Ed Krumpe Interview, Part One Item Info
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Ed Krumpe:Hello, I'm Ed Krumpe. I'm a retired professor from the College of Natural Resources. Came to the University of Idaho in 1979 to teach the wilderness management course. And that first season I was here, because I had been a park superintendent and had been a carpenter before that. I was tasked with going in and looking at this facility they called a Taylor ranch which had 64 acres that had been homesteaded by Jess Taylor, who was a famous outfitter and then later became a site for research for Maurice Hornocker. The first in a world radio collar cougars. And so for 27 years there were Cougars radio collared in there. But they flew me in and of course, I mean, Taylor Ranch is whatever you want to call it, and I was expecting a ranch. And it's not. It's 64 acres on Big Creek, a beautiful creek. It's the primary tributary to the Middle Fork, seven miles up from the from the Middle Fork of the Salmon. And there were you know, there were several log cabins, some historic there a couple of newer structures. Things weren't in very good repair. And there were seasonal interns that would work on science projects in there. But the outfitter they retain an outfitter that actually took care of and it was a caretaker of the place in exchange for hunting privileges.
Ed Krumpe:And then the students would would come and go, but it was in rough, it was in rough condition. And so I mean, when I first saw it, I gotta tell you my first surprise was this isn't a ranch. It's in a steep canyon River Valley. But there's something special about that piece of landscape, I guess I call it a sense of place when you when you step out of the plane or even if you're hiking and cross the bridge. And you look around, there's just it's, it's like there's everything you'd need to survive there. You have a view to the, to the north of the grass covered benches. There's three, three levels of benches, where the elk and bighorn sheep and deer come in the winter, when there's snow everywhere else, they can still browse there. We've counted up to 64 at a time of elk, bighorn and deer on the slopes. The stream is a primary tributary there's salmon that run up it. There's lots of cutthroat and bull trout. And then there are two small streams of very small stream Pioneer Creek comes right through the complex where some of the cabins are. And at the west end of the property is Rush Creek. And that crosses our property. And that's a that's a fair sized stream. And it's there's a lot of anatomist fish go up yet. And so you have this combination of open spaces forced to the south, because that's north facing. And then two streams plus the major Creek and it's wide open. You get the sun in the summer. It's just it's just a special place and you look at it. And you before long you start hiking around and pretty soon you find signs that someone else has been here like you go downstream less than a mile and there's these depressions in the ground, which people used to speculate was that where trees fell over and that was a root ball? Or was that minor scratching hole or something? Well, it was pit houses. We call them Sheep Eaters here it is, but they were there prior to that.
Ed Krumpe:Yeah, ancient ancient houses that finally was excavated. So one of the archaeologists from the University of Idaho, Dr. Franklin Hardy came in, had a grant from the National Geographic Society and started to dig those and those were dug into the ground. And then there would be dark hole colored circular holes along each side where they made like Quonset huts and covered that with bark and brush and stuff. And there'd be a firepit in one end dollies. And these these are the excavation for the archaeologists was quite deep that they in sunken in like that they could survive that super hot summer but they could also survive in winter because I had some of the temperature from the ground to help protect them. And then there's lots there's bones and things the excavated in the in the fire pits. But you look around I mean, and the closer to the Taylor Ranch there's a there's some nice flat spots by the stream to take camp on. And you just kind of look around and there's everything you need. There's there's some shade, there's some open there There's the water, there's places to graze. If you had stock or horses, it's it's just, it's just a special place.
Ed Krumpe:And people just I've noticed for years because I've been going in since 1979, that people come in to walk around and they're just, they're quiet. They just look around and they say, Holy cow, this is a huge valley. I mean, that's, that's the, the benches across the streamer. Rise almost 2000 feet. So there's, there's just something special. Old David Lewis that homesteaded picked a great spot. And then after that, Jess Taylor and a great spot and Maurice Honocker or saw the value of it. And just, we're just blessed the University at the time was willing to put up about $100,000 Take to eventually buy it, which was a steal. So yeah, that's, that's my first impressions. But I still feel that it's it's a, it's a it's a special place, you have a sense of place. And many others have mentioned the same thing.
Jack Kredell:And it sounds like the mountain leaders also knew it was a great spot.
Ed Krumpe:Well, the archaeologist showed us a little better than perhaps a tailor, because it's just downstream a little bit that it has its flat had the stream. There was forage, places to fish. And we actually found some of these at first, they were stones that had a little bit of an indentation. Well, those were net anchors for getting salmon, and the primary bones in the in the fire pits worse or salmon. And, and actually bighorn sheep, not hardly any elk. But if you look at it, what an advantage of that spot was that there was a narrow approach on either end of this flat area. And just one person on each end could have protected that stood guard. So easy to protect and defend. And so that's something we don't think about for for choosing a campsite.
Ed Krumpe:But everything else that we like in a campsite, availability of firewood, flat spot, access to water, some shade, some sun, some forage, everything else, I'm sure it was the same close to 3000 years ago when that was occupied. So it's yeah, it's pretty amazing. I should mention, yeah, well, there's actually a third stream because on on the property, we had water rights for three streams and across Big Creek from where the the facilities are. There's a Cliff Creek, which is a steep creek comes down out of out of the lambing cliffs. And so there's an area that's almost like a Cirque that's very steep and rocky and inaccessible. And bighorn sheep will only lamb on those cliffs that are just totally inaccessible. So Cliff Creek comes tumbling down there too. So we actually had three streams. So that's a pretty special spot. You tell a realtor, I want a place in the mountains that has flat and open and major stream and three minor streams and whatever that's yeah, it has a lot of neat attributes.
Jack Kredell:It's amazing. I have a friend who's a Ph.D. in Water Resources, and I think she's studying Pioneer Creek for, another one of those creek around there could even be Cliff. But she's, she's looking at springs that does fantastic. And you actually asked her, three of my classes.
Jack Kredell:I was going to ask you to describe the geography around Taylor for somebody who's never been. But you basically did that. and then you also kind of described the, the kind of deeper historical scenario with this. Yeah, that was really fantastic.
Ed Krumpe:You know, I'd like to mention though, the more modern history. You know, different people came through and stayed at that after Dave Lewis. Dave Lewis, what's amazing about the guy that first settled there was he was a guide for Colonel Custer in the army. And in the Sheep Eater War, which wasn't a war. The army came through and tried to chase them out. He saw that country for the first time. I was he was a guide, and I think he packed ammunition to But anyway, he came back once he was out of out of the military and settled there. But then there's been some others, you know, that occupied that place. And now we have a landing strip. It's, I can't remember, I think it's 2600 feet long, has a bit of a curve to it. So it's not an easy landing strip, it's one of the more difficult ones in the wilderness. But that was carved out with just Taylor and mules, and they call it a slip scoop, which is kind of a metal pan you drag behind, I mean, unbelievable, work all by hand to get straightened out and make flap a landing strip. And so you know, they started landing planes back in. I think it was in the 40s.
Ed Krumpe:So, there's been a lot, a lot of time invested into it. And then the other thing, you can still see some signs of this is, so we have some nice big open meadows and pasture. And so for years, when we had stock in their horses and mules, we would put up 14 ton of hay a year. But if you'd look out after it was mowed, or say, early in the spring, before the grasses started growing, you'd see a series of spiderweb like ditches. And what that was, it's those old timers would divert water from Pioneer Creek. And they had little trickle ditches that they would stop and then whatever, go down that one, and then stop that one or go down another so they could cover quite a few acres, and water as they needed to spread out the water. And so those still remain. Now we have, we have some hoses and some pivot sprinklers, which can can help things green up. But but then for many, many years, we did everything, we had no electricity in there. And we did everything with with stock. And the way we would do hay was you'd have to bring in, we'd call in all the researchers and students that had worked there are in some project on the area. And usually near the Fourth of July, they'd come in and we'd have 12 to 16 people. And in the morning, hitch up the team and cut with a McCormick sickle bar mower.
Ed Krumpe:It was a 1948 sickle bar mower and I was able to get parts for that clear up into the mid 1980s. And when we couldn't get parts anymore, we found one in Oregon at a at an old horse farm and we took the wheels off because they're heavy. And we flew it in and we cannibalize it for other pieces. But we it cut in the morning. You'd go over it with a dump rake which is behind the mules it was a rake the head times it would go like this. And so you'd make wind rows of hay. And then in the evening, you go flip it into into piles about this high. And the next day, you'd hitch up a big wagon to the to the mules and you'd go out and you have a student with a pitchfork on either side of each mile you get down and meet each go like this and just throw it up on the wagon, you'd have three people in a wagon, stomping it in. And, and you had a number of students and the horses would just weave through these ... so that everyone could throw it up. And we'd get I can't remember, maybe up to two tons.
Ed Krumpe:Just on a wagon, no bales, we're just stacking up like a hay bale. And then eventually we built a pole barn to keep it out of the weather, we were losing too much putting a piece of canvas over and horses can't eat, eat normally Hey. So eventually we build a pole barn. It's all wood, and even with wood shakes and stuff. And we could put, we could put 14 to 16 ton in that. We did that for years, feed the stock. And then the stock were used to support the researchers. So we'd have spike camps, that people tracking mountain line, you do that in the winter. And so they go out with permission from the forest service. And about six or seven miles apart. They'd set up a big old canvas tent, cut some firewood. And then in the winter, they take somebody with mountain lion hunting dogs and research and they go out and track cougar all night come across a track dogs would treat them and then they dart them and do the radio collar and things. So there's a yeah, there's quite a history of people using it and using it with primitive skills. And we just always cut over firewood with a cross cuts on students learn that he might run a chainsaw but you pull a crosscut and they'd say you can't I can't do that. And by golly they put up three or four cords just With a crosscut so it's been quite a place
- Title:
- Ed Krumpe Interview, Part One
- Creator:
- Jack Kredell
- Date Created:
- May 24, 2022
- Description:
- Jack Kredell interviews Ed Krumpe, a retired professor from the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources. In part one, Ed discusses about his work at the Taylor Wilderness Research Station from 1979, the geography of the area. In part two, Ed discusses how his time at the research station stayed with him, the impact of the '00 fires, and other changes in the area.
- Subjects:
- elk salmon ecology researchers geography
- Location:
- Moscow, Idaho
- Latitude:
- 46.7324
- Longitude:
- -117.0002
- Source:
- Voices of Taylor - Jack Kredell Interview Project funded by the U of I Library and the College of Natural Resources
- Type:
- Image;MovingImage
- Format:
- video/mp4
- Preferred Citation:
- "Ed Krumpe Interview, Part One", Taylor Wilderness Research Station Archive, University of Idaho Library Digital Initiatives
- Reference Link:
- https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/taylor-archive/items/krumpe_1.html
- Rights:
- In Copyright. Educational Use only. Educational use includes non-commercial use of text and images in materials for teaching and research purposes. Digital reproduction permissions assigned by University of Idaho Library. For more information, please contact University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives Department at libspec@uidaho.edu.