The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

Harold reports on some of the winter and spring snowstorms that sheep ranching and other activities can experience. They are remembered forever. I will share a couple of them.

“On May 1, 1967 we had a terrible storm. There were 32 inches of snow on the level, I had ewes and lambs scattered all over. Some made it to the shed and some were covered up. A horse couldn’t travel at all. I finally fixed up a pair of skis and wrapped them with baler twine and that way I could get around some. I saved a lot of them and a lot of them I never found until the snow melted. We used an old car hood to haul lambs to the house by hand. Hilda raised over 20 lambs that year.”

He wrote that Shirley Gundlach of Ekalaka was teaching school and went home for Christmas but couldn’t get back until the last day of January. She got Warren Johnstone to take her back in a plane. There was 24 inches of snow on the level.

“We took Shirley, Barbara, and Douglas with food and bedding to the school house where they batched during the week. Kenneth was going back and forth on skis every day,” he wrote.

I have to make a statement here because to my knowledge Warren never flew, but his brother Walter did. I also wonder about the quote including the name Shirley Gundlach because she graduated with me in 1948. Perhaps it could have been Gloria Gundlach. I may be in error in both cases. You can let me know if you choose.

I find that Harold was a “jack of all trades.” He reports that he got a sawmill in 1951 and sawed lumber for their house which was three bedrooms.

“Carl Newmiller dug the basement and Hilda, Kenneth and I poured the cement and laid the blocks for the basement.”

He also adds that it was about 1957 when the REA came and in the early 1960s the Range Telephone Company put in a telephone.

With all of this responsibility and work Harold found time to be elected Carter County Commissioner in 1964 and started serving on January 1, 1965. He was a commissioner for six years. He reports that the work was interesting and a lot of it was a headache because of the weather. He often had to go by way of Miles City and Baker or Alzada for meetings. A number of times he had to have someone come and get him in an airplane.

Some of the men who served with him were Alden Turbiville, Earl Whitney, Frank Castleberry, Sam Tauck and Magnus Markuson.

“About the first of June 1967 they hit oil on Belle Creek,” he wrote. They drilled 11 wells on my place.”

Time marched on and in the fall of 1967 the family bought a house in Broadus. In 1974 Harold sold all his cattle and leased his place to John and Lawrence Giacometto. He had been batching for several years but had an auction and sold all his machinery, tools and furniture. He then moved to Broadus to be with his family.

One last thought: In going through pictures and information on the independent basketball tournaments of 1956 - 1964, I found pictures of the Broadus teams who participated. Among those pictured was Kenneth (Ken) Beltz, who was selected all tourney several times.

Seeing the pictures has made me wonder what, where and when had happened to him. After calling his family, I was informed that Ken was in the Powder River Manor with Parkinson’s. It was also reported that Jr. Capra, who played on those same Broadus teams, had passed away.

Memories, lots of memories! My how times, lifestyles and individuals lives change.