Sleeping Giant Ranch, Helena Montana
On this ranch thirteen children were born to Fannie’s sister, Carrie, and her husband, Joe Hilger. Viola, the youngest was the only one born in the fine new house in the foreground of the painting. Mr. Hilger owned the saw mill and produced all the boards he needed to build it. Viola never saw her mother until she was two, for her grandmother was ill, and Carrie lived at her family’s home, the Sperry ranch, to care for the grand lady until she died. School for the children was down the road, and the student body consisted solely of their family! To maintain that road each rancher was assigned a certain number of days to grade and gravel it. Once, while picking berries, Fannie’s mother was bitten by a rattlesnake, after which the horses bolted, and she had to run home. Fannie saved her mother’s life by riding to Helena for the doctor after she was sure her mother had taken a swig of alcohol. Once, Fannie had a rather large, furry intruder at the door and she quickly killed it; a bear is not a welcome guest for food. The Hilgers had milking cows, and the milk was stored in an irrigation ditch. If thunder came, their mother, who sold cream, insisted the children run and bring the milk inside the house so it would not sour, for the not-so-old wife believed firmly in the old wives’ tale. After Fannie’s husband, Bill Steele, died she moved into this house and lived there until her death at age ninety-five. The family installed a toilet in the living room for her so that she would not have to visit the outhouse in the picture, and it is still sitting there next to the fireplace. Modernization comes slowly to rural areas and is costly. The Sleeping Giant Ranch had no electricity until 1960 and still has no phone land line.

Sleeping Giant Ranch, Helena Montana
Peeking through the window of the large house, I could see the warm, cozy kitchen in which the thirteen Hilger children were raised and where Fannie Steele came to live her final years.  I could almost hear the children bounding about while Carrie rode herd on them, and I could almost smell the goodies baking in her wood stove.

Sleeping Giant Ranch, Helena Montana
This painting was inspired by an old Hilger family photo. The equipment suggests a dam was being dug.

Sleeping Giant Ranch, Helena Montana
Fannie Sperry was born March 27, 1887 on her parents’ horse ranch, and from an early age was taught to be a fine equestrienne.  When she became the wild west champion in 1912 and 1913 she used her prize money to help her family.  She joined Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in 1916 and, according to her niece, Viola, could out-shoot and out-ride Annie Oakley but never got the chance, for she joined Buffalo Bill after Annie had moved on. There she met and married Bill Steele, a rodeo clown and broncobuster.  Fans flocked to see Fanie and Bill’s famous act.  She shot china eggs out of his fingers and cigars from his mouth.  After Cody died in 1917 they managed their own show, in which Fannie rode “slick saddle,” with one rope and one hand free, an unheard-of feat for women back then.  She once accurately said “… the horse has shaped and determined my whole way of life.”

Sleeping Giant Ranch, Helena Montana
Look carefully at the painting.  This small room in the barn receives light through a 1950’s TV screen!  It is impressive that ranchers can always find a new use for everything old – nothing is wasted.

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
Born in Minnesota Albert Beckman came to Roundup to work as a carpenter, found the homestead land all claimed, and bought a section from the Northern Pacific Railroad for $9.00 per acre.In 1917, when he was 30, he married Cora Strike, 18, who lived around Devil's Lake. For a couple of years they camped in a tent until Albert hauled lumber 100 miles by horse and wagon and built a house. For school their three children boarded with neighbors who had a school house and a teacher, and at one point Albert converted a chicken coop to a school room for the three Beckman children and a neightbor girl. The teacher lived in a teacherage (a small camper) and was furnished fuel and food. During a period of the Depression, Cora operated the ranch and Albert worked demolishing homes lost to bankruptcy, for the government. Only in 1950, when a power line was strung to the Big Wall oil field, did the family have electricity. The sixties saw an end to their hard-earned life on the ranch. First, Cora died in April of breast cancer, after which Albert stuck it out alone until, in late August, he suffered blood clots in his legs and could not walk. He crawled to a shed but could go no further. Following morning he was found and rushed to the hospital. the doctors could not save his legs, and this amputation was not only of body but also of his life on the ranch he so loved. After Albert passed away, two brouthers bought the house and original section of land. First Vince, later Frank, Goffena lived there with his family. Even in the 1980's life in the remote place was arduous. At times the only way to transport children to the school bus stop was by tractor. Electricity and phone were iffy at best. Now empty of people the house is prey to the harsh elements and is home only to rats, mice, snakes, and memories.

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
Partially destroyed with parts strewn and buried in the long Buffalo grass this header seems to be waiting for Albert to bring his team of horses and start the job. Instead, the wind, blowing through its ancient frame, just makes an eerie, mournful sound

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
It was their first wedding anniversary and they were to celebrate it on their ranch.  They had survived their first year of marriage in a house in which kitchen water was frozen solid in winter, rattlers cavorted and rattled under their bedroom floor boards in summer.  They had invited their family and friends to join them, but it was springtime on a rural, Montana ranch in the sixties.  Last year’s bride awoke to over a foot of snow, and Vince had the animal chores to attend, so Arlene grabbed the shovel and cleared a path for their guests.  Happy Anniversary!

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
Even in scorching summers tasty meals were prepared in this kitchen by first the Beckmans, then the Goffenas.  Albert Beckman built the kitchen cabinets, and  Frank updated the kitchen with this slightly newer wood-burning stove.  Insulation was no more than wishful thinking, so in winter everything froze, and getting up in the morning to fix a meal was quite a challenge.  Yet, much love and happiness were forged within these walls, children were nursed, then toddled about.  For the Beckmans, they returned as adults to help their elder, ailing parents.  For Frank and Sue, a son now plants and harvests the Beckman land. The hired help, arrested by the local sheriff, departed quickly, and their garbage still lingers, but the mice and rats don’t mind.

It Had No Brakes

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
To operate a ranch one needs a tractor.  Unfortunately, the Goffena brothers bought the land and the house, not Beckman’s tractors.   Vince desperately needed one but was a little hard pressed for cash.  He solved the problem by buying at auction a 1925 McCormick Deering that had a slight problem; its brakes did not work.  To this day he and Arlene tell tales of creative jumping and plowing a field, so Vince would always end the job up-hill.  The old tractor still stands patiently awaiting a little oil and gas to complete another task performed by one brave fellow.

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
The tub is beautiful, a true antique, but there it sits in the front yard beside two bullet-ventilated barrels.  When Frank and Susan moved into the Beckman house, she wanted a pond for ducks and birds in the yard.  Frank, to accommodate his wife, took an old footed bathtub and buried it in the ground.  Everyone, including the ducks, was happy.  When Frank built the family a new house on a different section of land, the hired help lived in the old Beckman house.  These gents had to mix some chemicals and didn’t much like bending over to do it.  Shrewdly they dug up the tub and used it as their mixing bowl.

Beckman Ranch, Roundup Montana
This wooden structure, though a shade shorter than the leaning tower of Pisa, had a much more powerful sway.  Albert moved it from a vacant farm, for Cora wanted a separate place to wash the family clothes.  The washer was a boiler on a wood stove; the dryer, her clothesline; for soap she used lye.  If the hired help actually washed their duds out there in those modern machines, we shall never know, for they found housing in the jail.  In a big wind storm the building recently fell over.

Buffalo Camp, Miles City Montana
In the late 1870’s through the early 1880’s, from behind the man-made rock wall guarding a then wood covered cave, high on a hillside, sharpshooters used 45-120 Sharps rifles to decimate the buffalo population.  By 1883 the powerful beasts, once ranging over all that would become the United States were gone.  A good sharpshooter could kill about a hundred head a day and was paid 25 cents an ear.  The animals were skinned where they fell, and the hides left to dry on the banks of the Yellowstone, where steamboats gathered them in the spring.  With the slaughter of the buffalo the government felt the land was cleared for homesteaders’ cattle, and the Native Americans were driven to land allotted them.  Sadly, contrary to plan, Texans drove their cattle up here, over-grazed the native grasses, and high-tailed back home with the profits.

Settle Ranch, Helena Montana
The Settles have been a proud ranching family in Montana for four generations.  Their original ranch was founded in the 1870’s by Martin Settle and his uncle, Dr. Henry Clark. Located at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Musselshell River, the headquarters was marked by the big house designed by Clark’s brother-in-law, John Grant, a Portland, Oregon architect. At times the ranch was supported by cattle, at others, by sheep.  Martin’s operation of the ranch was succeeded by his son, Edward, in 1919.  Edward was known as the man with the hardest luck ever, for each of his four wives had an untimely death, and he was forced into bankruptcy when each of his four crops dried up. For this man a four-leaf clover would have been an ominous sign.  Edward’s eldest son, Martin J. Settle took over the operation after World War II. In 1959 the original ranch was sold to the Hutterites, and Martin and his wife, Adeline, purchased a portion of a large sheep ranch operated by the Chevallier family in Canyon Creek, Montana.  Their youngest son, Scott, and his wife, Kelly, presently operate this cattle ranch located in Trinity Gulch northwest of Helena.  Their next door neighbors, the Chevalliers, have a cattle ranch headquartered at the south end of the Little Prickley Pear Canyon.

This building predates the ranching era and is located near a historic placer mine  in Trinity Gulch.  Its robust stone and log construction was thought to have thwarted Indian attacks.  Over the years it has been used as a bunkhouse for the early Chevallier sheep ranch, and rusting, metal bed springs and frame are still inside.

Settle Ranch, Helena Montana
The Settle Ranch in Trinity Gulch, now devoted to cattle, has two large, magnificent, wooden sheds.  These, with giant cedar pillars, were built by the Chevallier family during the hey day of sheep ranching in Montana.  In the murky light I felt the spirits of years long passed, just as I did in the great cathedrals at Notre Dame, Winchester, Nidaros, and others.

Settle Ranch, Helena Montana
Taken from old family photographs these pictures vividly show the true life of the old sheep-herding days. Just as in a Bible story, these gents kept watch over their flocks by day and by night and cared for as many as 2,200 at one time.

Settle Ranch, Helena Montana
Taken from old family photographs these pictures vividly show the true life of the old sheep-herding days. Just as in a Bible story, these gents kept watch over their flocks by day and by night and cared for as many as 2,200 at one time.

Settle Ranch, Helena Montana
Hunters and ranchers sharing the same land, if properly governed, is a win-win situation.  The hunter enjoys the thrill of bagging his prize animal, the rancher controls the wild animal population, which consumes his hard-earned feed. 

Martin Ranch, Miles City Montana
Joel Charles Martin and Diana Marsh Martin, with their five children, left Milwaukee, Wisconsin by train to start a new life on their homestead forty miles northwest of Miles City. Joel had lost all the fingers on his left hand in a sawmill accident and felt farming was the way he could now support his family. They shipped everything they owned: a steam engine, machinery, lumber, household items, horses, and livestock. At first they survived in a tent, then a tar paper shack for the summer, until he built this magnificent two-story structure. Later came a two-story granary with a dance hall at the top. The barn was built on a hillside with the lower half dug into the bank. Martin intended to build a cheese factory and made the cement vats with gravel from the creek. He nearly had the building completed when a wind storm smashed it into a hayfield, and no one knows if it was ever rebuilt. They raised oats, wheat and alfalfa, and heated the home with coal dug from the beds to the west. Martin used the threshing machine in the painting for his grain and also his neighbors'. In the yard was a six-foot stack of buffalo skulls, which disappeared as visitors from the east arrived. The drought of the Great Depression ended the Martins' lives in that house, for all they could grow in those dry, horrible years was Russian Thistles. Everything was sold in a farm auction in April, 1939.

Hot Water Well, Miles City Montana
Here in 1956 Shell Oil drilled 8,230 feet before all Hell broke loose. Instead of oil they hit a vein of hot, high pressure water, the same for which Yellowstone is famous. From April to June they tried to plug it off, for they were certain oil was beneath it. On June 7th drilling began again only to blow at 8,256 ft. On the third attempt, July 4th, the geyser blew like a patriotic rocket at 8,840 ft, at which point they put valves on top the casing, so that John Roberts, the owner, and his neighbors to the south, the Lockie Brothers could use the water. The temperature of the water is between 170-190 degrees, and it flowed 2,142,000 gallons of sulfuric water each day. The State required them to slow the flow, for it believed it was the same vein as Thermopolis and Yellowstone Park. The Moore Brothers bought the ranch from Roberts in the late 50's, moved in an old building, poured a cement floor, installed some bath tubs, and opened a spa for their neighbors and friends. Late one evening, tanked up on adult beverages, some high school pranksters decided to try out the tubs. Unfortunately they did not know how to cool down the water, and their evening frolic ended in the ER of the local hospital with their rumps and other private parts scalded. Fearful of a court suit, even though the boys broke in, the owners removed the building and destroyed the tubs. Now there are only scattered, rusting, overturned tubs and this one, sitting majestically in boiling mud in the middle of the vast plains. The steam can be seen for miles around, but this great energy of the Earth is largely wasted.

McCarthy/Pedersen Ranch, Kalispell Montana
In 1892 John E. McCarthy, who came from Ireland, found 80 acres near Glacier he thought perfect for a farm. He applied for a homestead and received the patent, signed by President Grover Cleveland.  His dream came true, for he was now a farmer growing grain and raising horses, but it was not until 1903 that he built his home.  In 1907 Andrew Pederson bought the farm, built the new house, along with a granary, and raised chickens and dairy cows for 43 years. He increased the size of the farm to 91 acres.  In 1973 Gary Burt purchased the property, where he raised horses and dogs, and it is presently owned by Tom and Fran Towle.

McCarthy/Pedersen Ranch, Kalispell Montana
During the Depression, the WPA built the most up-to-date outhouses the nation had ever seen.  Dubbed “The Eleanor,” after President’s Roosevelt’s wife, its toilet seat automatically dropped when one closed the door.  This kept all the flies out of the pot and made usage about as comfortable as that type of facility permitted.

Harvesting
Oil on Barnwood, unframed

McCarthy/Pedersen Ranch, Kalispell Montana
Based upon an old photo, the painting depicts threshing when people relied upon real horsepower.

McCarthy/Pedersen Ranch, Kalispell, Montana
In 1892 John E. McCarthy, who came from Ireland, found 80 acres near Glacier he thought perfect for a farm. He applied for a homestead and received the patent, signed by President Grover Cleveland.  His dream came true, for he was now a farmer growing grain and raising horses, but it was not until 1903 that he built his home.  In 1907 Andrew Pederson bought the farm, built the new house, along with a granary, and raised chickens and dairy cows for 43 years. He increased the size of the farm to 91 acres.  In 1973 Gary Burt purchased the property, where he raised horses and dogs, and it is presently owned by Tom and Fran Towle.

The Wind Inherits

Alfred Matson Ranch, Roundup Montana
Emil and Alfred Matson were brothers who decided to buy neighboring ranches and for tax purposes, later traded properties. When times got a little tight financially they both went to work at their own saw mill. There, the brotherly philos ended when they got into a fight and an accident occurred; Emil was running the saw when Alfred’s face was split open by a flying piece of wood. Not having extra cash for doctors, he somehow made it home, and there he lay until it healed, scarring him horribly. After this catastrophe the brothers never talked, never were in the same room, never helped each other. Lois Beckman Dietz remembers that it was difficult to have them visit over the holidays. They could have one for Christmas dinner, the other for New Year’s. Alfred became almost a hermit, fearful to be around people, but he was known as a kind, gentle man. Neither brother made it big as a rancher though both worked hard enough. Alfred could never afford a decent bull, so, when he needed one to enlarge his herd, he would lurk behind trees until the coast was clear, then appropriate a neighbor’s for a day or two until the job was completed. The locals didn’t mind, for helping each other was part of ranching.

Alfred Matson Ranch, Roundup Montana
The outhouse intrigued me immensely.  Why would a hermit such as Alf build a two-seater outhouse?  Perhaps it was built before his brother and he had separated, and he thought they might both have the urge at the same time.  Perhaps he planned to marry someday.  Whatever the reason, there it is, a two-seater on the ranch of a bachelor hermit!

Alfred Matson Ranch, Roundup Montana
Walking Alf’s ranch overwhelmed me; it was as if time had stopped and there, everywhere, were remembrances rustling in the wind. Why his pickup was deserted in the middle of the field, rusted an autumn orange, nobody knows.  Yet, it seemed to be waiting, almost begging, for this kind, disfigured man to turn the key, start it up and get back to work.

Alfred Matson , Roundup Montana
As I walked the land around his serenely beautiful site, I became so sad.  It was as if the spirit of Alf was attached to all the equipment and buildings, even the furniture in the house.  As I walked by one vacant building there on the ground was this little cottontail.  At first I thought it was just resting in the sun, but upon approaching, I saw it had recently died.  How, why?  It, too, was now one of the Matson Ranch spirits.

Tucker/Branum Ranch, Roundup Montana
With his wife and ten children, William Tucker claimed his second homestead at the age of 56. Their first had been in South Dakota, but the government took the land away when minerals were discovered on the property. Unfortunately his 161 acres consisted mainly of rocks, pines, gullies and hills. The land could never support a family of this size, so his wife and children did the farming, while he was the hired hand on other ranches and graded the new roads for the county. He did manage to build a tiny two-story cabin for his family and a few barns. His neighbor, Rufus Branum, with a wife and four children, claimed their 280 acres from the federal government when Rufus was 44 years old. As he did for the Tuckers, President Wilson signed the patent allowing Rufus to claim the land. He, too, built a house and some out-buildings, and drilled a well for water which caved in forcing him to use water from a now defunct spring. Little else is know about these two pioneer families. Both probably moved on in the Great Depression, and all that remains are the stone fragments of two buildings, rotting boards, some square nails, fencing, a dug-out place, and the pipe leading to the well. It is rather symbolic that on the day I saw these remnants a dead bird lay in the dust.

Hall Ranch, Roundup Montana
According to folklore the original owner, a Mr. Tupper of Chicago, was a Mafia  figure seeking to hide from the FBI.  If true, apparently he succeeded.  When he  died, Mrs. Tupper, much younger, a local school teacher, sold the place in 1938 to 45-year-old Charles Henry Hall from Curtis, Nebraska.  Charlie was a loner, tight-fisted about money, whose trusty dogs subsisted on potato peels. The ranch never had a decent well, water was carried from a now dry spring near the house.  Never squandering this precious fluid on such superfluities as washing clothes, Charlie wore a pair of jeans until they would not abide another fitting, then tossed them onto a heap of brethren on the floor.  If a dish weren’t awfully dirty, he turned it over to escape washing it.  If the uncovered jar lured flies to their deaths, he spread the jelly on a bread slice and picked out their corpses later.  Over time his land grew to 30 to 60 sections, according to local beliefs, and even in age he was tough enough to ride the length and breadth of it.  He originally raised sheep but soon had 400-500 head of cattle.  Wisely he slept in the living room with a hip holster on the nearby wall, for the town people, unaware that he banked in Billings, believed much money was stashed there, and there was at least one robbery attempt.  On the final day of his life he rode out to check things and became ill, but managed to reach home and die.  After that, his brother and heir promptly shot his dogs and put up the place for sale.  Tales abounded about a Texas Ranger that had ridden through Hall’s territory and never returned home.  When Robert Goffena Sr. bought the ranch from Hall’s brother, his sons went searching for possible treasure.  They found no money, but up the fireplace chimney there was an old jacket wrapped around a .45 Colt revolver, bearing the stamp of the Texas Rangers.  His pile of dirty pants were scooped up by a neighbor and sold on the Internet as real, antique, cowboy jeans. His little house was demolished.  It should not be forgotten, though, that this was once the Capital of an empire.  Small you say.  Yes, though at nearly a third the size of Rhode Island, still an empire, hard-won and defiantly defended against relentless Nature.  It and its ruler deserve to be memorialized.

During the summer months the Siemions worked for Charlie Hall, the boys as a ranch hands, she as a cook.  Steve is the boy pinning down the calf as his brother brands it.  There is a photo of Charlie branding, but he hated having his picture taken, so I respected his wishes and did not paint him.

Hall Ranch, Roundup Montana
Whether this building housed Charlie’s Buick or his Lincoln, depending upon who tells the tale, or whether it was actually the shop doesn’t matter.  What signifies is the story of his love of his vehicle.  Hall’s pride and joy was his car, and although he lived on a gumbo mess of a road (which is now our road and still a gumbo mess) and rarely could drive it anywhere important, he replaced it every couple of years.  His loyal ranch hand always bought the old vehicle, when Charlie got the new model from the same dealer.  When he died both his usual buyer and salesman were among his pallbearers.

Hall Ranch, Roundup Montana
Directly behind all the ranch buildings is a gully where the Tuppers and Charlie Hall dumped garbage they did not burn.  There, surrounded by sage brush, scraps of wood and metal junk reposes Mrs. Tupper’s car, with a beautiful patina of rust.

Hall Ranch, Roundup Montana
The Sweat Shed was an important aspect of sheep shearing.  Inside this building Hall could keep 800 sheared sheep warm.  For shearing, his 2,000 sheep were run through an alley way, while the shearer waited inside with his generator-powered shears.  He was paid by the pound of wool cut, so time was of the essence.  Ranch hands tromped on the wool in the sacks to compress the contents.  Fully loaded these weighed 600-700 pounds, were stitched shut, and then rolled to the truck.

Hall Ranch, Roundup Montana
Fifty to sixty wild horses roamed Hall’s ranch.  At first he attempted to run them off, but finally built the pen, rounded up several, trained them, and kept one for himself.  In the background of the picture are many of his sheep sheds.  One spring storm he lost 300-400 sheep, so then he built these sheds to protect them.  Pregnant ewes were caged and transported from the open range into these shacks until the lambs were safely born and big enough to fend for themselves.

Burgel Ranch, Miles City Montana
Chris Burgel was a card player.  When his luck was good he had money for cows, but when he lost he had to settle for sheep.  No records were kept to show which animal was the more prevalent, but there are still a log house and a board building, both now lodges for mice and rats.  Inside remain many discarded, family treasures, poignantly rotting and rusting away.

Burgel Ranch, Miles City Montana
Chris Burgel was a card player. When his luck was good he had money for cows, but when he lost he had to settle for sheep. No records were kept to show which animal was the more prevalent, but there are still a log house and a board building, both now lodges for mice and rats. Inside remain many discarded, family treasures, poignantly rotting and rusting away.

Burgel Ranch, Miles City Montana
Chris Burgel was a card player. When his luck was good he had money for cows, but when he lost he had to settle for sheep. No records were kept to show which animal was the more prevalent, but there are still a log house and a board building, both now lodges for mice and rats. Inside remain many discarded, family treasures, poignantly rotting and rusting away.

The Sacred Tobacco Ceremony
Oil on Barnwood, unframed

The Crow Reservation, near Billings Montana
Native Americans are the original ranchers and cowboys of the west. Their crops were the native plants found in abundance and which the girls and women harvested. Their livestock were the buffalo which the men killed by ambushing the beasts into a jump, where they were killed with rather small arrowheads. The bladders were cleaned and used by the woman to carry water, the tongue and hump were a delicacy enjoyed by all, the hides were prepared by the women for use as tents and clothing, and as much of the meat as they could carry and eat was taken san smoked while the rest was left for the coyotes and wolves. Our ranch actually has a buffalo hump, and buffalo teeth surface every year. We have been told by old residents that if we dig deep we shall find whole skulls and arrowheads. In the direct a short distance from the jump there are still the stories and indentations of a teepee ring.

The tobacco plant is sacred to the Crown Nation, for it is a gift from the Creator.  Tobacco is an offering, a sacrificial blessing, and this ceremony depicts the finding of the wild tobacco plant.  A leader told his son, No Intestines, to go find a certain Sacred Tobacco Plant and his people would prosper.  This exodus established the great Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation.  Many hardships were endured as the people migrated into Canada, the southwest, then the Canadian River, to Chief Mountain in Glacier National Park, and south to the Big Horn Mountains.  Near the present site of Story, Wyoming, the plant was found.  No Intestines had died, but his son initiated the first Sacred Tobacco Society by spiritually adopting his own son.  The song sung at that ceremony is still used today, and the Ceremony is full of symbolism showing the rejuvenating of the people and is a ritual of adoption.  The drum is used only for this ceremony, the duck is significant, for the Creator told the birds to go into water and bring mud, and the head piece has exactly 48 pigeon feathers.

The Crow Reservations, near Billings Montana
Farming, as known today, was not traditionally practiced by Native Americans.  Wild crops were harvested, nothing sown and planted.  It was the duty of the women and girls to harvest the necessary wild foods such as sweet sage, bear root, wild turnips, and choke cherry berries.

Ranching Nature's Herd
Oil on barnwood, unframed 3-dimensional

The Crow Reservation, near Billings Montana
Ranching, as known today, was unthinkable to the Native Americans.  Animals were wild and were slaughtered only when needed by the tribe for food, skins, and bladders for holding water.  The men would track and kill the buffalo, while the women’s job was to process the meat and hides.  To use the skin the woman had tediously to  scrape all the scraps of meat from the hide before processing ever began.

The Sweat Lodge on the Little Bighorn
Oil on barnwood, unframed

The Crow Reservation, near Billings Montana
A sweat lodge is used to this day for medicinal and spiritual purposes, rather a re-birth or purification ceremony.  The lodge is made of twelve hides with the floor covered in sweet sage.  The owner of the lodge invites those he wishes.  The right to pour water is an honor earned and given by a relative or bought. Between the rocks and the fire pit is a symbolic umbilical cord which is not to be crossed.  Using a pitchfork the owner transports the rocks inside, and when placed in the lodge the pourer closes the door and pours water on top of the stones to fill the lodge with steam.  The owner offers bear root to the rocks with short prayers.  The guests, nude and seated, smudge themselves with the smoke and switch themselves with sticks. They stay within the sweat lodge until they feel cleansed.  Then they exit and drink water, usually from a creek, to cool themselves,  before returning to repeat the ceremony.  This they do four times. After the men have been rejuvenated, it is the women’s turn.

The Crow Reservation, near Billings Montana
Once the Crow Nation signed the treaty to give them the land they desired, the Federal Government wanted Chief Plenty Coups to appoint the first native police officer. Bear Claw was the one honored, and he proudly discharged his duties. After his death his badge was lost, and years later it was discovered in Texas.

Schlott Ranch, Miles City Montana
This ranch was homestead by Charles Schrader, and the Schlotts probably built the house which, despite the collapse of its two stories into one, still manages to stand.  It is presently owned by our guide’s uncle, and next to it the remains of the wind generator give a proof of the climate.

Gresens Ranch, Miles City Montana
Thomas Grist homesteaded the ranch and built the log house still standing on the property.  It was then bought by Neal Gresen’s parents, and when Neal married Irene, they lived in the corn crib until his folks sold the property to them.  Here Marge Holmlund, our guide, played as a child, and the love of this property and her aunt was beautifully evident as we toured the ranch. The Gresens raised their four children in the tiny house they built in the twenties.  To accommodate four little bodies in one 6 x 6 bedroom they fashioned a pair of bunk beds.  In the dump on the little hill, a distance from the house, was their car, sporting a 1955 plate, though it was a 1948 or earlier vintage Ford.  The car, rusted nearly pink, looked imperial among decaying farm equipment and unknown junk.

Swanson Ranch, Jordan Montana
Located west of Cohagen and near the Little Dry Creek, these poetic ruins painted from old photographs were originally built around 1915 by a “Swede” named Swanson.  It later was owned by Carl Olson, father of Mary Key, but none  left traces of their lives there.

Gehring Ranch, Helena Montana
Great-Grandfather Gehring drove all he owned from Indiana to start a new life in the early 1860’s.  He had just completed his tour-of-duty in the Civil War, taken a job as wagon driver, and searched for the perfect homestead.  After a harrowing descent down the steep hill where his brakes nearly burned out, he stopped the horses to rest.  As he looked about he knew he had found home, so he built the log house and there three generations carried on his dream.  As the old coffee pot hanging next to his door shows, all were welcome.

Gehring Ranch, Helena Montana
This old log structure crumbling at the road’s edge, was built by Great-Grandfather Gehring as a barn.  Three generations ranched here and Billy, the great-grandson of the wagon driver, keeps a herd of the animals that once covered the plains

Gehring Ranch, Helena Montana
This old structure was a bunk house for the hired help, and the tractor was used by Grandpa and Dad.

Tucker/Branum Ranch, Roundup Montana
Little is know about these two pioneer farmers.  One owned an L-shaped half-section, the other 280 acres mostly rocks, trees and gullies.  An old-time resident, Lois Beckman Dietz, remembers there were children here, though they were far too distant ever to play or school together.  Both the Tuckers and Branums moved on in the Great Depression, and all that remains are the fragmenting stone walls of two buildings, rotting boards, some square nails, fencing, a dug-out place, and the pipe leading to the well.

Jacko Ranch, Jordan Montana
Little is know about this ruin located outside Jordan.  George Davidson owned the place and left it to his daughters, Elizabeth Clark of Forsyth and Patricia Langohr of Bozeman. The painting is based on old photographs, and even the ravages of a hard winter produced a stark beauty.  Ranch life was never easy, and neighbors were few and far between.  The sentinel windmill meant that they harnessed a bit of the harsh adversary, wind, and drew sustaining water from the earth.

Pete Ringstevdt Ranch, Jordan Montana
This building was located in the south pasture of the original Beecher Ranch and owned by Pete Ringstevdt.  When he died they bought the structure and surrounding land and when they moved to their new place near Grass Range, they decided to do a good deed.  They knew the roads were dangerous in winter and travelers could easily be stranded and die, so instead of boarding up the old home, they stocked it with dried food and kept wood near the stove for anyone in need.  However, vandals stole the food and belongings, even the stone lids off the old wood and coal cook stove, and left the house a shambles; a sorry commentary upon our times.

The Beecher Ranch, Grass Range, Montana
Perhaps the most variously-owned and used land and building I have painted, began as the Dovenspeck homestead and was a cattle ranch.  Then John and Verda Middleton bought it in 1927, after which it was owned by the Millers for one year, then the Olsons for three. Within the last fifty years it has had six owners: George Kneeland, Clifford Swift, Tom and Lois Stash, the Bellwoods, the Collins, and now the Beechers.  The building was the Stage Station for Fergus County and carried passengers, gold-mining equipment, and supplies to stops that included Gilt Edge, Flat Willow, and Musselshell.  There was a stage stop about every fifteen miles, for that was the distance a coach could travel per day.  The Olsons, were successful sheep ranchers with 500 head until a gent named Flurry, half Indian and half French, let his dog drive all the sheep into a snow filled coulee.  When he saw what had happened, Flurry calmly walked to the diner where Mr. Olson ate, had his dinner, then broke the news.  Crying desperately, Mr. Olson tried to save his sheep but lost both them and the ranch and would have starved, but his daughters were hand-raising seventy lambs that had lost their mothers.  With the sale of these the family was kept alive for the winter.  For a few years the building became the McDonald Creek School  Afterwards the structure became a home again.  On the high hill behind is a dipping vat for animals; a long deep trough where they were submerged in creosote and water, until in 1936 an earthquake moved the water supply to the bottom of the hill.  The Depression years were hard times in the Grass Range Area.  With the hopes of settlements that would grant the injured parties the lands they desired, many law suites were filed for alleged injuries or problems while others tried to grab land that contained watering holes. With their horses grazing about, the Beechers have an idyllic place, where one could not guess the secrets hidden in those beautiful surroundings and that historic building.

Charlie Coil Ranch, Jordan Montana
Not much is known of this ranch located near Cohagen. However, the importance of the painting is not who owned it, but that it represents an on-going controversy: the protection of livestock versus the freedom of wildlife.  A rancher told a wildlife magazine that he had no hatred for wolves or coyotes and really felt terrible when he had to kill one.  However, those animals live by eating his livelihood, and he wished that instead of contributing a buck or two to wildlife organizations, the do-gooders had to give an amount that equaled his losses.  Then might they understand why ranchers become upset.