Youth in Elkhorn

Elkhorn, Montana is a quirky place. Home to a three-legged dog named Buff (who strolls freely down Main St.) and Montana’s smallest State Park (consisting of two adjacent buildings from the late 1800s), the “ghost town” of Elkhorn was our crew’s home for five days in June. Our task: to paint over the writing and graffiti on the walls of Fraternity Hall, a building that served as a community gathering place during Elkhorn’s heyday in the 1890s. During that time Elkhorn was a thriving mining town with a population of around 2,000 people and had schools, doctors, boarding houses, saloons, shops, a post office, and church. These days people come from all over the country to see the old buildings on Main Street, hike up to the cemetery, and sign their names on the walls of Fraternity Hall. We found names and dates from the 1950s, and also recognized the aunt of one crewmember who had added to the wall’s décor. There was some debate as to whether or not President Jimmy Carter had really visited Elkhorn, or if some other Jimmy Carter was the one to sign his name in 1976. While the “Shirley Winterson, Pennslyvania, 1957” type signatures in cursive writing were quaint and felt like a piece of history themselves, there were also many lewd suggestions written on the wall in big black marker that would not be appropriate to mention on this MCC blog. So with tarps, rollers, brushes and paint cans in hand, we painted the walls of Fraternity Hall a lovely vintage tan and “Cape Cod blue.”

On Thursday, the fourth day of our spike, forty kids from nearby Boulder, Montana came out to Elkhorn for the day on a field trip with their summer program, the 21st Century Community Learning Center. We were also joined by Amy and Ory from our Central Divide home base, and Jill and Josh from Bozeman. While the middle school aged kids went on a hike up to the cemetery, the younger group stayed back to explore Elkhorn. This was where our youth crew really shined. They became the leaders of small groups of Boulder kids, leading them on an scavenger hunt in which they searched for, among other things, “a door with a moon on it” and the old Elkhorn candy store. Our youth crewmembers were funny and patient as they walked the streets with their six and seven year olds, periodically counting heads and calling, “Levi’s group over here!” After the scavenger hunt they led the group in some rounds of “Bear, Salmon, Mosquito,” red rover, tag, and an epic game of “Duck, Duck, Goose.”

Thank you to Rochelle from 21st Century Community Learning Center for brining the Boulder group out and to Amy and Ory for organizing the day. Also thanks to our youth crew for playing games with the kids for hours and being excellent leaders themselves. If you do decide to check out Elkhorn bring your own refreshments (there is no store in town), and be sure to admire the fresh and clean walls of Fraternity Hall.