View From The Bridge 9/30/09

“VIEW from the BRIDGE”
by Muncie Morger
9/30/09

VISITORS INFORMATION CENTER
By the time you read this, the Visitors Information Center will be closed for the season. There will be some Training Programs in the spring and Visitor numbers are being counted. Those will be forthcoming as well as figures from the Museums and the B.L.M. The success of the Center is totally dependant on the faithful Volunteers who really enjoy being there. They all have interesting stories to tell about the Visitors. There is nothing that makes a Volunteer feel better than when they are told that the visitor enjoyed Fort Benton and had a great time while they were here.

VOLUNTEER OUTING
Ruth Carlstrom has planned another outing for the Visitor Center Volunteers on Friday, October 2nd. The community bus will leave Fort Benton at 9:00 a.m. and proceed on to the Great Falls Information Center where they will embark on a Trolley for a two-hour Historical Tour. When they return at noon, they will visit the Center, meet other volunteers, and see the set-up that Great Falls has for their information. Their Center is located at the top of the hill behind the very large American Flag that is so beautiful to see waving when coming into Great Falls from the south.

At 12:30 they will have lunch, provided by Wake Cup Coffee Shoppe, at the Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Conference Room. After lunch, they will visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and leave from there at promptly at 2pm to return to Fort Benton.

It is important, if you did not receive a phone call or post-card, that you contact Ruth at 622-3638 or 799-3638 a.s.a.p. to let her know if you will attend.

B.L.M. INTERPRETIVE CENTER AND MUSEUM'S
In a conversation with Connie Jacobs, Director of Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center, I gave some wrong information last week about the hours they were open. I said that during the winter months they were open by appointment, which is not the case. The correct schedule is Monday thru Friday from 8am to 5pm from October 1st until Memorial Day of 2010.

The Ag Museum, the Village, the Museum of the Upper Missouri, and the Old Fort can be seen by appointment from now until Memorial Day. The Schwinden Library/Joel Overholser Research Center is open on Tuesdays only, although the business office is staffed from 8am to noon Monday through Friday.

This announcement should be noted by anyone referring to the Bureau of Land Management and especially those Volunteers who are at the Visitors Information Center at the Old Fire Hall. We have been referring to the B.L.M. Visitors Interpretive Center, which was confusing with the Chamber of Commerce Visitors Information Center at the Old Fire Hall. We are now to refer to the B.L.M. as “The Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center.” That should clear up the confusion between the wordings of both locations.

LONGHORNS
We did not quite know what we were to expect at last Friday’s football game with Harlowton as they are not in our conference. We have not kept a good track on them. The good thing about the game was that the whole team had an opportunity to play and that the J.V. and the Freshmen teams played the whole second half of the game.
It was a proud moment when Harlowton executed an excellent play that resulted in a touchdown. The proud for Fort Benton was when the home team spectators applauded that touchdown. Great public relations in that action.

The Lady Longhorn Volleybally team is having a fine season and are so much fun to watch. You are a great team and your efforts are appreciated. Go Lady Longhorns!

ARTIST
A chance meeting with Howard Terpning, which I wrote about last week, introduced me to “The Wonderful World of Art.” I discovered that Bob Doerk has been a fan of Terpning’s for years. On Tuesday, at the Research Center, Bob brought in four art books for me to read and look at. One of them was a notebook with every picture/article (in plastic covers) that Bob had ever found in art magazines about Terpning’s work. The other three books were awesomely illustrated books of his paintings. I spent my entire day at the Center going through those books.

If you would like to see some of his work, just put his name into your computer and I know that you will be as thrilled as I was. One of the things I neglected to tell you about his illustrations (before his painting career) was that he did the “Gone With the Wind” and the “Doctor Zivhago” posters for the movies. Those were just two of many but probably the ones that are best known.

COWBOY POETRY
This coming weekend will be most likely the busiest one that Fort Benton will ever have as far as “goings on.” The Grand Union Gathering of western poets and pickers, singers and storytellers will begin on Friday, October 2nd at 7pm for a fee. On Saturday, October 3rd at 10am are more shows and admission is a free will offering. That evening at 7pm will be another show for a fee and Sunday morning at 10am will be Cowboy Church.

SIGNAL POINT GOLF CLUB
A member’s Year-End Party and 40th Anniversary is taking place on Saturday, October 3rd at the Signal Point Clubhouse at 6pm. This is a special event and I have heard that there are golfers coming back to Fort Benton just for this event. I do not play golf but most everyone in the family is addicted to the game. They tell me that Signal Point is the best golf course in the area and if you want an 18-hole just go around twice.

DUCKS UNLIMITED
On Saturday afternoon, October 3rd at 4pm the doors at the Ag Museum will open for the annual local Ducks Unlimited chapter fundraiser. They tell me that this event gets bigger and bigger each year. We should have many people in town this weekend.

ROCK-A-THON
A fundraiser for the Sunrise Bluffs will have the place rockin’ and rollin’ on Saturday, October 3 from 8am to 8pm. If you think that, you are tired, just drop in at the Bluffs, and watch a while. Friends and residents of the Bluffs will be rocking back and forth for hours. Perhaps you could rock to soothing music and you would be refreshed. Whatever you do, sponsor one of the rockers and remember their Gift Basket Raffle is on display at the Benton Pharmacy.

CANDIDATE FORUM
I am reporting this FORUM information in this weeks River Press because the forum will take place on Wednesday, October 7th and you will not have received your Press by then. The General Federation of Women’s Club is sponsoring a forum for the candidates who are running for mayor and council members at 7pm in the Elementary auditorium. Make an effort to attend to get to know your candidates better and to ask those questions that you have always wanted to ask. Mark it on your calendar right now. It is important.

SO LONG
It seems as though that is all I am saying lately is so long. The weeks are flying by. Perhaps winter will slow everyone down a little but whatever…enjoy every minute of every day. Time is so precious and isn’t it funny how time slips away. God bless America.