We’re leaving Montrose this morning and driving south a short bit to Ouray (the Switzerland of America), where we’ll stay for a while before heading north north north to Montana and a family reunion. Then we’ll be back to Ouray for about a week for the formal celebration of my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary (the Anasazi Trek was an appetizer, you see).
The point of me posting all this is (1) to make you insanely jealous, and (2) to explain why I’ll be hard to get a hold of for a few weeks via this website or even email. In Ouray — and in Montana, too, I suspect — the folks we’ll be staying with are still on … gulp! … dial-up.
How will I survive?
Where in Montana, Mike? My spouse’s grandmother homesteaded there back in the 1800s and lived in Glendive until she reached 90. Then she moved in with Tom’s mother in Phoenix, finally departing the planet at the age of 107.
Banny, as all who loved her called her, couldn’t see very well by the time she left Glendive. Fortunately, the town was so small that everyone knew her car and got out of her way whenever she took to the roads. Tom actually inherited mineral rights to some land near the Badlands.
That’s amazing, Cathy. We’ll pass through Glendive at the very least, and may even spend a bit of time there. The family farm happens to be just northeast of there, near Sidney.
Duuuude, I’m getting chills… 🙂
Someday we really must meet face-to-face and compare notes.
My aunt Nicky’s parents live in Glendive. (I wish I could remember her maiden name!) I think we may be having lunch at their place one day. How bizarre!
Wow. Tom tells me that in such a small place, there’s no way your family didn’t know his grandmother. Her name was Catharine McCarty. Her husband’s name was Mac, but he died decades before she did. Catharine was the second woman elected to the Montana State Legislature, and a force in the Democratic Party. She ran the local Red Cross. She was a dynamo. In her early 90s, she wrote her autobiography, and the family got it printed up. I’d be happy to send you a copy. We have many. It’s quite illuminating in many ways.
Let me know if her name rings a bell with your kinfolk. Oh, and Tom just told me Catharine homesteaded near Jordan. And she and Mac donated much of that land to make Makoshika State Park, where dinosaur bones have been found.
Sherry, Tom told me to tell you that he spent several summers with his grandparents in Glendive and may well have met your kinfolk.
Such a tiny world we live in…
A couple more data points for your family. Tom’s mother’s name is Jerree. She is 84 and has lived in Phoenix most of her adult life.
Tom’s father’s parents also lived in Glendive. They were Herman and Wilimina Scheitlin. Mac MacCarty worked for the power company as a welder. Herman Scheitlin was an engineer for the railroad. Yes, he drove the trains. And Catharine was also a reporter, writing for the Ranger Review and Great Falls Tribune.
That should be more data than you need in such a small place.
Hey Mike,
Haven’t heard from you. When you are in Ouray next time get a horse ride up to “Bridge of Heavens.” I have been all over and that is a “bucket list” spectaluar site. Looking south from Montrose is my number one beautiful site in a lifetime(well three score plus anyway).
I got more interesting stuff for your list for New Mexico when you get around to it.
This summer went down to Three Rivers Petroglyph site. Found out too late on a hot day exactly where the petroglyphs of the sailing ships are between 500 and 1000 miles from an ocean????? Remember reading up on Mystery Rock , the 2500 year old ten commandments written in Aramic/Phoenician and the star chart of an eclipse dated about 2173/- years ago??? Guess you ar eback in the school year?
@Rodney Woods I’ve actually hiked up to the Bridge of Heaven before, Rodney. It is, as you note, spectacular. Not a place to be in a windy thunderstorm, for sure!
Glad you’re still out there searching out petroglyphs. They never cease to amaze me.