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

My father and two of his brothers spent their entire lives on the ranch. Two served in WWII, but the other never left the property. They were...

Unearned suffering is redemptive. - Martin Luther King I had been in Barra do Bugres for about six months when a stranger knocked at my door. I could...

While in Barra do Bugres during my third year in the Peace Corps, Sr. René stopped by my house and asked me to attend a churrasco at his place on...

The Brazilians don't trade many presents during Christmas, preferring to have family/friends gatherings centered around "churrascos," or meat roasted...

Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get a pie in the sky when you die. - Joe Hill (Joseph Hillstrom) The Preacher and the Slave I've written a number...

I had been back in Helmville about six months when the bear showed up. A number of people in and around town had mentioned that he had been on their...

A man said to the Universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the Universe, "the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation." (Steven Crane,...

God never send'th mouth but he sendeth meat. John Heywood c.1497 - c.1580 Via cell video calling I visited with some friends in Brazil this week....

The best of men That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer, A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever...

"Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" - Alexander Pope. It was during the mid 1960's. I was 17 or 18, and Dan,...

I had been in Barra do Bugres, Mato Grosso for six months when they had to kill Pedrão. He was one of the four professional assassins, or...

I watch a lot of baseball during the season, which runs from April to the end of November. I enjoy the other televised sports, but with the disinteres...

Brazil is burning the Amazon again. Their new president has declared an open season on both the environment and indigenous people. I liked his...

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. Mark Twain  Inscribed under his bust in The Hall of Fame The U.S. owes...

Matt announced to his family that he was finally going to clean out the horse barn. With the passing of the work teams and the introduction of ATVs,...

As post-war baby boomers, most of us had parents who had suffered through the Great Depression, and then WWII. They faced the poverty of the 1930s and...

The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind. The paired butterflies are already yellow with August. Over the grass in the West garden; They hurt me. I...

I spent a large part of my youth fishing: the Blackfoot River, Nevada Creek, Brown's Lake, the small creeks near Helmville, plus the pond behind our...

I have an old Peace Corps friend visiting for a few days. In 1972 we met in New Orleans, along with a group of 160 other new volunteers. The orientati...

I knew my father was dead when the helicopter flew low over my house. The ambulance had gone past with lights and siren a few minutes before. I...

It was in Summer School where we Catholic kids learned catechism in preparation for our first communions and confirmations. Two nuns would come to...

Until the late 1950s and early 60s, milk cows were an essential part of the operation of most ranches. The large numbers of children in the families...

Some friends stopped by the house last Sunday. They had been in Hawaii for a couple weeks and shared their impressions with me. I was in Hawaii once,...

He would never exchange his solitude for anything. Never again be forced to move to the rhythms of others. Tillie Olsen Tell Me a Riddle (1960) Search...

During the post-WWII years and into the late 1950s almost every town in Montana had a sandlot baseball team. Baseball was in its heyday with Mantle,...