Bear Paw Meanderings

 

April 26, 2017



Let me preface this story by saying that there are log cabins in Zortman called the Buckhorn cabins. They are nice places to stay the night or a week. But that was not always so. When I was in high school and college and stayed at the Buckhorn sometimes they were not so nice at all.

I remember one time in around 1960 when I stayed there and did not get much sleep at all. The owner took Jim Dullenty, a school chum, and me to a cabin and we went in. The then owner said there was a small propane leak in the stove that he had not been able to find but that was just fine because there was a pane of glass out of a window so we would not be gassed.

I remember that we were going to cook spaghetti for supper that night. Only problem was that I had forgotten to bring spaghetti sauce. We got a big pot of water on the stove and then went looking for the sauce. I soon realized I forgot it. I sent Jim over to the store to get some tomato sauce but the only thing that had tomatoes in it at the time was catsup. So Jim came back to the cabin with the catsup. I could not get the water to boil on the stove. I opined that must be some leak. The spaghetti water never did boil but we cooked the spaghetti in the water as well as we could. Later we had half cooked spaghetti and catsup, probably one of the worst spaghetti dinners I have ever sat down to.

The next day we decided to drive to Landusky as Jim wanted to see a ghost town. At that time Landusky was not quite a ghost town as it had a bar. The bar was owned by Lawrence Duncan who later moved it to the Y when the Malta to Grass Range road was put in after the Fred Robinson Bridge got built.

The bartender that day was a very old man by the name of Rule Horner. He had been a stage coach driver from Dodson to Zortman years before and was a character. He had no pants that did not have holes in them so it was his custom to wear several pair at once to cover the holes. I told Jim to just order whiskey or whiskey and water or Great Falls Select beer because that was all that Mr. Horner would serve. Jim was from Darby so I knew he had a lot to learn about drinking in the Little Rockies. I told Jim if he wanted whiskey and water he could order a ditch because that was the name for whiskey and water in these parts.

Apparently not in Mr. Horner’s vocabulary though. Jim bellied up to the bar and ordered a ditch and Mr. Horner ordered him out and applied his boot to Jim’s rear end to help him along. I bellied up to the bar myself and ordered whiskey and water.

I don’t believe that Jim Dullenty ever came back to Zortman and Landusky after that time.

As for me, I still like a good ditch every once in a while but I am careful who I order one from.

 
 

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