Memories Of Deer Creek Mountain Ranch.

By By Dennis Gary, Graduate BS English, Montana State College, 1960; MS, University of Oregon, 1964

An E-mail from Dennis Gary Concerning the Montana Mountains Retreat Property Called “Deer Creek”

Dear Henry,

I suddenly remembered driving a group of faculty members from MSC for an event during the winter of 1959-1960. My seeing the detailed description of going to Deer Creek in the Montana Cabins Rental webpages did it. [That is, suddenly triggered this fifty-year-old memory! HSG]

Below are my memories of this remarkable day.

Dennis

EDITOR'S NOTE: For the above Blue Link, "Montana Cabins Rental" => Everything works well, except, when you access the links at top for “Third Cabin” and “Fourth Cabin”, the 6 pictures on each, do not show.

Dennis Gary's Family Buick Used for the
MSC Faculty Outing to the Deer Creek Mountain Retreat Property.

Memories of My Driving to Shirley Luhrsen’s “Deer Creek”

The occasion was a [weekend dinner & mountain cabin retread outing] presented by the Gallatin Canyon Women's Club.

I was recruited by Sarah Vinke to drive because my familiarity with Gallatin Canyon, Karst Camp, the Flying D Ranch, and Spanish Creek, Cherry Creek, and Hell Roaring Creek gave me a better chance of finding the place than the others who were in the group. So there I was with a hand-drawn map and a copy of written-out directions in my hand.

I borrowed the family Buick from my parents, and the group from MSC piled in. There were several individuals I did not know and several members of the faculty from the Montana State College History Department whom I recognized. One of the History Department professors playfully commented that he hoped we didn't get into an accident because there would be no English or History Departments left if we did.

After everyone had arrived, Sarah showed up last. Leaning on her cane, she came walking up just as I was wondering if we should go looking for her. Sarah got into the front seat and closed the door thinking that from there she might assist me with directions. On the way up to Deer Creek, Sarah and I sat in the front seat with another woman between us; this may have been Shirley Luhrsen, but I cannot recall for sure. I met her in a very peculiar way. The arrangement was that I would wait in the parking lot across the street from the back of Montana Hall in the car described. This woman showed up, tapped on the door, and said, "Dennis?"

I don't remember her introducing herself as Shirley, but I do remember the blue cowboy boots she was wearing! In my mind I am trying to establish who, of the several other persons on the trip, sat in the back seat of the Buick. I think that Verne Dusenberry, Robert Dunbar, Alton Oviatt, Merrill Burlingame, and Robert Pirsig were the possible members of this traveling caravan. I am not sure; this is, of course, all lost in history—no pun intended. I imagine there was room for four or five. [At the bottom of this page, see Additional Reading Number 8, for more information about Shirley's Blue Cowboy Boots. HSG]

So off I drove on Highway 191, electing to take the old 191 route through Gallatin Gateway and cross the Gallatin River before turning up Gallatin Canyon. I chose to use the old Highway 191 as I felt it would be easier to keep my bearings by recognizing the many landmarks such as the Spanish Creek, Flying D Ranch, Hell Roaring Creek, Cherry Creek, and many more. [At the bottom of this page, see Additional Reading Number 7, for more information about one of these ranches. HSG]

The roads up to Deer Creek were really country roads, not much more than unmarked dirt trails, branching off for no apparent reason. While some of my passengers had been there before, several had not. It is difficult to explain where you are going to someone else if you haven't personally driven the roads before.

[SIDE NOTE: HSG’s REPLY: Yes indeed! This is quite correct. In the Summer of 2004, I discovered this when trying to get up to Gallatin National Forest’s, “Fox Creek Meadow,” based on directions from a friend of Gennie DeWeese. We never would have made it, but for a map I had with me quite by accident. It was a topographical map that showed the National Forest trails as dotted lines. Otherwise, there were no marking of any sort, on the map. Similarly, along the dirt roads, with many a sharp turn, there were NO marking of any sort.
…For example: I drove up the dotted lines on the way up to Way Points 493 and higher, as can been seen here on this Topographical Map of Gallatin National Forest. Click the photo to get the biggest version. ]

At any rate, I had a sense of triumph when I pulled up a trail and there was Deer Creek!

Unfortunately, our dinner was being prepared at another camp that was a number of miles away. However, it was announced that the dinner was being brought over to Deer Creek. This was a real relief to me considering the strain of driving to Deer Creek from Bozeman.

We spent the night at Deer Creek after a big dinner. I shared a cabin bedroom with one faculty member, with single beds on different sides of the room. Considering the long drive I had just made, I slept very soundly and woke up to a breakfast that was prepared by the women on the trip.

Later on in the day, the faculty men organized a softball game. Not being into sports, I did not join in; but I watched briefly. It was interesting to see grown men with PhD's batting and running bases around the informal diamond. There also was a tennis net strung between trees on either side of a clearing. I walked a little way up the trail at the side of the cabin and contemplated crossing the log over the creek; but lacking the sureness of foot and balance, I just sat and relaxed beside of the creek. [In her own Deer Creek writings, Shirley Luhrsen states that the “tennis” net was in fact for badminton. For details, see Additional Reading Number 4 below; for photos of Deer Creek, see Additional Reading Number 6 below. HSG]

Later on that evening, the group that had come in the Buick left [Deer Creek] at my suggestion. On the way up, I had elected to take the old Highway 191 because it gave me the needed orientation to landmarks; Yet, coming back I suggested the new highway which bypassed Gallatin Gateway. This would get us to Bozeman faster, and had the advantage of giving the faculty a quick look at the Nine Quarter Circle Ranch, another noteworthy location. I felt like I was quite a tour director!

It was dark by the time we got back to Bozeman, and I suggested that I would be happy to drive each person to his or her door. One wanted to be dropped off behind Montana Hall, and the others I dropped at their homes. They seemed pleased with my willingness to cater to them, but I must admit that I had an ulterior motive: as a student at Montana State College I was curious about my professors, who each day appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere. By taking them home, I would find out more about them and where they lived. When my driving duties were completed, I contemplated calling the Phi Sigma Kappa house and getting a bed for the night. But with just a twenty-minute drive ahead of me, I instead headed back to our ranch near Gallatin Gateway and my own warm bed.

Henry:

Glad you agree on the roads in Gallatin Canyon. Driving the old Highway 191 was an art/science unto itself. Rather than slowing into a curve, you sometimes had to gun it knowing there was a steep incline to follow.

The skills I learned driving in Montana may have saved my life on a freeway going out of Sacramento when a slow-moving big rig merged in front of me during the proverbial first rain of the season. I opted to slam on the brakes, knowing that would throw me into a skid which I would then break by steering into the skid and accelerating. Whatever velocity I lost by braking plus the momentary change of direction, added to the increased speed (by then) of the big rig, did the trick. To recover from the trauma I got off the freeway and went into a Denny's restaurant to chill out. Minutes later a California Highway Patrolman came in, sat next to me, and congratulated me on a great defensive driving maneuver. He told me the entire episode took approximately twenty seconds, and he had witnessed it from several lanes over.

Dennis

More Memories Related to Dennis Gary's Family Ranch Mentioned Above:

Just miles away from Vinke, Pirsig, Sophocles, Shakespeare and Montana Hall . . .

My hometown was originally named Saleville, Montana. But in 1927, it was renamed Gallatin Gateway at the request of the Milwaukee Railroad, which had built the Gallatin Gateway Inn just outside of the town. The railroad had run a spur line for tourists from their rail stop near Three Forks; they would bring the tourists in by train and would the next day bus them to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful Geyser, the bears, etc. Thus the Milwaukee Railroad could advertise their service as the Gallatin Gateway to Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone Park was founded in 1870's. The Gallatin Gateway Inn was built many years later, in the 1920's. [Editor's Note: The Gallatin Gateway Inn, ceased operations on February 10, 2013. It is listed in the Natiional Registry of Hisatoric Places. ]

The Deer Creek history page [see Additional Reading Number 5 below] happened to mention a man named Sales who had founded Salesville, MT. I attended 7th and 8th grade at Salesville Elementary, era 1950. It was a two-teacher school, though it had four classrooms (only two being used).

In one of our emails, I asked HSG: “Are you on an RFD route?” Our ranch didn't even have that! We were so far out, we would have had to put a box a mile or so away on old Highway 191, so elected to have a PO Box in Gallatin Gateway (Box 50, no less) in a small wood frame building. It was later replaced by a concrete block structure, built and owned by the Postmistress herself! Magazines regularly arrived a day late with thumb prints and page corners turned down. I wonder why?

The butcher at the locker plant** down the street told my mother that the hair in the ground beef was what held hamburger together! The Mulligan Repair Garage told a federal agent era 1950, who approached them regarding failure to pay Social Security taxes, that they had decided not to join. When a tourist complained about the beer at the Old Faithful Bar, the bartender jumped over the counter and knocked him out. The family down the street wondered what that thing that looked like a doorbell in one of their bedrooms was for. Turned out that their house was a former whore house and the buzzer was connected to the Old Faithful Bar to alert the bartender when it was ready for another customer. But I digress. [Very pleasantly! HSG]

[** In the days before the home deep-freeze, a “Locker Plant” was a community food and meat freezer facility, where individual families could rent a six to twenty cubic feet, for food locked in a wire mesh storage cage in which to store frozen food. There were several hundred such cages, arranged in high “walls”, with walkways between. … These were all in a huge sub-zero degrees Fahrenheit room in a VERY well insulated building, especially built for the purpose. In the summertime, if you walked into this subarctic freezer with no coat or gloves, you did not stay very long! HSG]

We Are Saddened To Report That Robert Dennis Gary Passed Away In Jan 9, 2020, Likely From Covid19. You May Read About His Life => A Robert Dennis Gary Memorial Tribute Page & Autobiography : ALSO PLEASE SEND EMAIL To HenryG__USCA.edu With Your Memories Of Dennis. Click Here.

History Of Deer Creek Ranch Rental Cabins.

Charles High homesteaded Deer Creek in 1914. He built four cabins and a barn on the property.

Joseph Markley and a friend purchased Deer Creek Ranch in 1940.

Joe married Donna Marie Florence Rosebrock on June 6, 1941 at her parent's home in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Joe's family-Donna, Caroline and Joan (Joe's children from his first wife, Alice), and Shirley (Donna's daughter)-visited Deer Creek Ranch during the summers.

Donna bought Joe's friend's ownership in Deer Creek Ranch in 1947.

Shirley met Robert William Luhrsen while working at the college and later married him at the cabins on August 2, 1947.

Bob and Shirley's children-Carla, Bruce, Don, and Eric soon became frequent visitors to the Deer Creek cabins. Carla spent many summers helping Grandpa and Grandma Markley.

Bathrooms, electricity and phones were added to the cabins in the 1950's.

December 1980 Joe passed away and Donna became sole owner. Shirley inherited her mother's property when Donna died. She also inherited half of Joe's estate. Shirley bought her step sister's part of Joe's estate.

Bob, Shirley and their son, Eric, moved to Deer Creek in 1984.

As Bob and Shirley's children married and had their own children, their families visited the cabins and helped out with chores and maintenance.

After Bob died in 1997, and before Shirley's passing in 2012-Shirley, her children, and grandchildren had Deer Creek placed in a trust.
The Above “History Of Deer Creek Ranch Rental Cabins”, Was Found Here.

Links To Additional Reading Related To The Above Faculty Trip To Deer Creek Cabins.

1a) Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

1b) Further Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

2) A Student’s Memories of “Mrs.” Professor Sarah Vincke and Her English Department at Montana State College, Bozeman MT (1956-1960)

3) Following the Footsteps of My Mentor, Professor Sarah Vinke: My Life as an English Teacher, and Other Memories

4) Dennis Gary’s Values in Thought and Action: My Standards at School and in My Career

5) More General Information About the Deer Creek Summer Retreat Mountain Property and Cabins. The Interrelation of This Property with Owner Shirley Luhrsen, and Sarah Vinke, Is Here.

6) A Short but Detailed History of Deer Creek, and of the Luhrsen Family’s Connections with It. The link to the Deer Creek article is here.

Readers who are interested in reading other Letter from Deer Creek columns by Shirley Luhrsen may access them here [type “Deer Creek” in the Advanced Search window]

7) Montana Cabins Rental [Editor's Note: The sited site, "Montana Cabins Rental," is no longer fully functional.]

8) One of Mr. Dennis Gary's emails mention an Internet link to the site to another ranch, The Flying D Ranch that now belongs to Ted Turner. This was out near his Family's Ranch. Ted Turner Enterprises Flying D Ranch.

9) “Books I’ve Enjoyed” by Sarah Jennings Vinke, (Originally published, 1960, in the Montana Library Association Journal)

10) Commentary Regarding “Books I’ve Enjoyed” and Information About Viewing on the Internet by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr

11) Pirsig Memory “The Divine Sarah”

12) Vinke, Pirsig, and the Origins of “Quality” and MOQ

13) Shirley Luhrsen and Sarah Vinke: Letters to and from Bozeman

14) Anthony McWatt's Robert Pirsig WebSite Of Jan 22 2018, As Saved By Archive.org.

15) Peter Voulkos's website Voulkos & Co.

16) Pirsig, MSC, and Zen, a selection from In the People's Interest, A Centennial History of Montana State University

Edited by Andrew Geyer 17 Jan 2011; further editing by Dennis Gary May 2014. RevHSG8-12Nov23
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