We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Mark Billmayer operates B & B Buyers, a livestock buying operation. He shows the area in the scale house at the company's loadout facility where some of the earliest newspaper clippings of an extensive collection of newspaper clippings first began. The collection now covers an area at least five times larger than what is pictured here.
This scale house provides protection from weather for the livestock scale at B & B Buyers. The building houses an extensive collection of news clippings relating to the area. The collection started in the early 1970's and clippings were added over the years. Russell Benson started the collection by posting obituaries of friends and customers of the company he started in the 1950's.
This is the only remaining chute of the nine once used to load livestock in to railroad stock cars at what is now B & B Buyers' facility on the southeast edge of Chinook. Russell Benson and Mark Billmayer (the "B & B" in the livestock buying company) bought the facility in 1990 from the railroad.
This photo shows the area where a collection of newspaper clippings was first posted in the scale house at B & B Buyers' livestock facility. The first clippings were added in the 1970's by Russell Benson, the original owner who died in 2007. Current owner Mark Billmayer is still posting clippings and plans to continue doing so.
Correspondent's note: Laurie Faber recently told me, "You might be interested in doing a story about the news clippings posted on the walls of the scale house at the livestock loadout facility operated by Mark Billmayer." I'd never heard about the clippings so I called Mark and he agreed to meet me at the scale house so I could see and learn about the collection of newspaper clippings.
My first impression was, "Wow, that's a lot of newsprint about local history." Closer examination allowed me to get a feel for this unique historical compilation. The scale house is about 16 by 24 feet and the internal walls are, well, covered with news clippings spanning about a 50 year period. Here's some of the story about and behind the news clippings.
A short history of B & B Buyers, Inc.
B & B Buyers, Inc. buys cattle. Basically a cattle buyer connects buyers (packers, feed lots) looking for cattle with producers who raise the animals. The cattle buyer makes arrangements for a myriad of details that surround the purchase of livestock. Russell Benson started the business in the 1950's. Mark Billmayer, Russell's son-in-law, joined later to create B & B (Benson and Billmayer) Buyers. Russell died in 2007. The business's loadout and scale house are located where Factory Road and Livestock Road intersect at the southeast corner of Chinook.
The facility, once owned by the railroad, was originally located on the main line of the railroad "near the area of Jamieson Motors" in Chinook. In the 1940's the railroad moved the livestock facility to its current location and added a spur to access the facility (the roadbed for the spur is still visible along the west edge of Factory Road). Russell Benson leased the loadout facility from the 1970's until he and Mark bought it in 1990. They reconfigured the facility by removing all but one of the chutes that allowed railroad stock cars to be loaded, eliminated the roadbed for the spur at the site and expanded the capacity of the holding pens. One original loading chute to the old rail spur is still visible at the north end of the present loadout property.
How the collection of clippings started and expanded
Sometime in the 1970's the size of the scale house was expanded. Mark Billmayer said, "At first there was just a very small room where the scale was read. A larger scale house was added with a covering built over the chute where weighing takes place .
" Russell Benson started the collection of clippings when he began posting obituaries of friends and costumers on the walls of the new scale house.
Mark explained, "At first it was just obituaries. Then he added some clippings and documents that predated the scale house, like the congratulatory letter sent to my grandfather Roy Billmayer when his pig won a ribbon at the 1919 state fair. We kept adding clippings that interested Russell."
Soon the criteria for posting was widened to include news
stories (when a cattle hauler and friend of B & B Buyers retired in Torrington, Wyoming), notices of wedding anniversaries of friends and customers, the closing of Kuhr's Clothing Store in Chinook (1989) and community events like fundraisers and photos of 4H winners at the fair. There's even a photo of Mark Billmayer holding his twin granddaughters as newborns. And, not surprising, Russell Benson's obituary is also posted on the wall.
Asked which clippings he found most unique, Mark thought a minute, then walked to the south wall and pointed to a photo and news story from the "Chinook Opinion" about a freight train hitting a local semi hauling a load of cattle. He noted, "That could have been a lot worse than it was." Another clipping was a feature story about Russell Benson buying calves for 30 years from Havre rancher Bob Waid.
"Another interesting historical story related to Russell," Mark added, "is the obituary of Hans Verploegen (2016) who ranched in the Havre area." After World War II both Hans and Russell did trucking, including hauling ice from Fresno. Eventually Hans got in to ranching and Russell, after starting his cattle buying business, began to buy cattle from Hans. "Now both Hans and Russell are gone," Mark added, "and I buy cattle from Han's three sons, Donald, Joe and Russ. Those are examples of some of our personal and business history captured in the clippings."
I asked, "Are you still adding clippings?" Again, moving to the south wall, Mark pointed to obituaries of three locals who died in late 2020, people I recognized since I've lived in Chinook for a few years. The most recent clippings created a second layer on the wall. Mark explained, "We ran out of wall space. Now we collect enough clippings to fill a poster board. Then we add the poster board and hinge it to the wall so we can flip it up to look at the clippings on the original layer." This double layering has led to some discussion about enlarging the scale house from its current size. I asked, "Will you expand for more work space or more space for clippings?" Mark smiled and said, "For both." The decision to expand the scale house is currently on hold.
The future of the clippings
It's pretty clear Mark plans to continue adding clippings to the collection, even if it means adapting to dwindling wall space. But down the road, what will be the fate of this 'slice of local history? Might some future owner tear down the scale house and destroy the clippings?" Could the clippings end up in a museum? They would make a great exhibit in the Smithsonian American Art Museum-but not likely to happen. Here's my biggest question: Will this story about the collection be added to the clipping collection in the B & B Buyers' scale house? That will be the real test of its relevance to local history and the collection.
