Blackfoot Valley Dispatch - The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980

As kids, it was rare for us to travel farther away from home than Deer Lodge. The roads and vehicles of the day weren't much, and we never saw any...

It was rare to travel much distance from Helmville in the 1950's and 60's. The vehicles weren't that dependable, and the interstate system wasn't...

Our paternal grandfather's brother, our great uncle, died in 1959, so there aren't many of us left who knew him. We of the 4th generation only knew...

I've mentioned a number of times the constancy a person experiences when raised on a rural property. The phenomenon crosses generations and allows...

The other day I was in a town about 100 miles from here. Townsend used to be a dynamic place, but there are a lot of empty storefronts there now. The...

Rural children grow up with fewer organized activities than do their urban counterparts, but they enjoy a variety of country opportunities not...

This winter I spent some time in both retro and introspection. The results aren't very good, I'm afraid. I showed some promise as a child, but when pu...

I don't know how our paternal grandmother managed. She wasn't different than any of the women who raised families in the early and mid-20th century. T...

With most of the news being about politics these days, I think often about our maternal grandmother who was a dedicated Republican in the Eisenhower...

This last siege of storms has made for long winter. The snow is welcome, but it may delay spring grass and the return of migratory birds. As kids,...

This last blizzard got me thinking about how hard the old timers had to work just to keep the house warm from September to May, and to cook every day...

When I was at my sickest in Brazil, and my legs didn't work to the point I sometimes couldn't get off the toilet by myself, I remembered a rancher...

I've always kept myself on the outer edges of society, preferring to observe its actions and ideas with a soft contempt, always keeping my "ironic...

Years back almost every ranch kept a "farm flock" of 100 – 200 ewes. They provided extra income from their wool and lambs, but could be a nuisance...

Some time ago I saw a photograph taken at the Helmville cemetery on the day they buried my great grandfather in 1922. In the picture there's a...

It took me a long time to fully appreciate the differences between a rural upbringing and an urban upbringing. These differences are not especially...

Our mother had four children under six years old in the house (two more came some years later,) a wringer washer, but no clothes dryer or dishwasher....

That summer that I was ten - Can it be only one summer that I was ten? May Swenson – The Centaur [1958] We all say that as we age, time seems to...

Tis not the meat, but 'tis the appetite Makes eating a delight. Of Thee, Kind Boy John Suckling 1609 - 1642 The haying crews were large during the yea...

Agricultural techniques, like all other facets of life, have progressed over time. With cattle and other agrarian businesses, the cultures themselves...

In the days of loose hay, when the cattle were fed by hand, Christmas meant two days of extra work. - the day before and the day after. In order to...

I was eating lunch at the hotel in Barra do Bugres, where I had been sent by the Peace Corps. The establishment offered rooms plus meals, and was the...

Back in the 1950's people didn't travel much. The vehicles of the day weren't that reliable, tires weren't dependable, and the roads were difficult....

One afternoon, back in the 1990's, an old friend and I were philosophizing. The question came up as to what technological development of the 20th...

Robert Frost wrote that one time he came upon the owner of the land next to his. The man was building a fence in the woods, where there was no actual...