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There must not be any situation or set of circumstances for which Shakespeare failed to compose something perfectly appropriate, but who would have guessed he anticipated Bascom or Bascomb, Montana, when he put these immortal words into Hamlet's mouth? In our eighteen years near Roundup we had never heard of the place, so when Publisher Ponte suggested it as a subject for an essay and pictorial attention, we commenced looking around and found both spellings. The more we looked, however, the...
At what seems a long, long time ago, we began this series with some backward glances at ranches, homesteads, and ruins in this vicinity. Subsequently, we rambled all over the State and broadened the topics, but now it's time to conclude, and we thought we'd do it in our own, extended neighborhood, just as we started. Naturally, we're still backward. First of all, to get the piece rolling, here's another quiz question; What did Richard Trevithick do? That's right! He invented the steam...
Discussing these gentlemen in chronological order gives some important snapshots of the tribe beginning with a little before their occupation of the Reservation we know until the present day. The first of these, remembered in Jane's recent painting done for this article, is Plenty-Coups, whose name all of us have seen on road signs around Billings, but what have we learned about this remarkable leader of the Mountain Crow and one of the worthiest Native Americans in the annals of the United...
We promised a look at the Crow Indian religion, but before beginning, we must be a little more specific. If we wanted to sketch, say, the religion of Italians, we would have to decide if we meant in 300 BC, 400AD, 1500AD, or exactly when, because practices, even gods, changed over time. When anthropologists talk about traditional Crow religion, they mean as formed during the time period, 1725-1770, during which their culture changed radically, due to ...? This is a quiz to see who remembers...
For months we've been chronicling people that migrated to Montana to carve out lives and deaths, farms, ranches, railroads, mining industries, towns, and what have you. We haven't forgotten the one's that already were here, the American Indians or Native Americans, as you prefer. Of course, they themselves were just earlier migrants, but they lived and worked and built things, too, not to mention taught the white intruders tricks for living in their new territory, so they deserve to be included....
Despite France's magnificent, monumental contributions in mathematics, science, the arts, literature, and so many noble fields of human endeavor, it was surprising to learn that its 18th century textile industry gave the world its first programmable computing machine, the Jacquard Loom. It should not be altogether shocking, then, that in the 19th century the same French industry gave us Wibaux, Montana. Whether it is or not, we decided to make a report, and for sources we have gone as far and...
Painting a very, very, very long object requires just that sort of substrate – what artists call the ground on which they paint a picture – and when the object is also comparatively very, very, very narrow and very, very, very low in altitude, then a saw makes an ideal shape. At least so thought the lady that commissioned "The Nohly Bridge." Making an oil painting on metal is not the easiest task, however, and she didn't worry about that, but the bridge painting turned out very, very, very wel...
In 1905 the first Rudie, named Eivind, followed a route similar to that we described recently for the Borgs: to Liverpool; to Hull, Canada; train to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; train to MonDak, Montana; ferry across the Missouri to Java; finally to Fairview. Our friends in his home country say the name certainly should be "Rudi," but in most references the family picked up an extra letter in this country, and who are we to deprive them of it? For reasons unknown, just two years later, in 1907, E...
Before readers forget the very numerous Borg family, we want to get a little more instructive mileage from them and then do some comparing. In the last article we devoted considerable space to Sylvia Borg Kjos, whose father was Leif. One of Leif's brothers was Karsten, born in Norway in 1905 and brought to America with the family in 1911. With so many children to support on a single homestead, it is no surprise that he was farmed out, literally, for four years. He was shipped to Spicer,...
No, no, it's not bad type-setting or that your reporters had a fit; we shall explain. The initial phrase of Norway's National Song is, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet," which means, "Yes, we love this nation," and they imply Norway, of course. We modified the Norwegian a little to give, "Yes, they loved this nation," and we mean the United States, because this article and the next one, concern Norwegian immigrants that grew to love their new country, the USA. "The Prairie Princess," a striking...
Your trusty reporters are not at all trusty; they forgot to send one of the four pictures discussed in the 22 April article. Editor Pointe agreed to print it separately and re-run the part of that article pertaining to it. We appreciate his picking up after our mistake and we apologize for our shoddy journalism. Next week we'll begin an exciting new series about the Sidney area settlers. We don't know who tamed whom in the painting, "Taming a Wild One." Along with how long he stayed on top and...
The previous article left the Steffen family at the gala, ground-breaking rodeo held on their property near Bloomfield, Montana in July, 1922, when Clarence was just short of 5 years old, and John was all of 6 months. Our personal introduction to these brothers came in October, 2008. John had been recommended as someone important to Jane's project, and when contacted by telephone, he was cordial and invited us to visit him in Glendive, where he and his brother were living. Having heard from...
Who possibly could have resisted this flyer, reproduced exactly as it was written? "Some of the most astounding Wild West Features ever seen in the state will be exhibited to the public. They will consist of saddle riding, bareback riding, steer riding, etc. These horses are the wildest and most untamable that ever grew hair. If you don't believe it come and seem [sic] them – Cow Boy Running Race, Keg Roping, Potato Race on Horse Back – Big Bowery Dance at Night – Admission 50c ... Fred Dreye...
Have we got a next story for you? Did Jack have a beanstalk? Did Mary have a little lamb? Does Musselshell County Government need an abacus or two to end the audit and taxation fiasco? Along with the usual beautiful illustrations, this story has parental wisdom, filial duty, romance, disappointment (mixed up with romance), religion, rodeo, guilt, retribution, charity – it even has two continents, and – well, rather than telling you about it, why don't we just get on with it? Henry Stefan wor...
William Wordsworth wrote about the "hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower," but if left unchecked for any length of time, western grass, with help from its friends, the winds and other elements, has a way of obliterating splendor. For a reference point we need to glance back at last week's history, that of Ira and Bessie Carey and their six children. Whereas the two sons were our previous focus, it's a daughter in line for today's attention. Around 1917 the ranch with the derelict...
On 22 March, this double-tanker-truck carrying a full, heavy load slid off North Gage Road about 11 miles from Route 12. There were no injuries or leakage of petroleum, and the oil was syphoned out of the front tank allowing it and the truck to be removed from the ditch that evening. The next day a rescue team from Brewers and Rocky Mountain Crude Oil spent 1 ½ hours syphoning oil and removing the back tank out of the chasm of a borrow-pit. The driver discussed with the owner of the property...
In 1909 Ira Carey concluded that he and wife, Bessie, should have a ranch of their own, and he managed to scrape together a year of his hired man's wages, $500, to purchase one. With that half-section and a cabin as home base, he continued to work for others and used that income to purchase cattle and begin building a herd. Further, he added to his property through claims under the Desert Land Act, an 1877 law that allowed people to irrigate and claim arid, public land. He even bought the place...
Chris Burgel was a card-player. As his luck ran, so did his livestock; when he had money, he had cattle, but when he lost, he had to settle for sheep. No records remain to show which species was the more prevalent, and a person couldn't guess from the split log house and board building, both lodges for rats and mice, which are what one raises when the money runs out altogether. Long before we arrived on the scene, Mr. Burgel had sold out – possibly the cards had turned too sour even for sheep ...
A few miles outside Miles City in 1956 Shell Oil drilled 8,230 feet before all Hell broke loose. Instead of oil they struck a vein of hot, high pressure water, the same for which Yellowstone Park is famous. From April to June the drillers sought to plug it, for they were convinced that oil lay beneath the steamy layer. On 7 June drilling resumed, only to blow again at 8,256 feet deep. On the third attempt, the Fourth of July, the geyser erupted like a patriotic rocket from a depth of 8, 840...
Do you know any cattle ranch tales that begin with a ship disaster? No? Just read on. When the gold rush was on, Alvin A. Ellis and his wife, Lynthia, traveled from Ohio to California to join in the search. Whether they struck it rich is not known, but their devious route back to Ohio made them passengers on a sidewheel steamer named the "Central America." It was known as the ship of gold and operated between Central America and the east coast of the United States. Aptly designated, it carried...
The first requirement to discussing Samuel Wilford Gebo's exciting adventures is to learn to pronounce his surname, which is French, "Gibeau," and later Americanized. Thus, it rhymes with the name of our Montana town, Wibaux, and begins with a "zh" sound. He was born in Canada in 1862, raised near Ogdensburg, New York, lived in Minnesota, and settled in Montana early in the 1890s. He formed the Clarks Fork Coal Company and developed the Gebo Mine near Fromberg, Montana, which was named "Gebo"...
In 1900 in Modersville, Michigan, Peter Siderius arrived into this world. He was the second of 14 children born to Everet Siderius and his wife, Gertrude De Boer, both immigrants from the Netherlands. In 1907, when land was opening up in Montana, the family moved to Kalispell, where, as a child, Peter helped the family financially by delivering their farm's milk and other products around town and to the Flathead Reservation. Another responsibility of Peter's was to run and fetch the midwife...
The clamor and bustle of Highway 93, a multi-lane artery connecting Whitefish and Kalispell, reached inside and belied the soft, quiet visions the little lady spun in her living room. She made it seem to be still a two-room log cabin. Helen had been one of millions of victims of the deadly world-wide influenza epidemic following World War I. Her parents, the Belvederes, had married in Tacoma when he, born in Italy, was just 19, she, 14. Just twenty-two months old, Helen was one of four orphans t...
So much excitement, action, and mystery surround the O'Connell ranch, and to think – we nearly missed finding it! We were tangled up in the backroads like rats in a maze without cheese, and twice had to call him for directions. Larry O'Connell was a little perturbed with us when we finally decoded the instructions and rolled in. Remember the Gehring Ranch – the only one of our installments where we were greeted by a landowner with a pistol? In the present case the landowner welcomed us with a t...
In 1892, near what would become Glacier National Park, John E. McCarthy, an Irish immigrant, found 80 acres he thought perfect for a farm. He applied for a homestead – actually, half a homestead; he could have had 160, but the surrounding property was taken – and received the patent, signed by President Grover Cleveland's stamp. Though small, it has spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, but we were guided there, not for its scenery, but for the well-preserved buildings. John rai...
