Columnist's note: Alert readers will recall that mid-December my wife Sherry and I moved to Whitlash. For the next year Sherry will be the "pastor in residence" for the Whitlash Community Presbyterian Church. During the move our 23-year old granddaughter, Kayla Bonar, died unexpectedly in Ellensburg, Washington where she was working as a reporter for the local newspaper. Sherry and I drove to the Seattle area to be a part of the celebration of Kayla's life.

Kayla was known by many locals as she spent a couple of months in Chinook while recuperating from a very serious epileptic seizure while she was still a university student. Her passing cast a sad pall on the holidays this year for her family and friends.

Back in Whitlash with the move complete and Sherry in her new pastoral role, I've decided to share an update from Whitlash (The "Journal" owners encouraged me to share our experiences up north). Already I'm meeting people who share local history information and are helping me understand my new adopted community. Here's some of what I've learned about the Sweet Grass Hills and Whitlash.

Whitlash, Montana. Whitlash is located about 40 miles northwest of Chester. Likely many readers have looked north while driving along U.S. Highway 2 in the area of Chester and seen the Sweet Grass Hills on the northern horizon. The Sweet Grass Hills are made up of several promontories that were pushed up 3,000 feet above the surrounding prairie. The 'hills' were formed when molten lava was squeezed up through the earth to form "stocks"-igneous formations. The highest mountain in the small chain is about 6900 feet in elevation. Whitlash has a U.S. Geological marker at its main intersection that shows 3900+ feet elevation.

About five miles north of Whitlash is the Whitlash-Aden border crossing accessed via Montana Secondary Highway 409. The crossing was established in 1929 and is said to have two distinctions as a crossing: "the least trafficked of all the land border crossings entering the United States, averaging just two vehicles per day" and one of only a few crossings accessed by gravel roads from both the U.S. and Canada. Until sometime in the 1950's the U.S. crossing was in the community of Whitlash. That facility eventually became the Whitlash school which closed during the last few years.

Though located in Liberty County, Whitlash is very near the eastern edge of Toole County (where Shelby is the county seat). From our front window, looking west, we see Gold Butte (6500 feet and the second highest peak in the Hills) and at the top of the first hill, about a quarter of a mile along the road, is the eastern boundary sign for Toole County.

Whitlash, as best I can tell, was never organized as an official town. The current community consists of the Presbyterian Church and parsonage, two inhabited houses in addition to the parsonage, a post office, the abandoned school and Liberty Hall, an imposing community building completed in 1916 and a couple of uninhabited structures.

When Sherry and I moved to Whitlash the population jumped from five to seven. I had one of my grandkids help me figure the increase in population which turned out to be just over 16%, putting us behind the growth rates of Sidney (#1 this year) and Bozeman at #2, but slightly ahead of Kalispell. I'm wondering if the community might qualify for some kind of grant to deal with this population explosion.

The Presbyterian cwas organized in 1913 and met first in homes of families, then began meeting in Liberty Hall, a community center, when it was completed in 1916. The current church building was built in the 1950's. For several years it was pastored by seminary students who would come for the summer. Later the church combined with other churches to share a fulltime traveling minister. For the last five years retired Presbyterian ministers have been invited to "experience Montana for a year" and have served as the pastor in Whitlash. When no pastor outside Montana could be secured this year, my wife Sherry said she would be willing to serve.

The church has a small congregation, with attendance varying from 10-30 depending on the weather and what is happening on the ranches. Most of the members are ranchers and there are several families with multiple generations active in the church. Here's one factoid I doubt many churches can boast, "Every person who lives in Whitlash is an active member of the Whitlash Presbyterian Church."

Well, that's it from the Hills for this year. Today is one of the three days we get mail delivered so I will make a jaunt down to the Post Office to pick up the mail. One thing about going to the Post Office, there's always an off chance I'll get to meet someone new. I've got a lot to learn about Whitlash and the Sweet Grass Hills, but I'm getting started. Have a Happy New Year.