50 Years on Maid of the Mist

On August 12th, 1970, the U.S. Forest Service sent Bozeman High School students Bill Swartz Jr. and Rik Hurless -- along with a star drill chisel and heavy mallet, threaded rock inserts and bolts, a notepad and pencils, and a heavy metal box emblazoned with the USFS logo -- to the top of Maid of the Mist Mountain in Hyalite Canyon to install an official summit register.

On August 12th, 2020, a slightly older Bill returned with his neighbor, Patrick Cross, to resign the register on the 50th Anniversary of its installation. "It's right where I left it," he said on gaining the summit after four hours of hiking, bushwhacking, and scrambling, with an occasional stop to glass the surrounding cliffs for bighorn sheep.

Bill, who recently retired as a math professor at MSU-Northern in Havre and returned to the house he grew up in on South 14th Avenue in Bozeman, hadn't thought about the register much until three years ago, when his neighbor Patrick asked him about it after recognizing the address of the installer on its first page. But earlier this summer, when Patrick saw that the 50th Anniversary was approaching, Bill agreed that would be a worthy occasion to climb back up there and revisit it himself.

Looking through the names on the register brought back a lot of memories: after his and Rik's first signatures, the next signatures weren't until three years later, and those belonged to Bill and his father, Bill Swartz Sr., along with a note saying, 'Where is everybody? We are here!!'

"We were looking for sheep," he recalled on Wednesday, "and I must've dragged him to the top to make sure he signed it too."

But within a few years other names started to appear, including some fellow classmates and former teachers (like Mary Geis, an original member of the Bozeman Women's Activity Group, or BWAGs, who make annual pilgrimages to the summit as the pages of the register attest). Looking across the surrounding vista brought back a lot of memories too, mostly of big rams harvested and bigger rams that got away. He didn't spot any sheep this past Wednesday, but he did see a total of 10 mountain goats (which he said were not present in Hyalite back in the 70's), one of which was impossibly far away across Hyalite Canyon near the top of Flanders Mountain.

As storm clouds approached, he quickly signed the last page of the original register along with a note saying, "I installed this register w/ Rik Hurless 50 years ago today. Am an old man now but can still get up and down the mountains, so am not complaining." Then he left a brand new notebook and fresh pencils, closed the lid, and began the descent.

"Not sure if I will make it for the 100th anniversary," Bill laughed.

"At the rate you're going, I wouldn't be surprised if you do," Patrick replied.