Pete Fromm, an award-winning Montana author, didn’t always know he’d become a writer. As a college swimmer in Missoula, he read adventure tales and dreamed of living in the wild.
“I've been reading a lot of 'Mountain Man' books and been telling people about how cool it must have been. And a friend of mine came up to me and said, you know, I hear, I heard I know about a job that you might be interested in,” Fromm recalled.
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That unexpected job led Fromm to spend eight months caring for salmon eggs in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho.
“It was spending winter from October to June in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area, by myself in a tent taking care of salmon eggs. And with zero forethought, I just...oh, that would be cool.”
His experiences became the memoir Indian Creek Chronicles, an honest account of adventure and solitude in the wilderness.
“You know, I could go back to school anytime, but I won't get this kind of opportunity again, so I grew into it, much to my surprise.”
He went on to publish "As Cool As I Am" in 2003, the tale of a teen girl living in Great Falls, and which was later adapted into a movie featuring Claire Danes and James Marsden.
Fromm, a five-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Book Award, will share passages from his work and discuss his journey at the Great Falls Public Library’s Cordingley Room on Thursday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m.
The library is at 301 Second Avenue North.
The event is part of the Sun River Watershed Speaker Series.
