July 7 - 14, 2022
Braxton Graybeal, 9, hustles to get one last fish during a fishing competition at the Conat family pond in Drummond earlier this month. For more photos of the competition, go to page 10 of the Philipsburg Mail. Photo by Gwyneth Hyndman
Drummond bronc champ in new role for "Yellowstone," "1883"
A 2022 induction into the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame was hardly the end of the road for Drummond bronc rider Jess Martin.
The 1988 graduate from Drummond High School who was announced as a hall of fame “Legend” this spring after retiring in 2009 with an 87-point ride on a world champion bronc, has landed on his feet, returning as a set wrangler and location scout for two of the hottest shows on television right now.
Martin talked about his 20-year career as a bronc rider from the set of “Yellowstone” last week, where he was coordinating a cattle drive near the Big Hole, for the much-anticipated next season of the Paramount show, that has put Montana on a world stage since it first aired in 2018. Among the cowboy extras he was supervising that morning was his own 11-year-old son, Scott, who looks set to follow in his dad’s footsteps as a keen horseman.
By all accounts, Martin is well-skilled at changing direction and flourishing. He recalled growing up on a ranch outside Hall (now the Bignell ranch) and playing football at Drummond High School, when their greatest rival was Granite High School in Philipsburg. A football scholarship took him to Western Montana College (now University of Montana Western) in Dillon, and it wasn’t until he was 19 that he got on a bronc for the first time at a college rodeo in Helena.
Right away, he realized he’d been playing the wrong sport.
“I just knew,” he said, laughing that it was a short walk back to the chutes. “I didn’t care. It was all over. I loved it - the adrenaline, the excitement. I knew that this was what I was meant to be doing.”
Having the “want to” made up for a late start in bronc riding, he said, but added that having a background as an athlete, plus a little more maturity, helped him to quickly excel in the sport, which became an obsession. “I couldn’t go five minutes without thinking about it.”
Martin would go on to rodeo in the College National Finals Rodeo, the Northern Rodeo Association and then circuit rodeos, qualifying for the Montana Circuit Finals 16 times.
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Flint Creek Pass closure going ahead
by Gwyneth Hyndman
A 55-day rockfall mitigation project in the fall requires a five-day complete closure of Flint Creek Pass to handle a mass of rock above Montana 1 that could be considered the highest risk rock cut in the state, a geotech engineer told Granite County commissioners at last week’s Tuesday meeting.
Bret Boundy, geotech engineer with the Montana Department of Transportation said it was a matter of time before the mass crumbled on its own, which would be disastrous.
“It’s leaning and detached, this mass of rock,” Boundy told commissioners via Zoom during the regular morning meeting, as part of an agenda item. “This is going to close the road sooner or later on its own time frame if we don’t handle it.”
The “troublesome spot” rates as the highest risk rock cut in the state, with risk taking in the amount of traffic that passes through this area, he said.
The decision to close the road was not a decision they were taking lightly, said Nate Walters, project manager of rockfall and mitigation project on MT 1.
“We started to see issues in late March and changed scope to have road closures,” Walters said, via Zoom. “At first we thought we might have authorized vehicles at critical times of the day. Then we realized it was going to be a much bigger project.”
Boundy said dealing with the main rock cut was going to be, in some parts, like opening a can of worms, with unknown wait times.
“There’s going to be jacks and splinters and air pillows,” Boundy said, adding that a planned 30-minute wait couldn’t be counted on doing this kind of clearance. “I don’t want to promise a half hour wait and then have to say ‘sorry, it’s going to be another three hours,’” he said.
“I feel very strongly that I don’t want to mess with (traffic), even in breaks.”
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Granite County Commissioners consider court cases on water rights, fire suppression
By Kirk Boxleitner
When the Granite County Commissioners discussed Butte-Silver Bow County’s water rights on June 21, along with the compact between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the state of Montana and the United States, Granite County Attorney Blaine Bradshaw declared that the tribes “do not have any water rights to call against industrial or municipal water.”
While Bradshaw cited “only potentially irrigation” as an exception, he added that most of Butte-Silver Bow County’s water rights are non-irrigation.
“The irrigation rights (the county has) are earlier in priority than the tribes’ rights,” Bradshaw said. “It won’t affect the hydroelectric rights for the county.”
Granite County Commissioner Blanche McLure said, “Our main concern would be whether or not Butte-Silver Bow County can take water from the lake,” to which fellow county commissioner Charles Hinkle said, “I think they still can.”
“Could the tribes make a call on that water?” Branshaw asked hypothetically. “That would be no. I could never say 100%, but it’s clear that does not apply to non-irrigation. It doesn’t apply to municipal, industrial or domestic waters. So, your water well, your place? It shouldn’t affect that.”
Moving onto the Montana State Supreme Court case of Granite County vs. Rising Sun Estates LLC, Jack McLeod and John Does, Bradshaw recounted how the county and district court received summary judgment, and judgment against McLeod.
“The district court ruled there were no material issues of disputed facts, and the county was entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” Bradshaw said.
“The reasoning for the district court’s decision was that McLeod’s engineer said he did not even design the fire suppression pond to be year-round. I mean, it freezes up.”
According to Bradshaw, McLeod’s attorney suggested going to trial, since they disputed it had been shown that the pond would indeed freeze up.
“The engineer said it wasn’t designed for (winter use),” Bradshaw said, “but the loss (at the state) supreme court means we go back to district court for a trial. It’ll be a limited scope trial, just on that one issue, of whether it actually freezes up in the winter. There are multiple people who are able to testify that it does.” Bradshaw cited “multiple letters” from fire department personnel attesting to such freezing, in addition to Ryan Cassidy, “their own engineer, who would say that.”
Bradshaw asked, “Does the county want to hire an engineer to say that as well?” At the same time, he conceded this could simply be “stacking up the evidence,” given the other testimonials.
When Granite County Commission Chair Scott Adler likewise questioned the need for another engineer’s testimonial, Bradshaw conceded that “our witnesses wouldn’t be considered experts in the sense of fire suppression,” but could testify to observing the pond was frozen in the winter, “and the hydrants weren’t working.”
Bradshaw also acknowledged the “extra cost” of hiring an engineer for their expertise in this area, but if that cost could be kept from exceeding $2,000, he compared it favorably to a potential judgment of more than $80,000.
“I myself would think we should have an expert over and above (the other) testimony,” McLure said, although she hastened to add, “The fire department is good.”
Bradshaw told the Granite County Commissioners they would need to decide on whether to hire an engineer, to supply expert testimony, within the next two weeks.
Adler suggested making the decision an agenda item for the following week’s meeting, but also agreed with McLure that it would be better to arm themselves with additional expert testimony, especially after the reversal the county suffered at the state supreme court.
“I thought we were sitting pretty good,” Adler said.
In light of a printing error last week, the Philipsburg Mail has reprinted the above story in full.
Click SUBSCRIBE at the top of this page.
Drummond bronc champ in new role for "Yellowstone," "1883"
A 2022 induction into the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame was hardly the end of the road for Drummond bronc rider Jess Martin.
The 1988 graduate from Drummond High School who was announced as a hall of fame “Legend” this spring after retiring in 2009 with an 87-point ride on a world champion bronc, has landed on his feet, returning as a set wrangler and location scout for two of the hottest shows on television right now.
Martin talked about his 20-year career as a bronc rider from the set of “Yellowstone” last week, where he was coordinating a cattle drive near the Big Hole, for the much-anticipated next season of the Paramount show, that has put Montana on a world stage since it first aired in 2018. Among the cowboy extras he was supervising that morning was his own 11-year-old son, Scott, who looks set to follow in his dad’s footsteps as a keen horseman.
By all accounts, Martin is well-skilled at changing direction and flourishing. He recalled growing up on a ranch outside Hall (now the Bignell ranch) and playing football at Drummond High School, when their greatest rival was Granite High School in Philipsburg. A football scholarship took him to Western Montana College (now University of Montana Western) in Dillon, and it wasn’t until he was 19 that he got on a bronc for the first time at a college rodeo in Helena.
Right away, he realized he’d been playing the wrong sport.
“I just knew,” he said, laughing that it was a short walk back to the chutes. “I didn’t care. It was all over. I loved it - the adrenaline, the excitement. I knew that this was what I was meant to be doing.”
Having the “want to” made up for a late start in bronc riding, he said, but added that having a background as an athlete, plus a little more maturity, helped him to quickly excel in the sport, which became an obsession. “I couldn’t go five minutes without thinking about it.”
Martin would go on to rodeo in the College National Finals Rodeo, the Northern Rodeo Association and then circuit rodeos, qualifying for the Montana Circuit Finals 16 times.
Want to read the full story?
Click SUBSCRIBE at the top of this page.
Flint Creek Pass closure going ahead
by Gwyneth Hyndman
A 55-day rockfall mitigation project in the fall requires a five-day complete closure of Flint Creek Pass to handle a mass of rock above Montana 1 that could be considered the highest risk rock cut in the state, a geotech engineer told Granite County commissioners at last week’s Tuesday meeting.
Bret Boundy, geotech engineer with the Montana Department of Transportation said it was a matter of time before the mass crumbled on its own, which would be disastrous.
“It’s leaning and detached, this mass of rock,” Boundy told commissioners via Zoom during the regular morning meeting, as part of an agenda item. “This is going to close the road sooner or later on its own time frame if we don’t handle it.”
The “troublesome spot” rates as the highest risk rock cut in the state, with risk taking in the amount of traffic that passes through this area, he said.
The decision to close the road was not a decision they were taking lightly, said Nate Walters, project manager of rockfall and mitigation project on MT 1.
“We started to see issues in late March and changed scope to have road closures,” Walters said, via Zoom. “At first we thought we might have authorized vehicles at critical times of the day. Then we realized it was going to be a much bigger project.”
Boundy said dealing with the main rock cut was going to be, in some parts, like opening a can of worms, with unknown wait times.
“There’s going to be jacks and splinters and air pillows,” Boundy said, adding that a planned 30-minute wait couldn’t be counted on doing this kind of clearance. “I don’t want to promise a half hour wait and then have to say ‘sorry, it’s going to be another three hours,’” he said.
“I feel very strongly that I don’t want to mess with (traffic), even in breaks.”
Want to read the full story?
Click SUBSCRIBE at the top of this page.
Granite County Commissioners consider court cases on water rights, fire suppression
By Kirk Boxleitner
When the Granite County Commissioners discussed Butte-Silver Bow County’s water rights on June 21, along with the compact between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the state of Montana and the United States, Granite County Attorney Blaine Bradshaw declared that the tribes “do not have any water rights to call against industrial or municipal water.”
While Bradshaw cited “only potentially irrigation” as an exception, he added that most of Butte-Silver Bow County’s water rights are non-irrigation.
“The irrigation rights (the county has) are earlier in priority than the tribes’ rights,” Bradshaw said. “It won’t affect the hydroelectric rights for the county.”
Granite County Commissioner Blanche McLure said, “Our main concern would be whether or not Butte-Silver Bow County can take water from the lake,” to which fellow county commissioner Charles Hinkle said, “I think they still can.”
“Could the tribes make a call on that water?” Branshaw asked hypothetically. “That would be no. I could never say 100%, but it’s clear that does not apply to non-irrigation. It doesn’t apply to municipal, industrial or domestic waters. So, your water well, your place? It shouldn’t affect that.”
Moving onto the Montana State Supreme Court case of Granite County vs. Rising Sun Estates LLC, Jack McLeod and John Does, Bradshaw recounted how the county and district court received summary judgment, and judgment against McLeod.
“The district court ruled there were no material issues of disputed facts, and the county was entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” Bradshaw said.
“The reasoning for the district court’s decision was that McLeod’s engineer said he did not even design the fire suppression pond to be year-round. I mean, it freezes up.”
According to Bradshaw, McLeod’s attorney suggested going to trial, since they disputed it had been shown that the pond would indeed freeze up.
“The engineer said it wasn’t designed for (winter use),” Bradshaw said, “but the loss (at the state) supreme court means we go back to district court for a trial. It’ll be a limited scope trial, just on that one issue, of whether it actually freezes up in the winter. There are multiple people who are able to testify that it does.” Bradshaw cited “multiple letters” from fire department personnel attesting to such freezing, in addition to Ryan Cassidy, “their own engineer, who would say that.”
Bradshaw asked, “Does the county want to hire an engineer to say that as well?” At the same time, he conceded this could simply be “stacking up the evidence,” given the other testimonials.
When Granite County Commission Chair Scott Adler likewise questioned the need for another engineer’s testimonial, Bradshaw conceded that “our witnesses wouldn’t be considered experts in the sense of fire suppression,” but could testify to observing the pond was frozen in the winter, “and the hydrants weren’t working.”
Bradshaw also acknowledged the “extra cost” of hiring an engineer for their expertise in this area, but if that cost could be kept from exceeding $2,000, he compared it favorably to a potential judgment of more than $80,000.
“I myself would think we should have an expert over and above (the other) testimony,” McLure said, although she hastened to add, “The fire department is good.”
Bradshaw told the Granite County Commissioners they would need to decide on whether to hire an engineer, to supply expert testimony, within the next two weeks.
Adler suggested making the decision an agenda item for the following week’s meeting, but also agreed with McLure that it would be better to arm themselves with additional expert testimony, especially after the reversal the county suffered at the state supreme court.
“I thought we were sitting pretty good,” Adler said.
In light of a printing error last week, the Philipsburg Mail has reprinted the above story in full.
Click SUBSCRIBE at the top of this page.
For the complete stories and much more, please subscribe to the Philipsburg Mail today.
Call (406) 859-3223 or e-mail mgr@pburgmail.com for subscription information.
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