Coulees and Chinooks

The first time I left Montana, I followed an Air Force spouse to North Carolina.  What a different world that was.  As soon as something strange like biscuits and gravy or grits was discussed, I’d break out coulees and chinooks (LOL).

To start, outside of Montana, I have only run into one other person who knew what a coulee was, and he was a geologist from Saskatchewan (not too far away).  Our family had a ranch on Shonkin Creek outside of Fort Benton, and there were more than a few coulees on the place.  Of course, there is Sand Coulee too.  Charles M. Russell had a painting or two showing cowboys chasing cattle down into coulees.  (Hint to my non-Montana friends that don’t know what coulees are:  a deep ravine or gulch, usually dry, that has been formed by running water.)

Ahhhh chinooks….after high school I worked at the Sambo’s Restaurant downtown (well, I actually worked at both Sambo’s, part time at the 10th Avenue South store also).  I often worked the counter section, so I easily could look up 3rd Street North at the Great Falls National Bank Building’s clock, which also flashed the current temperature (I am not sure this is even the same building, it looks like it is a Wells Fargo bank now and not the same building).  One night starting about 3:00 a.m. I watched the temperature rise from the -20°F range to mid 30’s°F before I got off in the morning.  It was almost a game with myself that night, guessing how much the temperature had risen since the last time I looked. (I had happy memories working at Sambo’s downtown…my most famous customer I waited on was Mike Mansfield, who came in for breakfast early one morning by himself…oh, and George Takei, Mr. Sulu from Star Trek).

The greatest temperature change over a 24 hour period because of a chinook took place in Chouteau County at Loma in 1972.   Not very far from our family’s ranch.  The temperature rose from -56°F to 49°F.  But aren’t we used to extremes in Montana?  I saw more than a few.

It is sad sometimes to see so many changes to downtown Great Falls.  My grandfather used to run his ranch the last couple years he had it from an office in the Great Falls National Bank Building.  He owned the Surprise Creek Ranch in Judith Basin County before selling it to the Hutterites for a colony.  Some things don’t change though…there will always be coulees and chinooks and our chance to confound others elsewhere.