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Calamity Jane in the Bitter Root
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| By Wm. W. Whitfield |
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While perusing the newspaper archives at the Ravalli County Museum recently, I came upon an interesting article that instantly caught my attention. The headline read, “Once A Bitter Rooter: Death of Calamity Jane, the Notorious, Recalls the Fact That She Was Once a Resident of This City During the Boom Days of the Capitol Fight.”
This was just the kind of historical tidbit I needed to whet my appetite, and I quickly read on with eager delight.
The story came from the Ravalli Republican and went as follows: “When the news of the death of Calamity Jane was read in the press dispatches, many a resident of Hamilton recalled the fact that the noted character had once lived in this town. It was during the halcyon days of the capitol fight, when there was plenty of money in circulation in Hamilton and the town was on the boom. Calamity came to town and brought her husband with her. She started a restaurant in the building on Main Street now occupied by the Rockafellow Shooting Gallery and Johnnie Ritchie’s Peanut Buggy. History relates that she put up a swell feed. She got into no end of trouble during the few months she called this town her home and finally left, greatly to the sorrow of many creditors.”
Besides the fact that Calamity Jane and her husband appear to have successfully dodged their creditors, a number of things may be gleaned from this brief article. Although the piece fails to mention what year she operated her restaurant, it does mention that it was during the time of the Capitol Fight.
This refers to a heated battle that was waged between Helena and Anaconda for the honor of housing the state capitol. Copper baron William A. Clark backed Helena, where he held a number of profitable mining claims, while Anaconda had the support of his arch rival Marcus Daly.
These two powerful industrialists were fierce competitors in every respect, and both were determined to have their way. They each owned newspapers throughout the region and both men shrewdly used the power of the press to forward his particular cause.
The territorial capitol had already been moved once from Bannack to Virginia City, and in 1875 a freighter was hired to move the papers and records once again, from Virginia City to Helena. The ongoing battle between Daly and Clark really got fired up when Montana was granted statehood in 1889. The Copper Kings fought a bitter campaign, until the matter was finally settled once and for all in 1895 with a statewide election. Both men lobbied hard and many backroom deals were made, but in the end Helena got the nod. It has been estimated that at least fifty millionaires owned residences in Helena durring those Boom Days, and at that time they made up the largest concentration of wealth per capita in the nation.
So, from what we have learned, it seems more than likely that Calamity Jane ran her restaurant in Hamilton sometime between 1889 and 1895.
The article was published shortly after her death on the 1st of August 1903, and with a little research I soon discovered that the Rockefeller family arrived in the Bitter Root Valley that very same year. Still, there was nothing about them ever owning a shooting gallery on Main Street, and I hit another dead end on Johnnie Ritchie’s Peanut Buggy.
Originally most of the buildings on Hamilton’s Main Street were of wood construction, and the chances are probably pretty good that Calamity Jane’s restaurant was of a similar construction. Early photos reveal predominately false-fronted wooden buildings lining the street, and eventually all but one of these first generation buildings were replaced with permanent brick structures, which means that the building housing her restaurant probably no longer exists.
Today the only wooden building left on Main Street from that era is the one currently occupied by Art City.
Another interesting phrase in the newspaper headline is “Calamity Jane, the Notorious,” and this might be the perfect time to follow up on that aspect of the article. Almost all of the iniquitous exploits that are supposed to have surrounded Calamity Jane might have contributed to her notorious reputation. Reportedly she cussed, drank, caroused, and lied her way through the west with a consistency that equaled the most vulgar men of the time.
Her incorrigible adventures were exaggerated in dime novels and pulp journals from coast to coast, with each new story a bit more fantastic than the last. But just who was this wild child of the west?
Martha E. Cannary, alias Calamity Jane, according to her brief autobiography, first came to the Montana Territory early in the 1860’s at the tender age of thirteen. Her family had emigrated from Missouri by the overland route, and arrived at the bustling gold mining camp of Virginia City during the height of the stampede.
Her father was a professional gambler, and her mother apparently dealt in one of the more common vices found in all the popular mining camps of that era. Martha was the oldest of six children, and she dutifully bore the burden of caring for her siblings while her parents plied their trade upon the eager miners who poured into the area, from nearly every corner of the earth.
An article in the Montana Post dated December 31st 1864 seems to have taken particular notice of her plight, and the editors of the Virginia City newspaper made it perfectly clear who they felt should shoulder the blame, when they carried the following story. “Three little girls, who state their names to be Canary, appeared at the door of Mr. Fergus, on Idaho Street, soliciting charity. The ages of the two eldest ones were about ten and twelve, respectively.
The eldest girl carried in her arms her infant sister, a baby of about twelve months of age. Canary, the father, it seems, is a gambler in Nevada City. The mother is a woman of the lowest grade, and was last seen in town, at Dr. Byam’s office, a day or two since. We understand that the little ones returned to Nevada, where they have existed for some time.”
The next news we hear of Calamity Jane is from the boisterous little mining camp of Blackfoot City, which stood about twenty miles northeast of Deer Lodge. One or two lonely cabins remain there today, but for a while during its hey-day, the rough and tumble camp boasted a population of nearly 2,000.
Gold was first discovered in the area in 1865, and one early visitor described the scene as such, “After crossing the divide, we landed in this city…Half the cabins are groggeries, about one fifth are gambling saloons, and a large percentage are occupied by the fair but frail ones who ever follow the miner’s camp.”
These conditions would seem to suit the natural proclivities of Calamity’s parents perfectly, and by one account her mother ran a bordello there called Madame Canary’s Bird Cage. Yet sometime in early 1866, she died suddenly of unknown causes, and was buried in the ill-famed and mostly long forgotten gold camp. It is here that Calamity apparently first gains the label of Notorious.
One eyewitness years later related that he had been present during a stickup at a local grocery at Confederate Gulch, not far from Blackfoot City, perpetrated by none other than the then fourteen year old Calamity Jane.
Although his account certainly has to be taken with a grain of salt, the storyteller does say that all of the absconded groceries were generously meant to go towards the aid of some sickly miners that Calamity was caring for.
In her autobiography Calamity claims that after the death of her mother, her father moved the family from Blackfoot City to Utah, in the spring of 1866. According to her own account, her father died there the next year, and she arrived at Fort Bridger, Wyoming with her siblings in 1868.
After that there is no further mention of her siblings, and we have to assume that she left them there to fend for themselves, while she followed the same dissolute profession as her mother.
She later claimed to have served as scout for various military expeditions, but there seems to be no basis for the claim. Captain Jack Crawford, who was the actual chief of the Army scouts at the time, refutes the notion outright. Crawford did recall however, that as assistant Marshal of Custer City, South Dakota, he was once “under the painful necessity of arresting Calamity for intoxication and disorderly conduct.”
Still, it is generally accepted that she was an expert bullwhacker, and she earned an honest living by moving freight across the wide-open prairies of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. But to understand who Calamity really was, we might consider the insightful testimony of one old muleskinner that knew her on the trail, “She took her place as any man would, and did her share of the work with the best of them.”
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Meet Your Neighbors: Gary Haas
| For Beetle Man of Florence and his Dermestid colony, removing rank flesh from skeletons is no justification for squeamishness, just part of an honest day’s work. |
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| By Brian D’Ambrosio |
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Horror from a certain distance fascinates, yet it causes us problems when it gets up-close and personal. Indeed, it is one thing to wimpily enjoy movies depicting swarms of bugs vacuuming the tissue off human faces, but it’s something much more different to cup oversized, flesh-gnawing beetles in your hands. And it’s even gutsier to live and work with multimillions of them – the way that Gary Haas does.
Haas is no gory filmmaker, no daredevil wacko, no ego-driven publicity hound. Not at all. He’s a self-professed osteological mammalogist, specializing in the European method of skeletal cleaning. And he’s backlogged six months.
“It’s a fun and sometimes frustrating job,” says Haas, owner of Big Sky Beetleworks, in Florence. If (reality television show) Dirtiest Jobs calls me and wants to interview me, or if they send a guy out here, I’ll be happy to do it. I’ll get them sick to their stomach with things that have rotted down to nothing.”
In the last 14 years Haas has cleaned an impressively wide variety of animals, including alligator, sea otter, Texas longhorn, fox, lynx, ostrich, and dog and about every Montana game animal imaginable, including the customary elk, moose, bear, sheep, and deer. Send him anything that’s skeletal, whether it’s rancid or not, regardless of age or decay, and he will purify it down to the bone.
“I did a deer a couple of years ago that was killed in 1952. I had to rehydrate it, and with a good sharp knife and a pair of vices, I took the hide off. I soaked it, and the bugs had it clean by the end of the day.”
Oh, yes, the hard-working and exacting bugs. All skulls and skeletons eventually get picked clean by the bugs, but how long it takes depends on the size and type of animal. Buffalos are apt to take the longest, he said, because their skin dries up faster and has to be rehydrated.
Descendants of a Dermestid colony established in 1980 at the University of Montana, the beetles were adopted by Haas after university officials decided in 1989 to take them off campus. In 1994, he and the beetles moved to Florence, where Haas conducts laboratory examinations of carnivore fecal material to determine animal diet, for several state, federal, provincial and foreign government agencies. Big Sky Beetleworks was supposed to be a side job.
“When I started out there were three colonies in the state, now there are more than 150,” says Haas. “They are everywhere. But, I read one of the beetle books on the Internet and the guy didn’t have a clue. He says the skulls need to be boiled, or be allowed to dry, or that you need to have a certain bedding material. The bedding material he suggests will kill the bugs, or it will greatly reduce their numbers, because you can’t use wood shavings. I’ve tried different wood shavings, and they die. I use cotton, and it works great for bedding material.
“If it’s too hot the beetles move too fast, and they die really quickly. You want these beetles at the optimum temperature so that they are constantly eating, constantly reproducing; if it’s too low, they get too lethargic and they don’t get any work done.”
Dermestid beetles are incessantly and simultaneously eating and defecating, and these bugs have the capacity to grow several thousand times their weight. The lifespan of one of Haas’s beetles is less than 4 months; in the wild the typical Dermestid beetle lives about 10 months. He’s had to supplement the population a few times “when there has been an unforeseen die off.”
Density dependent, Dermestid beetles will reproduce in numbers proportional to the size of the container or carton that they are living in. They snack and survive only on dead material. Live material doesn’t attract them.
“If I were to stick a mouse in there, the beetles would crawl on it, but they wouldn’t eat it. I don’t mind the beetles crawling on me…what I don’t like are flies, because they like flying up beneath my glasses.”
Colonies are separated and dumped into sets of 4 ft. x 6 ft. by 6-inch deep, metal bins, located inside of a climate and humidity controlled shed. Thirty-nine antelope heads and a pair of bighorn sheep skulls were placed into one tray this morning. Around 70 antelope could be fitted into a single container.
Next door, two additional huts are coupled together, stacked with more than 1,500 animal heads and antlers, double-tagged with stout strips, waiting to be cleaned.
“I have no sense of smell and almost no sense of taste,” says Haas, standing directly above the withered head of a poached ram that was brought in for cleaning at the behest of Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. After being purged of its flesh, the sanitized skull will be used as court evidence.
“I’ve seen things in varying stages of decomposition and dead things rotting for months and months that have putrefied. This is a job to me. By the time I get the skulls and the bones, there’s no personality to it, it’s just a skull and it’s just bones.”
His beetles are eager, flesh-consuming attackers. And it’s not just rotten flesh that these creatures crave as their delicacy. “They eat wood, dry-wall, linoleum, silicone, carpet, cloth, paper, paint, Styrofoam, plastic, and Rhino lining, the stuff you line the bed of your pick-up truck with.”
Haas hopes to have a new facility erected on his property within the next few months, featuring a more hygienic air filtration system, allowing the beetles to sparklingly sterilize in greater quantity, much faster than before. Most of the animal waste and queasy slop is disposed of in a nearby field for crows, ravens and magpies to feast upon. The remainder is donated to a local wildlife rehabilitator, who feeds it to recovering hawks, eagles, and buzzards.
“At my other shop, neighbors thought I was a devil worshipper. They had a party when I left, and I wasn’t invited. It wasn’t the smell, but the traffic they disliked.
“My kids think it’s pretty neat, though. My two boys help me haul the skulls to the beetle room. But my teenage daughter doesn’t like the business at all. She’s at that age, you know.”
Haas caters mostly to hunters who wish to safeguard the skull and horns of their trophy animals, but he also decontaminates skulls and skeletons for taxidermists, schools, museums, fish and game departments and, occasionally, medical schools and police departments. In the past, he has cleaned alligators, snakes, and turtles for the Museum of the Rockies, horses for the Montana Equine Surgical Center, and even mice for examination as part of antibiotic study programs.
“For hunters, this a less expensive alternative. An elk right now for a shoulder mount goes for at least $700, but bring it to me and it is $155. If it’s prepped, it’s only $55.”
After the beetles effectively remove all the flesh from a skeleton or skull (most skulls take between 3 and 5 days, old dried up buffaloes take longest, about two months), Haas degreases the bones and then bleaches them with hydrogen peroxide. Degreasing and peroxide whitening each take, on average, 3 to 5 days. The final result is an immaculately clean and polished specimen suitable for hanging in the game room or in a museum.
Often, colony members fall into a sort of lackadaisicalness, and when this becomes a problem, “a magic elixir,” developed by Haas, is sprayed on the skulls, and they apparently go berserk over it.
“It’s bug cocaine. I don’t want to get them addicted, but they need the incentive. If I’ve got a dried out old piece of jerky, I soak it in the magic elixir and we get it cleaned up.”
Currently, 10 million beetles make up the total amount of Haas’s beetle colony. He expects he will need at least 100 million beetles to handle fall’s higher volume of orders. He doesn’t like having employees, except for the spooky multitude of beetles keeping business steady.
Haas doesn’t think that the people who gag at the notion of what he does for a living are complete sissies, nor does he feel he has ever crossed the dividing line between horror as business and horror that panics. He’s past the point of being nauseated or disgusted. Work is work, and come quitting time, after he walks 100-feet from the shop to his home, all of the day’s job-related goriness is checked and forgotten at the front door.
“I’ve never had a bad dream about the beetles eating me or ripping me to shreds. Never.”
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Meet Your Neighbors: Jeff Abel
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Unique reel, the latest in proud, passionate fisherman’s line of products
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By Brian D’Ambrosio, Editor
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Despite competition from video games and urbanization in general, recreational angling remains one of the largest outdoor recreational activities in the nation as well as one of the most solid industries in the United States.
Annually, nearly 40 million anglers generate over $45 billion in retail sales with a $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy, creating employment for over one million people. One of every seven people in the country fished in 2006, making it more popular than jogging or golf.
Jeff Abel is an avid angler and a careful businessman. He makes a variety of fly-fishing related products which, ultimately, need to earn a passing mark from his toughest critic: himself.
“Fly-fishing is a unique sport,” says Abel, owner of Victor-based JTA Products. “Once you get into it, you love it. There are 11 million fly-fishermen out there, and everybody is vying for their dollars. There can only be so many products available, and so many that are needed. You’ve got a ton of people selling items in a really small market. So, your stuff had better perform like you say it does.”
“I try to create the products I see a need for. Right now, I’ve got so many products, I need to slow down.”
Although he banters about slowing down, chances are he won’t be doing it anytime soon. In fact, he’s in the process of manufacturing a new reel that he hopes will grab the industry by the tackle box. If successful, it will be the latest in a line of JTA fly-fishing goods that have been warmly accepted, including six different models of fishing nets, multiple lines and leaders, luggage for the traveling fisherman, and a Flyhead pad, which lets anglers put a thin cushion on their favorite hat to stick flies to.
Out of all his merchandise, Abel’s fishing nets have gained him the most popularity – and are considered the most innovative. When Abel mentioned to people he was thinking about developing a line of titanium nets to replace wooden ones, many balked at the notion as impossible, or dismissed it as blasphemous. “Most of the dealers told me they wouldn’t sell aluminum nets. But, I wanted to introduce a set of $20 aluminum nets, instead of $100 wood nets. They don’t break like wood does. Aluminum is too strong. As far as the nets go, many dealers have stopped selling wood nets.”
“Because of the nets, now people trust us. With the reels, we are hoping they’ll try us, and continue that trust,” adds Abel, who says that his business booms brightest from March through July, and orders start to decrease in August.
Manufacturing the new reel is Abel’s top priority. Indeed, he’s been designing and redesigning it for the past 4 years, and has been testing the prototype out on Montana’s most famous rivers even longer.
“I fish a lot, and I need something that works for me.”
For the past 4 years not only has Abel been vigorously analyzing the new reel, but he has also had a few other diehard fishermen friends and experienced river guides do so as well, gauging their reactions along the way.
“I’ve given the reel to huge fishermen before making it available to the public. Guides in Alaska enjoyed the reel. They’ve all agreed that it’s got the perfect drag to stop fish.”
Abel intends to market an extremely high-quality reel, standard with a unique, multi-colored finish, at an affordable price. He expects it to retail at around $240. The reel will have two model choices, with full production starting in February, and it should be stocked in stores for spring fishing season.
Made to resist decay and wear, the reel is loaded with handy and durable benefits that will make it last generations. In fact, Abel even claims it will have the best drag in the world. No small assurance.
“If you catch that once in a lifetime fish, even on a small stream, you’ll wish that you had one of these. The fish will be gone if you don’t have a great drag. It’s carbon fiber, extremely durable, and has a smooth carbon fiber wafer, and never needs conditioning.”
Abel is keeping the reel simple, consistent, and user friendly. No maintenance or oiling will be warranted. No tricky parts or springs are involved. It’ll be comprised of machine screws that are available at the local hardware store, as opposed to hassling custom screws that need to be ordered. It neatly adapts so customers can easily reverse or switch positions from left-handed to right. Straightforward and elemental in its assemblage, the reel will feature a smaller billet and a carbon fiber disc, offering a smoothly consistent drag – regardless of river condition. It can be used to fish for sharks, marlins, or small brook trout.
“I’ve been using this drag for four years with my prototype, and I have never lost a fish.”
“The reel, says Abel, has been endowed with capabilities intended to eliminate problems, too.”
“A lot of anglers have a problem where they will strip their line down, and it’ll run across the line guide and cut a groove in their line guide, and with a normal reel it would be ruined. You’d need to get a new frame or reel. With mine, you can unscrew it and put on a new one.”
Equipped with lightweight aluminum handle posts, interchangeable parts, a sturdy and unbreakable handle and foot, as well as thick, tough walls, the reel can be used for salt water or fresh water experiences; it has a built-in safety component to protect against salt water corrosion, utilizing a thicker, harder anodize compound to better bulwark it against weathering and natural erosion.
“I don’t want to make a disposable reel,” says Abel. “I’m doing this at a price that’s not cheap, but that’s justified because it lasts forever. The key to cost effectiveness is that every single part of our reels will fit every size we are going to make. We’ll just change the frame and spool size. All the parts will fit. All supporting parts made are to fit all reels.”
“There’s no reason a reel should cost $1,000, but they do. But then, buying a $50 reel just isn’t going to make it.”
Abel says his company is one of only two reel companies in the world that does its anodizing and manufacturing in-house. He could go overseas with the operation, to find and then exploit, er, employ a cheap labor pool, but he finds the notion distasteful and even disloyal.
Working in Montana has been beneficial, because the state has such a sterling reputation for being a premier destination state for fly-fishermen.
“I want to run the business in Montana. There are so many different types of fishing scenarios here. And I really wanted to make something here in the United States.”
Abel is hoping the reel also earns recognition for its multicolored finish and hand-squiggled individuality. (He’ll be one of only two reel manufacturers in the world that use multicolor.)
The exact name of the reel has yet to be determined. Abel says it may reference one of the local rivers or lakes that make the Bitterroot Valley and western Montana premier fly-fishing attractions. No matter what name he decides on, the time he has spent examining and substantiating the investment was certainly time well spent:
“You know, the best thing about living here is that I got to make something here, and I got to go right out there and test it that same day. Some places, you need to schedule a trip to hit the river, but, here, I’d just pop in the water for a few hours before going home and try it out. You can’t do that just anywhere.”
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| Shawn’s Slot: And They’re Off |
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Democracy does not allow for politics outside the democratic system. In this sense, democracy is totalitarian.
–J.M. Coetzee
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| By Shawn Wathen |
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The presidential primary season is upon us, the latest scene in a nearly ceaseless political spectacle. Who has the ear of God; did Hillary’s tears lubricate her path to victory in New Hampshire; who claims to be the most qualified to lead; female, black, evangelical. Mud–wrestling staged as high political drama.
The lack of substantive dialogue on important issues facing this country is not a new phenomenon. Vitriol, with notable exceptions, has infused presidential campaigns since the founding of the republic. With the predominance of electronic mass media, however, the show plays to more people who become passive receptors in a misinformation (as opposed to knowledge) game. The effect of this mind-numbing assault of sound-bytes and half-truths impinges directly on the health of any democratic system.
What exactly is accomplished during this ritual of U.S. style democracy? Unfortunately, democracy has very little to do with it. Even a cursory glance at the system reveals the dominant role of money in achieving political objectives. The last contest for the presidency (disregarding the primaries) totaled more than $1 billion. Before the chosen ones can even think of competing on that level, each pretender to the throne must engage in the bloodsport of the presidential primary.
Within weeks of the Iowa caucuses, many will raise the white flag and quit the race–lack of money, not hopes or merit being the ultimate reason. As such, the diversity of candidates quickly evaporates.
An even more decidedly undemocratic consequence of this skewed system is that only a tiny fraction of the electorate actually determines which two gladiators–worthy or likely not–will duel for the presidential prize. While all fifty states will nevertheless hold their primary elections, those doing so after the early contests have no influence on an outcome already decided.
Competency for the job has no role in the selection process. De facto if not de jure the process is elitist. When was the last election when the Republican or Democratic candidate for president did not come from the top 20 percent income bracket? In 2004, both Bush and Kerry were firmly ensconced in the top 1 percent.
As David Brooks of the New York Times said of those candidates, voters apparently flock to those with whom we have little in common, at least on a socioeconomic level. There is no proportional relationship between wealth and ability, except perhaps an aptitude for raising money. Would, as J.M. Coetzee suggests in his wonderful new book Dairy of a Bad Year, a coin toss serve just as well?
In “Does Democracy Deserve to Survive?”, Christopher Lasch argues that only when the idea of responsibility and duty become reintegrated into the idea of citizenship will democracy emerge from under the thumb of money and vacuous campaigns.
This is only part of the issue, however. For democracy to not only survive but thrive, real, viable choices must be available to the voters. Noam Chomsky maintained thirty years ago that in the United States there is essentially only one political party with two contesting branches.
Both Democrats and Republicans adhere to the state-capitalist social, economic and political model. No other serious option is recognized by our “democratic” system. As such, on an intellectual level, our political dialogue is more rigid and doctrinaire than that which existed under Franco in Spain.
The heated exchanges between our rival political parties are erroneously viewed as evidence that their ideas have substantive differences. Coetzee contends that actually the fewer the genuine differences between political parties, the more “bitter their mutual hatred.” One needs only look at the intra-party bloodletting during the primaries to validate his claim. With such a “choice,” is it any wonder that apathy continues to erode voter turnout? Write-in votes are discounted as wasted. Perhaps if there was a “None of the Above”....
How can those outside this entrenched “democratic” system contend for high political office? The answer is they cannot. This brings us back to the role of money. In today’s “information age” air time costs money–a great deal of money.
Those “public” airwaves, given away by the government, are a huge source of profits for media conglomerates, and elections are big business. To gain access to this noise machine, candidates must play (and pay) by house rules. If they seek a different game, they shout in silence. With only marginal outlets for different voices–here we are again faced with Lasch’s criticism of a submissive electorate--we are condemned to democratic sterility.
Democracy: 1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. 2. A political or social unit that has such a system. 3. The common people considered as the primary source of political power. 4. Majority rule. 5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community. (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition). Add to these definitions the epigram quoted at the beginning. Which conforms to our present political reality?
In a dazzling speech by Martin Luther King on 4 April 1967, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” he talked about how the United States was on the wrong side of a world revolution. Our government professed a “thing-oriented” vice a “person-oriented” vision of democracy.
He called for a true revolution of values to right this intolerable situation–for us and the world. Ultimately, Dr. King envisioned a revitalized democratic process where people and justice trump power and profit.
Forty five years ago, John Kennedy presciently observed that, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
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Bitterroot Business: Antara Sports
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| By Shannon Selway |
When Hamilton’s Antara Croft shook the Sacramento dust from her shoes close to five years ago, she never envisioned herself to be the triathlete that she is today. It was the 2006 Griz Triathlon in Missoula that changed Antara’s course of life.
It wa
Antara was chatting with an acquaintance, Matt Guzik, about his triathlon experiences. He made it sound like such a great experience, a really good workout. She became intrigued at the thought of training for a triathlon – something that she used to think that only Hawaiian Ironman types did. But, after all, she knew how to swim, jog and bike, so maybe normal folks could do it. She and a couple of her friends made the commitment and training was soon underway.
It didn’t take long for Antara to get the triathlon bug, and began entering into more races. She got an acquired taste of competing and winning, and she was hooked. To date she has entered in six and a half triathlons.
The training for the triathlons promoted a 20-pound weight loss for Antara, and it became very clear that she needed new clothes. That’s when she saw the void in the Bitterroot: there was no place to buy the kind of workout clothes she wanted for her new sport. Also, many of her friends complained of the same shopping void. She began to think that she wanted to wear her own workout clothes. That’s when Antara began aggressively seeking somewhere to open a shop.
She checked out various sites, but nothing really felt quite right. Then one day she heard about rental space available at the old Grenfell Insurance site (also known to many as the old Papa Murphy Pizza spot). It seemed so providential. Here was this place just across the street from where she worked (First Security Bank). She could even see it from her window there.
The deal was essentially sealed upon inspecting the site. It was perfect.
“It felt happy here. It has great light, big windows. I loved the energy this place has!” says Antara, smiling.
When Antara signed the lease, and brought to Hamilton, Antara Sports (which opened November 1, 2007), everything went smoothly into place. It felt like it was really meant to be.
Antara wanted to carry clothing brands that can’t be found anywhere else, not even at Bob Ward’s or Sports Authority in Missoula. So she ventured to Las Vegas for a tradeshow and found her target merchandise of high performance wear.
Her high performance wear inventory ranges from swimwear to yoga stretch pants, to Montana Mudd lotions, to ski jackets and beyond. Basically, Antara Sports carries merchandise for running, hiking, rock climbing, weight lifting aerobic, circuit training and more. The brands include Pearl Izumi, Sugoi, Mad Dogg Athletics – Spinning, ALO (Air, Land Ocean) and more. In addition, albeit atypical, Antara Sports carries ladies lingerie. Antara figures that after a woman has her workout, she should enjoy lingerie for the body she worked hard to get.
Antara Sports has quickly become the hub to gather for runs, biking and other outings. It’s also the spot to find and register for races, find some encouragement, or even a friend.
The place really has an upbeat atmosphere. Maybe it’s partly because of the store’s colorful displays and warming and inviting natural lighting, but quite a bit of that is due to its owner, who is very enthusiastic and ebullient.
The shop has the bulletin board, which is loaded with oodles of race information and interesting tidbits of information, as well as an assortment of medals folks from all around bring in for display. Dotted throughout the shop are cool memorabilia items on loan. You can visit the Olympic Torch that Matt Guzik carried (Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics) there.
Antara Sports can be found at 100 Pinckney Street, Hamilton, Montana (next door to Les Schwab Tire Center on Highway 93); telephone 363-4193; store hours: Mon. 10 – 6, Tues. – Thurs. 10 – 7, Sat. & Sun – 10 – 6).
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| February 9 marks the Missoula Businesswomen’s Network’s 3rd Annual Women’s Symposium |
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| By Shannon Selway |
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What is a women’s symposium? Just what does it entail? And, what benefit can one get from attending it?
To address those questions, firstly, one must explore what’s behind the massive efforts of putting on such an event. Exclusive credit goes to the Missoula Businesswomen’s Network (MBN). This extremely active and progressive group of women has been directly affecting lives of western Montana women for over 20 years, not only in business development, but also on various personal levels.
MBN was formed in 1985, with about 15 members under the leadership of Kathy Hubbell. She envisioned a businesswomen’s organization in Missoula, which was at the time an “all-men’s” town. Back then, there really wasn’t anything out there addressing area businesswomen’s potential or contributions. There were no clubs or associations to find camaraderie, affiliations or connections that could compliment and empower women in business.
Since MBN’s inception, its mission has been to provide opportunities for businesswomen’s professional and personal growth. Such endeavors are successfully done via networking, social opportunities and education. In doing so, MBN has created multiple opportunities for women, which, as a result, MBN continues to rapidly grow. As of this article, its membership has swollen to around 330 members. (MBN’s membership increased some 150 members as a direct result of last year’s Symposium.) For the size of Western Montana, that means MBN not only has a solid presence in the business world, but also in the community.
MBN accomplishes its mission to empower businesswomen by various proactive approaches. It does so by providing multiple forums to exchange ideas; it offers many educational presentations throughout the year; advanced public awareness of the significance of western Montana businesswomen’s contributions to the community; and fosters interaction among its members.
“I know early on the intent of MBN was to be somewhat of a very informal social/business network from women in business (not a lot of community involvement as a group), small and uncomplicated. When I joined in 1994, the group was very into the ‘finding balance’ between work and home. Now, I think MBN is the best of all these elements. We have socials and empowerment meetings, nuts and bolts information meetings, and meetings to make our businesses stronger. We help the YWCA and other working women to be successful.” Becky Hughes, a past President of MBN commented.
MBN has grown to the point where it became most effective to have sub-networks, where its members can attend the various meetings and seminars of their choosing. Each sub-network is focused on a specific area of business interest. There are five different sub-networks, which are: “Business Skills,” “Empowerment,” “Mentoring,” “Women & Personal Finance,” and “Business Referral.” Most sub-networks typically have a meeting once a month, usually involving lunch or dinner, with other occasional functions. Most meetings will feature special guest speakers. And, of course, there are regular meetings for MBN in general, which probably intensifies as the big day (the Symposium) draws nearer.
“We all support each other, not just business, but also emotionally,” said Kinsey Kinsel, of MBN’s “Business Referral” Network. “I’ve made several friends through MBN, many business contacts.”
But, Kinsel sows what she reaps. She is one of the many members who benefit from the referral system within MBN, and, in turn, actively seeks out members (or sponsors) first when she needs a product or service. For that, she refers to her MBN Membership Directory before proceeding to a phonebook. (MBN provides the Directory for free, which will be available at the Symposium).
The Missoula Businesswomen’s Network Women’s Symposium is now an annual event which occurs every February. The day-long event provides multiple business opportunities for all women – whether you’re a member of MBN or not. The Symposium’s general purpose is to aid in expanding the knowledge and fostering networking between business people from Western Montana. This year’s Symposium takes place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula.
Symposium goers will have to decide which of the 4 of the 16 presentations/sessions to attend, each with varying topics and featuring an exceptional speaker. It’s MBN’s intention to have “something for everyone,” keeping in mind that there are many women attendees who are not necessarily in business.
Symposium attendees mix and mingle in between sessions at the lavish reception area which is armed with approximately 65 very assorted vendors eager to promote their business. It’s fun to visit the vendors – whose products and services range from banking to medical to alpaca ranches. Many of these vendors give out terrific freebees. Deluxe complimentary refreshments are also on site.
However, what has proven to be the Symposium’s most exciting event is the luncheon. There is a sizeable break between Session Two and Session Three, which provides ample mingling time, as well as the elegant gourmet luncheon. After goers are settled in and finished with their meal, a nationally-recognized keynote speaker comes to the plate and dishes up real motivation and fun for the audience. This year’s speaker is Judy Carter, one of America’s top professional motivational speakers. Carter applies humor to her “Laughing out of Stress” message to the delighted audience. She’s caught the attention of Oprah, Diane Sawyer and CNN. She’s sure to please and inspire this year’s Symposium crowd.
The best way to register is online at discovermbn.com, click on the Register Today link, or you can pick up one of the brochures around town. The cost of registration is $35 for members and $45 for non-members. Membership enrollment can also be accomplished at the website.
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The Farms They Are a Changin’
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| Century-old Corvallis farm adds electricity to product line |
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| By Rod Daniel |
In 1908, Spencer Smith Huls began farming east of Corvallis, growing a wide variety of crops and animals to earn a living in a valley where agriculture was just getting started and rural electrification was still a quarter century off. At the time, diversity was a necessity for family farms in America.
One-hundred years later, as Spencer Huls’ great-grandchildren put the finishing touches on the state’s first methane generating facility, diversity on one of the Bitterroot Valley’s oldest farms has reached a whole new level.
“It’s mind-boggling,” said Dan Huls, oldest of four brothers, who, along with their wives, run Huls Dairy, Inc. “In addition to milk, we’ll be selling electricity, compost and carbon credits – who could have imagined?”
Hot commodity
As the terms “global warming” and “ozone depletion” permeate our nation’s vernacular, the notion of capturing methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, is a hot topic. A Washington State University study revealed that about 65 percent of methane in the atmosphere is attributable to agriculture, with a significant portion arising from dairy cows.
Methane is about 23 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And most modern dairies utilize an open lagoon system for treating their animal wastes, which leads to large emissions of methane.
Anaerobic digestion of dairy manure has the potential to eliminate most of the lagoon emissions while conserving more nutrients and also producing a renewable energy source.
The process is something the Huls family has been aware of for more than a decade -- ever since they decided to replace the milking parlor that Dave and Jennie Huls built in 1951 with a modern, computerized carousel milking system.
A family decision
The eight partners began researching expanding the county’s first grade-A dairy in about 1997, Dan Huls said, and the more they learned, the more sense it made to eventually move toward a closed-system, anaerobic digester.
“From the beginning we recognized the environmental benefits (of a methane digester), including odor control, water quality and more efficient management of our wastes,” Huls said. “Generating electricity is an important component of the process, but it wasn’t the primary reason for doing this.”
In 2003, Huls Dairy completed the first phase of its expansion – an automated 24-cow, milking system with an automatic manure scraper and gravity-flow waste disposal system.
At the time, electricity rates were relatively low, and since they’d just invested a tremendous amount of capital on their upgrade, the partners decided to put off building the digester for a few years. For the time being they would have to be content with spreading their manure slurry over their 600 acre farm.
“Technology was evolving all the time, so it made sense wait on the second phase,” Huls said. “But manually spreading 700 loads of manure is both time consuming and fuel consuming, so it was definitely something we wanted to change.”
Five years after that initial upgrade, the final phase of construction is almost complete. Two 30,000 gallon digester tanks now sit in an insulated building next to the enormous free-stall building where the bulk of the dairy waste originates. And a near million-gallon, lined lagoon awaits a steady stream of nutrient-rich, pathogen-free gray water.
Soon to be arriving will be the giant electric generator that will be powered by captured methane gas, as well as a solids separator used to extract compost from the slurry that exits the digester.
When the complete waste management system is complete (which should happen in the next few months), it will take the smelly mix of raw cow manure and water and turn it into methane gas, compost and gray water. Since the digestion will take place in sealed tanks, most of the odor will be eliminated.
In short, here’s how the process works:
When they’re not being milked (which happens three times a day), the 370 or so Holsteins spend most of their time in the free-stall building eating a mix of high-quality hay and grain.
Twelve times a day, the cows’ excrement and accompanying wood chips are automatically scraped downhill through a concrete alley into a 15,000-gallon, concrete tank. From the tank the manure slurry is pumped into the giant, metal digester tanks where it undergoes the seven-day process of anaerobic respiration.
Methane gas is captured from the top of the tank and burned as natural gas to fuel a generator. The amount of methane captured is measured and recorded, and the dairy receives payments for carbon credits. The electricity generated will enter the grid and be purchased from the dairy by Ravalli Electric Co-op.
The digested slurry, meanwhile, leaves the tank and is fed to the solids separator which removes the solids that didn’t succumb to the digestive process. Those solids are then collected and used as compost, while the stable, nutrient-rich liquid goes into the huge, open-air, lined lagoon.
Huls said they plan to bag and sell the sweet-smelling, pathogen-free compost, while the equally odor-free liquid will be utilized as fertilizer on the dairy’s fields.
“We plan to dilute the gray water and meter it through our irrigation system,” he said. “But eventually I could see us selling it in containers as liquid fertilizer.”
Prototype for farms of the future
Electricity-generating methane digesters are becoming more common on large, industrial dairies in the United States, some of which milk as many as 5,000 cows. But they haven’t yet been tried on medium-sized operations, like Huls Dairy, that milk less than 500 cows.
“We wanted to prove that this technology could be used on a smaller scale,” Huls said, “and we felt it was the environmentally responsible thing to do.”
The Huls family relied on the help of a number of private and government organizations to get their project up and running. Ravalli County Economic Development Authority, Montana Community Development Corporation, and Rocky Mountain Resource, Conservation and Development all were key players in finding finacing for the million-dollar project. And the Natural Resources Conservation Service engineers helped with the design.
“There’s no way we could have done this without their assistance,” Huls said of the four entities. “We also received a small grant from Montana Growth Through Agriculture.”
As the Huls family begins their second century on the ground that the Huls brothers’ great grandfather homesteaded, diversification has never been more necessary. In a valley where farm land and rural values face constant pressure from development, farmers must be open to innovation, said Huls, who serves on the county’s Planning Board and Right to Farm and Ranch Board.
“Diversification is something that has to happen in the Bitterroot for ag to survive.”
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