Monday, June 8, 2009

Two Dot, Montana ...

Here's a photo I took a couple of months ago of downtown Two Dot, Montana. It's got all the quintessential features of a fading western farm town -- a long-abandoned bank building, an ancient and inviting dive bar, a little post office, and not much else. And the bar is for sale, if anyone's interested!

I've always liked Two Dot ... partly because of the name, I suppose. The town is also the subject of a Hank Williams, Jr. song, but I won't hold that against the place.

8 comments:

  1. Mark that's some great looking sky !! But how can a Jimmy Buffet fan like yourself turn around and diss on Mr. Bow-see-fuss. Ha !

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  2. Yeah, they definitely didn't make up the term, "Big Sky Country" for nothing. :)

    And I'd be a little worried about anyone who DIDN'T complain about Hank, Jr ... he's a fairly scary dude!

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  3. Takes an Awful Lot...to get me down...don't diss scary Hank, Jr...ROFL...
    I saw today you're also a member of the yahoo history group...do you read the Fort Benton Blog? He's a pretty nice guy. http://fortbenton.blogspot.com/

    Are you going over for the summer celebration? I'l be there during the week, but won't stay for the weekenk festivities. Too many peeps milling about.

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  4. Ha! I have to confess: despite living in the West my whole life, and in Montana for nearly all of the last three decades ... I still don't like country music. :)

    Thanks for the link to the Ft. Benton blog -- I hadn't seen that one before, and it's a good one. I really need to start working on a list of Montana bloggers, so I can post the links here.

    Don't know if I'll make it to the big Ft. Benton shindig, or not. Didn't do it last year, and it's one of my favorite Montana towns ... and I could get some pics for the blog! But work and other real-life things might intervene ...

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  5. The Joel Overholser Research Center is a godsend for history. Ken helped me find most of the roots I'd beed digging for, for at least twenty years...in two afternoons, and it cost me about $10! He learned a few things from me too, while we were at it. I'll never stop singing praise for that towns' dedication to conserving the past. And, the Overland Bar is just fine for meetin', greetin' and aerobic libations. (Elbow bending)
    The best part of all of it is the whole town is a walkable delight for LOLITS like me. (Little old ladies in tennis shoes)

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  6. The thing I like the most about Ft. Benton is its setting ... those great bluffs all around it. And it's a true river town, oriented towards the waterfront and with that great old bridge ... hardly any towns in Montana have that riverfront feel.

    I've gotta check out that bar! I love hanging out in places like that more than almost anything ... purely for historic purposes, of course. :)

    And of course there's the whole Shep thing, too ... I'm definitely a dog person, and that story gets me every time. I actually did a presentation on dogs in Montana history at the Montana History Conference several years ago ... managed to bring a couple of people in the audience to tears.

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  7. It kinds of amuses me that small towns like that have street signs. :)
    I used to know a guy way back when who's parents managed the Two Dot ranch north of Cody. I liked that name, then, too.

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  8. Hey, there! :)

    As for the street signs, most of those small towns thought they were going to be big someday, so they thought they needed street names and such. And the counties insist on the signs so that emergency vehicles and such will find their way.

    And Two Dot is definitely a great name. (There was uncertainty for a long time about whether the place was spelled Two Dot or Twodot, and it was just in the last few years that they settled that little issue.)

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