Crowd regaled with small-town stories

Hal Stearns is enamoured with his home state of Montana, especially its small towns.

He grew up in Harlowton and has visited many of the state's tiny communities. Each of them, he said, have interesting, historic and quirky facts that should be recorded.

"There are stories in each of these towns that should be preserved," he said. "More of these small towns should have museums."

Stearns was a guest speaker Friday at the North Central Senior Center in the Havre Hometown Humanities program, telling the full house of his love for Montana and its small towns.

He said he was delighted to be in Havre, since his father got his first journalism job as sports editor of the Havre Daily News.

Montana is a large, diverse state, he said, noting that people in the eastern part of the state intend to cheer for the Minnesota Vikings, people in Dillon follow the Utah Jazz and residents of the western part of the state cheer for Seattle teams.

But there is something common throughout Montana, a bond that makes Montanans a unique breed.

He quoted John Steinbeck as saying, "I have respect for the other states, but for Montana it's love."

As a young man, he was teaching in Germany and returned home for the summer.

He laughed as he told the crowd that when he flew into Billings airport, he got down on his knees and kissed the Montana ground.

The real spirit of the state is in its small towns, he said, and he fears some of the history of these little places is about to be lost.

Growing up in Harlowton, he said, he knew everyone who lived on his block. Today, he lives in Missoula, where he knows three of the 14 people living on his block.

More than one-third of Montana's population lives in the seven largest cities and that percentage is growing, he said.

Small towns are becoming smaller, he said, because farms are getting larger and the number of farm families is declining, and it is so easy for small town people to shop in nearby cities. As a result, there is an aging population in the small towns.

The loss of population is having an effect on public schools, he said.

His hometown is in shock, he said, because the school board has decided to switch to 8-man football because there weren't enough people in the school to keep up 11-man football

Most high schools are Class C, he said, and he predicted that within three years, there will be a Class D category created to accommodate the growing number of small high schools.

Of Montana's 183 high schools, he said, 54 have fewer than 50 students.

Montana has 67 one-room schools still standing, he said. He showed pictures of some of the schools he has taken in his trips around the state, including the old school that can be seen from U.S. Highway 87 near Loma.

"Every one of these schools has a story to tell," he said.

There should be more roadside signs that explain the history of the area, he said.

This would be good for the sake of history, he said, but may cause consternation in his family.

He said he stops at every historical location on his trips across the state, sometimes causing annoyance to his wife, former Montana Higher Education Commissioner Sheila Stearns.

For instance, he said, driving up to Havre on Friday, he insisted on stopping at Fort Assinniboine.

He said there are intersting facts about Fort Assinniboine that many people don't know about.

World War I hero Gen. John Pershing was nicknamed Blackjack not because of his favorite card game but because he commanded African-American troops, the Buffalo soldiers, early in his career when he was stationed at Fort Assinniboine.

Stearns praised some communities that have done a good job at preserving their histories - especially Fort Benton and Ekalaka in southeastern Montana.

"Some towns say 'we are proud of who we are and want to keep going,'" he said.

"We have wondrous small back towns," Stearns added.