June 2022

Bare Tree #88
Little Utah, Montana
2022

A hard life in a hard place, but what’s left of this aged juniper tree provides a bit of welcome shade on a hot afternoon.

The Past Becomes Present
Bridger, Montana
2022

This derelict old homestead reminded me of the Farm Security Administration photographs of farms succumbing to the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Given this area, along with much of the west these days, has been in a long-term drought (recent rains not withstanding), these places are just a few dust dunes away from looking like the places in the photographs. It’s an uncomfortable reminder of a past that hasn’t passed forever.

Take a Chair
Pryor, Montana
2022

Take a chair and put it anywhere you’d like, in this case not anywhere in particular–an example of freedom at work.

Favorite Places
Glasgow, Montana
2022

I’d love to have an address on Nowhere Street. I wonder if UPS would still deliver there.

Not Wiser
Missouri Breaks, Montana
2022

This is not what you’d think you would experience traveling in an area that has been in extreme or exceptional drought for some time. We were headed towards a campground that was about 50 miles down a progressively bad and muddy road. About 30 miles down the road, slipping sideways a few times even in four-wheel drive, and knowing the last 3.5 miles of the road were undeveloped, the better part of valor finally took hold and we gave up and turned around. I stopped and took this photo when we got back onto a decent road surface.

We probably should have turned around sooner or not attempted it at all in the rain. My 70th birthday was the next day which shows,  I guess, that I am in fact older but not wiser. Or maybe I am. In my younger years I probably would have kept going until I slid off into a ditch or something. It took $25 in quarters to get the van mostly cleaned up at a car wash. On the bright side of things I see that drought conditions in part of Montana have been reduced from extreme to moderate in just the last two months.

(Note: the historic floods in Yellowstone Park and the surrounding areas actually happened several days after I wrote the above. Our experience in the Missouri Breaks certainly pales by comparison to what many people experienced in Yellowstone.)

Window on History
Pryor, Montana
2022

What’s Left
Pryor, Montana
2022

There is really not much in the way of home furnishings left in Chief Plenty Coup’s family home. You have to kind of wonder why the park officials chose to place or leave the few items of furniture that remain. The nearly empty shell of the home is certainly a visual portrayal of the disappearance of a life and lifestyle that has long past.

Leaving Trunk
Pryor, Montana
2022

There was a time, long ago, when I could have packed the bulk of my belongings in a trunk this size should the need arise to move on. These days, well, it would take more, much more than that.

Reminders
Pryor, Montana
2022

An old chair in Chief Plenty Coup’s log home, along with a not so subtle reminder of his previous life.

Chief Plenty Coups
Pryor, Montana
2022

Chief Plenty Coups (Alek-Chea-Ahoosh in his own language) was the last chief of the Crow Indians. While chief, he visited Washington D.C. and while there visited Mt. Vernon, the hope of George Washington which had been made into a park by then. He was so impressed with the idea of having the great leader’s home open to the public, that in his will, Chief Plenty Coup left his home and land to the state of Montana in order that it could be visited and enjoyed by all. Subsequently the house and property was made into a state park, which is an out-of-the-way but interesting place to visit.

Chief Plenty Coups’ story reminded me of that of Quannah Parker, the last chief of the Comanche. Both men made a huge lifestyle change from that of the traditional native life in the 19th century American west to that of a successful businessman and community leader in the white mans’ world.