More about graveyards ...

So a few days ago I posted a quote which implied that Montana's graveyards weren't big enough, and I mentioned that I hadn't been able to find as much out about it as I would have liked. Well, my friend Greg inspired me to keep researching, and here's what I found out.

I'd read the quote in the Montana chapter of John Gunther's wonderful old book, Inside U.S.A., which remains one of the best studies of 20th-Century America ever written. But Gunther wasn't much into citations and footnotes, so it took some digging to find the original quote ... and when I did, I discovered that Gunther was a little sloppy in his attribution.

Here's the original statement, from an essay by Arthur Fisher called, "Montana: Land of the Copper Collar," published in the September 19, 1923 issue of The Nation:

"Montana's real trouble," said an old rancher to me, "is that her graveyards aren't big enough." He explained that he was not advocating a general resort to the hangings of vigilante days, nor even waiting until a new generation came on the scene, but that more Montanans must come to look upon the State as their permanent home and final resting place. From the first pioneers who washed their fortunes out of the gold placers, with hydraulic pressure turning pleasant hillsides into desolate wastes of boulders, nearly all who have come to Montana have looked forward to the day when they would have accumulated sufficient funds to permit them to live out the remainder of their days in southern California, Florida, or New York.

It's interesting how things have changed since 1923. Nowadays, people make their money elsewhere, and when they accumulate sufficient funds they move to Montana to live out the remainder of their days!