Mustangs arrive in paradise on Wild Horse Island

Wild Horses Intrinsic Part of Island’s History

Four mustangs take their initial first steps onto Wild Horse Island in Flathead Lake, Montana. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon

Cross-posted from the Flathead Beacon

Written by ERIN COLE | 21 June 2010

MT — Under a canopy of heavy grey clouds, a barge cut through the waters of Flathead Lake. Onboard sat a trailer containing four mustangs destined for release on Wild Horse Island last week. While the morning weather had been less than ideal for boating, the winds had since calmed, taking with them any signs of whitecaps.

Jerry Sawyer, manager of Flathead Lake’s parks, trailed the barge and its live cargo in a speedboat. Having spent the previous 24 hours obsessively monitoring the weather forecast and wave conditions, he hoped the calm spell would hold.

“We’re halfway and this is going good,” he said, giving an enthusiastic thumbs up as he piloted the Sea Runner around the western shore of Wild Horse Island. “It’s not too rough out there.”

Inclement weather would force the barge to return to Cromwell Island, where the barge, donated by the island’s owner, Robert Lee, had departed earlier that afternoon. The horses had been in the trailer for hours, after leaving their Great Falls pasture.

Since the island’s inception as a state park in 1978, the task of maintaining the wild horse population has fallen to the state. Read more >>