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The night an eagle died

By Franklyn Gallup of Yankeedooku.com

When we moved from upstate, NY to Billings, MT my daughter chose not to move out with us. We made arrangements for her to stay in New York and finish high school there.

When it came time for her to come out to Billings I flew out to pick her up. Since she had a lot of stuff she wanted to bring out with her, I made a decision that I would fly out and BUY a used car to bring her and her stuff to Billings, MT.

This worked out to be much less expensive than renting a truck or car. Not only was it less expensive but I would have a car when I got to Billings.

Everything worked out well and I found a cute little 4 cylinder wagon which was large enough to hold her stuff. I got to talk to the mechanic and he had just done some work on the engine and it ran like a top.

I saved lots of gas on the trip out to Billings. I started using the car to get around for my work.

I was coming back from a job one night and was very tired. I was on a lonely road in the middle of nowhere. (There seems to be a huge supply of places in the middle of nowhere in Montana) I was just focusing in getting home and reflecting on the job I just left.

I was going along at 55 miles an hour and there was a car coming the opposite direction. I dimmed my lights and didn't think much about it.

There was no moon that night. It was pitch black.

All of a sudden I was startled to see a 500 pound Black Angus steer about 15 feet in front of the car. Apparently, the steer decided it would be a good idea to run between me and the oncoming car. I can tell you from first hand experience that a Black Angus steer on a moonless night is impossible to see.

Needless to say, I hit the steer at 55 MPH. It totaled my sweet little car. the steer lay wheezing on the other side of the road gasping for air. Not only had my little car knocked the wind out of the steer but my car was covered with brown glop too.

The driver of the other car stopped to see if I was OK. I said I was. He looked at my car and then at the steer across the road. He said he didn't see the steer either until my headlights disappeared.

The steer soon died. I felt really bad. Not only for the Black Angus steer but my sweet little 1987 AMC Eagle died that night too.

In Montana they have what they call "open range law". The farmer lost the steer and I lost my Eagle with no monetary compensation for either of us.

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Sounds more to me like open licence for a farmer to allow his cattle (large, moveable, valuable assets) to endanger the local population. I suppose the loss of meat on the hoof is not so great as the loss of life or limb for an innocent driver or the loss of a father and bread winner for an equally innocent family - what a crazy situation!

I was almost as if I had hit an uninsured motorist. I am not so sure that the farmer lost the meat either. All I can say is I am glad I always wear my seat belt or I probably wouldn't be here to write this today.

I have never hit anything, but I can certainly see how it could happen. We have traveled by car a lot but usually stop before darkness sets in. A trip to Vegas by car was the exception. Somehow we made a wrong turn and got on a very black road. It must have been a new road. There were no highway signs, no motels or lights anywhere and not another car anywhere. I couldn't believe how dark it was or how long it took us until we ended up at the South of Vegas. The hotel we had booked for our first night there was at the North end. So, tell me about dark roads!! eeee

No signs may have been a blessing.

If you had seen Stephen King making a cameo appearance in your trip to Vegas that would have been a really bad sign.

That must have quite a contrast going from complete darkness to the lights in Vegas.

Good intel. That has to have been a huge bummer. It's lucky you were not injured.

It was pretty hard to lose a car that ran so well and was actually fun to drive. I was very lucky not to get hurt. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact the cow was moving at me at 55 MPH too. I hit it broad side.

I know there is a, "Why did the Back Angus cross the road?" joke here somewhere but I haven't got any answers for that one yet.

I would love it if you had some funny suggestions. Maybe another Intel

I've hit the odd cat, dog, and pigeon on the roads, but nothing as big as that steer. Having seen an image of a creature that size I'm not surprised your car was a write-off. Glad you were unharmed anyway, pity about the steer and your eagle though.

I was almost like a magician's trick. One second there was open road and 0.0000000345 seconds later there was a 500 pond steer in my way. If I had tried to avoid it I probably would have gotten hurt. There wasn't even time to think about hitting the brakes much less turning the wheel.

What many people do not understand is that all of the West, even Oklahoma was Open Range until the late 1960s.
We used to go to Beavers Bend in Eastern Oklahoma, when our children were small. We would leave late on Friday after my husband got off work or early Saturday morning, before daylight. We sometimes ran up on several head of cattle laying in the middle of the road.
And this was Hwy 70, which, by the way, was not paved. Many might argue, that some of that road is not much better now, but it is being widened to 4 lanes.

I just did a search on Google for "Open Range Law" and that looks like a good Intel waiting to happen.

So now the cattle can sleep four lanes wide?

Wow, you're lucky to even be alive, hitting one of those things. We have a problem with deer where I live. They can suddenly appear out of nowhere, and good luck stopping.... It's a sad story, but there wasn't a thing that you could do.

Reflecting back on it I realize there wasn't a thing I could have done differently except I could have called the local Montana "Roadkill Cafe" and see if they would come get the steer.

The eagle is on the endangered motor vehicle list too. AMC stopped making them when Chrysler bought them out om 1988.

Having grown up on a farm, I appreciate how difficult it come be to keep some cattle out of trouble. The occasional one seems to have a nose for escaping almost any confine. Interesting concept, that open range law.

I grew up on a 300 acre dairy farm in upstate New York. My father had a solution. The one that seemed to always have a nose for trouble ended up in the freezer.

I have fixed my share of fences too.

I am beginning to wonder if the steer crossed the road because he thought he was a chicken.

Sad story indeed... I've seen cattle bumpers for large freight trucks that make runs down to Mexico protecting themselves from free roaming cattle at night. Your frightening experience reminds me of a Joan Baez song... sorry to hear the eagle died but glad you're alive!

Or it could be related to Apollo 11

I have come a long way since that night. Well worth a 10 minute listen.

Oh my goodness! You had some guardian angel.
I know what a Jag Daimler front may look like from the side when hit at any time by a fairly young skinny cow at a speed of 40km/hour. The damage is not too bad, but the impact is still very dangerous and outright scary. In Africa, one should actually only drive at about 30km/hour near human settlements out of towns. I am wondering why black domestic animals are not having any neckbands which light up in the night. Kind of like yellow safety road jackets... The momentum of surprise might still prevent to see all such animals. However, a fraction of such accidents could be avoided.

If you only knew how many black angus cattle are in Montana you would realize how impractical that would be.

Glad you weren't injured. This happened to a childhood friend who was on a vacation trip with her family. Her dad ran into a cow and totaled the family car.

I've personally never hit anything bigger than a squirrel. I still feel bad about that though, as it made a sickening thud as I ran it over. I couldn't swerve, though, because there were semi trucks going at high speed on either side of me.

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