Bear Paw Meanderings

One of the worst things about getting old are all the wonderful memories and all the wonderful people that will not ever be seen again.

As most of you know, I have written again and again about my life as a boy and young man on Clear Creek. But apart from Clear Creek itself and the incredible beauty of that part of the Bear Paw Mountains, it was the people who summered there and others who lived there winter and summer that were so intriguing for me.

I have not written much about Dan, Jim and Veronica Murphy but at one time they were large in my life and the lives of my family.

That family lived at a wonderful ranch at the top of Hungry Hollow in the shadow of a huge butte that bore their name. Murphy Butte has always been one of the most beautiful of the heavily wooded Clear Creek Mountains.

I first got to know Dan and his younger brother Jim because they were good customers at the Lou Lucke Company. They would buy all of their clothes at the store and when they came to Havre, they would make a night of it.

But for some reason they did not like staying at a hotel. They were much more comfortable staying in the store all night long and bunking down on a huge pile of Navaho saddle blankets that we always kept in the store.

When the store was closing for the night, Uncle Al would give the Murphy brothers a key to the store and they would whoop it up for a while in downtown Havre, then come back to the store and get some sleep.

My father was always the first one to get to the store in the morning. He would leave our house around 5am, stop at the dry cleaning plant and pick up the dry cleaning that Tom Dahl had cleaned the afternoon before and take it to the store to be finished and delivered.

There he would encounter Dan and Jim just getting up and off they would go for a large breakfast and maybe an eye opener or two as well. Maybe they would go to Didos or Bunkers Up and Up or the Elks Kitchen or maybe even the Shanty if they were cooking breakfast. After a couple of eye openers and a big breakfast, Dan and Jim would head for home and Dad would get back to work.

Jim Murphy was at our cabin the night that Dad died in a freak car accident. How did we know? He left his hat at the cabin and any hat bought at the Lou Lucke Company had the owners name printed on the leather band in gold leaf. It was a sad day when I delivered that hat back to the ranch.

After Dad died, my mother, sister and I drove over to the Murphy ranch one day to have a visit with Veronica. Of course we had to eat, then we went to a small second floor sitting room and Veronica played records and we talked about our father and friend. I still remember that when we left we had enough string beans, carrots and tomatoes to last us half the winter.

Barbers own the Murphy Ranch these days and from all accounts they are very good stewards of the land. Murphy Butte still stands guarding that special ranch and I recall that special Irish song that they sung about John F. Kennedy after he died, “Johnny we hardly knew ye”.

It was the same with the Murphys. We hardly knew ye but we will never forget your kindness and help that you gave us through a very hard time.