Honyockers

Honyockers

Driving across eastern Montana, I am impressed by the uncluttered view of the Big Sky country. Other than animals wild and domestic, there is an overwhelming sense of primeval emptiness untouched by human hands. There are small towns, farms and ranches that appear here and there but only as a small dot on a very large landscape.

That is how it must have appeared to the immigrants from the old country who came to start a new life and tame the wilds of the West. Little did they know of the extreme weather patterns or the hardscrabble land they purchased from the government. They engaged a battle with nature that few won.

The name “Honyockers” was given to this adventurous people by the rough and tough cowboys who lived and worked this land punching cattle. They knew by experience that the land couldn’t raise crops to support a family. Living is the squalor of tar paper shacks or crudely build log shelters, families struggled to exist in an unforgiving land. Some survived but most headed further west.

What remains of their struggle are rusted barb wire on rotting fence posts. Here and there you can see a barn or homestead falling in on itself quickened by the ravages of nature. Who lived there and what happened to them is an unsolved mystery. Only an occasional unkept graveyard reveals names of those who died here.

The Montana of those days was far different from today. As I cruise down the paved highway in my air conditioned truck, I wonder what made those people persevere. Am I too insulated from the true nature of this land to appreciate what those people experienced? Unfortunately, the answer is yes!

Big Sky country is where people still want to come. There is opportunity to enjoy a taste of the West but not like the Honyockers. I can’t fully appreciate what I have here without remembering those who came before and never had the chance to enjoy it.