South of the Border

 

January 16, 2019

This is a recent photo of the Rancher Cash Store located in the center of Whitlash. Now abandoned, it was built in 1916-17 and at various times in its century-long history, housed a mercantile, the town's post office and for several years, the U.S. Customs agent for the crossing six miles north.

Whitlash, Montana. Ministers new to a church typically make an early effort to identify and contact all the church and/or family members who are living in assisted living or nursing homes. The reason is to connect with these folks who were involved with the church through the years and minister to them. These seniors may want to have Bible study, take communion, share information about what is going on in the church or simply enjoy an occasional visit with the minister.

My wife has now been at the Whitlash Presbyterian Church for about three weeks. She learned there are five ladies who are currently residents of the Marias Heritage Center (an assisted living facility) in Shelby. They all are connected to the Whitlash church through their own longstanding memberships or are parents of current members. Instead of trying to visit each individually for the first time, my wife asked Evelyn Aiken, who resides at the Center and will be 94 the end of this month, if she would help get the group together. Evelyn suggested having lunch in the private dining room of the Center.


And so my wife and I met with the five nanogenarians who have a long association to the Sweet Grass Hills and the Whitlash church. I was particularly interested to tap their combined 400+ years of memories and stories about life in the "Hills."

After introductions we began to visit and I mentioned to the lady on my left, Jeanette Brown, that I had written a story a few years ago about a "Presbyterian Sunday School missionary" who taught summer vacation Bible schools in Blaine County and also served as the minister at Whitlash church back in the 1940's. She smiled and said, "You're talking about Rev. Clifford Shumaker, he married my husband and me in 1948."


Suddenly it dawned on me that I had spoken with Jeannette, at the Heritage Center, when I was doing the story for the "Journal" and had quoted her about Rev. Shumaker performing her wedding ceremony. It was one of those "Wow, it's sure a small world when you begin talking to people from our part of the country."

Evelyn Aiken's sister, Winnie Barnett, was also at the table with us. Their grandmother had a small store in her home when Whitlash was located in a coulee just south and west of the present town site. Their grandfather and an uncle built the Ranchers Cash Store at the main corner of the new town site back in 1916 starting with a basement they excavated. The first year of operation the family and the store were both housed in the basement. The next year the two builders added a ground level floor to house the store and a second floor above for living quarters.


The building that housed the old store still stands in Whitlash at the corner where roads from Oilmont, Chester and Canada intersect. Aiken, who authored a history of Whitlash a few years ago, wrote that several years after her father and uncle were gone, she had some repairs done on the building. That was when she realized it was a frame building, clad in cement. To give the appearance of concrete blocks, the two builders had scored the drying cement after hand mixing and hauling it in wheelbarrows to all three levels of the old store.

When the Ranchers Cash Store was completed it was the centerpiece of the community. Evelyn's mother was appointed Postmaster for Whitlash in 1928. As was customary at the time, the Post Office was located in some part of the house (in this case the store) where the Postmaster lived. Evelyn's mother retired as Postmaster in 1974. At her retirement she was recognized as "the longest serving Postmaster in the United States."

The ladies also told about the time (1932) the government decided to have a Customs office in Whitlash. Office and living space was rented in the store for an agent and his family. A sign at the border, six miles north, told travelers arriving in the U.S. they needed to stop in Whitlash and do their paperwork with Customs. Travelers headed north were cautioned to check with Customs before leaving town.

In the late 1940's the government decided to build two houses for the Whitlash Port of entry. The two houses were built in town, not at the border. In the 1960's the port of entry was moved to the actual border and a facility was built there, six miles north of Whitlash. The current official border crossing is still at the original location.

Explaining how locals could always find a way to take advantage of a changing situation, the ladies told how the Whitlash school district took over the old U.S. Customs buildings in town, turning one structure into a classroom and the other into a teacherage. The old school building was sold and moved to a ranch. Those school buildings closed about five or six years ago but the Customs/school buildings remain.

This photo of the Rancher Cash Store was taken in the early 1960's. Note the stop sign in the photo that also announces Immigration and Customs. Now abandoned, the store still stands in the center of Whitlash.

When in the early 2000's a doublewide home was no longer needed at the border crossing to house agents, the doublewide was moved to Whitlash and is now the Post Office. I left the luncheon with a real appreciation for the ladies' and their forebearers' capacity to adapt and change. Being able to adapt and change still seems key to survival in the Hills. More about that later.

 
 

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