Growing Up Wild in Montana (part 1)

When I was six years old, my parents packed up our little family and moved us to Swan Lake, Montana. I suddenly found myself living among forests, mountains, wildlife, and water so beautiful it still lives in my heart all these years later.

Tucked in the trees of a quiet little cove, my dad erected a canvas wall tent for us to live in through the winter while he worked on building our home the following spring and summer. Another tent nearby housed a refrigerator, freezer, and shelves lined with preserves my mother had carefully canned and put away for the seasons ahead. Inside our living tent sat a wood-burning stove that crackled day and night, warming the canvas walls while Montana snow settled quietly outside.

At six years old, it all seemed perfectly normal to me.

Both of my parents worked in Kalispell, roughly 35 or 40 minutes away, and after school I would step off the bus and walk down a narrow dirt road to the top of a ridge, and then wind down a pathway to the camp. It’s almost hard to imagine now — a little girl alone in the backwoods of Montana for hours at a time. We live in such a different world today.

Mostly, I remember the quiet - and to be honest, it WAS frightening at times.  The wind blowing through the tamarack and pine trees often conjured up unseen monsters.  Or even the footsteps of wildlife (mostly deer and even bear).  Speaking of bear, one afternoon, while I was alone at camp, I heard loud crashing noises coming from the food tent. A bear had wandered through camp and knocked over the shelves holding my mother’s preserves. The grunting and snuffling had me hiding under the covers of my bed until dad came home.  Even now, decades later, I can still picture the scene in my mind.

Looking back, I realize those years shaped me more than I probably understood at the time. The mountains, the lakes and rivers, campfires, forests, and quiet wilderness of Northwest Montana still find their way into much of the work I create today. In many ways, my newest Campfire Mug series feels a little like carrying pieces of those memories forward.