Post by Diane Merkel on May 27, 2006 15:26:11 GMT -6
In some ways, the protection of this special place is the legacy of John George (Kootenai) Brown, one of the more colourful characters in Canada's Old West. Irish-born and Oxford-educated, Brown sold his commission in the British Army after serving a stint in India, and set out in 1862 for the gold fields of British Columbia. The story of the next 54 years of his life read like fiction — and some of it probably is.
After brief spells as a miner, gambler and constable, Brown made his way east across the Rockies to try his hand as a buffalo hunter and whisky runner before working south of the border as a message rider for the U.S. Army. He claimed to have been captured by — and then to have escaped from — Chief Sitting Bull. In one interview late in life, he said he missed the massacre at Little Big Horn by declining to scout for George Custer's cavalry.
For the entire article: tinyurl.com/pj98p