Learning the Montana way
TOM HESS / HUNGRY HORSE NEWS
My education on all things Columbia Falls and neighboring communities continued last week. And my latest lesson made me and my latest instructor laugh out loud.
My new teacher is a longtime resident of the area — the daughter of one famous family who years ago married the son of another well-known clan. And she and I spent almost an hour on the phone.
That's not uncommon, I learned. She said she typically schedules an extra hour for trips to the post office or grocery store to allow for conversation with friends who work there. As someone who moved here from the big city of Colorado Springs, population nearly half a million, the idea of allowing for extra time to talk with friends while on errands is unfamiliar, but most welcome.
At my age, I'm not really comfortable in big cities, big churches and big malls, where it seems you never run into anyone you know.
As my teacher and I talked, she reviewed some of our area's history. She recalled the tent city that arose when construction of the Hungry Horse Dam began half a century ago. With all the workers came a lot of challenges. One was sanitation. How do you install a septic tank overnight? Well, in Montana, you make due. She said workers buried an old car in the ground somewhere near Martin City. Instant septic tank.
There's no need, and not much point, in confirming that story, she and I agreed, laughing at the thought of it. But true or not, it illustrates several things about our area that I needed to learn.
One is that, if you're going to make it in Montana, you never, never, never, never give up. You always look for a solution. Another of my teachers, Barry Conger of First Best Place Task Force, reviewed for me several weeks ago the early history of Columbia Falls — which is the story of one failed effort after another. First, James Hill of Great Northern Railway bypassed a proposed depot in our city for one in Kalispell. Then city fathers tried to use the Flathead River as a means for transporting logs and coal. Nothing worked. But the city's forefathers didn't surrender. And here we all are, decades later, enjoying life in one of the most beautiful towns in America.
Last week's teacher encouraged me to ask you, the readers, to tell me your memories of this area. I've still got a lot to learn, and the more help I get from you, the better the paper will be. Call me at the office, 892-2151, or my cell phone, 270-6037, e-mail me at thess@hungryhorsenews.com, or simply stop by the Hungry Horse News cabin at U.S. Highway 2 and Nucleus Avenue. I'll try to set aside up to an hour for you (though preferably not on Tuesdays, when we're putting together the newspaper). And even if you come to complain, we still might have a good laugh or two.