Tale from long ago: Norwegian man cut down giant tree before moving back to his home country

Growing up, Bjorn Egeland heard stories of his grandfather’s travels to America. One of those stories was about his grandfather chopping down a giant tree near Libby.

The Western News was recently contacted by Bjorn, a resident of Norway, whose grandfather, Ole Egeland, came to the U.S. in the early 1900s and worked in Libby.

Ole, born in 1890, and his brother, Enoch Egeland, came from Southwest Norway to the U.S. over Ellis Island in 1911 to seek their fortune.

They went to Montana, where their brother Nels was already established somewhere North of Fort Benton.

A few years later, Ole homesteaded at a deserted place on the southern banks of the current Lake Elwell, an hour’s drive north of Fort Benton where he farmed. The next three years turned out to be very dry seasons, and according to Bjorn, Ole’s crops would fade away before they could be harvested.

Bjorn told The Western News that he didn’t know when Ole eventually left the homestead, or what he did for a living in the interim before he came to Libby. He is listed in the 1920 U.S. Census as a lumberjack, working at the Baird-Harper Logging Co. in Warland, just north of Libby.

 Later in life, Ole told his children that he was hitching a ride with a freight train when he was discovered and kicked out in the middle of the night. He was then forced to walk through knee-high snow for hours until he came across a lumberjack camp in the morning. He got a job there and stayed for at least four years working himself up the ranks and eventually ending up a foreman for a team of lumberjacks.

 One day, the team got an unusual assignment. The authorities were building a road and a huge tree was in the way. Ole, along with his team, cut down the tree as requested.

The tree was big enough that all 10 men could stand on the stump together and pose for a local photographer.

“We never knew where this tree was, but after briefly visiting Libby a few weeks ago, I came across a flyer advertising the ‘Ross Creek Giant Cedar Grove,’” Bjorn recalled. “And suddenly it all came together. It had to be there that my grandfather and his team cut down the tree.”

Ole passed away in 1953, and Bjorn said that all he has is childhood memories to rely on.

According to Bjorn, Ole came back to Norway to marry in 1925, and his plans were always to return to U.S. with his wife.

Ole never got to return to the U.S., since his wife and Bjorn’s grandmother never wanted to return with him.

He was, however, able to buy a farm outside the town of Stavanger for the money he earned as a lumberjack, and later became both a father to nine children, and a respected lay preacher in the local community.