Bear Paw Meanderings

I grew up in a wonderful town at a wonderful time. Born in 1941, Havre was my stomping ground in the late 1940.s and early 1950’s. Things did not start to change until the 1960’s. Havre was a town unto itself. Its business district was glorious. There was our store, the Lou Lucke Company, a store that little boys dream about. There was Clacks Hardware, the F. A. Buttrey Department Store, many small stores, many restaurants, three Oriental restaurants, bars for all occasions, three downtown hotels, a flower shop, three jewelry stores and where today there are parks and parking lots downtown, then there were tall buildings and many businesses.

More important for a person like me who was interested in history from a young age, some of the old, old pioneers were still living and many of their wives were still in their original houses. I know. I mowed most of their lawns. I saw them as elderly people. When I saw pictures of their husbands and them when they were building the town, it was like they were so young. Unbelievable!

The other day I saw a picture of Grandpa and Grandma Lucke sitting on the grass in front of their brand new house at 900 Third Avenue. They looked like teenagers.

Then I saw a picture of Grandpa Lucke and his brothers Robert and Big AL. They looked like teenagers as well. It looked to me like this was a city of very young people at one time who were building like they were building an empire tied to a railroad to get their products back and forth to other parts of the country.

Even more amazing for me was being able to spend summers at various fishing shacks on Clear Creek in the Bear Paw Mountains. My dad and grandfather fished. I explored and every coulee had a log cabin or shack of some kind in it. When people left those places, they left lots of furniture behind. Someone has said that took one wagon load of personal effects with them and left the rest. As a little boy, I saw the rest again and again and still to this day have many mementos from ghost houses in the Clear Creek coulees that meant much to a family but could not be taken along on sad journeys to other places where maybe the family could at least make a living. There were some bad times in this area. No getting around that.

Havre was the destination in so many people’s lives in those times. So were Chinook, Harlem, Malta and all the towns along the Hi-Line. These days we are a place to make a living and many people plan on leaving any chance they get.

That is the big difference. We used to be a town that people came to. Now we are a town that people go from. That has made a huge difference in our churches, our organizations and our way of life.

Think of this. When I was a boy, there were five grocery stores in downtown Havre. Now there is one. How sad.

But growing up when I did was not sad. There was always the Beanery beside the Great Northern Depot in Havre to eat wonderful hamburgers and chili when all else got too tough. Or there was the Chop Souy and Chow Mein at the Boston. Never has there been any better!

Later there were the Singapore Slings and shrimp cocktail at the Pomp Room. That was simply delightful as well!