blackfoot-valley

As the 1900s neared their end, I was privileged to interview some of the area’s longterm residents who gave their own glimpses and recollections of life in the valley. We have already relayed some information from Eddy Wales about earlier times on the Wales Ranch, that is the northern segment of the present day Ranch. Eddy, born “about 1920” as he told me, then lived in a mobile home in a pleasant grove of trees just off of Wales Creek Road near the junction of the spur branching off to the stone and gravel quarry. He has since died, as has Sonny Geary who lived in town. They were each in their 70s, and died in 1998, the year after our interviews. Sonny noted that ranching at what is now the Ranch headquarters area, in the bottomlands of lower Douglas and Cottonwood Creeks, was started by John W. Blair, one of the valley’s earliest settlers. Blair, arriving in 1871, originally homesteaded in the area and began a truck farming operation. Using a team and buggy, he brought fresh veg- etables to sell in the mining camps including Washington Gulch and Blackfoot City to the southeast and Garnet to the west. While engaged in this he in- herited $ 10,000 from an uncle. Blair promptly sank the whole amount into 10,000 choice acres in the Helmville area that the Federal Government was offering at the time at a price of one dollar per acre. Some time after estab- lishing his ranch, he sold it to Day and Hansen meat packers. Later it was resold to the Kelly Ranch Company, and subsequently to Peter Pauly, then to a Widener, and eventually to G.A. Ostler who bought it in 1962. The prop- erty then consisted of the now-southern section of the Ranch with the major exception being the Murray Creek area, the latter belonging to the Jacobsen Ranch. The Ostler property was split into smaller ranches. The bulk of the area which now comprises the southern section of the Ranch, including the headquarters and Murray Creek areas, was purchased by Bob Meyer in 1991 from the Aetna Life Insurance Company, which acquired it in a foreclosure. When Sonny Geary worked at what is now called the Meyer Company Ranch, the owner raised a great many horses which survived well in the win- ter months. The ranch also had 1,200 sheep, more than cattle at the time. Hired sheepherders were Romanians and Basques, among whom this has been a traditional pursuit. Sonny recalled that he and the other ranch hands ate at 6am, 12 noon, and 6pm. Haying of alfalfa and native hay took place mostly in July and August. He well remembered driving cattle to the railroad yard in Drummond. “ It took two days to bring them there, camping overnight 142