OK Solberg: 00:00

I wanna again welcome you to the 4:05 Coffee Break. Guys, Tuesday, get your cup of coffee, glass iced, stay cool, tall, cool glass of lemonade. Let's see what's happening. Spring wheat, nothing to brag about. $5.39 a bushel.

OK Solberg: 00:14

550 pound steer calf. This will make you happy. Four zero nine. Just like the household cleaner. $4.09 a pound.

OK Solberg: 00:24

Butcher hog in Omaha. Nope. Iowa. 53¢ a pound, and a 100 pound fat lamb in Billings at a dollar 87 a pound. But, guys, there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:37

Okay. On Monday, I went to our local library, and I pulled down the Phillips County newspapers from the year 1979. I read an article in that January 4th edition that is talking about a new book in circulation here in Phillips County, and that book was titled The Yesteryears. Well, while reading the article, I became curious as I read a story about Al Schultz who got forgotten on the shore of the Missouri River while riding a steamboat. Here's the thing, guys.

OK Solberg: 01:17

I was at the library. I was at the library. I went and asked where the Yesteryear book was, and someone helped me find it within two minutes. I research. It's my hobby, and it's so easy when you're at the library.

OK Solberg: 01:35

So listen to much of the story told by Al Shultz as he recorded it in the Yesteryear's book, volume one. In the reading, I can decipher that he came to Montana in 1868, and he was telling his story to someone at the PCN in 1937. History. We all love it, especially local history. Listen as I quote.

OK Solberg: 02:08

Did I ever tell you about the first trip I made up the Missouri River by steamboat? It was back in 1868, and I was just a little feller coming to Montana with my mother and sister to join my father in Helena. He was a jeweler in the gold camp in those days. 69 years ago, I came to Montana, and I've been here ever since. I reckon there ain't many fellas can lay claim to coming up the river that early.

OK Solberg: 02:43

I helped out at the old Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton, and I worked in the Officer's Mess at Old Fort Fort Assiniboine, and I punched cows for O'Hanlon before I went into business myself. But this first trip up to Missouri was my first taste of adventure, as you might say. My mother and sister and I boarded the boat in Bismarck, North Dakota. Mother, the stewardess, and one other lady were the only women on the boat. We soon learned that the other woman was Calamity Jane heading for the Montana gold camps.

OK Solberg: 03:27

I don't recollect much of the trip till we arrived at the Fort Peck Landing. We needed wood. So the woodhawks pulled ashore, and I wanted to go with the men. My mother said it was okay if someone looked after me. So several hours later, the wood all cut and loaded, the boat untied and steamed up around a bend in the river.

OK Solberg: 03:52

My mother must have got to wondering why I was so quiet and started looking for me because the boat hadn't gone more than a mile or so before I was missed. The steamer was searched from stem to stern, and the cook was called up to account for my absence. It appears he had just forgot about me. The the boat swung to in the river and headed back. Across a bottom thick with cottonwood, someone spied several Indian lodges, and the captain ordered all able-bodied men ashore and armed.

OK Solberg: 04:34

The party sneaked through the brush and came to the village to witness a strange sight. There was I standing in the center of a group of Indian women all painted and dressed in Indian clothes, clutching a piece of boiled buffalo rib nearly as big as I was and tears streaming down my face. There wasn't no difficulty getting me back. One of the squaws had seen me and had thrown her blanket around me and taken me to the village, reckon they were glad to be rid of me. End of quote.

OK Solberg: 05:12

A story from a man who lived right here in Malta, Montana. Go read the entire account. Yesteryears, volume one, local library. Good stuff. With the library and the Internet, don't worry.

OK Solberg: 05:28

I'll never run out of things to talk about. Here's our theme bible verse. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generation. Ask your father, and he will show you.

OK Solberg: 05:40

Ask your elders, and they will tell you. Deuteronomy thirty two seven. Our theme verse for this program because we all love looking back. So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.