Ekalaka and Carter County

I was born in my Grandpa and Grandma Coons’ house near Boxelder Creek and about a half a mile from the Bell tower store and post office. My parents lived at various places around Ekalaka and even briefly in Washington as I was growing up. In 1944 we moved to Ekalaka, where we lived until my graduation from CCHS in 1956. That night, May 23, Charles and I got in the truck with my Dad and moved to Miles City, where Dad had bought a wrecking yard.

In one of the first stories that I sent to the Eagle, I told how I considered Ekalaka and the surrounding area to be my sacred grounds, much like native Americans do. I still do and I will tell you a few stories about it.

Many people look back on their school years unhappily but I loved my school years, all 12 years of them. I tried my absolute best to be an athlete but basically was no good and never made it at sports. I had a faculty for learning so I did well in school. I think that I got along with everybody.

When we moved to Ekalaka, we lived in a tiny little junk house up by the cemetery. I had a wonderful family and was very happy there. That was the house where our neighbor was Mr. Taylor. I have told you about my interaction with him before. Another thing that I did there was to try to fly. I would get some cardboard and make wings. Then I would jump off the cellar door flapping my wings as hard as I could. I never did fly but I was convinced that if l got it just right that I could. We used to play in the cemetery. The greatest fun was hiding under the car gate when a funeral procession went over and looking up at them.

The wintertime was great fun. I would slide down hills on sleds and toboggans. One hill that I slid down had a barbed wire fence at the bottom. I had to get really low to avoid the wire. Once the wire got me and ruined my cap and scraped a big furrow down the back of my head. Bertha and I had a custom. Before winter was over we would find evidence of winter like icicles and stuff and wrap it up as well as possible, then bury it in the dirt of the cellar. The idea was to see how long it would last. Usually it was thawed when we dug it up depending on how long we waited. One time a huge drift appeared covering the whole backyard. After it hardened up we dug holes, caves and tunnels in that drift all winter until it finally thawed and collapsed.

In the summertime we had to help Mother work in the garden. We had our own rows to show and try to keep weed free. It seemed as if by the time we got to the end of the row, we had to start over again. Mother canned scads of food which we ate all winter. We raised lots of potatoes. One year we raised 1,400 lbs and were scraping the bottom before we harvested more. I had to go down in the cellar to get stuff and there were salamanders in the potato bin. I was really scared of them.

Around 1952, we moved to a house up by the airport. Dad had bought it from Odis Harkins so we called it the Odis Harkins place. We really loved that place. I used to go exploring into the forest and hills, sometimes with others and sometimes alone. Seven miles back in that forest was a place in which we lived in 1942 and 1943. We called it the Opechee Park place and I really loved it. Sometimes I walked all the way back to it as nobody lived there then.

In both places I always had to milk the cow or cows. I kind of liked doing that. When I was going to high school I stayed as long as I could after school playing sports of some kind and then hurried home to milk the cows. I had to find them before it got dark. There was a spot about 100 yards from the house, where I could see every place on the 152 acres except one which was in the forest. I hurried there but couldn't see them anywhere. I went to the place that I couldn't see and they weren't there. Finally I decided that they had got out. I went back to the house and there they were in a low shed that I had bypassed in my hurry. I was so relieved.

Dad traveled around the county looking for deals to be made. Sometimes he would trade things with people. When I wasn't going to school, sometimes he would take me with him. I always enjoyed that. One time I asked the rancher how many cows he had. Dad hit the ceiling and told me that you never ask someone that. The guy was nice and said that it was all right, but I noticed that he never told us how many cows he had.

Dad bought and sold horses while we lived in that second house. We almost always had a corral full of half wild horses. One time Dad told me to go up there and catch such and such a horse and bring him down. I tried my best, but finally had to admit defeat. Dad went up there, twirled the rope around his head and roped that horse as slick as a whistle. My eyes bugged out, I was so impressed. He had been a real cowboy in his younger days. I also had to help Dad bring horses in from where he bought them sometimes. I was and still am scared of horses but I did what he asked.

I have told you a few stories about Ekalaka but I could tell you many, many more. I loved and still love Ekalaka. It used to be when I came to Ekalaka that I knew everybody and everybody knew me. That isn't true anymore, Ekalaka is changing. It is a much smaller place now than when we lived there. I think that the 1950 census was 902. Of course when we left in 1956 we took 8 people away. It seems to be growing now. There used to be a whole lot more people in the county also. Do you love Ekalaka as much as I do?