations sadly needed repair and it was easy to see that we had gotten behind in our maintenance and repair,” C.B. said. Mildenberger and Parker spent some $20,000 doing the basics such as reroofing, C.B. explained.
Later in 1966, the ranch was again offered for sale. A Mrs. Snyder of Great Falls held an option on the ranch for a couple of months. Finally, it was sold to a man by the name of Lee Dahl. C.B. and Helen still kept the pack outfit and continued to operate as Double Arrow Outfitters.
During the years that Dahl owned the ranch, an auction was held. All of the equipment and furniture was sold. In previous transactions, all of the original equipment and furniture had stayed with the ranch.
At this time, C.B. and Helen terminated their lease with the Ranch. The current owners owed them money and the Riches took some of it in rent for Hilltop House, along with pasture and horse feed.
In 1970, Mr. Dahl left the ranch. Art Barstad of Minnesota, who had financial interest in the property at that time, asked C.B. to help with repair and maintenance of the ranch buildings. C.B. and Helen kept the pack outfit at the ranch.
That same year, the ranch was sold to Herb Richards, president of Life of Montana. He immediately began restoring the buildings. Log buildings were sanded inside and out. The first well was drilled, since the water supply for the buildings had previously come from Drew Creek. The buildings were completely redone, including plumbing, wiring and roofing. Oak ranch furniture from Texas was imported to decorate the Lodge. It was during these years that the subdivision of the ranch began.
“Good or bad, he (Richards) also began subdividing with an area along the Clearwater River, another one on Morrell Creek and a third one in the head of Drew Creek,” C.B. said. This left about 2,000 acres of the ranch intact, with plenty of room for the pack outfit.
In 1977, John Trippe put together a limited partnership and purchased the ranch. They finished restoration of the buildings and added a swimming pool, tennis court, and two buildings with four condominiums each. They also added a hot tub building and hot tub. In the horse facilities, they added a 20- stall pole barn with a tack room and an arena. That year they bought the pack outfit from C.B. and Helen Rich. For a short time, the pack outfit was once again under the ownership of the ranch. However, Jack Rich, C.B. and Helen’s son, soon bought the pack outfit back from the ranch’s owners. Jack Rich has operated Double Arrow Outfitters since that time.
Recent History of the Brand
In 1958, Jack Lanham had the Double Arrow brand registered on the left jaw on horses, and on the left shoulder on cattle. C.B. disliked both locations.
“Every horse I ever saw with a jaw brand was head shy. Branding cattle on a shoulder is very difficult with a one-stamp iron, since you have a hard time rolling it over the shoulder blade and getting a complete brand. As a result, I went to the office of the Recorder of Marks and Brands in Helena and spent the better part of two days tracing out the Double Arrow. I finally found that it could be recorded on the left thigh on horses and the left ribs on cattle, so I had it done.”
In later years, when it became apparent that the Rich family would continue to operate Double Arrow Outfitters separate from the ranch, C.B. registered the Double Arrow brand as a logo and trade name. He also registered the brand on the left neck as well as the left jaw.
When Jack Rich purchased the outfitting business back from John Trippe, C.B. deeded the brand on the left thigh on horses and the left ribs on cattle to Jack. C. B. kept the brand on the left jaw or the left neck on horses and the left shoulder on cattle. C.B. still owns the Double Arrow brand as a trademark and form of display. “I will also deed that to Jack,” he explained.
Conclusion
In 1989 C.B. and Helen Rich summed up their feelings about the Double Arrow Ranch. “I think that all of us were taken with the romance of the old buildings, the mountain setting, the history of Jan and so on. I know that was the case with all of our family. We were especially caught up in the dream after talking with Jan and his son Dutch for 10 or fifteen nights when they vacationed here. However, the facts still remain. There has been something over a half million dollars spent in trying to save the buildings.”
The subdivision of the ranch in the 1970s and 1980s was a controversial subject in the Seeley Lake community. It seems, however, that through the years the investors had no choice except to finance the refurbishing of the original ranch through the sale of smaller parcels of land. Today, the ranch consists of the old lodge, cabins and the horse facilities on about 200 acres.
Epilogue
Herb Townsend and C.B. Rich were interviewed in 1989 and provided most of the information for this story. Herb Townsend was a local pioneer who worked for the Double Arrow during the Boissevain era. C. B. Rich has been elected to the Montana Cowboy Hall of fame and will be honored at an induction ceremony in Great Falls on Feb. 5, 2016. Author Mildred Chaffin was a long-time resident, outfitteress, historian and author.
For more information about the Seeley Lake area stop in at the Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitors Center located south of town on Highway 83.
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