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The O’Hara House’s Massage Therapists
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| By Shannon Selway, Staff Writer |
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Massage therapy fits into the realm of holistic medicine, an alternative to (and sometimes in conjunction with) traditional medicine. The change of attitude must be from witnessing the very real and very impressive physical, psychological and spiritual results from receiving massage therapy. Dragging on the coattails of such acceptance are medical professionals. Even some insurance companies are coming on board and recognizing the cost-effectiveness of covering this holistic field. It’s abundantly clear that massage therapy can achieve multiple medical benefits, including treating painful ailments, reducing stress, and rehabilitating injuries, treating depression, and promoting overall health.
Massage therapists have an array of specialties called “modalities,” which encompass so much more than the well-known Swedish massage. In fact, there are over 80 modalities practiced!
With that said, let’s meet three very gifted massage therapists who have been improving the quality of life for quite a while now: Judy K. Banks (“Integrative Massage Therapy”), Lora M. Pechy (“Handwalk Therapies”), and Carol Sanders (“Between Heaven and Earth”). All three operate their business independently, but have an unusual connection at the historic O’Hara House at 111 South 4th Street, Hamilton - a place of indisputable charm and personality - a perfect “feel-at-home” setting for receiving a massage. One by one, each found their way to the O’Hara House, and ended up practicing their trade adjacent to each another.
They stress that they are not in competition with each other, and that their proximity to one another allows for many professional benefits, as well as a warm camaraderie. Together, they can accommodate two or three clients desiring simultaneous massages. As is typical with therapists, each practice many of the same core modalities, and each specializes in unique modalities in their field. If the occasion arises when a client can benefit from a colleague’s specialized treatment, their association presents a convenient referral system.
“We embrace each other as a group of people who are like-minded,” Judy Banks comments.
“The more the merrier,” adds Carol Sanders.
“I love working with Judy and Carol. We’re team players, and definitely not competitive.” Lora Pechy said.
None of the three began a career as a massage therapist; each followed different paths before their “calling” into the field.
Judy worked for the fire service in Washington and Alaska as a public educator and information officer - a 24/7 high-adrenaline environment. She later was injured in a car crash, which directed her to seek relief from massage therapy, presenting her gateway into the field. Judy received her certificate from a Washington State massage school in 2000, also maintains her Washington license, which requires continuing education and other standards that Montana does not currently require.
Lora traces her desires to heal back to her childhood, where she gives full credit to her grandmother, who practiced Native American healing techniques. Her grandmother told her “she had the gift”(which she indubitably does), and in some form or other, Lora has been a healer since. After years of rehabilitating animals for the Forest Service, she felt herself drawn into massage therapy, and has been treating people (and sometimes animals) with her healing touch ever since.
Carol began her career with massage therapy after a career in the Forest Service. While in Pocatello, Idaho, she received her first massage and got her “calling” into the field. She has always had a healing nature about her and massage therapy was a perfect fit. In 2000, she graduated from a full year of school in Utah College of Massage Therapy. She is a certified massage therapist, with the National Certification for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, and a member of the American Massage Therapy Association.
As previously mentioned, each massage therapist has their special niches in the field, but all share the perfected skills of Swedish, deep tissue massage, and other techniques. Some of their individual specialties are relatively unknown to many, but are progressive and are a wonderful experience.
Craniosacral Therapy:
The craniosacral system consists of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid, which surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. The system runs from the tailbone and extends to bones of the skull, face and mouth. An imbalance or restriction in it has potential to cause a variety of sensory motor or neurological disabilities, including chronic pain, eye problems, coordination problems, scoliosis and the like.
Judy skillfully applies a light touch in her treatments - which is no more than the weight of a nickel. That’s an avenue for her to monitor the rhythm of the cerebra-spinal fluid as it flows through the system, which is most easily felt at the skull, sacrum and coccyx, where those bones attach to membranes that enclose the cerebrospinal fluid. The key is for Judy to activate your body’s natural self-corrective actions and assist the hydraulic forces to better function.
It may seem “far out,” but this is for real! Judy has a client who suffers from scoliosis, and after receiving a treatment, will actually measure an inch and a half taller! The client comes back for maintenance procedures and manages to keep the scoliosis in check.
Heated Stones/Hot Rock
This treatment has been around for quite some time, and has solid roots back to the practices of Native Americans. Essentially, heated stones are placed or rubbed on an oiled body and act as an extension of the therapist’s hands. Massage is integrated with the treatment, and the result - about an hour later - is total relaxation. It is the most awesome, soothing and relaxing experience! Once you experience this type of massage, it’s a real possibility you’re incurably hooked!
Reflexology
Lora begins her treatment on the feet with a special massage soak. She applies special salts that gently exfoliates and moisturizes. This stage of her procedure in itself feels wonderful. The client is then placed on a warm bed and “tucked in”, exposing the feet and calves. Lora gently massages the calves and feet - in a very unrushed and soothing process. Then she begins to work with trigger points on the each foot’s specific spots, where nerves that course throughout the body meet. With application of pressure, Lora can send messages back to the nerve’s origin, such as the stomach. That pressure impulse sent stimulates healing at that specific spot. So, in addition to receiving a wonderful foot and calves massage, she’s assisting healing by a very non-invasive way. The client leaves with very happy feet!
Raindrop Therapy
This therapy is used to help ameliorate spinal abnormalities, such as scoliosis and kyphosis, and facilitates tissue cleansing. Viruses or bacteria that lay dormant along the
spine can be attributed to those spinal abnormalities, and raindrop therapy is a powerful tool for assisting the body in correcting defects in the curvature of the spine.
Carol dispenses drops of special oils based with antimicrobial agents, from about six inches above the back on the spine, and applies massage with gentle “feather finger
strokes,” easing the muscles away from the spine. The skin quickly absorbs the oils and produces therapeutic effects. Carol will gently apply stretching techniques to the back and neck, and perform other procedures. The results can be quite profound.
Whether one desires massage therapy for medical or recreational reasons, a consultation
is recommended. To make an appointment, you may contact Judy at 381-1050, Lora at 381-2052, or Carol at 369-0282. They even make house calls!
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Ironhaus
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| By Brian D'Ambrosio, Editor |
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Forging objects of iron and handcrafting iron creations has been Tim Campbell’s calling since he was a young boy. In 1978, at fifteen years, he started working as a stove maker, building furnaces and fireplace inserts for the family business, earning a better than average amount of money for a boy his age, while acquiring the knowledge of iron work necessary for the job.
“It was contract work. I could build three of those things a week. I remember my accountant telling me that as a high school kid I really didn’t have many tax write-off options,” says Campbell, owner of Ironhaus, a Hamilton-based company that sells fireplace products.
These early experiences gave Campbell an empowering taste of the entrepreneurial spirit, and offered him an initial set of opportunities in an industry that he’d later – following a winding and twisting series of personal and professional shifts – return to.
Campbell says that fireplace enclosures have always been his forte, and he remembers heating anvils and hammering shapes as bedrocks of his childhood, a period when most of the kids he knew were pursuing more age-associated endeavors. Indeed, he comes from an artistic upbringing; his maternal grandfather even flourished as a blacksmith. Campbell’s earliest contact with blacksmithing as a profession came when, thanks to a curious intersection of elaborate forces, as a teenager, he ended up learning the tricks of the trade from his new stepfather.
In 1978, Maynard Gueldenhaar, a likable and likeminded Canadian blacksmith, met and soon thereafter married Campbell’s mother, and instead of moving to the country where he held his citizenship, the couple opted to settle in Montana. Immediately, Gueldenhaar formed a fireplace business with Campbell’s grandfather. And they needed a little bit of help with their new venture.
“Tim was quickly conscripted to start making fireplaces,” says Gueldenhaar.
“The late 1970s was an interesting time in the fireplace business because it wasn’t so developed nationally. Today’s concepts weren’t common practice then,” says Campbell.
Campbell didn’t get the chance to enjoy the financial fruits of his great labor and effort for long. In fact, something happened to him that made him so embittered that he never wanted to see another fireplace again.
“One day I went into the shop and my stepbrother, who had just started running the business, told me he wanted to change things up, and that I was fired. It was one of those tough times in life. After that, I wanted to go as far away from fireplaces as possible. So, I moved to Arizona,” says Campbell.
Eventually, his plan to stay away from fireplaces was rescinded out of economic necessity, intensified by the need to earn money to buy Christmas gifts for his family. Campbell, who seems to have an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident, found himself working a second job selling fireplace doors.
“My main job then was at a title company, but I had to quit because I soon found myself working for three separate fireplace companies making, measuring and installing doors,” says Campbell.
In spite of the fact that Campbell was successful building fireplace doors and fixtures, (specializing in natural uses of steel, wrought-iron, aging, distressing and patinas), in 1993, he left Arizona, coming back to Montana to work as a homebuilder.
Years later, during a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Campbell’s wife suggested to him that he do more of the wrought-iron work he’d always loved, and do less homebuilding. Once again, that strong desire and enthusiasm for blacksmithing took over.
“I decided that the timing was right to try again. I started out of a three car garage and then rented a 1,500 square-foot shop along the Eastside Highway. Then I was contacted by Four Seasons Resort at Teton Village to do some iron work, and I ended up building all these different railings, light fixtures, and huge fireplace doors. They asked me to do 150 places, because at that time, they had these million dollar suites and just cheap black boxes as fireplaces.”
This opportunity was a catalyst in opening Campbell’s eyes to the idea that a nuanced business niche existed that he could satisfy; and he used this positive development as encouragement to press on toward a more successful life.
In 2004, with his wife pregnant and the resort project nearly completed, Campbell purchased the piece of property, 113 Lewis Lane, which Ironhaus now calls home.
“We found it and bought it 24 hours later. In two months we had a building up,” says Campbell.
Taking steel and creating something as brilliant as a gem, capturing the essence of burning passion and the ardor liveliness of imagination, is something Campbell has always dreamed of doing. So what if it took almost three decades for him to get to it?
“Opportunities cycle back in a way you don’t expect. There are changes of events in life that you can’t predict,” says Campbell.
Today, Campbell has developed Ironhaus into an upstart company, with infinite potential, committed to transforming the fireplace industry into something much sleeker. As a blacksmith company, they build a full-line of custom handcrafted fire screen and glass enclosures made mostly from wrought-iron.
Campbell’s goal is to keep the hearth as a traditionally central feature of the household, by giving warmth and ambience to aid in the comfort against the cold winter months. (Hearths date back to prehistoric campsites, and may be lined with a wide range of materials. Hearths were used for cooking, heating, and the processing of stone, wood, faunal, and floral resources.)
People gather around the mesmerizing flickers of the fireplace for conversation and family bonding. After the workday, it is often the place family members gather at night before retiring to bed. Perhaps the most well known use of this tradition in the United States took place during
the Great Depression when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt held his weekly radio addresses, or “fireside chats,” in which he stated his beliefs on dealings of domestic importance.
“Fireplaces have often been overlooked and undervalued as central parts of the home environment. So many activities take place around the hearth, from endearing family moments to wedding proposals. We want to keep that experience as alive as we can,” says Campbell.
Campbell says that Ironhaus presents a revolutionary approach to the traditional fireplace market. In the past, he says, the options for a wood burning fireplace have been either a very expensive all masonry fireplace or a low quality pre-manufactured fireplace.
“Now, we can offer technology and attractiveness and better masonry component systems, at a cost-friendly value. You can have the ultimate look and feel at the ultimate value,” says Campbell.
For Campbell, excellence is the emphasis, as well as a common buzz word that has various profound meanings to him not only as a craftsman but as a businessman.
“Mediocrity is getting stuck in a rut and not evolving. I’m trying to create a culture here where everybody understands the changing needs of customers. We need to meet those needs as they change, and accommodate the customer by embracing those needs. There’s no time to get into a pattern of boredom around here.”
Undistinguished or stagnant Ironhaus isn’t. Indeed, today Campbell oversees a staff of 21 people, including a team of talented, dexterous artisans handcrafting each enclosure, working inside a 13,000 square-foot shop.
Today, wise old machinery maven Maynard Gueldenhaar holds a patriarchal position at Ironhaus, passing along tips and suggestions to the stepson that he’d first initiated in the iron industry nearly thirty years ago. It certainly appears as if that young high-school aged apprentice, who welded and grinded his way through his fifteenth year, has become something of a master craftsman. In fact, Ironhaus is now selling its products nationally, and last year Campbell won a Vesta Award, a distinction created by Hearth & Home magazine recognizing industry innovation and greatness.
“Tim’s done very well learning to be a blacksmith. I’m proud of my boy. Very proud,” says Gueldenhaar.
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Jukebox Saturday Night
| New Florence bar offers refurbished look, fun, food, and nostalgic flair. |
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| By Shannon Selway, Staff Writer |
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Corrine and Dave DeAcetis know the nightlife business well. They ran a swanky nightclub in Chicago for years, so when their love affair with Montana turned into residency four years ago, they kept a watchful eye out for a business they could purchase. Their patience has paid off.
Last June, the couple closed on the deal that landed them ownership and bragging rights to what is probably the largest dining, bar, casino, and banquet hall in western Montana. Their purchase included a 14,000 square-foot building with a humongous parking lot, situated on four acres of land, complete with a creek and the scenic Bitterroot Mountains for a backdrop.
With some hard work, the business, located on Highway 93 on the edge of Florence (formerly known as One Horse, Angie’s Supper Club and Six Pack), underwent refurbishing. During that renovation time, the employees of Ace Hardware in Florence became well acquainted with the DeAcetis team. The kitchen was completely revamped and major painting projects took place throughout the building. Just shy of three months later, on August 21, 2006, the doors to Jukebox Saturday Night opened.
Naturally, being from Chicago, the DeAcetises are dedicated Bears fans. The bar reflects those feelings well. Bears memorabilia is found on display throughout the bar, and, just to be fair, they display other teams’ pennants (but, it’s apparent who they want you to root for). Patrons can catch a Bears game or other sporting events on the two 45 inch flat screen TVs or the two smaller TVs strategically placed in the bar.
Corrine and Dave are active in the community, too. Corrine’s pet project is raising food and money for the Pantry Partners Food Bank (in Stevensville). Recently, JSN battled other bars and raised over 3,900 pounds of food and over $1,000.
JSN has specials every night and happy hour occurs Monday through Friday from 4 - 7, and drinks and beer are on special during games and NASCAR, including their $2 killer Bloody Marys and Caesars. Patrons can boogie to live bands on Friday and Saturday nights, and can shoot a game of pool or toss a few darts on two electronic boards, or try their luck in the tucked away casino.
The large restaurant displays old 45 records and various collections of signs and posters of the 1950s and 1960s, and of course, a jukebox! The jukebox theme can lend itself to Dave who is a big fan of remodeling vintage cars. That is where the concept blossomed. Dave’s affinity for vintage cars will also be apparent this summer when Jukebox Saturday Night sponsors an auto show. (The parking lot will certainly accommodate that!)
The spacious smoke-free banquet room in their daylight basement can comfortably seat up to 200 guests, and is perfect for weddings, receptions or any large event. It has a full service bar and its own kitchen. There is a special room dedicated just for a bride and bridesmaids to prepare themselves for the big event. But, if customers want to have a shindig outside, there are great accommodations.
Many outdoor weddings occur by the gazebo, complete with sounds of the creek’s running water. The large yard is perfect for a good band and elegant linen-clad tables.
Besides the vastness of JSN’s inviting quarters, what really sets the place apart is the food. The business’ previous owners had a supper club thing going on, which economically made going there a rare treat. The DeAcetises wanted to be a more family-friendly and offer a very affordable menu, serving only the highest quality food. They have succeeded!
JSN makes virtually all of their food from scratch, and it shows. From homemade coleslaw to salsa to pizza to hand-cut steak, patrons can enjoy the efforts of head chef and kitchen manager, Matt Blakey, the man behind the scene. (Folks might recognize the name though, because Blakey also coaches Stevi’s high school football.)
Chef Blakey might surface in the dinning room if he hears of someone ordering steak sauce, just to see for himself. He takes great pride in the steaks he cooks up. They are seasoned to perfection, and he has difficulty understanding why anyone would want to cover up “perfection.”
JSN has quickly earned praise for its fantastic pizza, and are becoming the most popular place in the valley to get a pie. Regardless of what kind of meal ordered, if you desire to partake in a little dessert, you’ll need to save a little space in your tummy - especially if you order JSN’s colossal carrot cake!
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Bitterroot Art Beat - Linda Stoudt
| Introspective artist transfixes viewer with a spontaneous presentation of imagery.. |
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| By Brian D'Ambrosio, Editor |
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Linda Stoudt crosses the lawn from her house to her studio during the mid-afternoon hours, stopping along the way to marvel at the sky and admire nature’s colors. As an artist who has made a career out of examining her own sensory and perceptual experiences, the curiosity and sensation of the greeting are well suited.
In comparison to an intellectual painting which spawns conversation, Stoudt’s emotional paintings produce silence. They reach the viewer more deeply. They compel one to look into or examine one’s own mind and feelings.
“The constant ebb and flow of life is the underlying theme in my work…a result of having an intimate knowledge of the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My work is influenced by Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists,” says Stoudt.
Stoudt is a student of art who practices self-analysis through her artwork; she uses her memory, her initial emotional response and her own internal state or feelings to capture a scene as she paints in her studio.
“I’ve been painting my entire life; my parents wanted me to be a nurse instead of an artist, and to have a nice, practical and steady job. I’ve been studying art since the late 1960s, and have noticed my own works to be getting smaller and more introspective,” says Stoudt.
With an acute and serious eye on the subject, and with a spontaneous presentation of imagery, she shows over and over again a stark simplicity and exciting celebration of colors and textures, which when melded together take more than a little bit of discernment to visually translate.
“I refer to some of my works as distillations, and I like to give people the luxury of looking. There are solutions within, and a certain way of looking at things that can be investigated through my art. There’s a hodgepodge, a mixture of unrelated things, to be looked at, too,” says Stoudt.
Stoudt says that gardening, digging in the dirt on all fours, up close and personal, is one of her major sources of artistic inspiration. On a plot of land outside her Stevensville home, across a slough, she cultivates flowers, luscious vegetables, herbs, and fruit, everything from garlic and potatoes, to onions and squash.
“There’s nothing like growing your own food. Not only does this activity allow one to stop and smell the roses, but it offers closer examination of form and color of individual botanical components and an opportunity to dig further to investigate the source of origin. I try translating these feelings and experiences into something two-dimensional,” says Stoudt.
Part of the visual punch of Stoudt’s paintings comes from her rhapsodic self-indulgence in life and the fact that she uses unique materials such as sandpaper, stiff paper coated with powdered emery or sand, and cardboard, more often than not used to make cartons and signs, to express it. These materials she says she happened upon by fortuity.
So says Stoudt of her serendipitous scientific discoveries: “I’d always wondered how sandpaper would evolve if I drew on it, and somehow it finally happened. I’ve always enjoyed peeling and playing with cardboard. What’s most interesting about sandpaper and cardboard is that they’re not archival; they are going to disintegrate at some point in time. Cardboard has a huge amount of acid to it, and it becomes very brittle and flaky.”
Stoudt chooses to decorate these non-archival materials with either colored pencils, which can lead to a project that’s quite labor intensive, or oil paint, a more flexible medium but one that’s unquestionably without quick, easy or fast answers.
The fact that these materials don’t have good aging properties underscores another aspect to Stoudt’s work. “I see them as representing the passage of time, the disintegration of time, and the rise and fall of matter. We all go through it: Birth, death, rebirth, and the whole cycle.”
To Stoudt, her artwork authentically reflects the journey of infinity and the transmission of time – that fickle and inexplicable foe far too elusive or relentless to be able to dodge – and is symbolic of the inexorable reality that there’s an expiration date, and a passing, and a cessation to everything, corporeal and spiritual. Also, much of her work is characterized by, or contains, vessels that appear to carry or circulate fluids, resembling such things as blood, lymph, or sap, through what approximates the body of an animal, leaf, or plant.
“I do stuff that’s quite vascular,” says Stoudt, who adds that she creates art out of necessity and admits to getting a little bit huffy when she isn’t preoccupied by or relishing in some sort of aesthetic endeavor.
Indeed, Stoudt’s quiet, conventional artist’s studio jumpstarts her skillfulness, establishes and maintains creative continuity, and serves as a place that provides and protects her fresh thought processes.
“This is my selfish time when I’m in here. I try to come in here and block everything else out.”
Stoudt’s studio is her own private and pensive hamlet of pure integrity. In fact, she feels that “honesty” is as an important a trait for an artist to sharpen as any. There’s no reason to equip or embellish a painting or object with unnecessary features to increase salability or acceptance, like the way race car drivers gimmick up a sports car with chrome and racing stripes.
“Honesty helps me continue to work and be consistent, and forces me to make decisions. I’d never put out something that was dishonest. You’d be able to see it in the object, and you’d be able to see it in my eyes,” says Stoudt.
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Community Involvement Is Crucial
The Bitterroot Valley Community College project
should be a true community effort..
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| By Sarah Monson , Clark Fork Journal |
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The Bitterroot Workforce System and its partners banded together in February 2006 to evaluate adult training and educational options. Their focus was on problems of affordability and access in the valley, issues that were frequently brought to their attention. As a result of those discussions, the Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee (BVCC-EC) was formed to deal with the serious issues facing a growing population without proper access to occupational training and higher education. The questions that were asked concerning adult education problems facing Ravalli County led to a proposed solution. That solution, a community college, is now one step closer to becoming a reality for our valley.
The steps toward having a community college involve petitioning the State Board of Regents to authorize a school district election where the local population can vote to establish a community college district with a locally elected board of trustees. If the majority votes in favor, the next step will be for the state legislature to vote on the formation of the new district. The first of those steps has now been completed.
The BVCC-EC began the petition drive in October 2006. 4,920 signatures (20% of all registered voters in Ravalli County) were needed to place the community college district on the ballot for the school election on Tuesday, May 8, 2007. By January 2, 2007, the BVCC-EC, along with numerous volunteers and over 45 local businesses turned in 5,107 validated signatures, enough to put the formation of a community college district before valley voters. The BVCC-EC would like to thank everyone who helped with the signature gathering process, as well as all those who signed the petition. Residents of Ravalli County (with the exception of the Florence-Carlton area which is part of the Missoula County District) will have the opportunity to vote on this important issue during the May 8th school elections.
A community college is locally managed, placing control into the hands of the people who will gain the most from it, the residents of our wonderful valley. Local control was one of the most important reasons that this type of institution was singled out by the researchers.
The economic impact of having a community college is significant. An educated population begins a cascade effect that benefits everyone in the county. With an educated workforce, you have people who are more employable and whom earn higher wages, often in careers they enjoy. There is less dependence on the welfare system, less people on unemployment and more participation in civic and charitable activities.
These are the stories of three people whose lives are currently being affected by the lack of a higher education institution in this valley:
Michelle Buker manages Lakeland Feed and Supply, in Hamilton. She has an interest in taking finance and marketing courses to help her in her current career. She looked into taking online courses, but without adequate equipment at home, online courses were not an option. Commuting to Missoula to go to school would mean she would have to give up time with her family, something far too important for her to give up. Michelle feels that having a community college here would give local business managers a larger pool of more qualified people to hire from, improving businesses all across the county. Residents could stay at home while they continued their education and the extra money they saved on tuition and travel would go back into local businesses.
Kari Underwood is a single parent who never finished high school. She eventually enrolled in online business management courses. Without adequate academic support, Kari eventually gave up on the classes. She is currently working as a secretary for Wild West Furnishings in Hamilton. The skills Kari would have acquired, had she access to support with her courses, would have helped her substantially in the position she now holds.
Public community colleges generally maintain open enrollment policies, meaning all students are welcome regardless of academic preparation or ability, with the college providing the tools for student success.
Medical necessity forced Julie Skelton into a position of having to change careers at age 37. Julie commutes to Missoula five days a week and has just completed her first semester towards a degree in medical transcription and coding. Julie was shocked and discouraged at the amount she has had to pay for higher education as well as the cost of the commute.
It is Montana Board of Regent policy that community colleges have the lowest tuition of any public postsecondary institution in the state. BVCC-EC members have been approached with many serious questions regarding funding, structure and courses to be offered at a community college. This is your chance to become informed about the impact this will have on everyone in Ravalli County. Start a community dialog with us. Log onto www.bvcc-edu.org and take advantage of the blog section that has been set up. Respond to us through the local newspapers. We want to hear your questions and let you voice your ideas.
This is also your chance to become a part of something that will take our community to great places. This community belongs to all of us; the community college project should be a community effort. Ask us how you can be involved.
If you never ask, you will never know. If you never seek, you will never find. If we never jump, how can we ever expect to fly?
Get involved by visiting www.bvcc-edu.org., or by calling Sarah Monson at 406-360-6460.
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OPHIR CAVE
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| by Jim Wilson, for the Clark Fork Journal |
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Every second Wednesday of the month the Missoula Grotto meets at Pipestone Mountaineering, to discuss programs which usually consist of a slide show involving one of the many caves participants have explored or mapped.
Before the slide show begins, trip reports are given about caves that the members have recently visited and then reports are given on upcoming trips. At this meeting, a trip report was given about Ophir Cave. One of the members had taken a trip to Ophir Cave, near Avon, and had marveled at its size and easy accessibility. When he had gotten to the bottom of the cave, he encountered the head of a six point deer on one of the lower levels of the cave. The head was propped up on a ledge in a ceremonial way for everyone to see. What was amazing about the head being there was the effort someone had made to get it down the almost unmanageable crawl spaces that needed to be negotiated before arriving at its final resting place. There was some speculation about how long the skull had been there and also about the reason why someone would take the effort to haul it into the cave in the first place. I am sure it was a practical joke on the part of a recent visitor to the cave.
The subject of Ophir Cave brought back old memories of different trips I had taken to the cave over the years. When I was younger working on the family ranch in the Blackfoot Valley I would take visiting friends, neighbors and whoever wanted to come along to explore the cave with me. I am not sure how many people eventually went down the cave with me, but there were a great number of them, and they all to this day reminisce about the experience. It was my first trip to the cave that I will always remember best.
It was back in the mid-1970s on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I had decided to take the day off from work and enjoy the sunny weather. I had no definite plans, but knew that some form of adventure outdoors was in order. One of my employees by the name of Joe had been pestering me to go caving with him. He had been going down Ophir Cave by himself on several occasions, but would always be stopped at a drop-off in the cave. He was too nervous to take his rope and descend the drop-off in the cave without having someone there in the case of an emergency. I agreed to follow Joe down the cave and followed his directions in preparing for the adventure. We gathered all the lights, batteries, gloves and overalls we needed for the adventure, then we stopped at the Copper Queen Saloon for Joe’s rum and Cokes. I wasn’t a drinker of rum and Coke myself, especially in the middle of the day, but I humored Joe knowing that it was his day off.
There was a short drive to the cave and then about a half-mile walk to the cave entrance. At the entrance we dressed in our overalls and lit a lantern. I was now pretty excited. I had never been in a cave before and found it dark and mysterious. This was true exploring and I was relishing the adventure of it all. We descended into the first room, which was very spacious. We were looking for a small hole in the floor of one of the two rooms, which would lead us to the crawl space tunnel to a bottom chamber. After several minutes of looking around Joe finally found the hole he was looking for and we prepared ourselves for the narrow passage. The main lantern was extinguished and we pulled our flashlights out.
The passage was so narrow we had to arrange our bodies in the right aspect to get through the tight angles. At this point I was asking myself what was doing this for. I was beginning to wonder if I would get stuck in one of these fissures and die from the cool air. I was also concerned about my employee who despite his previous confidence was looking a bit nervous in this winding tunnel. Joe finally came to a halt and motioned me to enter a small room no bigger than the family bathroom. It was this room that we would lower ourselves down approximately 50 feet into the dark unknown of the room below us. I helped Joe rig up an anchor system that we could safely tie the rope to. We had brought an inch and a quarter manila rope with us that was about 60 feet long. We had no idea if the rope would reach the ground so we tied a large knot in the end of it, so that we would have something to stand on if we were too high up from the bottom of the cave. Our lights were not bright enough to reach the bottom of this hole we were about to enter. I was beginning to get concerned about our next moves. If we didn’t reach the bottom would we be able to climb back out?
We had practiced climbing the rope back at the ranch by hanging it in a tree, but down here was another matter. I took one look at Joe and declared that it was his idea and if anyone was going down that rope first, it was him. I am sure that if Joe had dragged a bottle of the Rum down the narrow passageway he would have taken a large swig out of the bottle right then and there. Joe mustered up what little courage he had, grabbed the rope and slowly lowered himself down into the dark hole. It may have only taken Joe a couple of minutes to descend the rope, but it seemed like hours. He finally yelled up to me to follow him down. He had safely made it to the bottom.
As I descended down the rope my only thoughts seemed to be, “I hope we make it back up this rope. It’s a long ways back up!” We had now entered the largest room of the cave that appeared to be the size of a large gymnasium. We spent the next couple of hours looking in every nook and cranny for another exit or new room. The cave was beautiful, and it had many different formations in it. I soon forgot about having to climb back up the rope as we explored this huge room. It wasn’t until one of the lights began to dim that we realized we had better leave. It would be impossible to get out of here without some form of light. We slowly made our way back to the waiting rope admiring all the sights as we went. We had now spent almost four hours in the cave and the damp cold was slowly getting to us.
I had been the stronger climber when we practiced climbing the rope hanging in the tree, so I volunteered to go first. Hand over hand I shinnied up the rope, climbing 50 feet before entering the small room at the top. I then safely clipped myself into the anchor and yelled down to Joe to start his climb up. I could see the rope then tighten as Joe began his ascent. Below me, I could hear Joe breathing laboriously as he climbed. I waited patiently for Joe to appear at the entrance to the dark abyss, but as time passed slowly all my fears began to materialize. I yelled down to Joe to see what the matter was. Joe had made it up twenty feet and had “powered out.” He hung in desperation unable to ascend any further on his own power.
He may have had too many Rum and Cokes earlier, but I also remember that he wasn’t the strongest of climbers to begin with. After several minutes of hanging on, Joe had to lower himself back down the rope and rest.
I was now scared to death realizing that our lights would not last for too much longer. I was also concerned about the time it would take me to find my way out of the cave on my own, drive to town and get help, and to then find my way back to this miserable hole and figure out a way to get Joe back up the 50 foot climb. I also had to do this before Joe went nuts in the dark or died of hypothermia. My mind raced to find a way out of this predicament. I told Joe that I would raise the rope and tie knots into it to help him climb. I was able to tie about three knots in the rope, but didn’t have enough rope to tie anymore. I lowered the rope and told Joe to start climbing again. Once again I could hear his laborious breathing as he climbed from one knot to the next. Joe was now in the dark unable to climb with his light, which he had secured to the bottom of the rope. Joe made it up about 25 feet and again could go no farther.
At this point I told Joe to just hang on and stand on the last knot. I then rigged up a small pulley system and took the next hour or more pulling Joe up inch by inch.
By the time I saw the whites of Joe’s eyes he was a ghost of a man. I had no idea how he had hung on for so long, nor did I understand how I could have managed to pull this 180 lb man up the remaining 25feet by myself.
With the remaining light we had, we dragged our worn-out bodies into the warm night air and made our way in the dark to the waiting vehicle.
Joe could not stop thanking me all the way back to the Copper Queen Saloon, where he had the rum and Coke he thought he’d never drink again.
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Richard Gensch
Taxidermy trailblazer proves that his lifelike fish and game mounts are bona fide art.
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| By Brian D’Ambrosio, Editor |
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Contemporary taxidermy has made tremendous advancements. No longer the appallingly ugly, frightfully distorted fish and game mounts grossly exaggerated in Hollywood films, genuine taxidermy is bona fide art, with the best examples capturing and precisely representing subjects the way they lived in their natural habitat. Actually, during the late portion of the twentieth century, taxidermy developed into a skilled form of wildlife craftsmanship, and today’s most noteworthy taxidermists are increasingly regarded as genuine artists. In many aspects, Richard Gensch epitomizes the modern day taxidermist.
From a large garage outside of his Bonner home, situated eight miles east along Montana Highway 200, an inner tube’s toss from the recreational arcadia known as the Blackfoot River, Gensch, 43, applies decades of taxidermy experience to create and sculpt the most accurate game mounts and fish art. Like most professions, different taxidermists have distinct styles and work habits, and the key is in finding the right one to preserve your most memorable outdoor adventure.
“If it looks alive, the taxidermist did a good job,” said Gensch. “The deer should look like it’s about to blink, the bird like it’s ready to fly, and the fish as if it could swim away.”
Recent technology has made such work much more realistic. Over the last few decades, taxidermy trailblazers have been creating anatomically precise manikins which incorporate every slight detail of the animal – right down to each muscle and tendon – in dramatic and striking positions. New mounting techniques allow animals to be portrayed with astonishing lifelike accuracy; in fact, today, certain taxidermists even specialize in recreating extinct animals.
With mounts developed in realistic environments and poses appropriate for an individual species, modern taxidermy offers an extreme departure from the crass, snarling caricatures popularly submitted as hunting trophies years ago. Taxidermy’s greatest progressions can be spotted in these accurate new forms and the finely detailed foam manikins available, explained Gensch.
“Old mounts were crude and filled with paper Mache. Now these foam manikins are lightweight and virtually indestructible. They are pretty neat.”
Six deer heads hang on the walls of his shop, Buckhorn Taxidermy, waiting for their finishing touches – glass eyes and plastic jaw sets – which Gensch administers in meticulous fashion. Looming overhead, 10 sets of deer antlers are tagged and waiting to be rejoined with their heads. In the upstairs loft, there are dozens and dozens of hides. “The backlog makes the taxidermist,” said Gensch, who has built up a fairly solid clientele from all over the world and recently completed mounts of exotic baboons and warthogs. Since it takes the taxidermist ample time to salt, cape and ship an animal, it’s not uncommon for buyers to wait for more than one year for a taxidermist to finish a mount.
”Outdoorsmen should have a taxidermist picked out before they go hunting or fishing, in the event they get something they want to mount,” said Gensch.
It’s also important for hunters to contact a taxidermist if they are uncertain about proper field handling or caping techniques. If possible, Gensch suggests buyers visit prospective taxidermists beforehand, and look closely at the way he or she sets the eyes on a mount – making certain they are symmetrical and not cross-eyed. He also recommends examining the ears to be certain they are not deteriorating, and antlers to make sure they are not uneven on the head.
Most mistakes can be attributed to a lack of experience, said Gensch. Seems there’s an old adage in taxidermy realms: you don’t become an actual taxidermist until you’ve been working for ten years and have experienced all situations. “Plus, it’s a mistake for people to choose a taxidermist based only on pricing. If something is meant to last for a lifetime, quality of workmanship should be the first concern,” said Gensch.
Gensch does traditional skin mounting of fish, as well as producing fiberglass fish reproductions for even the biggest trophies, so whether you’ve reeled in a gigantic saltwater monster off the coast of South America or a freshwater beauty right here in the Three Rivers area, he can preserve the memory. Photographs of the fish, its environment, and anything pertinent to the desired finished mount are very important, making reproductions perfect for the angler who snags a 50-pound salmon on the first day of a long float trip. Gensch is available to insure that you get a mount looking exactly like what you photographed.
“You don’t have to carry the fish with you the entire time because all I need is a picture and the length and girth measurements of the fish, and I can reproduce it perfectly down to the scale,” said Gensch, who appreciates the fact that such fish are still alive, waiting to be hauled out again.
The fish taxidermy art created by Gensch isn’t mass-produced (he finishes between 40 and 50 yearly), supplying further proof that all of his reproductions are individual works of art. Serious attention is paid to replicating the unique characteristics of each fish, and when it comes to identifying a great fish mount, he believes the confirmation is in the paint job, and that superior paint jobs come from experience.
For one particularly striking salmon reproduction, carved out of wood and granite, Gensch earned a blue ribbon in the Master’s Division of the 2005 World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Championships, held this past summer in Illinois. The show attracted competitors from 48 states and 14 nations, a testament to taxidermy’s newfound acceptance and recognition, stated Gensch. “These shows offer valuable educational and networking opportunities for all levels of taxidermy.”
Gensch feels that two determining traits of a good taxidermist are that they attend local, state or national conventions and subscribe to various trade magazines. “A taxidermist needs to keep up with the latest methods and technological advances in the industry,” he said.
Furthermore, quality taxidermists should maintain a large reference library and have a staggering collection of reference photos and books on wildlife, explained Gensch. The information available in a taxidermist’s reference library can make the difference between an unremarkable mount and an undeniable piece of wildlife art. Reference material can be outdoor magazine articles or books describing animal anatomy, biology and habitat.
“For example, with birds you can do a lot more with their habitat, visual types-of-things, like create sea ducks swimming in a rippling pool of water, rocks and seaweed. You need to study their environment to complete such a piece,” said Gensch.
Having three-dimensional pictures of the inner mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears of a live specimen is also advantageous. That’s because it’s important to know how a particular animal moves, so that it can be prepped, altered and fitted into the proper position without losing any of its reality. As one of an estimated 450 licensed taxidermists in Montana, and 75,000 in the country, Gensch believes that the standards, the expectations and the quality of work in his field are high in the Treasure State. “There are some top-notch taxidermists in Montana,” he said.
For as long as Gensch can recollect, he has prized and respected the outdoors, drawing it since childhood, and he feels that taxidermy is a reasonable extension of his unconfined love of natural landscapes, scenery and wildlife. Growing up a country kid in Wisconsin, down the road from a pretty and undisturbed lake, where he would catch, inspect and admire different forms of aquatic life, he saved up his newspaper route money to take fish taxidermy courses. Years later, as a teenager he worked at the taxidermy business of his dad’s friend throughout high school, and opened his own shop in Missoula in 1988, before moving Buckhorn Taxidermy to its current Blackfoot location two years ago.
Hunting and fishing were meaningful, symbolic parts of his childhood, a way of growing up, therefore, Gensch sees the animal mounts that he fashions and enhances as products that help others capture similar memories, and as a means of honoring the animal that’s been harvested.
“Wildlife is held in such high regard in our society, and I simply put it on a pedestal for people. The trophy is always in the eyes of the beholder.”
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