Moving the Log Cabin Saloon. (Ray Pratt 1914)
"Big Sandy as a place of residence becomes better every day. People are pouring into the country... coming right down to the brass tacks, the Big Sandy area offers more opportunities to the man who wants to get ahead... than any other place... The finest agricultural land... Water that's the best and entirely free from soda or alkali; the best shipping facilities... Come to Big Sandy..." This ringing endorsement was printed in the Mountaineer in 1915. After 135 years, our town continues to get better every day. I spent part of my week perusing the history of our little town, with the aid of the Centennial Calendar put together by Doug Giebel for the 1985 celebration and the Gathering of Memoriesbook, available from the Historical Society. Even in the past year, with the pandemic presenting unique challenges for our community, dealing with sickness is not a new problem. In 1937, the town experienced a chicken pox epidemic, which prompted locals to criticize school staff for sending home kids who were possibly infected. Today, we work together to weather the period of bad health while finding solutions with our school to operate safely.
I believe our town improves and grows constantly, but in many ways it changes very little. For example, in 1923, the High School shop students, with the assistance of some community volunteers, built a Community Hall. A dance and midnight supper was held to celebrate this week in history. It was hard not to think of the high school shop class building little buildings over last year to donate to the county fair grounds. I drove past the school this week and witnessed the class moving another project building through the parking lot.
Still, looking back at the history of our community, it is hard to imagine some events being duplicated or improved upon. In 1932, twelve of Bob Delp's pigs escaped. (He was a local farmer who immigrated to Big Sandy from Virginia a couple years previous). The pigs paraded through town before eventually being recaptured. In 1929, our local basketball team severed athletic relations with Fort Benton over an argument about the score/time keeper. Our team literally walked off the floor minutes before a tournament game was set to begin in Fort Benton. (We probably would've won it anyway.) Incidentally, around that time (January of 1921 and on), the basketball team played its games in the recently opened Mahood and Myers Garage (the building behind the post office).
Other events in our community history are worth repeating, if just because it'd be good for a laugh. In 1929, the Married Folks Club, as a joke, voted to recognize Pat Kivlin and Speck Wiley the "Most Hated Men in Town." In 1918, the town's first Boy Scout troop was organized in our little town.
Perhaps the loudest tradition that has kept on in Big Sandy history began on January 19th, 1940 (80 years ago almost to the day). The very first curfew siren blared to life. In 1940, the local curfew was 9 o'clock, unlike today's 10 PM siren.
In 1911, the Mountaineer proclaimed: "The prospects for Big Sandy know no bounds. It is wonderful. We are but looking out on the field of possibilities, which are about to develop to its fullest. The prairies are settling up with an ideal class of people, the hills and valleys have been settled for years by men who have been the frontier fathers and mothers of this great state." Today, our little town is home to a senator, a rock star, poets, novelists, ancient grains, the world's largest tractor, and a community of good folks who take care of each other. Perhaps our prospects actually know no bounds. If so, it's certainly because of the ideal class of people that call this place home.
