The Last Stop Elkhorn, Montana John Bonan Ghost Town

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Back when i was a kid, we'd go out  rock hounding...me and my dad... and I'd pick up some sparkly thing  you know that looked like gold. I'll go running right there I'd say.. " Gold.. I found.. look what I found!   What is it dad?" And he said... He'd look at it like this... and   he'd say... "Hmm that's Leaverite."  It's oh wow Leaverite...what's that?" He says to me that means. " Leave it right where it  is, it ain't worth the damn!" Laughing... I am John Bonen and I live in Elkhorn. Over 20 years ago John Bonan gave up his career as  a Biodynamics Gardener in Los Angeles, California   and moved to one of Montana's  best known ghost towns, Elkhorn. John moved into the cabin that  his grandfather built in 1892.   My grandfather, John Arthur  Bonan ended up here from Italy. They were hard rock miners and  they had a ranch out of Boulder. I remember my grandfather being just the  kindest most gentle guy, he didn't speak   very much English. But he used to put me on his  knee and bounce me around as a little kid and uh   I liked being with him because i like the smell  of his pipe smoke... he used to smoke a pipe. John's grandfather built his one-room cabin   directly across the street from Fraternity and Gillam Halls,   the social centers of Elkhorn and  the town's most famous buildings.   The cabin is now John's home. But today, Elkhorn is different.   Instead of being a mining  town it holds the mystery,   the beauty, and the intrigue,  of being a living ghost town. John is the oldest and longest  full-time resident living in Elkhorn. John's move to Elkhorn took years  to accomplish and it was not easy. Well, when the family left   in 1937, the cabin was vacant until my  dad retired in 72... I believe it was. My folks in another neighborhood  couple came up and began working on it   to make it livable again because  everything had been stolen out of it. Windows have been stolen, the ores have been stolen,  old bottles have been stolen  and it was in pretty bad shape. So they came up that first year  I came up the next year and both   of my brothers came up off and on for  the next four years I believe it was. And we made it livable and we cut the  logs and made the log room on the back. My mother died quite young at 52.   Then my dad died in 86... and my youngest brother  was up here trying to hold on to things...  but he didn't live here full full time like  all year round like I did. He'd go down to town   to Boulder, Butte or Helena  during the wintertime mostly. So then after he died in 96 from an  aneurysm... it was getting broke into   again and one of the neighbors, Bud  Smith, called me on the phone and said they're coming up here you know  somebody better get up here. There's new people in town and  they're just tearing stuff up. Kids are breaking into your cabin... so I decided to sell out in LA   and come on up here... we got up  here a month and a week before 9-11. Been here ever since. When John made his move to Montana   he became the first person to call a  cabin a full-time home in over 50 years. Gonna be a good crop of gooseberries this year...   see how big they are... still green.  Something's been eating the tops of them too.   There is no place like this place, anywhere  near this place, so this must be the place.   Ya, my brother put all kinds of posters  and different things on the ceiling. The cabin has electricity. An outside hydrant for water.  No running water inside. When the outside hydrant freezes in the winter,   John melts ice from his roof  to supplement his water supply.   No stove. Cooks on a hot plate.  Two wood stoves for heat. Shopping in nearby Boulder or Helena. And John says he likes to cook   but his favorite breakfast, raw  eggs... with a few choice spices. It's not exactly egg in the  beer but it's delicious.   I used to surf... most of my life down in L.A.   l wasn't sure what I was going to do  when I got up here without the surfing. This is my son. I think that was at the Malibu  contest. I think he won the Malibu open one year. Here he is again. Me.. Me... The stuff in the cabin is um partly mine...  most of it was here before i moved in. We have pictures on the walls from all stages of  our lives my brothers and sisters and my parents.   That's Einstein. Michelob beer  commercial. That's a great picture.   Barzan. Yeah, that must have been a beer   in the Mountain Fresh Rainier Beer...  yeah, it's a pretty neat poster. This is a decoupage that my brother Donnie   did. He did a lot of them he loved doing those  decoupage things with postcards pictures.  This is Custer's last stand going to  the ground and getting his... just due. This is my bedroom and basically  a utility room... it's where I   spend most of my time if I'm not cooking. I have three outhouses that I rotate through. This is the one the main  one this is the one... ours   I've papered it up with different posters and  pictures and cards that people have sent me. As a child I always wanted to move  back up here when I got older...somehow In 1870, Elkhorn got its start from a silver  strike just south of the current town.   During Elkhorn's peak period  there were over 2 000 residents,   a school, a hotel, a church, stores,  saloons, brothels, and a railroad.   Life was not easy and the people  suffered from disease and disaster.   The cemetery has reminders of the challenges  the mining families faced. In 1889   a Diphtheria epidemic took the  lives of dozens of Elkhorn citizens.   Included in those was a mother and her  six children... all died in the same week. By 1912, the major mining  operations came to an end.   People left. The town withered by time and  eventually became known as a Ghost Town. Over the years, Elkhorn's two most important  buildings, Gillen Hall and Fraternity Hall were saved and have been officially  designated as Montana's smallest State Park.   They are preserved for the public, but there  may be ghosts that still haunt the building.   I'll tell you, go over there at night and you  might see something...might hear something. In 1889, there was an argument  between two men at a dance   about whether the band should  play a square dance or a waltz. The dispute eventually ended up  outside. There was a gunfight.   One man died in front of the hall  and the killer was eventually hanged. Maybe, just maybe, if one listens carefully  that waltz can still be heard today. This is a good example of an old boiler   and I'm surprised it's still here,  there's a lot of them that disappear. There's one old bird that I think he's been here  since I got here 20 years ago. He's grizzled and   you can just tell he's the oldest one and  when I go out to spread the peanut butter   or whatever around he comes and lands right next  to my face. I mean six inches away it's amazing. This is an old Ben Franklin sewing machine  and it's a pretty cool looking thing. This face here is beautiful  the way it's all kind of done.   Here's my favorite pair of snowshoes  these are the old-fashioned ones. Beautiful... they're not as maneuverable  as the newer ones because they're longer   it's just like in surfboards, the long ones aren't  quite as maneuverable as the shorter ones...   but boy, those things will go  through snow like you won't believe. A few years ago there was an older lady from  Great Falls visiting here... some friends   brought her....she was quite old. And she's kind of an artist she   loves painting on bleached out bones... so  when she saw my bones when they were here   um I gave her like six or eight pieces. Shoulder  bones and this is part of a skull and I said   OK.. I'll give you all those. She wanted to  buy them I said no I'll give those to you. You just paint me two pieces and send them to me.  I said I want a raven. She painted a Raven for me. I said I wanted a Wolverine she said she didn't  know how to do Wolverine so she did Badgers. There's a lot of tourist traffic up here  now... a lot of interest in ghost towns.   When the ground gets soft after  it's frozen they kick up all this.   Anything in those containers is  what comes out of the ground. I get a big kick out of greeting people and  telling them what I know about the past. See where that stuff goes through. They crack  it right there and open it and see what it is.   If it's gold or silver whatever they're  looking for. They note the depth of it. They know the coordinates. So when they find  the ore body they know right where to dig. OK. Do you know what this? That's an old part of  an old shoe from the old days. Really? Yeah. Wait,   this is a shoe? That's the heel. The only part  of it that's the heel. It went out to here   the rest of the shoe was  there that's what that is. All kids get a free rock if they want one   usually end up with two or three. Sometimes  four instead of one, but that's okay... if   they're they're all excited about it, I'm  excited too... I give them what they want. This thing is hard. Gee whiz! There you go. There you go. Mother lode. Yeah that looks pretty good. Whoa, oh let's crack it again. That's   kind of why I wanted that rock... Sometimes people don't realize that  there's a lot of private property up here. The only places you're really  supposed to go are the two halls...   the water tank up above town... and the  cemetery, and it's okay to walk around town but   you just have to be cognizant that  there is a lot of private property here. I just like it up here because it's  open spaces, fresh air, lots of animals.   It's a nature boy's dream, and we got  all the critters all the seasons and   usually there's not a lot of people  around a lot of times I'm the only one. I just love it I wish you could take a picture through  my loop and see that gold right there.   There's gold, pyrite, copper. When I compare LA to up here in  Elkhorn, in Montana period...   you don't have the smog up  here you don't have the noise. Most of the neighbors up here  are really fine you know...  we help each other out... few hard  cases I will recall... but that's okay. Just amazes me how things  fall together in one's life.   And it's like you don't have  anything to do about it. Situations present themselves. Opportunities  present themselves. You make a good decision   once in a while... a bad decision once in a  while. But I don't think I'd change much at all. I kind of like the way it goes. Oh my god.. wow! When I first got here I told  everybody i said this is my LAST STOP.   This is it. This is where  I'm going to end my deal. But, you never know... might  meet some nice young chick that   sweeps me off my feet and moves me down to Malibu!
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Channel: Douglas Chester
Views: 81,349
Rating: 4.927711 out of 5
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Id: BaleuOhnubU
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Length: 18min 20sec (1100 seconds)
Published: Mon Sep 14 2020
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