Goats and mule milk
A trip to Great Falls
My view from the “Hush of the Land” tour bus.
Our tour bus is Smoke and Thelma’s fifth motor home in 60 years. The last one was bigger with a walk-around-bed, a larger bathroom, and enough space to fit all saddles and equipment neatly underneath “like in a Greyhound bus”, Smoke says. The Elsers used it to travel to trailheads to start a pack trip or across the country to teach a packing class. Now we use it to share our book “Hush of the Land” and their lives’ adventures with people across Montana. Last Saturday we stopped at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls.
I love the tour bus for various reasons. I can stretch my legs, have a great view of the mountains, and can listen to my guides while eating breakfast. It slows me down. We talk about family. Vickie their daughter, who passed away too early, her love and magic touch with all kinds of animals. There were rescue dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, wounded gophers nursed back to health, horses, and the mule she trained to pick up her hat from the ground. And there was Tippi, the goat. Like most of Vickie’s animals, little Tippi just appeared at the house one day, became part to of the family, and grew to a sturdy billy with a long beard and pointy horns. When the girls got older, he liked to patrol the long Elser drive way, waiting for a boyfriend’s truck, ready to jump on the hood if they dared to park. “That was very handy,” Smoke remembers with a smile. “I never had to use my shotgun.”
The Elser driveway in winter, ca. 1968.
As we drive up the Blackfoot Valley towards Great Falls, we wonder what Missoula will look like in 20 years. Smoke and Thelma remember driving the dirt road to Ovando, the old lumber mill and railway tracks at the confluence of the Clearwater and Blackfoot river, the gas station were the owners would greet each customer at the front door. The community dances and Howard Copenhaver’s mule milk, a somewhat secretive beverage made with bourbon and eggnog, best to be enjoyed the morning of an Outfitter Convention. Now the only lumber mill in the area is about to run its saws for the last time, Missoula’s 5 Valley stockyard, where Smoke bought many of his horses and mules for $150 each, has its last sale after 80 years as we are driving toward Roger’s Pass. A simple horse, four legs, two ears, and a tail, will sell for $15000 that afternoon.
An (almost) straight line to Great Falls.
The long driveway to the Elsers’ house and barn that Tippi once patrolled is now a subdivision. The house up the hill, where I live, and the entire mountain beyond, 1600 acres of land spanning the entire Rattlesnake Valley from the West to the top of Mount Jumbo, was once Smoke’s leased pasture. Before then horse drawn carriages crossed over the hill to the Blackfoot river when Hellgate canyon was too dangerous for travel, a few miners found their luck close by, and the timber warmed Missoula in the winter. Before all of them, the Salish people traveled through on their seasonal rounds towards the buffalo using the same trails as the grizzly bear, elk, fox, and wolf. Each witness to a lifetime of monumental change.
Smoke before the event starts.
When we get to Great Falls, I introduce Smoke and Thelma to my phone and Siri (“That is handy to have,” they compliment), who becomes our trusted city guide to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center on the banks of the Missouri river. We are two hours early. Smoke loves ice cream. He could eat it every day, and he does. So why not have some before the reading? We visit with members of the local Wild Montana chapter, some old friends, make new ones, while enjoying their ice cream and coffee. As the auditorium fills up, we get settled in on the stage (we even have a fake campfire!) and Smoke takes us on a trip up the South Fork of the Sun River on a warm September day. Elk answer our bugle, moose feed in the marsh, Grizzly bears roam the meadows. He talks about how once Elmo Click cut logs in winter, dragged and stacked them in the middle of the iced-over sun river and then waited downstream until spring to fish them out of the roaring river and sell them as railroad ties.
Community in Great Falls lining up to get their book signed.
When I look at the audience, traveling in their minds like I did for so many hours while recording Smoke’s stories, researching and writing “Hush of the Land”, I think about community. How they make Smoke’s life possible and mine, our stories, this book, the tour bus, convention dances and mule milk, goats chasing off boyfriends, humans traveling on old trails, and I feel grateful to be a witness, however hard that might be sometimes.
A BIG THANK YOU to Duane Buchi, USFS Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, for putting together such a wonderful event, the Charlie Russell Back Country Horsemen for inviting us and the Island Range Chapter of Wild Montana for the ice cream and coffee!
Duane Buchi (middle) visiting with Thelma and Smoke last Saturday.
NEWS and UPCOMING EVENTS.
More signed copies! Books were quickly sold out in Great Falls and not everyone who wanted got one. Darn!
Last book copy in Great Falls.
But don’t worry, give Fact & Fiction in Missoula a call (406)721-2881 or order online to get a signed and personalized copy shipped to you!
Smoke and I were on the radio last week! Listen here to the episode of the Equestrian Legacy Radio with John Holt.
I tried out a little recording of one my favorite Smoke stories.
Let me know what you think!
IN MISSOULA TOMORROW!
Paradise, MT, June 19, 6-7pm, Paradise Center (note corrected date!)
Lincoln, MT, July 27, Sculpture in the Wild
Kalispell, MT, September 3, Flathead Valley Community College, 6-7:30pm (60th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act!)
Seeley Lake, MT, December 6, Community Foundation Bldg, 2pm, hosted by Alpine Artisans
Please get in touch (info@evamaggi.com) if you want to host a “Hush of the Land” event in your community!
You can also find Hush of the Land on Facebook and Instagram.