The Bane of Adult Supervision
Garryowen – Then and Now
‘Custer died a’runnin’’
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Listen closely and you’ll hear the ‘Club anti-Growth’ crowd preaching the rewards of restrictive federal land designations. To hear them tell it, every community only needs to surround itself with federal land to the horizons, get designated wilderness or national monument applied to all or part, and folks will flock to see the wonders.
In particular, the flockers will be those more enlightened folks that have a clearer grasp of the big picture. Oh, you know them … they are the ones who support lightning fast bullet trains even though the little Amtrak buddies are losing their torso extremities. They are the ones that champion any unknown in the face of a known, and they are the ones that tend to leave their childhood neighborhoods in search of themselves. They are abundant.
I-90
Interstate 90 is touted to be the road to ‘Au naturale Americana’. It is the major northern tier thoroughfare that opens the world of the West to American families. Internet sources refer to trips planned around it as ‘classic’ American road trips.
It funnels crowds from the east, around Chicago, and on across the northern plains. From the Dakotas into Montana, it provides quick exit access to places like Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Badlands National Monument, Crazy Horse Monument, and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
Further West, a dip south puts awestruck families in the Queen of the Parks, Yellowstone National Park. A similar jaunt north is Glacier National Park. Further west in Washington is glorious Mt. Rainier.
Yessiree … with all the parks, monuments, forests, scenic and wild rivers, historical trails and T shirt stands that populate that country, a family will be convinced they will always be part of the great Western adventure. Stories will abound.
American ingenuity is still no doubt present as well. It is only a matter of time before some enterprising entrepreneur introduces genuine natural smoke odor to be sold alongside the bear T shirts. There could be spruce, or fir, or pine smoke depending on where the latest natural fire disaster was observed taking place. It will be a great compliment to add to the family discussions reminiscing about the I90 trek.
“No, this is pine,” says Father. “The spruce fire was at higher elevation north of Helena!”
“Oh, I remember,” responds Sister.
The case of national monuments and Garryowen
Two weeks ago, the town of Garryowen, Montana just off I-90 at exit 514 was auctioned off. Well, that isn’t true because there weren’t any registered bidders. Nobody was interested enough to buy the place.
The auctioneer, Tommy Williams, an Okie from the auction outfit, Williams and Williams, was there to do his best. Even the best auctioneers, though, can’t chant and dicker if there isn’t a legitimate buyer with whom to chant and dicker.
It wasn’t because Williams and Williams don’t have a track record. Unlike the majority of auction houses who can’t boast of selling an entire zip code, Tommy and the boys have a track record. They sold a town down in Wyoming a while back … a place called Buford. They found a buyer that came all the way from Vietnam to secure himself a chunk of America.
Unlike Buford, Garryowen didn’t prompt enough interest to attract a buyer.
To those being assured that our fears and condemnation of wall to wall national monument or wilderness designation are old fashioned and tediously shortsighted, this emerges as troubling. If national monuments and wilderness areas don’t add enough value to a town to prompt a single bid, how can we believe they offer value to our local communities?
That is what we are being told! That is what folks like the wilderness advocates and consultants from the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Sonoran Institute are pledging to be forthright and accurate.
Maybe a closer look at this whole debacle is warranted.
Garryowen, Montana is a real town. It might be only seven acres, but it has a post office with a zip code that assures the world it is Garryowen, Montana.
It derives its existence from Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It is the place where the purported hordes of monument flockers converge on their westward odyssey along the National Wonders Parkway, I-90.
In addition to its post office, the sweaty tourists fight their way into the Custer Battlefield Museum, the Garryowen Trading Post, a Conoco filling station, a convenience store, a Subway sandwich shop, and an immense archive of Custer manuscripts, documents, and historic photos of the Elizabeth Bacon Custer Collection.
The owner, Chris Kortlander, also has an attached 4000 square foot living quarters that makes the place a turn key, self contained ‘la tienda de tourista’ operation.
Out in front, nearly every famous location on the battlefield can be seen. Visitors can view Reno’s hilltop defense site, Weir Point, Last Stand Hill, Medicine Tail Coulee, the crow’s nest and Wolf Mountains. They only need to close their eyes and visualize where and how Custer ‘died a’ runnin’ that fateful June day in 1876 when the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment was wiped out by the combined light cavalry of the Sioux and Cheyenne Nations.
In addition to the blood and guts of the battlefield, there is even a kinder, gentler reminder of the great things that come from the latest version of history. There is a tomb of another unknown soldier.
Like Arlington, it is one of just a handful of places to maintain such an honored memorial. It was there in 1926, at the 50th Anniversary of Custer’s lapse in leadership, that Chief White Bull of the Sioux Nation and General Edward Godfrey symbolically and literally buried the hatchet.
All these things must be important historically. They are not important enough, though, to imbue enough value on Garryowen, Montana, ground zero of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, to prompt any bid … much less an opening, required bid of $250,000.
The Irony
The term Garryowen is storied. In locale, it was essentially a suburb in Limerick County, Ireland. It became a place where the boisterous youth of the day congregated. In one quote it was described as the place picked by the youth “who had more animal spirits than sense”.
It was there they drank, “terrified onlookers”, and indulged in “fratricidal propensities against all geese!”
It was also there a drinking song was sung. The tune was from an old Irish quickstep. The words of the chorus were as follows:
‘Instead of spa we’ll drink down ale,
and pay the reckn’ning on the nail
No man for debt shal go to Gaol
From Garryowen in glory …’
In 1867, the tune was used in the creation of the 7th Cavalry Regiment’s official ‘air’ or marching song. You have heard this tune many times. The words of the 7th’s version of the chorus were as follows:
‘In the fighting seventh’s the place for me,
It’s the cream of the Cavalry;
No other regiment ever can claim
it’s pride, honor, glory, and undying fame.”
The ‘air’, Garryowen, of course, became the name of the spot on the map where Custer and his men were killed.
The irony of what Garryowen was and its eventual claim on Custer and his regiment cannot be overlooked. In both cases, the reckless lives of those singing were fraught with danger. In both cases, death lurked. In the case of the Irish youth, it was perhaps just the geese that suffered the consequences. In the case of Custer, it was the regiment.
The modern corollary cannot be dismissed, either. The zeal in which the modern land rush for national monuments and wilderness is being sought is viewed by many as reckless. Much like the days in County Limerick, the mob pursuit of the process is terrifying onlookers.
There was a serious signal that has come from the recent day auction attempt. As witnessed in front of the Little Bighorn’s tomb of the Unknown Soldier, there is not a single person who is willing to stake his or her personal investment future on that national monument along America’s national monument corridor.
That doesn’t bode well for the projects coming from all directions in little known places. The truth is those projects are dividing local communities and loading increased fiscal burdens on the rest of us.
It is time to recognize fratricidal and environmental propensities for what they are, and … elect adult supervision to positions of leadership.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Garryowen is not an image that is comforting. It wasn’t in 1860 Ireland, it wasn’t in 1876 Montana, and, apparently, it isn’t in the I-90 corridor in 2012.”
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