Scotch Coulee-1998

     I left Red Lodge, turned off on the bridge going over the creek (Is it Rock Creek maybe?) and started up the hill. It was a winding road. I could see Red Lodge disappearing behind me as I glanced into my rear view miror and wound around the hillside. Eventually, I came to the top, went over and looked down upon the Scotch Coulee-Washoe Bear Creek Valley. There was a turnout, so I stopped and pointed the camera down in the general direction I thought I'd be going. Well, close anyway. Now imagine you are looking through the camera. Turn to your right about 84.69 degrees!!! In this photo, you can see Scotch Coulee. I think that's Mount Maurice in the background to the right. That flat topped mountain on the left center is called Rolly Rocks. (Don't ask me why. I'm just the reporter.) If you follow Rolly Rocks down to where the trees start, that's where John and Rosa Cestnik's ranch was. There is a spring there, and that is the beginning of Scotch Coulee Creek. The trees snaking down the valley, show where Scotch Coulee is located.

     Then, I pulled back onto the highway and proceeded down the winding hill. Uncle Hank had warned me to watch out for construction, so I proceeded slowly. Shortly, I arrived at Washoe. As I went through Washoe, I came across some old, abandoned mine buildings.

     This is the site of the Smith Mine disaster in 1943, because there was a sign just down the highway giving all the details of Montana's worst mining disaster. In 1999, Composite Power Corporation, from Nevada, has announced plans to begin mining again in the area. It sounds like quite a project and may once again bring in miners from around the world.

     Just a few hundred feet down the road from the sign, is the turn off to go up Scotch Coulee. I FOUND IT ON MY FIRST TRY! I was on a roll. I found the bridge, found the sign and then the road. What more could a guy ask for? (If you know me, you'll know that's a joke.) I turned in and thought about the things I wanted to look for. It was a really hot day; probably about 3:00 p.m. I'd been to Scotch Coulee before with my Uncle Hank and two or three times with my parents. I had my camera, so I wanted to get some good photos of the area. After all, this is where my Father grew up and I was hoping to get some idea of the past to see if I could capture in my mind just what it was like for him as a child.

     I was on my way...It was rather sage brushy. I even ran across a group of sage hens running up the road. I took a picture, but I don't think it's interesting enough to put up. (Sorry if you're disappointed.)

      There are a few abandoned buildings and houses still standing. (Mount Maurice still proudly graces the area. John and Rosa had a ranch out there. They would take kids from the Coulee out to the ranch for picnics. It's a secret, but there are some great berry picking spots too. Ya gotta know the secret place. I'll never tell!!!) I remembered that Uncle Hank had put a flower wreathe in the barbed wire fence where the house use to be. I knew I wouldn't have any trouble finding it, so up the road I went. I looked all around for the flowers but I couldn't them. I looked across the road on the hill to see if I could find the old coal mine that the family started, but I couldn't find that either. It was getting discouraging, but I wasn't to be disappointed.

     As I walked around, there to my excitement, was the wreathe. The flowers had fallen to the ground, so I picked them up and put them back in the fence as a marker. They were a different color from the last time I had been there in 1996. They were pink then. Now they are red. I guess Uncle Hank was back there taking care of it for us. It's nice to have it as a guide. As I looked around, I couldn't help thinking about the stories I've heard and learned about. We had a garden when the family lived their during the mining days. Next door was the Krivitz house. Across the road from the Krivitz's was John and Rosa Cestnik's house.

     From what I've learned from my cousins, there was a house directly across the street from my Grandfather Cestnik's house that John and Rosa owned and sold to the Golobs, I believe. Down the hill from that, near the creek, was a one room house that my great Grandfather John Cestnik lived in. I've made a little map, trying to mark all the houses. My cousins are working on one too.

     Did somebody say creek? (Pretty bad, huh? I've been watching too many commercials.) Anyway, Dad told stories of the kids daming up the creek and making swimming holes down through the coulee. I got back into the car. I closed my eyes. I turned on the air conditioning (remember it was hot! Give me some poetic license here. Play along.) I took a couple breaths of cool air. Can you hear 'em jumping, and splashing, and diving, and laughing? Kids just being kids. Well, to stir your imagination, try this:

     We think that's John and Rosa Cestnik's house, up the hill from the swimming hole. After that refreshing dip, it was time to go to my next destination, the cemetery. I wanted to find my Grandfather Vincent and great Grandfather John's gravesites.

     As I started started down the road back to the highway, I looked at the hillside. It's hard to imagine that the area bustled with thousands of people back during the times when my Father and the family lived there. Buildings and houses are all mostly gone. There is hardly any indication that people lived there. If you didn't know it, you'd think it was always like it is now: wild, hot, desolate and abandoned.

     Then you come across some old relics like this car, and you realize there were people here. In this case, they were Slovenian people who came across to the new world out of Austria. Hard working, caring and loving people. They were my family!!!

     Part II...The Cemetery