I started the/this Vananda, MT story back in March of 2021 on my blog, there's sufficient background there of the why's and wherefore's.
Recently I've been going quite literally thousands of old film slides that both dad and dad's dad had shot over the years, keeping photos taken with my phone that were projected on the wall. I'm going through the 'keepers' trying to sort them into some sort of order. These Vananda-related photos are a good enough place to start and to share.
Probably in 1959....('57 Chev) Grandma Bea and Grandpa Allen took a trip West, their normal travel destination. Included in visits to Colorado and Utah, they passed through, on US 12, central Montana.
I of course do not know whose home this is but based on what I'm piecing together, this may have been where Gram and her sisters lived when they moved into Vananda after their ranch life failed? Somehow this house was part of the Beard past.
Great Gramp and his friend (later Uncle Harry) bought two half Sections from the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. You can see what looks like a plateau, our grandparents always spoke of the Rimrock....
Representative of two half Sections, each 320 acres and north of Vananda. A full Section of land is 640 acres and is one mile square. I don't know that these parcels belonged to the family but would have been close....their land was roughly this far out of town and north of the railroad.
These 2 parcels, both without homes or structures are appraised each at just over $50K for a total of $100K/Section. An equivalent, non-built upon Section in south central Iowa near where the Beards had moved away from is appraised at roughly $1.5M today, far from the richest Ag land in rural Iowa.
The fact that we've got the Forester 16' travel trailer tells me this was in '67, likely on our way to or from Glacier National Park.
The bank was moved in 2003 to its new home in Forsyth, MT
In 1972 we took a trip out to Idaho to visit Avery where one of dad's cousins worked for the US Forest Service. We took my pickup, snowmobile trailer and two dirtbikes along but accompanying us were dad's folks....Grandma Bea that had lived in Vananda and Grandpa Allen that had met her there and done his courtin'. Their joining us had revolved around the fact that just west of Vananda that year, in Ingomar, there was going to be a Tri-City Reunion. School classes from Sumatra, Ingomar and Vananda would be present.
After exploring Vananda and learning more from our grandparents about their history there, our family of four headed on west to Idaho, the senior Coop's moved a town west to stay at rally HQ in Ingomar.
Scenes from Vananda in 1971....
Gramp bought the camper specifically for this trip, the '64 Chevelle was later mine and took me on my '78 West Coast winter, its 283 V8 and 3 speed overdrive the perfect traveling car.....
We setup camp between US 12 and the railroad tracks, right next to what may have been the depot?
From south of town based on where the school is sitting in relationship to town.
On the school steps, I was holding Gramp's metal detector....
I'm just not sure about this one, if Gramp moved away from downtown Vananda to the old homesite afterr we kept on towards Idaho or if this is where they stayed outside of Ingomar. If any of you know, please let me know.
In Ingomar, folks gathering for the reunion...
Grandma Bea, her 3 neighborhood friends, daughter Irene and younger sister Bernice.
Gram the teenage cowgirl...
The Jersey Lilly in Ingomar...
