Posted by Tom Miranda……
In 1851, high in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana Territory, lived the Whitaker family — reclusive, self-sufficient hunters who hadn’t seen a town in years. Jedediah Whitaker, once a fur trapper on the Missouri, had settled deep in the forest with his Nez Perce wife, Awenasa, and their three children..

Their log cabin stood beside a cold mountain stream, and their lives followed the rhythm of the land: elk migrations, berry harvests, and snow that could trap them for weeks. Awenasa taught her children medicine from roots and bark; Jed taught them how to fire a rifle, but only when needed. Survival wasn't about violence — it was about reading the land, trusting your instincts, and respecting every life taken.

One winter, a stranger collapsed outside their cabin — a wounded surveyor lost from a mapping party. They took him in, mended his wounds, fed him venison and broth, and sent him back come spring. He would later write about them in a Denver paper — calling them “the ghost family of the Bitterroots.”

But the Whitakers didn’t care for fame. They lived by an older law — the silence of snowfall, the tracks of a deer, and the stories passed in whispers by the fire.

I know it's just a picture but nobody would build a house that close too that stream.

I agree. With the potential for spring thaw and snow melt that valley could change quickly for a while until that water receded. An experienced woodsman would have known this before making his cabin build and had some high ground as a better choice for homesteading. JMO

Sure they would. Even with FEMA 100yr and 500 yr flood plain they still do. See examples on the news quite often, lol.

Glass windows on a cabin deep in the Bitterroots by folks that seldom go to town seems unlikely. Although they sometimes had to go to a town for ammo.

What is at the man's right side? Not the gun he is holding but the item that goes to the ground by his right foot. Looks like a cane maybe.

I understand there has to be a picture with the story, but the cabin is literally a couple feet from the water.

Interesting read and picture.
The questioning on the placement of the cabin to the stream is very interesting also. On my place there is an old cabin that is about 15 feet from the Yellowstone river. You would think where it is at it would be under water every year but it has never flooded that shack. I have seen many floods and spring very high water and it will flood down stream about 200 feet and river goes out of it's bank a couple 1000 feet but that spot is high and dry and easy access out on two sides.
I just wanted to share that and it just shows how well some early homesteaders knew the land and where to build. Not saying it is the case with this story.

A bit of AI in that photo maybe to enhance a good storyline. Perfect lines on the level in those logs, perfect butt end cuts. No “stuff” attached to the walls nor laying around… hand made log cabins built by one man in the wilderness weren’t built to code.
Don’t know that I’ve ever seen the remnants of a remote cabin that was built to such a height, lotta interior space to heat.

Osky

They also left the light on in a window. Lol

Them old timers didn’t need anyone from a desk to tell them where to build.

I doubt that it is a photo of any kind.
Cool, and likely a true story though.
Bet there would be some smoke about that chimney as well.

Exactly they knew the land and the environment they lived like a wild animal that lived there. You got that right. I see it with my own eyes that cabin on my place. Things can be very deceiving to the eye.

Looks like a lot of milled lumber at the eves and roof too.
Not normally done in such circumstances.

Electricity was cheap back then.

What's the point of posting doctored photos u just downloaded of the net.

Likely a steady stick, you rest the rifle on it to steady it for longer shots.

Here's the original, unedited photograph. You can clearly see he got several deer too.



He frequently got several deer when hunting.



Keith

There are clearly more than several deer, there Keith. At least two several, I would say, probably more.

The whole story is fake. Never happened and no such persons. Anybody think this is true I got several pieces of real estate to sell you.

Photo shopping and AI at work from my perspective

Bryce