Hysham

Hysham

Never heard of it? Not a surprise; not many people have. However, if you spend any time driving Interstate 94 in Montana, you will pass the exit sign for Hysham. Located halfway between Billing and Miles City, Hysham is a farm-ranch community of less than five hundred people. It is the county seat of Treasure County.

Back in the late 1980’s, we were preparing to move from Helena, where I was associate pastor at the Episcopal Cathedral, to Minneapolis to pastor an inner-city church. We hired a moving company to transport our household goods. All that remainded was our small family to make the twelve-hundred-mile journey by car.

Our plan was to go as far as Billings the first day and get a motel for the night. The next day we would try and drive all the way to Minnesota. We woke up to a spring blizzard in Billings. Thinking we could continue our journey, we got on the interstate and discovered six inches of slush covering the road. Semi trucks would pass us splashing large amounts of wet snow all over the car, causing us more than once to pull over and clear the windshield.

After sixty miles, I said we were getting off at the next exit. That is when we found ourselves in Hysham. The motel was a single wide trailer. It was barely enough room for the five of us. Several hours later the snow ended, and the sun came out. We ventured back on to the interstate only to find that if I had driven another ten miles further down the road, we would have found dry pavement and out ran the storm.

The moral of this story is to be very careful when driving through spring snow storms in Montana. Also, be thankful for those small oases off the Interstate that provide shelter in times of need. Many times, I have driven past the exit to Hysham and never stopped. When I do, I never fail to remember that single wide trailer that sheltered our family that day.

Thanks, Hysham for being there for us!