blackfoot-valley

Gazing at this little schoolhouse, with it evocation of a bygone time, one recalls a lessor known poem of Robert Frost (first published in 1947 from his book Steeple Bush) in which he ruminated, with a hint of dark nostalgia, on a similar schoolhouse situated in the mountains of northern New England: In the one state of ours that is a shire, There is a distinct schoolhouse I admire As much for anything for situation. There are few institutions standing higher This side of the Rockies in my estimation- Two thousand feet above the ocean level. It has two entries for coeducation. But there’s a tight-shut lock to either door And to the windows of its fenestration, As if to say mere learning was the devil And this school wasn’t keeping anymore, Unless for penitents who took their seat Upon its doorsteps at mercy’s feet To make up for the lack of meditation. A very different and quite active facility, less than two miles up Wales Creek Road from where it branches off by the valley’s very first schoolhouse at the junction with the Helmville - Ovando county road, lies a true showpiece for firearm sporting entusiasts. Nestled in and hidden by a fine grove of as- pen close to where the road climbs into the foothills, is an unsung Montana treasure - a true championship sporting-clay course. The casual driver pass- ing by might not even notice the narrow one-lane track leading into it (and a locked gate a hundred yards from the main road may block entry when noth- ing is going on there). It is no exaggeration to call it not only the premier sporting-clay course in Montana, but one of the finest facilities of its kind in the country. In use since 1996, it was built at the behest of Bob Meyer, fulfill- ing a dream of providing a first-class course of this kind on the Ranch. 163