Montanan, Winter 2002
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Rmmtw whm you wm & fmhmm and you hiked up the “M” to get that incredible view out across the valley? Well now you can enjoy it every day. TH E^^w irifac (0 & (to (MM (bo SiOtoaoSo (Ijrfrjr* , intfvTTrrftm i Hm U rii T h e . Join the M ontana Repertory Theatre as we present a story of courage and victory over M iracle W orker unbelievable odds. The Miracle Worker, a by WILLIAM GIBSON stirring dramatization of the story of Helen Keller and her tutor Annie Sullivan, has been mesmerizing audiences for decades, and we’re pleased to offer it as our 2003 national tour. Be a part of our tradition of sharing great American stories— look for us in a city near you! For information on the tour and performance locations, call o r check our web site: (406) 243-6809 • www.montanarep.org MONTANA REPERTORY THEATRE TOURING LIVE THEATRE SINCE 1968 ' PRDfrinMAi THfiTPc IM BtcntK.rc The University of Montana w . l^SSol of^ a'Ss Montana ^ T H E M O N T A N A R E P is supported in part by grants from the Montana State Legislature. Montana Arts Council. Volume 20 N umber 2 9 12 16 22 Publisher DEPARTMENTS Rita Munzenrider ’83 FEATURES Editor 3 Joan Melcher 73 9 LETTERS Contributing Writers and SWALLOWING DREAMS WHOLE Editors by Jo d i W erner 4 Brenda Day ’95 Alumna Kellie Wells is racking up writing awards for her A R O U N D Betsy Holmquist ’67 Midwestern magical-realism. T H E O V A L Kathie Nygaard ’68, ’87 Cary Shimek 12 Patia Stephens ’00 25 Photographer JAZZ MOVES CLASS NOTES Todd Goodrich ’88 by M e g a n M c N a m e r Designer UM’s Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival spurs this writer to muse 32 Mike Egeler about music in our lives. ALUMNI NOTES Advisory Board Sharon Barrett Vivian Brooke 16 34 Perry Brown FOUNDATION Bob Frazier EXPLORING THE EXPLORERS Bill Johnston by D a n ie l Bo t k in Dennis Swibold A naturalist’s view of important contributions of Meriwether Lewis and John Talbot William Clark—not only in what they did, but how they did it. Editorial Offices 22 University Relations 315 Brandy Hall THE CORE OF DISCOVERY The University of by H a r ry Fr itz Montana Could the Missoula Valley really be the center of the Lewis and Clark Missoula, MT expedition? Professor Fritz tries to convince you of that 59812-7642 in this entertaining article. Voluntary Subscription: $15 (406) 243-2522 www.umt.edu/com Advertising Representative Lowell Hanson (406) 728-3951 The Montanan is published three times a year by The University of Montana for its alumni and friends. Cover illustration by Bob Zingmark. Change of address: Interior photos by Todd 1-877-UM ALUMS Goodrich, except as [email protected] noted. Winter 2002 M ontanan 1 r p Ultimate M°Nl€ DoLACK GALLeRY Montana Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia Available: Wherever books are sold 800-825-7613 www.dolack.com Amazon.com www.ultimatemontana.com S tealing Fire Detail o r call: 1-800-585-0713 r jZ r 3rd Annual Sporting Clays Event - April 19,2003 I show W M 'B Jg.^tm yotifyi T The Jell^| Wildlife Refuge offers prtvat$Sf% ? Univiersity^'f.Moxitan'alQrizzIy/Becal Kit I lodgi^gTQr.2 to .20 Jn the beautiful Bifterrpot; g g g j L 1 I Valley:• w4of%' fishing, hunting dndbird-, y ptwatehlrig ^n ^S^privat^acr^-^ith..irfules* Of Bitterroot Siv^r access* 1 ~800~343~3707or call 96h37b?v 1292 Chaffin Ln, Corvallis MX 59828 , www.tellerwildlife.org "pft liilM lIlipB i n Discover fascinating Pleistocene animal?—many that may have roamed We’re Complete! We’re Convenient! I Montana long qgo. We’re Competitive! and W e Care! U w r w A ' m ' O M Missoula - Trem or's Missoula - Eastgate Ronan Poison MOUNTAIN N B 0 PUBLISHING COMPANY IW. la BW o M o , I! 59806 o 4O6-72S-1900«1-800-534-5301 vie 40^-7N*l&3S ? Mei o wb wV Legendary Low Prices www.montanaace.com of fresh pine and a crackling fire unleashed memories of long ago. During the 1960s, UM’s forestry school required sophomore stu dents to spend spring quarter in Lubrecht Forest Camp. Before winter snow had melted, students were sentenced to live in railroad boxcars that had been converted into small bunkhouses. Each bunkhouse was furnished with a voracious wood stove which the stu dents were required to feed continuously with LETTERS TO THE EDITOR firewood if they wished to avoid frostbite. The Fall 2002 M ontanan really struck a but also as a future career. I did an appren The mess hall and classrooms were the chord in my memory. I was bom and raised in ticeship and worked in that treasure cave hub of camp activity. Food was served cafete Missoula and attended the University as an from my sophomore year in high school until ria style and the outdoor activity honed our English maJor from 1943 to 1946, while Mary I left to get my library degrees at Denver appetites to ravenous levels. We seldom com Clapp was still^on the faculty. Her description University during my senior year of college. plained about the food—only the “mystery of the UM campus in winter as “the play- I usually get back to Missoula for a day or meat” evoked comments; we wondered what ground for Hellgate blizzards” fit the entire two every summer, so I see how it has grown. unfortunate creature had met its demise out town of Missoula. I well remember as a small Orchards no longer exist in Orchard Homes; on the highway. In our two classrooms we lis girl pushing against the wind from Alder houses are built where asparagus and com tened tO'the professors attempting to interest Street over to Broadway, then east to the old once grew in Hughes Gardens; and Missoula us in all things forestry while we gazed wist Central School. I was dressed in everything extends almost to Lolo. It is no longer the fully out the windows at deer in the meadow. warm my grandmother could find to put on town of my childhood^but I cherish my Two days a week were reserved for field riie—from long underwear out—with a scarf memories from those earlier days: seeing work and outdoor labs. We endured cold tied across my face so the wind wouldn’t take Indians walking on the streets in beaded rains and snow squalls. O n one nasty field my breath away. I had about five places I deerskins with braids hanging down their day, our task was to determine elevations and could stop along the way to warm up, includ- backs; turning cartwheels on the courthouse distances. Two other students and I headed ing the cougberfise and the old post office .... lawn while our elders listened to the band off encumbered with notebooks, steel tape, 1 watched Frontier House on PBS and concerts; eating homemade ice cream beside compass, tripod, and level to complete the enjoyed the article by Betsy Holmquist. My the church; roller skating in the gymnasium assignment. It began to snow heavily, and we grandmother attendedThe Sacred Heart of the school; dancing with my Dad at the soon found ourselves lost in a remote gully Academy, where St. Patrick Hospital now Eagles Lodge; going barefoot all summer thoroughly perplexed with our equipment. stands, during the 1880s, where she was' a long; riding bicycles over every inch of the When we returned to camp many hours later classmate of a sister of Jeannette Rankin. Her town, and picnicking in Greenough Park. covered with snow and shaking with cold, we stories of life in early Missoula filled my early It’s good to hear that fruits and vegetables were dubbed “The Lost Patrol.” years—Sunday morning wagon rides to St. are still being raised in Missoula and that the We regularly enjoyed volleyball games, Ignatius to attend mass at the mission, watch parks and playgrounds are still a part of its life. wearing our heavy logger boots and adhering ing a Brother paint the murals in St. Francis And I sincerely hope that the neighborliness to “Jungle rules.” In other locales volleyball is Xavier Church, crocheting doll clothes with a and goodwill that characterized the Missou- a non-contact sport; in Lubrecht players ran .bent pin, taking piano lessons while suffering lians of my childhood^ill continue on into the risk of being kicked, tripped, or tackled. from chilblains, and always wanting to live in the future. It was and is such a beautiful town. Three decades have passed since the a house in Missoula. (She finally got her way Dorothea Baltezar forestry class of 1969 studied in Lubrecht. when my grandfather was transferred to Salinas, California Careers have been built using the skills we Missoula with the Ryan Fruit Co.) learned there. Some of my classmates have But the article by Caroline Patterson I always look forward to receiving [the already retired while others have passed on really touched me. My dad was a brakeman Montanan], but I am thoroughly convinced to take up residence in Section 37. on the Northern Pacific Railroad, so we lived that this was the best I’ve ever seen. It made Student foresters still traipse through near the Northern Pacific rail yards. The me want to drop everything, leave our 97 spring camp in Lubrecht, enJoying modem clatter of those freight trains was our life degree temperatures, and flee to Mount facilities.