Montana's "ghost ranches"
Jan. 4th, 2008 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_samtyrJust in case the link doesn't work...
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/01/04/entertainment/enjoy/20-ghostranches.txt?refcid=66372#66372
Last buildings standing
Artist from Roundup captures images of Montana's 'ghost ranches.'
By JACI WEBB
Of The Gazette Staff
What causes a family to become so discouraged or broke that they walk away from their home and possessions?
Finding that answer became Roundup artist Jane Stanfel's life's work. After moving to a ranch near the tiny town of Gage, which is east of Roundup, Stanfel began wondering about the abandoned homesteads near her home. Crumbling into the sagebrush-covered fields, the small structures spoke to her of lost dreams and tired backs. So she began to paint the weathered homes before they dissolved into the landscape.
"When we moved to Montana five years ago, all of our friends and relatives would come out and visit us and I would give them the tour of what I call 'ghost ranches.' " Stanfel said. "Where we live, there are several of them. All of a sudden, I was standing there thinking I felt the spirit of the times and the people."
Stanfel took out ads in farm and ranch publications and contacted local chambers of commerce to find more homesteads and to get information on the people who lived in them. Many respondents supplied photographs of the inhabitants so Stanfel started to paint portraits of the landowners as well. Through interviews with family members and neighbors, Stanfel also collected stories about the homesteaders. Those stories, portraits and paintings of the homesteads are all part of her 54-piece exhibit "Ghost Ranches of Montana," which opened Thursday at the Lewistown Art Center. It will be on display through Jan. 26 with an opening reception on Jan. 13 from 1 to 3 p.m.
"These aren't historic documents I'm creating, these are the memories of the people who talked to me about who lived in those houses," Stanfel said.
Many of the homesteads she recorded are in the Roundup area. Others are located near Miles City, Grass Range, Helena, the Crow Reservation, and Kalispell.
When Stanfel and I spoke over the phone in late December, she said her stories were in the hands of her sources being proofed before she hung them next to her artwork at the Lewistown Art Center. In June, the show will be displayed at a Manhattan art gallery in New York City.
The stories became so fascinating to Stanfel that she's considering turning the project into a book after her two exhibits come down.
"Some of the people are famous. The Sleeping Giant Ranch near Helena was the home of Fanny Sperry, who was the woman bucking horse champion of the world. She was in the Wild West Show with Buffalo Bill. In another ranch near Roundup, the Alf Matson Ranch, somebody needs to tell me why this hermit of a bachelor built a two-seater outhouse. That one is four miles from my house."
Another Musselshell County property, known as the Hall Ranch, was purchased from Charles Henry Hall by Robert Goffena Sr. According to local legend, Hall bought the ranch in 1938 from the widow of the original owner, Mr. Tupper of Chicago, who was purportedly a Mafia figure hiding from the FBI.
The story goes that a Texas Ranger once rode onto Hall's property and was never seen again. After the Goffenas bought the place, they discovered an old jacket up the chimney that was wrapped around a .45 Colt revolver, bearing the stamp of the Texas Rangers.
Stanfel found an interesting commode on the McCarthy-Pederson Ranch near Kalispell. Apparently during the Great Depression, the WPA work program sent men out to build outhouses. The most elite was known as the Eleanor, named for Eleanor Roosevelt.
"As you walk out and close the door, the toilet seat would go down, too. So when you went in, there weren't any flies buzzing around your bottom when you sat on the toilet," Stanfel said.
Perhaps the most compelling stories were about the families who walked away from their homesteads, leaving behind their furnishings. Stanfel said she found one near Miles City where the family left behind a baby buggy and a washing machine.
"Just having the old buildings wasn't enough. I wanted the stories, too," Stanfel said.
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/01/04/entertainment/enjoy/20-ghostranches.txt?refcid=66372#66372
Last buildings standing
Artist from Roundup captures images of Montana's 'ghost ranches.'
By JACI WEBB
Of The Gazette Staff
What causes a family to become so discouraged or broke that they walk away from their home and possessions?
Finding that answer became Roundup artist Jane Stanfel's life's work. After moving to a ranch near the tiny town of Gage, which is east of Roundup, Stanfel began wondering about the abandoned homesteads near her home. Crumbling into the sagebrush-covered fields, the small structures spoke to her of lost dreams and tired backs. So she began to paint the weathered homes before they dissolved into the landscape.
"When we moved to Montana five years ago, all of our friends and relatives would come out and visit us and I would give them the tour of what I call 'ghost ranches.' " Stanfel said. "Where we live, there are several of them. All of a sudden, I was standing there thinking I felt the spirit of the times and the people."
Stanfel took out ads in farm and ranch publications and contacted local chambers of commerce to find more homesteads and to get information on the people who lived in them. Many respondents supplied photographs of the inhabitants so Stanfel started to paint portraits of the landowners as well. Through interviews with family members and neighbors, Stanfel also collected stories about the homesteaders. Those stories, portraits and paintings of the homesteads are all part of her 54-piece exhibit "Ghost Ranches of Montana," which opened Thursday at the Lewistown Art Center. It will be on display through Jan. 26 with an opening reception on Jan. 13 from 1 to 3 p.m.
"These aren't historic documents I'm creating, these are the memories of the people who talked to me about who lived in those houses," Stanfel said.
Many of the homesteads she recorded are in the Roundup area. Others are located near Miles City, Grass Range, Helena, the Crow Reservation, and Kalispell.
When Stanfel and I spoke over the phone in late December, she said her stories were in the hands of her sources being proofed before she hung them next to her artwork at the Lewistown Art Center. In June, the show will be displayed at a Manhattan art gallery in New York City.
The stories became so fascinating to Stanfel that she's considering turning the project into a book after her two exhibits come down.
"Some of the people are famous. The Sleeping Giant Ranch near Helena was the home of Fanny Sperry, who was the woman bucking horse champion of the world. She was in the Wild West Show with Buffalo Bill. In another ranch near Roundup, the Alf Matson Ranch, somebody needs to tell me why this hermit of a bachelor built a two-seater outhouse. That one is four miles from my house."
Another Musselshell County property, known as the Hall Ranch, was purchased from Charles Henry Hall by Robert Goffena Sr. According to local legend, Hall bought the ranch in 1938 from the widow of the original owner, Mr. Tupper of Chicago, who was purportedly a Mafia figure hiding from the FBI.
The story goes that a Texas Ranger once rode onto Hall's property and was never seen again. After the Goffenas bought the place, they discovered an old jacket up the chimney that was wrapped around a .45 Colt revolver, bearing the stamp of the Texas Rangers.
Stanfel found an interesting commode on the McCarthy-Pederson Ranch near Kalispell. Apparently during the Great Depression, the WPA work program sent men out to build outhouses. The most elite was known as the Eleanor, named for Eleanor Roosevelt.
"As you walk out and close the door, the toilet seat would go down, too. So when you went in, there weren't any flies buzzing around your bottom when you sat on the toilet," Stanfel said.
Perhaps the most compelling stories were about the families who walked away from their homesteads, leaving behind their furnishings. Stanfel said she found one near Miles City where the family left behind a baby buggy and a washing machine.
"Just having the old buildings wasn't enough. I wanted the stories, too," Stanfel said.
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