Watching an Aerial Ballet

Winter snow has begun to melt.  Icy streets transformed to wet pavement.  Mud replaces snow packed areas.  I am reminded that everything leaves a mark.  Looking towards the ground no matter wether it is mud or snow I often see footprints.

Yesterday I was visiting a couple of neighbors.  Kathy and I stood outside talking and I looked down to see tiny footprints.  So small, so perfect.  I could see from the prints that one of the neighborhood squirrels had spent some time under that tree.

Later as I brought groceries into the house a brown tail flashed above the gable.  I knew inside Tank would be whimpering as he stared out the back windows, watching for his frisky friend.

The squirrels will scamper across the wires in the alley.  I love to watch their aerial ballet.  My dogs watch with a different intent.  They are convinced that they are one jump from catching them.  I am convinced that the squirrels enjoy this game.  They sit and eat just above the yard.  Grow bold jumping from the wires to the trees. Racing through the branches to the roofs.

"She Wore a Smith & Wesson Strapped Under her Apron"

"A Gun Toting Black Woman Delivered the U.S. Mail in Montana

They say 'Black Mary' could whip any two men in the territory.  She wore a Smith & Wesson strapped under her apron and they swear she couldn't miss a thing within 50 paces.  She was tall [6 ft], weighing well over 200 pounds, and,  except for an apron and a skirt, wore men's clothes."   -  Gary Cooper  - Ebony Magazine Oct 1959 reprinted Oct 77.

  

Cascade, Montana was home to Mary Field - the second woman to drive a US Mail route, she was also the first African-American woman.  Mary by all evidence was quite a character.  She came to Montana to care for her childhood friend Sister Amadeus and stayed.  

http://www.cascademontana.com/mary.htm

According to several articles the Mayor of Cascade passed a special ordinance to allow Mary to drink in the bar.  During her day most women were not allowed in the bars.

The town of Cascade owns one of Charlie Russell's pencil sketches title "A Quiet Day in Cascade".   Charlie Russell was also a fan of Mary Field.  In fact she is featured in the sketch that belongs to Cascade.

Michael Searles said it best: "A legend in her own time, she was also known as STAGECOACH MARY." 

Further Reading

Black Cowboys http://www.blackcowboys.com/maryfields.htm

Cascade Community Website

http://www.cascademontana.com/mary.htm

Diversity Room

http://diversityroom.blogspot.com/2012/05/mary-fields-black-mary-and-stagecoach.html

Gary Cooper reprint Oct 1977

http://books.google.com/books?id=18sDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96#v=onepage&q&f=false

Postal Museum History

http://postalmuseum.si.edu/WomenHistory/women_history/history_folklore.html

True West

http://truewest.ning.com/profiles/blogs/stagecoach-mary-fields-pioneer-woman

We Should have Named Him Scooby-Doo

Last August we got a new dog.  Dan's daughter had been involved in a dog rescue and wanted him to have a new home.  She had been told he was 1-1/2 years old and a Canadian lab.  The rescue dog came with the name Tank.  If I had realized how scared he was of everything I would have changed it  to Scooby-Doo.

We had lost our dog Sammi in May and "Baby" was still mourning the loss of her playmate.  So we had talked about a new playmate.  "Baby" was not impressed with her new friend.  Her nose was severely out of joint when we brought him home.

It didn't take us long to realize "Tank" was much younger than we thought.  He had not yet learned how to raise his leg.  He was closer to 8 months.  He may be a lab cross but he definitely is of Great Dane ancestry.  He runs, looks and sounds just like Sammi.  He also thinks he is a lap dog.

"Baby" is still not real impressed.  She gets tired of him treating her like a chew toy.  Are my older dogs impressed with Tank? Not so much.  They think he is annoying.

When we first brought Tank home he was terrified of everything.  In fact my husband farted and scared the dog.  Now he runs away and then shortly comes back to investigate what scared him.

We really should have named him Scooby-Doo.

Fort Benton - Where Stories Abound

First Bridge to Span the Missouri River

Fort Benton

• Choteau County Seat
• On the banks of the Missouri River
• Canoeists and History Buffs seek its solitude
• On the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
• On the Nez Perce National Historic Trail
• Gateway to the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument
• It was the world's most Innermost Port
• Steamboats went up the Missouri River to Fort Benton for 30 years
• Shep's home
• Registered as a National Historic Landmark

I think it is one of the most beautiful towns in Montana, Forbes and the National Geographic have long held that same belief.  In the tapestry of Montana's History, Fort Benton is the Woof threads.  

In September of 2011 we stayed overnight in Fort Benton and the next morning we walked along the steamboat levee trying to see it through the lenses of time.  From the levee you can see the first bridge to ever span the Missouri River,  and a statute of Old Shep sculpted by Bob Scriver. 

The morning we were there I noticed a man and a dog at the nearby picnic table.   As I watched them I kept thinking of Old Shep's story.

Old Shep started out life working partnered with a sheepherder.  The sheepherder's name has long been lost.  But some in Aug of 1936 the sheepherder took sick and went to the St Clare hospital in Fort Benton.  The nun who ran the kitchen, Sister Genevieve,  took pity on the dog who was keeping vigil and fed him.  His owner did not survive.  The sheepherder's remains were sent back to Ohio.  The dog tried to remain with his owner but was left behind.

Four trains would pull into Fort Benton every day and the dog met everyone with excitement and anticipation.  Only to be disappointed when his beloved owner did not appear.  The railroad people started calling him Shep when they realized he wouldn't go away.  For the next 5 -1/2 years Shep met every train.

Several months into his vigil a conductor by the name of Ed Shield's kept asking questions about the dog.  Over the next two year's Shep's story began to untangle and Ed reported it to the Great Falls Tribune.  They ran the story of the lonely shepherd dog.  From their his story grew.  People road the train just to see the dog.  Letters were sent.  January 1942 Shep now hard of hearing slipped on the icy track and was killed.  Two days later the city fathers arranged a funeral for Old Shep, people came from hundreds of miles to say goodbye.

The railroad erected a concrete tombstone that can still be seen today.  In memory of the 50th anniversary of Shep's accident the town commissioned a bronze sculpture.  They also asked Jack Gladstone to create a song for the dedication.  You can hear the song "Old Shep" here http://www.galej16.com/OLD_SHEP.html it is also on the interview at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcynfN4gKLk.

Sneed Collard III wrote a children's book that I love "Shep Our Most Loyal Dog".

I have often heard that Fort Benton is Montana's birthplace.  I don't know about that but I know it is where stories abound.

Jack Gladstone and Charlie Russell

My taste in music is very eclectic.  One of the many performers I enjoy listening to is Jack Gladstone.  He refers to himself as a "Blackfeet Troubadour".  His music combines traditional as well as contemporary music.

The first time I heard him play was probably the summer  of 1988 or 89.  I was living in the dorms at what was then Eastern Montana College.  (Now its called MSU-Billings.)  I was on the sixth floor and it was a warm Sunday afternoon and I was studying.  

As I was studying I could hear music coming down the hall.  It spoke to me.  I figured someone had the volume on their tape player on high.  I decided to learn the name of the album.   As I went down the deserted hall I came to the commons area and the doors were open overlooking a grassy area of the school. The music was coming from outside.   I followed the music to the piper.

 By now I was very intrigued and decided to go down and listen to the performance.  The man performing was Jack Gladstone and the name of the tape was "Wolves on Sea and Plains".

Today he has published 15 albums.  One of my favorite songs is "The Bear Who Stole the Chinook" and the "Fossil Fuel Sinner among others.  This is a link to YouTube where you can hear the "Bear that Stole the Chinook"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcynfN4gKLk

Over the years I have crossed paths many times with Jack, always enjoying his music and storytelling.  Last week he was one of the presenters at the conference I attended.  The 8th Annual Indian Education For All Best Practices Conference - "Pathways to Success"  .   Jack's presentation was on Charlie Russell's Montana.   At first I thought this an unusual pairing, then I learned that Jack was the first Montanan to receive the Charlie Russell award.  

One of the paintings Jack talked about was the "Fire Boat".  I had seen the painting many times and never knew the name.  It was a painting that always bothered me.  In the picture one of the warriors is holding his hand in a very unnatural way.  I always found it odd and wondered why he had painted it that way.

Sign language was a common language developed and used by many of the tribes in Montana.  (Our American sign language for the deaf got its start from this tradition.)  Jack showed us the sign for fire.  Umhm - the warrior in the painting was making the sign for fire.  On the water there is a steam boat, a piece of the picture I had never really noticed or paid any attention to.

And now you to know the rest of the story.

Fire Boat image from http://www.art.com/

Can You Even Check Out Books?

I really love my job as an elementary librarian.  I never know what my little kids are going to say next.  They make me laugh so often.  This year I am at two schools. Monday-Thursday I am at Washington Elementary K-5 and on Friday I am at Rose Park a K-6 school.  Rose Park has another part time librarian - Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

One Friday a youngster (1st grader) came in to check out a book.  He skidded to a halt when he saw me sitting behind the desk instead of "his" librarian.  He gave me the once over and his face betrayed every thought going on behind his eyes.  As I watched his face I knew he had come to a decision and so I waited.

"Can you EVEN check out books?" my young man queried.

"I think I can handle that."

"Good.  I want a book."

"What kind of book?"

"Science.   I like science."

I took him over to the shelves and found him some books about animals.  None of them met with his approval.

"No, I want the ones on the cart.  My friends find them on the cart."  (Books are on the cart waiting to be shelved.  On this day there are not many on the cart.)

I try to interest him in some other likely books and again they do not meet his approval.  I finally let him browse through the books on the cart.  He finds an old Star Wars book and proudly brings it to me.

Again I watch his expressions dance across his face as I ask his name and punch it into the computer, then scan the book.  As I hand the book to him I hear a soft exhalation of breath.  Until that moment he wasn't convinced that I really knew how to - check out books.

Photographing Montana - a Post Office At a Time

Terry, MT Post Office

Why should you put Terry on your bucket list of places to see? Here are the basic demographics about Terry -

• Prairie county
• population 605 (2010 Census) 
• once called Joubert's Landing.  
• had a post office since 1882
• incorporated in 1910     

So why do I think this community is worthy of being a bucket-list item?  The answer for me is centered on a previous resident.  Her name was Lady Evelyn (Flower) Cameron.   She was an English aristocrat who came with her husband and Honeymooned in Montana in 1889.

They fell in love with the badlands and relocated to Montana.  She and her husband started raising Polo Ponies in the hardscrabble hills of Montana.  Yes Polo Ponies.  The first time I read that I was shocked and said to myself no wonder they went broke.  As I dug, it was actually a good idea at the time - the Miles City area and nearby Wyoming boasted 5 active Polo Teams.  One was at Fort Keogh.  Europe was clambering for Polo Ponies with endurance.

Ewen was ill most of their married life.  During the 1893 financial scare they lost most of the money they had.  Evelyn tried many ways to earn money to help them survive.  She kept a daily diary of  their life (1893-1928).  These diaries have recently been digitized and are part of the Montana Memory Project http://cdm103401.cdmhost.com/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16013coll11 .  Evelyn's diaries were transcribed years ago by the Prairie Museum in Terry.  The transcriptions have not been digitized.

Evelyn's diaries give an amazing snapshot of life in the west.   She raised and sold vegetables to earn money and started taking in boarders.  One of her boarders introduced her to a new piece of technology - photography.  In 1894 she would create what would become a great legacy.  Evelyn's photographs would document the western frontier and its changes.

Donna Lucey in her book "Photographing Montana 1894-1928:  The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron" not only shares many of her photographs but shares the story of how this photographic collection was re-discovered.

I have been inspired by Evelyn's fearlessness, grit and her vision.

Evelyn Cameron self portrait.

Ewen and their wolves.

Video from YouTube  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLPzRBQ_8eQ