Montana Is Nothing Like California

Montana is nothing like California. You either like Montana or you don’t. Being a true California native, I guess you know my answer. They call it “Big Sky Country” and I think it is because most of it looks flat and all you see is a huge sky.

Since my husband Bill’s biological family found us in 2001, we have been back and forth to Montana many times each year to visit his family.  His dad has a 100,000 acre cattle ranch near Glacier Park, which is located 53 miles from the nearest town and the driveway to the ranch is 17 miles long.  To say it is out of the way is an understatement. 

I think about what I would do if I lived at the ranch and forgot an ingredient for a recipe, for example. Here at home, I can just hop in the car, drive two miles to Safeway, pick up my items, and get back home within 15 minutes.  At the ranch, it is a different story.  When they shop, it is to stock the pantry. They have a Costco about two hours from the ranch and the last 18 miles is a one-lane dirt road, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. It takes a huge chunk of time to go shopping or to go anywhere for that matter.

There are several houses on the ranch for the hired men who live there; some have lived there for 30 years. They depend on my mother-in-law to pick up their supplies, personal items, cigarettes, and even underwear.

If you have ever seen the movie “Secretariat” about the Triple Crown winning horse, Bill’s dad had the son of Secretariat, Eminent Son, who sired many horses. Eminent Son died in an accident when lightening struck him out in the pasture. It nearly killed Bill’s dad who loved that beautiful horse.  The ranch still has about eight to ten of the offspring.

On the ranch itself there are three lakes full of fish, making it a fisherman’s paradise. There are deer and elk too.  I suppose it is considered a hunter’s paradise too. Have you ever had an Elk charge your car?  It is not pretty.  And the last count of grizzly bears was 26 on the property. 

There are about 100 beavers living on the river that runs through the ranch too. When the beavers made a dam recently, it dammed up the water, making a pond which froze over and about 25 cows walked onto it and drowned.  This was a very costly catastrophe. Needless to say, beavers are not welcome guests at the ranch. The sooner you take down the dam, those little critters get back to re-building. It is never-ending.

About 25 miles away from the ranch is the nearest Hutterite Colony where you can pick up a few items you may need such as eggs, bread, and potatoes so you don’t have to travel all the way into town.  Hutterites are a communal branch similar to the Amish but use cars and machinery. People live simply in communal homes, each without kitchens. There are no televisions or radios.  Women do not wear makeup and their long hair is pulled back into a bun covered by a bonnet, and everyone wears distinctive homemade clothing.  Men look like Abraham Lincoln. The closest colony to the ranch raises pigs, chickens, and turkeys, which they sell to the general public. Children at the colonies speak German only until they are about six. They are truly a sight to see in their daily garb.

The people at the colonies are always very nice to me. I was somewhat an oddity with the makeup, clothing, and flashiness not uncommon to California. When I was visiting one of the communal homes, upon leaving, I was surrounded by about four little children.  As I was speaking to one of the women, I felt little fingers touching my purple painted toenails which were quite visible in my sandals.  They had never seen such a painted up woman before, and they wanted to see if the purple paint would come off on their fingers.  It was priceless. Since I do not speak German, I could not communicate with the cute little children, so all you can do is smile and wave.

Bill’s mom and three brothers live in Helena, a big city, but still not what I have been used to, having been raised in San Francisco.

I love visiting the families in Montana, but I love getting back home to California. Like Dorothy said in the movie, “Wizard of Oz” “There’s no place like home.”