Reunion breathes life into Moccasin

MOCCASIN — Before the Great Depression, Moccasin was a thriving town of more than 350 people with three lumberyards, a pool hall, a hardware store, a mercantile building, a bank, Liberty Stables and even an opera house.

In the near century since, Moccasin died. Homesteaders realized they couldn't survive on their 160 acres. A fire in 1919 torched an entire block of businesses including the barber shop, drug store and opera house. Earlier fires destroyed more of downtown, and with the population dwindling it was never rebuilt.

Today, 24 people live in the town that's barely a blip on Highway 87.

Even as people left, Burmah Christian held the community together, writing letters to the dozens who had moved, keeping them up to date on Moccasin news.

Christian was school secretary for more than 25 years. When the last high school class graduated in 1966, she collected class pictures, student newspapers and school memorabilia.

She was one of only a few people who still lived in the same house, so when people came back to town they would stop in to visit.

In 1995, Susan Ashcraft moved back to Moccasin to help her aunt so that she could stay in her home. The idea of a Moccasin community reunion has since brewed in Ashcraft's head, hoping to reunite the town while her aunt was alive.

Christian died last winter, but as a memorial and tribute, Ashcraft has organized a town gathering for the Fourth of July.

"She had an incredible ability to keep in contact with people and kept the idea of a Moccasin community together," Ashcraft said.

Relying on her aunt's network of addresses, she tracked down people from each graduating class who spread the word of the reunion.

Traveling from as far as California, Florida and Alaska, roughly 50 people are back in town for the weekend.

The nearest place to stay, the Meadowbrook Inn, located four miles away near Hobson, was booked for the weekend. Others are staying in Lewistown with family who still live in town or brought campers and RVs.

For months, Ashcraft has gathered photos, including pictures of the fires and the crumbled buildings left behind. She has copies of the Moccasin Dispatch, which stopped printing in the 1920s. One woman sent a 1928 basketball uniform — noting that the town was the first in the state to allow the girls' team to wear shorts.

Beyond just collecting the town's history, Ashcraft revived a piece of it by restoring the town water pump.

As a child she stopped to grab a drink as she walked through town. The garden club surrounded the pump with beautiful flowers that people would water using the pump.

In the mid 80s, the garden club disbanded and an electric pump was put in.

When the old hand pump dried up, and the electric pump quit working, Julia Ashcraft, Susan's 85-year-old mom, carried water by hand to water the flowers. But eventually drought and heat killed them, and the spot was abandoned.

For the reunion, Susan Ashcraft had the old pump removed, and its leathers repaired. Now the hand pump is working again.

She and her mother planted dahlias, moss roses, daisies, poppies, pansies, carnations and an array of other flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. A posted sign invites people to pump water for the flowers.

Having collected the town's history, Ashcraft is keeping the photos, papers and memorabilia in the town church that was built in a day in 1911. The building opened for services the same night it was built, though pews hadn't been built yet so parishioners sat on boards rested on barrels.

Ashcraft bought the church and is considering keeping the materials there to preserve the town's history.

Patriotic poet

CONRAD — Marlene Stoetzel Fischer began writing poetry in the year of our country's bicentennial — 1976 — so it's only fitting that two of her poems have been set to music for a CD called "America."

The Conrad woman sent three poems to HillTop Records and the company liked "A Tribute to Our Heroes" and "The King," a poem about Elvis.

Performed by studio musicians, the first song honors each branch of the military, beginning with the lines: "Uncommon valor is vividly apparent in all; suppressing hostile advances with the threat of their fall; Army proving in every way to be an Army of one; Strong, agile and determined until the job is done."

Stoetzel Fischer hopes to make a living selling her poetry. In addition to her songs, she writes poems for people, often as birthday, wedding or anniversary presents.

To order a copy of "America," go online to hilltoprecords.com.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kim Skornogoski at 791-6574, 800-438-6600 or kskornog@greatfal.gannett.com.