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!
