Chapter 5

It was quite the surprise; we were travelling on ID 28 just a little ways from the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Park when we saw the bluff that just called to us. Now as we woke from our night’s sleep and dream, we looked out upon a beautiful view, the only problem is it wasn’t the view we went to bed with.

It was a lot like the landscape of our dream. The only conclusion we could come up with was our dream was real and we had gone back in time. I knew we were maybe ten miles from the newly forming town of Leesburg ID. I also knew we could get horses there along with a few supplies. Both Dianne and I knew a lot of things about the area we were in even though we had never been here. It seemed so surreal I’d always wanted to live the frontiersman life, that’s why we were going to my new home in Alaska.

We took out our Coleman stove and had a breakfast of bacon, pancakes and coffee. We fixed up a thermos of coffee a couple sandwiches and a canteen of water. I made a little pack of emergency supplies added $200.00 face value coins from Granddaddy. I strapped on a holster and a 44/40 Ruger, got Dianne a 38 police special. Both of us had about $50.00 in our pockets and took off down the trail. After about two miles we came to a cabin with a small barn and corral, we knew it was for us. Inside had a living room/kitchen area with a wood cookstove and heater and two rooms next to each other. On the table was a survey map and a deed to 100 sections of land. Also, a receipt from Wells Fargo for $200,000.

We decided to stay until morning and leave for Leesburg, we talked about what we wanted to get if we could find it. After walking to town, which wasn’t much, we found a general store, a saloon, eatery and a stable. We had eaten a bit of jerky on the way but after a couple hours of walking we figured eating would be our first stop. We didn’t have much choice and we had the venison stew and cornbread. It was quite good and very filling, both of us were very happy with the meal. We asked about saddle and pack horses and were told the stable and a guy who lived about a mile from town had some. The stable owner would also have the most tack. After paying our bill of .60 cents, we left and went to the stables we met Mike, the owner he said he had two good saddle horses but didn’t have any others that would be of use right now. In a month he would have four or five more trained as that is what he does. Mostly buying green horses and train them to ride and pack. He hoped to have a horse ranch one day but had to start small. He did have all the tact we would need, we made a deal on the two horses, saddles, blankets, bridles and saddlebags. Mike gave us directions to Bucks ranch and we went there on our new horses, and they seemed well trained. It only took about half an hour to get there. Buck was outside when rode up, he waved us over and when we got to the corral where he was working at he said “get down and let your horse drink at the trough. After we got down, we walked over and told him what we were looking for, he told us to let him finish with the last rail of the corral fence an he would bring some horse down from the pasture. About 10 minutes later he was done, and we heard someone riding up, it was his hired hand Del. Buck told him to go bring in the trained horses and told him we wanted to buy a couple.