Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m from South of Canada.
Peg Leg
Flowers bloom in the morning on the steep hillside. Bright shoots of yellow balsamroot and purple lupine poking through the dormant earth. A first glimpse of life in this world waking up for spring.
They overlook the Selway River below. The green water bounces off boulders and cascades through colossal canyon walls as it sweeps down the Magruder Corridor. One slip and a soul would be lost forever.
Ancient ponderosa pines tower above the wildflowers. The sweet-smelling giants who have seen it all. The first to walk here. Those who followed. All that was before.
A grizzly, the last of his kind in these parts, rubs his back against the thick bark of a ponderosa. He scratches, causing bits of red-orange bark to fall to the ground. The tree doesn’t mind.
The grizzly rolls over a rotting log. He looks for the insects squirming on the underside. The breeze carries in a scent all too familiar. He freezes. His muscles tense and his silvertips stand up straight. There’s a click.
The wildflowers take refuge in their petals. The river is silent. The boulders rattle in fury. The trees weep for the shot aimed at the three-legged bear.
He looks up to see a trapper. The one who stole his foot. The bear’s claws dangle around his neck on a piece of twine. The angry grizzly lets out a roar that echoes through the Magruder Corridor. The trapper pulls. The chamber is empty.
The three-legged bear lives on.
His name was Peg Leg. He is said to be the last of the original Bitterroot grizzlies. A trapper named Homer McClain tried to snag him in 1929 after Peg Leg rummaged through his cabin. McClain returned to his trap to find the lone foot of a grizzly. From that, the legend of Peg Leg rose like smoke drifting up towards the sky. The Bitterroot bear who gnawed off his own foot. He traded that foot for his freedom. Hunters and trappers spent years chasing him through the mountains. Some say he was trapped again. Some say he was shot. Some say he died of old age. Others say there are still three-legged tracks walking on the western slopes in the Bitterroots.
