Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 38 THE RANCH e L—T Ranch is one of several ranches in the area owned by wealthy families. Great care has been taken to preserve the ranches so they are very much the same as they were in Hemingway's day….ere was a main lodge and typical barns and corrals needed for running a cow-hay operation and dude ranch; irrigation water was provided by the Clark's Fork. ere was a group of guest cabins in the trees. Cabin number one was the first cabin inhabited by Hemingway, Pauline, and Bumby. As the family grew and guests became more frequent, the family moved to the larger Sidley Cabin on a knoll by the river. ACCIDENT In a 1932 letter from the ranch, Hemingway mentions taking the car to shoot grouse, then busting the oil pan and "coasting" four miles downhill to Cooke City. After an eventful summer, Hemingway then headed out of the high country with Dos Passos and Floyd Allington, through Cooke City, spending the night within earshot of a gurgling geyser at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. From there, with the help of a quart of bourbon, they managed to crash the Ford outside of Laurel, Montana. Hemingway suffered a bad break to his right arm and remained at St. Vincent's Hospital in Billings for two months. His hospital stay was the inspiration for the rollicking short story, "e Gambler, the Nun and the Radio." HIS FATHER & SUICIDE Ten years after Clarence Hemingway's (his father's) suicide, five days after his fortieth birthday, with his marriage on the rocks and the world on the brink of war, Hemingway wrote to his wife: "Life is quite complicated. And you don't always have luck. Anyway not a thing to write about. Important thing for me is to not get discouraged…Because very bad example to children." In a letter to Pauline's parents, Hemingway maintained that he was working toward 70,000 words on the novel. He had always believed that writing clearly about the most difficult things in life was key to his work. e death of his father had haunted him throughout his time at the L—T; now it was time to put the issue on paper. In Chapter 30 of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan remembers riding horses over the Beartooth Mountains with his friend Chub and pausing at a high-country lake. After dismounting, Jordan walks over to a rock outcropping at the edge of the lake, which is rumored to be very deep. Jordan leans over the water, peers at his own reflection, and drops in the Smith and Wesson revolver that his father had used to commit suicide, watching it sink until 2020 INTERNATIONAL HEMINGWAY CONFERENCE The 2020 Conference will take place on from July 19th -25th, 2020. The first four days(19th-22nd) will be in Sheridan, WY while the last three days(23rd-25th) will be in the Cooke City/Silver Gate community just outside Yellowstone's N.E. Entrance. While the 2020 Conference is primarily an academic event, the public is encouraged to participate. The first step is to become member of the Hemingway Society— costs $40 for the year and includes three editions of e Hemingway Review. Next, register for the Conference; attendees can register for the Sheridan half, the Cooke City half or for the entire conference. Suggested Loop: For our out of state attendees we are suggesting a loop that begins and ends in Billings. Local residents looking to immerse themselves in the Hemingway experience would do well to follows this loop as well. We begin in Billings since it has an International Airport. Hemingway picked up his second wife Pauline at the Billings Airport in 1939 just weeks before the couples' eventual break-up. As attendees leave the airport they will see St. Vincent's Hospital where Hemingway stayed for seven weeks in 1930. From Billings head east to Sheri- dan, Wyoming, passing the Little Bighorn Battlefield on the way. Once in Sheridan, the Conference proper begins. There will be around 150 paper presentations along with plenary sessions and panels. There will also be guest speakers, luncheons, fundraisers, trivia at local bars and excursions to pertinent Hemingway sites. On the morning of the 23rd, after a drive over the Bighorn Mountains and a lunch stop in Cody, WY, the Conference arrives in Cooke City where there will be a welcome reception at the Range Rider Lodge. Over the next two days there will be academic sessions, events in Yellowstone and in town, a self-guided tour of Hemingway Country, and a lavish Closing Ceremony with dinner and live music. The Confer- ence will then head over the Beartooth Pass and back to Billings after a lunch stop in Red Lodge, MT. This Conference takes place in Yellowstone Country during the busiest time of the summer season. If you are interested in attending you must book a room well in advance (especially for the Cooke City phase), register for the Conference, then scan the schedule and decide which events you would like to attend. See you in 2020. Horse trail leading to Cooke City, 1930 Hoosiers General Store Map with landmarks

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