Winter Fest Makes Front Page of Butte, Montana Standard

Photos by Cynthia Baldauf

Saturday

1st, Jabe Anderson and Clay Martin (37.37); 2nd, Don Reese and Josh Boka(40.59); 3rd, Don Reese and Clay Martin(40.95); 4th, Blake Huntley and Monica Thomas (41.33)

Sunday

Ski-joring competition Clay Martin of Dillon turned in Sunday's fastest time with Jabe Anderson at 18.18 seconds in ski-joring at Wisdom. The event attracted 24 teams — one horse rider and one skier — on Saturday and 25 on Sunday at the 2009 Big Hole Winterfest, sponsored by the Big Hole Tourism Association. More photos under Area News.

Courtesy of Montana Standard.

Read details for the Second Annual Big Hole Valley Winter Fest below and be sure to put this event on your calendar. 

Lodging will be available at the following local establishments:

Nez Perce Motel 406-689-3254
Pioneer Mountain Lodge 406-689-3229
Jackson Hot Springs 406-834-3151
Wisdom Cabin 406-689-3800
The Sandman 406-689-3218

 

Wisdom Montana’s most notable natural creature is on the sale block. This stately Buffalo has graced the walls of the Wisdom River Gallery since 1988, but is now being offered for rent or sale (same price), so others may appreciate this icon of the Montana prairie. The Gallery’s Kay Jacobson dropped this six year old bull with a single shot twenty years ago and it has fascinated visitors to the Big Hole Valley ever since. The price? $12,000 if you have to ask. The shoulder mount buffalo is 46” at the chest, 39” deep (nose to wall) and is 27” wide.

“Honey! You’ll never guess what I bought!”

Serious golfers to the back of the trough please.  Once again the Annual Big Hole Valley "Tournament of Hars" will be chucking it up with some of the worst golfers ever to address the ball. This is the only course in the nation where Guinness is synonymous with “golf tee”, not a record book. Where drop-kicking the ball is allowed. And where team–juggling of buffalo chips to distract your competitors is encouraged.

Formal dress is optional but welcomed. The brightly colored chiffon and cheese cloth tutus worn by previous entrants have blended surprisingly well with the natural tones of knapweed and cow pie groundcover on the back-nine. We know that in past years, a few of our participants may have mistakenly identified golf as The Sport of Queens. Nevertheless, we cherish our reputation for welcoming fashionable golf cheats of every stripe.

If you even think you are a golfer, this is your day!  What other Golf Tournament offers these imaginative innovations: A shotgun start. Eleven to fifteen holes of marginal golf. A Golf Cart Parade and prize for the “Most Original Golf Cart” and “Most Original Golf Attire”. Prizes for the first AND last place entrants.

The Pasture Fee is $25.00 per person in advance, or $30.00 on the day of the tournament. Obtain more information by calling Big Hole Tourism at (406) 834–3264 and get teed off at 10AM on the morning of the tournament.  

The Big Hole Cow Pasture Open Golf Tournament is made possible only through the continued support of sponsors who donate thousands of dollars each year for the rare honor of having their names misspelled in the list below. 

They Include:

Fred Hirschy Ranch, Dan and Geri Coon, Harrington Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, Thompson Distributing, Inc. and the Big Hole Tourism Association Membership: Beartooth Plateau Outfitters, Big Hole Crossing Restaurant, Fetty’s Bar and Café, Jackson Hot Springs, Jackson Mercantile, Larry’s Automotive and Diesel Service, Nez Perce Motel, Wisdom Market, Wisdom River Gallery, Jackson Salon, Steel Creek Traditions, Big Hole Petroleum, Heel Guard, Shepard’s Garage, SMT, Steel Creek Bed and Breakfast, Buffalo Gal Hat Company, Pioneer Mountain Lodge, Roses Cantina and Café.

For photographs of previous years competitions, cover your eyes and go here.

 

    

Wisdom Resident and Experienced Advice Dispenser AKA Daryll Jacobson has chimed in on the Oil Crisis with a few high-sage remarks. “We have a lot of environmental extremists still claiming it will take ten or more years for that oil to hit the refineries”, Daryll sniffs. Back in 1974-1975 Daryll worked as a long-hauler while trucking pipeline and supplies all the way to Prudhoe Bay.

“Should you not start school because it takes twelve years to complete it?”, he chortles. “We gave in to these same excuses twelve years ago which guaranteed this crisis. In 1977, after just three years of construction in Alaska we had oil flowing through that line”,  which back then supplied 17% of our nation’s oil needs. “Cut the flap-doodle and start drillin”, Daryll understated. “We’ve already got the pipeline. We just need a short hose to connect to Prudhoe and then rip that spigot open. Preservation of our endangered Caribou herd now demands that we goose up their love lives with the warm glow from that pipeline.”

And with that the High Sage Cowboy left the crowded restaurant through the swinging doors, leaving the cheers  behind him. More Wisdom as it happens.

See the Montana Standard for some excitement about this year’s fly fishing opportunities. 

Here is an excerpt from the June 28^th article: On The Big Hole: The Hatch is ON

“Babineau netted a dozen brown trout from 16 to 20 inches while wade fishing one day earlier this week, and one 22-inch brown Monday while using his F150 salmonfly pattern.”

If you need something to cheer you up in light of the gas crisis, just remember that higher gas prices mean there will be fewer out-of-state waders on our rivers.  This should be a fine year for the locals to reclaim fishing rights.

From the Library of Congress file:

Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kay Jacobson talks about the upcoming Lost Trail Ski Area Snowmobile Hill Climb on March 15, 16:

 

 

 

 

Christopher Lloyd

Eighty miles north of Wisdom is the historic town of Philipsburg, Montana, and during the past week Philipsburg added to its history as Hollywood came knocking. Christopher Lloyd (Doc of “Back to The Future” fame) stars in “Call of the Wild”, an update of Jack London’s wonderful adventure novel. Read the whole story in the Montana Standard.

 

If you need a great story to warm up your chilly winter heart, take the time to read this wonderful article out of Kalispell today as published in the Montana Standard. “Hikers rescue puppies in burned-out log”. 

 

Montana’s Wisdom River Gallery and the custom furniture creations of Daryll Jacobson are spotlighted in the current (March) issue of Cowboys and Indians.

The “Premier Magazine of the West”, Cowboys and Indians is a glossy publication aimed at upscale readers. 

Kay and Daryll Jacobson, owners of Wisdom River Gallery were contacted by the magazine after research editor  Michele Glaze happened to visit their website. The magazine's Regional Sales Manager Julie Lewein and Associate Editor Kathleen Fritsche both gave the go ahead.

What followed was a focus piece on Daryll’s lodgepole and barn wood furniture creations.  The Jacobson’s were thrilled to see their gallery and Daryll’s talent showcased in this prestigious magazine. 

You will find some of Daryll's handcrafted creations featured here on the Wisdom River Gallery site. And don’t miss the current and Special Collectors Issue of the national magazine Cowboys and Indians, on newsstands everywhere!

 

Wanted:  Ten People to Risk their Lives in Pursuit of A Jelly Donut THIS WEEKEND!

Procedure: Grab your horse, a rope, some skis, a crazy person and a roll of duct-tape. Stick the crazy person on the skis, duct-tape him to the bindings, hand him a hot toddy and one end of the rope. Then mount your horse and scream “HeeeYAH!”. This is all the formal instruction you need to compete in The Big Hole Valley’s First Annual Horse Skijoring Competition this Saturday February 2.

The Knitting Circle has declined to enter a horse in this event so the potential for an historic victory for the rest of us is high.

Wisdom is a town where you can rise to renown like a bubble in an ice bucket of Montana Champagne. So this is the chance for you and a fool of your choice to forge your own indelible future together.  Grab this state’s first ever Horse Skijoring Gold Medal and be given the key to Montana’s Evel Knievaldom all in one. (The photo at right is sort of like Horse Skijorning, but without the horse.)

Plus, get your photo pasted smack–dab on this page. What more could you want?

Can’t make up your mind? WAIT!

 

 

If you’re a sissy and would rather ride a snowmobile instead of a bronc, our 40 mile Snowmobile Fun Run is also on tap for Saturday starting at 9AM and lasting until 4PM. Either way, you’ll be exhausted and ready for dinner and a dance at Fetty’s in Wisdom this Saturday night February 2.

Assuming you can still stand on Sunday, you can enter the Cross Country ski competition behind the Hot Springs Lodge in Jackson. This will be exceptionally well attended by people who have never seen a silly football game in their lives, and don’t plan to change this aberration.    

Global Warming be damned. Winter has arrived in the Big Hole Valley of Montana and with it comes The Big Hole Valley Winter Fest of 2008!

Hope to see you this weekend!

For more details, registration times and locations, call: (406) 834-3264.

Or go to www.bigholevalley.com.

Hard to believe that the town of Wisdom has skated through much of its history without a library, but alas it is shamefully true. Bar stools and food counters have been the dispensary of free flowing male dominated knowledge for decades. And if you could show a talent for speaking while tongue-rolling a used toothpick, you might even be considered educated by default.

A few of our sage individuals have been elevated to community seer-status for unusual reasons: framed diplomas from unknown universities hanging on walls, mounted National Geographic Society membership letters, or a strange ability to use words of more than four syllables in complete sentences. Unfortunately, fact-checking the true wisdom of these local, mostly male, lunch-counter Wisdomites has been a near impossible task. Until now.

He’s so narrow- minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes.

Recognizing that the word Sage has at least two definitions…and one of them is not a common shrub of the high plains…the Women of Wisdom chose to identify the problem and then solve it. “What we have here is failure to communicate”, they recently claimed. And with that they re-institutionalized our local Wisdom Library, the doors of which were first cracked in 1932.

At last, the local Women’s Club has corrected Andrew Carnegie’s oversight in granting a free library to Anaconda instead of Wisdom, Montana. No longer will local cowboy pundits be able to claim educated authority on the politics of the day by avoiding footnotes to their comments. Now we can run to our own library and fact-check their buts…and ands, and ifs. In effect the women of this town have demanded a higher level of educated dialogue from our community members. No more blow-hard pontificators at the lunch counters. No more bloviating know-it-alls. We’ve upped our standards. Now up yours!

Go forth and educate yourselves at our new Wisdom Women’s Club Library. It is now open, on Wednesdays only from 4pm to 7pm. The cost is $5.00 to join or $10.00 for a family group. There is no phone yet, but contact Denice Strickland, Box 65 Wisdom, Montana 59761

When the biggest event of the summer is whupping cow pies between golf strokes, you know you’ve got a giggle that will keep on giving.

If you’re a serious golfer…no wait…if you are serious about golf, but need an irrepressible chortle once in a while, bring your clubs, a fork and a swizzle stick to Wisdom, Montana this weekend. It's the only international golf tournament in the world that is started with a shotgun blast: The Annual Big Hole Valley Cow Pasture Open Golf Tournament, Cowboy Ball Dinner, Come-On-Dance and Silent Auction. And it’s almost too dang fun to fit in a single sentence!

You can read up on our internationally ignored golf tournament and check out more photos from previous years here. This event is not exactly a walk in the park, so bring your high-top golfing boots. You’ll have time to clean the cleats between holes.

Remember, we’re not called The Big Hole for nuthin! This region was named by an excited golfer way back in the 1700s!

Some of the greatest names in golf and government have been associated with our annual competition: Every year the President of the United States is invited to our match. Jack Nicklaus has flown over our 18 hole course on countless occasions and for many years Arnold Palmer has played at the same time as our august open tournament.

In fact, this wild event has already become TOO popular. (We were written up in Delta’s Sky Magazine don’t you know.) For the 2007 tourney we decided we couldn’t even handle all the PGA golfers who would need to stay at our motel. So we’re arbitrarily limiting the number of international golfers and dignitaries on our course at any one time. This year more Montana golf stars will be able to attend! And you can be two of them if you bring a pal with a wedgie.

There’s a no roast cocktail hour at 5:30 on Friday followed by eats at 6:30. But wait! There’s more or less a dance too! Followed by a silent auction in which everyone will be gagged at the door.

All of this takes place in the non-denominational Mason Temple, which is a chip shot and a two putt from Main Street or a hook off a 2-iron from the north edge of town.

While the rest of Montana suffers the heat of August, Wisdom (elevation 6028) is Big Sky’s big escape to the high sage plateaus. (If you’ve never been here, check some of the photos in earlier posts by scrolling down trhough the Local News link. This is the land where Mooses Drool.)

So throw the old bag in the car and point yourself to Wisdom this Friday, or leave now if you’re in Peoria. Golf tourney registration starts at 9:00AM Saturday and you can get teed off at 10AM. If you’re an eager golfing-nobody, you are still welcome to build some prestige by winning our top prize, which will be presented by The President if he attends this year. (At this point, we have received no notice that he will NOT be here!) Whenever we decide to re-publish our once thriving local newspaper, we also promise to put your picture on the front page. Simply call (406) 834 3264 to register ahead of time.

And if you need more information about Wisdom, Montana go to our Wisdom, Montana Home Page, where you’ll find lots more cool stuff to do during this hot summer.

 

Friday, August 24, 2007

5:00 PM – Nez Perce Horse Club will ride into Wisdom in traditional Nez Perce regalia and horse trappings.

5:15 PM – Nez Perce will speak about the Nimiipuu Trail and about their history and culture – Outside Masonic Temple

6 PM to 7 PM – No Host Cocktail Hour at the Masonic Temple

6:30 PM – Prime Rib Dinner
    Ages 14 and up – $20.00
    Ages 8-13 – $10.00
    Ages 7 and under – FREE!

7 PM – Dance to the music of Disc Jockey Doc Savage
    Free and Open to the Public

Saturday August 25th

International Cow Pasture Open Golf Tournament
    Fred Hirshy’s Cow Pasture, located one half mile north of Wisdom

    Sign Up: 9 AM – 10 AM
    $25 per person
    Tee-Off Shot Gun Start at 10 AM

    Contact Jeanette at (406) 834-3264
 

How can you close a River?

I wonder what William Clark would have said if he discovered a"River Closure" sign on the Big Hole when he sauntered through here 200 years ago. "Get Outta Here!" Or something of that nature.

So it's happened.

http://fwp.mt.gov/news/article_5861.aspx