A Hard Winter by W. H. D. Koerner

SHANEY RIDGE They rode into Montana with their pockets full of poor, their appaloosa ponies, and the homespun clothes they wore. What was it about Shaney Ridge that drew the brothers there? Clear springs of mountain water They glistened everywhere.

Through icy chills and six foot drifts,
through mud and sleet and mire,
across the range their claim spread out
from Shaney Ridge to Pryor.
None of it was easy --
One crisis spawned another --
but through it all good-natured George
cheered his worried brother.

Winters tortured Shaney Ridge;
but when the sixth one passed,
nature begged forgiveness
and the range thawed out at last.
Caleb's spirit blossomed out
as soon as winter died;
and that spring Caleb left the Ridge
to fetch a promised bride.

When Caleb and his bride returned,
two months had passed them by.
The parching sun was overhead.
The water holes were dry.
The cattle languished on the range;
and George was not around.
As searing as a red-hot brand...
the note that Caleb found.

One night, it seems, that George played cards
with other gambling men.
He lost his cash; his saddle;
he lost his horse.... And then,
he bet the spread at Shaney Ridge.
He lost his bet again!
George wrote that he was leaving...
that someday when he'd earn
enough to buy their holdings back,
then only, he'd return

It took a while for all the words
to really filter through.
But when they did, the pain evoked
each curse that Caleb knew.
The dream called Shaney Ridge was gone;
 and Caleb had a bride.
 So Caleb started over
 and hid the rage inside.
 Slowly, slowly, years passed by,
 as slowly as his ire;
 and just as slow, he gained control
 of grazing  range near Pryor

What became of brother George?
Caleb never knew.
His bother simply vanished
like Rocky Mountain dew.
Just like the evanescent dew,
impossible to find;
yet when he viewed the Pyror spread,
George often crossed his mind.
He knew he'd chuck the lot of it...
each acre, steer and calf...
just to see George once again
and hear his brother's laugh.

         Bette Wolf Duncan
             copyright 1998
 

Caleb Duncan and his brother George, came to the Montana Territory from Canada, in the late 1800s. (Caleb is my late husband's grandfather.) The poem SHANEY RIDGE is an actual account of what happened to the two brothers after they came to Montana.  Records indicate that they first ranched near Lewistown in the vicinity of the Judith River.  This is the same area where Charles Russell was then working as a nighthawk; and Caleb knew Russell.  Caleb subsequently ranched in what is Yellowstone, Carbon, and Big Horn Counties.  The name SHANEY RIDGE is fictional.  All other accounts in the poem are based on actual events.                                                  The picture above is titled "20 BELOW"            by Olaf. Wieghorst