Show Montanans Travel by Horse and Plane as Snow now furies Buries Roads By GEORGE E. E HELMER I United Press Staff Correspondent BUTTE Mont March farch 2 One ot of the oldest modes of transportation b has s stepped alongside the new newest st and the tho two have combined to sit sit- s the autoMobile The horse and tho airplane have llave al asserted their superiority In most parts of Montana Mon Mon- tana where highways for the past few weeks have been entirely blocked to automobile traffic Struggling under the most severe wInter in years Montana has found itself almost for want of transportation h facilities other than those furnished by transcontinental railroads With automobile traffic at a standstill except In the larger I towns and cities It remained for horses and airplanes to make e neb neb- essary inland trips RANCHES ISOLATED Conditions in the vicinity of Great Falls became so severe that many ranches were completely iso iso- It was wad necessary durIng the past week for airplanes to carry food supplies s to tho ranches Sick persons were rushed from snowbound snowbound snow snow- bound points to civilization via ia the airplane and horse Although horses came came into their own for the first time in many years airplanes also played their big part in hi pr preventing v much suffering A large part ot of Montana's population tion turned to sleighs TI Tile e sight ot of automobiles on highways became unusual with the heavy snows and high winds Tractors were necessary sary to pull machines out ot of drifts Although main the main line maintained servIce near t to sched schedule le branch blanch lines have encountered dif n dlf and many have almost ceased operations until the drifts can be cleared HORSES BEING USED Rancho Ranch in all sections of the state drew horses ort off the ranges and put them in service Seldom has there been such a demand for forthe forthe the animals automobiles stored in barns Yarns and S 'S garages the populace has hoo hooked ed horses horses- onto improvised sleds and attempted ted to continue its communication with neighbors Roads to Utah W Wyoming oming and the Pacific coast ar are closed It will bo be weeks weeks' before motorists will to travel with the knowledge that they tiley will stand a fall fair chance of ge getting ting through Railroad crews were packing ic ice from om the right ot of otway way between Three Forks and Logan Lon Lo- Lo gan n where the Ia 1 Madison lson river backed up and covered the highway highway high high- way and raIlroad with Ice ranging from ono one to three feet deep Residents Rest Rest- dents feared a sudden thaw w would uld cause floods In the lowlands WEATHER FICKLE With the approach roach of spring the weather became more fickle A day of sunshine was followed by a day pt of blizzards Snow fell today In Inmost inmost most sections of the state increasing increasing ing the hazards hazard of hIghway travel and more completely harassing the people living in the isolated sec sec- Montana l the seat ot of the wide open spaces has been forced to turn turn to th the horse and the airplane air air- plane only to find that both are I scarce They alone are able to surmount surmount sur- sur mount the twenty and thirty r foot drifts covering the main highways of the state |