A few years ago, I visited the mayor of Flaxville, Montana. Her Eminence was not only the business manager of Flaxville, but also the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Daniels County, which was the main reason for my visit in my capacity as state chairwoman of the whole thing – the Democratic Party of Montana. That is just the explanation of why I was there, and that is all the politics in this article.
So I’m in Flaxville at a pancake breakfast hosted by a charity. Flaxville, for those unfamiliar with Montana geography, is located just south of the Canadian border between Scobey and Plentywood, specifically between Madoc and Navajo, in the northeastern part of Montana.
Since Flaxville is not a large town (population about 60 in 2020), space for gatherings is somewhat limited. The pancake breakfast was held in an old school auditorium or movie theater, I forget which, which was a good explanation for why the ground was sloping but not so steep that you couldn’t sit on a chair at a table and enjoy the food.
I was sitting next to the mayor’s father, a Navajo grain farmer. He asked me where I was from, and when he learned that I was from the mountains of western Montana, he said that I must find the northeast part of the state pretty boring.
I gave him my standard answer: “Well, people will say there isn’t much to see here, and that’s a matter of opinion, but as little as there is to see, you can certainly see a lot more of it.”
So we started talking about the beauty of our state. The area around Flaxville is not flat, but it is hilly, with hills rising up here and there. I think it is beautiful, but I can’t think of many places in Montana that aren’t beautiful. And if the scenery isn’t breathtaking, seeing it at sunrise or sunset makes up for it.
The mayor’s father told me about a hill on his farm with a great view where he liked to eat lunch when he was working in the fields. “I sit on the ground and eat lunch and maybe take a nap. Sometimes my neighbor comes over and we both take a nap.”
“At night,” he said, “you can see the lights of Scobey to the west, Plentywood to the east, and Poplar far to the south.”
His story touched me and made me think about all the little joys that we sometimes take for granted.
I think about that often. The most recent incident occurred when I was having a whiskey drip with my neighbor on the back porch and he went to the railing and “relieved himself.” “No one is poor,” I thought, a quote from Scrooge McDuck (richest duck in the world).
While romping around in his 1.2 cubic meter money bin, he says: “Nobody is poor who can do what he wants from time to time! And I like to dive around in my money like a dolphin! And dig around in it like a ground squirrel! And throw it up and let it fall on my head!”
Well, taking a nap on a hill with your neighbor isn’t quite the same as living it up, but it might be just as satisfying.
Later that day, on the way to Plentywood, I stopped in Navajo to see if I could spot the hill he was talking about. Navajo wasn’t hard to find, there just wasn’t much of it, just grain elevators next to the abandoned Great Northern Railway line.
It is a beautiful country, made even more memorable when you consider the hardships of the people who settled there. They were lured by false promises of good land with plenty of rain from the railway. Instead they found deprivation and loneliness, suicide was not uncommon, and many lived in uninsulated tar paper huts during the harsh winters. But they persevered.
They deserve their joys, no matter how modest they may be.
Montana Viewpoint has been published in weekly and online newspapers across Montana for over 25 years. Jim Elliott was a Montana state legislator and senator for 16 years. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.
