(birds chirping) - [John] Coming up on "Backroads of Montana," meet the couple married more than 75 years as they share their secret to longevity.

- [Susan] He never complains.

If he doesn't like it, he doesn't say anything.

(laughs) - [John] In North Central Montana, learn why a cowboy hat means something more.

- [Matt] a cowboy hat symbolizes the Western way of life.

- [John] See the historic landmark that served travelers and natives alike.

And visit a special place in Western Montana that once again embodies the Christmas spirit.

- [Jesse] Magical.

It is enchanted.

It feels like a Hallmark movie.

- [John] Grab a seat on the couch.

You'll want a good view of this episode.

- [Announcer] "Backroads of Montana" is made possible with production support from the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans, the Big Sky Film Grant, and the University of Montana.

♪ Home is where Montana is ♪ ♪ Montana is my home ♪ ♪ From mountain peaks to prairie lands ♪ ♪ The places I have known ♪ ♪ And I'm bound to ramble ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm bound to roam ♪ ♪ And when I'm in off the road now, boys, Montana is my home ♪ - Welcome to "Backroads of Montana," sharing stories of the magnificent people and places across our state.

I'm John Twiggs, and on this episode, we get to explore part of Southeastern Montana and the beautiful city of Baker.

(laid-back country music) It was first known as the town of Lorraine, but in 1908, the railroad arrived, and the Milwaukee Road Transcontinental Line helped grow and rename the town.

The area is also known for dryland farming and lays claim to home of the largest steer in the world.

During the show, we'll get a taste of the annual county fair, dive into the story of the town's lake, and learn more about Baker's history and how the town has changed.

Montana has changed a lot in the past century.

Only a few people living today have witnessed those differences firsthand.

But for one centenarian living in the Absaroka Range, one thing hasn't changed, the view.

(gentle music) (footsteps tapping) They say routine is important as you age.

- [Herbert] For my age, I get around good.

- [John] But it's something 102-year-old Herbert Russell has practiced his whole life.

- Papa likes to go get the mail still, and he gets in his pickup, which is a standard, and still drives it.

It's just second nature to him.

He doesn't think about it, just gets in and goes and gets the mail and drives and looks around the place that he grew up in.

- [John] Herb's not quite older than the hills, but his home range has witnessed every chapter of his century here.

The prominent limestone butte, a backdrop to his first breath on April 30th, 1923 in a little cabin on its backside where his parents welcomed him into the world without a midwife.

- I was born up there, and when I was five years old, I moved down here.

I've been here ever since.

- [John] He was named after his father, Herbert Russell Sr., who'd come to Stillwater County 10 years earlier from Scotland and homesteaded that mountain cabin as a base to trail sheep.

I could hear him to this day, "Head 'em uphill.

Head 'em uphill."

- [John] It's clear Herb hasn't lost his marbles, at least not since he was a kid.

- [Herbert] We used to get in a lot of trouble, all right.

- [John] One day he and his little brother Sandy were causing too much mischief with their marble collection, and their mother found a solution in a certain corner hole in the floor.

- She put 'em all down that hole in that floor.

I've always been going, "Cut that hole out there and reach in there and get them marbles out," but I never did.

- [John] Herb still resists the urge to retrieve them from his new home next door, where he spends his days alongside his wife Susan.

- Well, he's five years older than me, and I try to catch up with him, but I can't do it.

I buy a lot of frozen vegetables.

- [John] Susan puts love into two square meals a day.

- [Susan] Can tell if the peas are done if they wrinkle.

- [John] And after 77 years, they've mastered the recipe for longevity.

- I always eat what she cooks for me.

I don't turn my nose up at anything.

(laughs) - [Susan] He never complains.

If he doesn't like it, he doesn't say anything.

(laughs) If he does like it, "Oh, that was good."

So if he doesn't say it, I know he didn't like it.

I just keep my mouth shut.

- [John] A little sweetness goes a long way.

- [Susan] He has honey every meal.

- [Penny] You can just see that they genuinely love each other and love being around each other and that they're best friends.

- I couldn't have find a finer person to live with (laughs) than I have, but I chased him till he caught me.

- [John] Susan's family ran the post office in nearby Dean.

Once in a while, the mail carrier would ask one of the Russells for a ride down the road.

So I'd see her, but, hell, I never paid any attention to her.

- [John] But one day he saw a 17-year-old Susan in a new light at a dance in Absarokee.

- This guy came in and asked me to dance, and that was the beginning, and he asked me can he have that dance for the rest of his life, which had happened.

(chuckles) - Marrying Susan was the best day of my life.

- [Susan] We work together.

It's always been that way.

- Him picking up the dishes and Mom doing the cooking, just having each other.

- [John] Those rural routines have served them well, and Herb has always preferred the lessons of the landscape over those taught on a blackboard.

He attended the one-room limestone school with all the neighbor kids, but it was the hired men in the hills who taught him the alphabet and how to count, starting with sheep.

(sheep baaing) After one year of high school, he realized the grass was greener somewhere else.

- [Herbert] I quit high school and started working on the ranch here all day.

- [John] And when Herb and Susan had their own kids, they emphasized that hands-on education.

- [Susan] He insisted that the boys knew how to cook and that he insisted the girls knew how to ride a tractor.

- Any piece of equipment that I was ever around with him I learned how to operate.

- [John] Their kids live out that hardworking legacy, managing operations of their own.

- I mean, I use all the things that I was taught from him and then also from my mom.

- [John] Today their daughter Anna supplies the weekly groceries, enabling them to still live independently without having to go any farther than the end of the driveway.

- It's important to me.

This is the hard part.

They changed my diaper.

They took care of me.

I'll be here for them as long as they need it.

- [John] Limestone Butte has served as a steady home base all the while, until one day a couple of years ago when a propane leak in the basement shook the Russells' world.

- [Anna] The hot water heater kicked on.

It ignited the gas, which caused an explosion.

- We were sitting in the only room that wasn't blown up.

- It was just like God had put His hands over top of them, and the rest of the house was pretty much destroyed, so.

- [John] When it came time to rebuild, there was no question where they wanted to be.

- You know, we had other options we offered.

- Our hearts were here.

His heart was here where his father homesteaded, and mine was here with him.

(water splashing) - [John] Not many people get this much time.

- Thank you, kind sir.

I don't regret any minute of any time that we spent together.

- [John] And every moment forward now is gravy.

- [Susan] We make the most of every minute we have now.

- Bye-bye.

Thank you.

(both chuckling) - [Susan] And that's basically what it's all about, I think.

It's a life ever after.

- Limestone's population peaked in the 1950s at around 100 people.

Today the Russells help keep that number hovering around 20, but they usually just get lumped in as residents of the nearby town of Nye.

(laid-back country music) The Southeastern Montana town of Baker was named after the Milwaukee Road engineer A.G. Baker.

Visitors can learn about that and a whole lot more at the O'Fallon Historical Museum.

The sprawling complex stretches across six buildings, and almost all of it contains items donated by the community.

Learn about the homesteaders, the oil and gas boom, and everyday life in the 1900s.

There are photos, farm equipment, and the main building is the original Fallon County Jail built in 1916.

But there's one attraction that's bigger than the rest.

- Steer Montana, born 1923, the world's largest steer.

There's not much more you can say about it.

He was 3,980 pounds, and his owner Jack Guth, who people call the P.T.

Barnum of Baker, he was the right guy at the right time to bring this steer to the whole country.

It was a point of pride for Fallon County and honestly for the whole state of Montana.

And I think that's why Jack named him Steer Montana.

- At the museum, there's something for everyone to learn more about life out here in the West.

Our next story features an iconic piece of clothing around these parts, the cowboy hat.

It's as practical as it is fashionable.

We're off to North Central Montana to meet a man who's helping his customers make a statement with just the right fit.

(birds chirping) (gentle country music) - [Commentator] I don't know, I've always worn a cowboy hat, wanted to be a cowboy since I was a little boy, and I just never grew out of it.

- [Matt] To me, a cowboy hat symbolizes the Western way of life, freedom, choices.

(vehicle swooshing) - [Commentator] You don't have to be a cowboy.

You just have to love the cowboy culture, whether you live in Central Montana or downtown LA.

- [Katee] And I think everybody wants to be a part of that history and understand that history a little bit more.

And through wearing hats, I think that that's part of that.

- We're in downtown Carter, Montana, dirt roads and all.

I lived in a cowboy hat as a kid.

I grew up in Malta, Montana.

I finally got tired of trying to stretch the hat to get it to fit and decided I was just gonna make my own.

And I asked Katee, I said, "I want to try building my own hats.

What do you think?"

She goes, "What do you have to lose?

If it doesn't work, it doesn't work."

This space, I mean, it's so sentimental to my wife and I with our kids being baptized in here, us being members of this church for as many years as we were.

- When the congregation left the church, we found out it was for sale, and we leaped on the opportunity.

We still have the pews.

They are trolley seats.

They were from two trolleys out of Great Falls.

- [Matt] We have two full-time jobs as well as the hat business on the side.

Finally, lo and behold, we're the owners of this incredible building.

We invested the money in some equipment, and we got in the hat business.

(laughs) (cattle mooing) Will's an everyday ranch guy.

- [Will] Try something new, I guess, and it was time to get a new go-to-town hat.

(laid-back country music) (door taps) - Hi!

- How we doing?

- Good, how are you?

- Good.

- What I'll do is we'll sit down, and we're gonna talk about what he wants to do with his hat.

Have you ever had a custom hat, Will?

- Have not.

- I prepped everybody.

I was like, "He's gonna tell me it's gonna be his new good hat."

And I'm like, "Everybody knows every rancher has a good hat."

- Hat.

(laughs) - It's gonna be more than just a good hat, though, right?

Like, we're gonna actually wear it.

That feel pretty good there?

- Yeah.

- We'll measure his head, and then I'll use my conformator, and we'll get his actual head shape.

So not only am I getting his size, like his generic hat size, I'm gonna take his actual head shape.

- [Will] Gives you a lot more options.

- [Matt] I tell everybody between four to six weeks.

We'll get to building on it.

We'll take it to the bench, steam the body, loosen up the fibers, and then from there, we'll iron it.

And what we're doing there is we're making sure that hat is perfectly smooth all the way around.

So we're gonna sand the hat body and take the rough body down to a nice, smooth, finished surface.

Then we're gonna do what's called deadening it.

So we're gonna spray it down with alcohol, and we're gonna light it on fire and burn off all the loose fibers to it.

We'll build a sweatband.

Every sweatband gets our name stamped into one side.

- [Katee] When we started Lone Feather, we wanted it to be religious-based.

So he puts a Bible verse in every hat.

It's about being shielded under His feathers.

- [Will] I'm excited to get my first new custom hat.

- [Matt] And when he comes back in, we do our final shaping and final fitting.

See if we're good fit-wise and everything.

He'll have to probably push it down a little bit.

It's gonna be a little bit stiff.

- [Will] No, the top looks good.

- [Matt] To me, the most important thing about a good cowboy hat is the fit.

- Yeah, I like that, Matt.

- The most rewarding part of it is just seeing their face the first time they get to wear their hat.

I want it to be more personal than that.

I want you to come be a part of the process.

Well, thank you again.

- Yep, appreciate it, Matt.

- Absolutely.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Will] It's interesting, like the stories that a hat can tell, right, and the miles that they cover.

- [Commentator] A lot of things, kind of you grow to fit them.

A cowboy hat kind of grows to fit you.

(cows mooing) - [Matt] The whole family has hats.

Kind of a reflection of your personality, if you will.

- A lot of people we hear is, "I can't wear a hat.

I can't wear a cowboy hat.

Oh, you can, and you'll look good.

(laughs) Everybody looks good in a cowboy hat.

- Most of the hats that Matt builds are made from beaver or rabbit hair, and they're built to last with the goal of being able to pass that hat from one generation to the next.

(laid-back country music) You'll see plenty of cowboy hats in the Southeastern town of Baker.

And if you happen to be here in August, you can catch the annual Fallon County Fair.

It's another community celebration with a parade.

(attendees chattering) Future farmers showing their best work, lots of vendors selling locally made products, and cowboys and cowgirls competing in the PRCA Rodeo.

It's a small-town tradition that's another part of Baker's history.

(audience cheering) Our next stop is another tangible piece of history, a 120-foot-high sandstone outcropping that contains a signature from Lewis and Clark's famous journey.

Just east of Billings along the Yellowstone River, William Clark was on his return trip when he encountered what he called "a remarkable rock."

(intriguing music) (birds chirping) - It's one of the very few places you can go and know exactly where one of them was standing.

You know within inches where Clark was standing when he carved his name.

At the time Clark is coming through here, there are not nearly so many trees along the river.

So he arrived here about 4:00 PM on July 25th, 1806, would leave his name here.

For many years, his name was the only onsite physical evidence of the expedition.

The Crow used it as a landmark long before Clark ever showed up.

He names it Pompeys Pillar after Sacagawea's little child, whose name was actually Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, but they had called him Little Pomp.

He actually called it Pompeys Tower.

Then later on when the first edition of the journals came out for a reason that no one knows, Nicholas Biddle changed "Tower" to "Pillar," and that's why we call it Pompeys Pillar today.

(birds chirping) He'll go on to say, "This rock I ascended, and from its top had a most extensive view in every direction."

You can walk up on top and take in the view that Clark had up there.

There's also a lot of nature trails that you can go down.

There are several places you can go down and view the Yellowstone River.

It became a national monument then in January of 2001.

So the monument status is really pretty recent.

Then in 2006, we moved into our interpretive center here.

It has a lot more information in it, displays and things.

It's a pretty nice place.

It isn't super busy, so, you know, you don't have to deal with crowds.

Kind of a nice peaceful, especially if you're traveling, a nice break.

(birds chirping) - The visitor center is open limited hours, primarily in the summer.

But keep in mind, even when the monument is closed, you can walk into the site to not only see Clark's signature but other markings, petroglyphs, and inscriptions left by people through the centuries.

(easygoing music) The town of Baker might be one of the few places you can find a sandy beach in Southeastern Montana.

Baker Lake was originally created by the railroad to supply water to its steam locomotives.

This centerpiece to the town was actually helped by a storm.

In 2016, an EF3 tornado tore through Baker, destroying houses and buildings.

Fortunately, no people were killed.

The storm hurled so much debris into the lake, it was deemed best to drain it, dredge it, and start over.

Today it's once again a great gathering place for the town and a symbol of Baker's resilience.

For our final story, we go to Western Montana and another community gathering place.

The historic 9 Mile Schoolhouse is a special spot during the holidays, but after several decades, that tradition was in jeopardy until a serendipitous Craigslist ad found the perfect nostalgic buyer.

- [Jesse] So what we're gonna decorate today is we've got the schoolmaster's cottage.

The staff should already be out there.

- [John] While most people are just beginning to think about Halloween costumes, Jesse Crowley and a cadre of like-minded friends are already preparing to deck the halls at the 9 Mile Schoolhouse.

(bells jingling) - They think it's fun, and they're so kind, and they're available and excited, even, and will come and decorate, will come and work, will come and organize.

How's it going?

Julie, if you straighten it out a smidgey, that might- - Jesse always has been a person that is very fearless.

I just love that about her.

- [Jesse] It's cute, Linda.

- [John] If Jesse is the heart and inspiration for this operation of elves, Nikki, her dear friend and right-hand woman, is the one with the list she's checking twice.

- I'm kind of a person where I love to be with a dreamer because I'm not good at casting the vision, but I'm good at helping 'em get there.

- Everybody has their own strengths, which is so amazing.

We really like to kind of recognize what those are and then put them to work.

- [Nikki] I think when you allow people to just work within their element, great things happen, and beautiful things are shared.

- [John] Sharing beautiful holiday things at the 9 Mile Schoolhouse actually has a longer history here than teaching does.

According to county records, the schoolhouse was built in the early 1900s for the children of local loggers, but by the 1930s, it was abandoned as a school and eventually sat vacant for decades.

Then in 1975, something magical happened.

(soft enchanting music) A quiet, unassuming newlywed couple bought the property.

Les Ippisch was a longtime bachelor who had retired from the Forest Service, and Hanneke was a Dutch immigrant and recent divorcee.

When the two married in midlife, they decided to make Huson and the old schoolhouse their home.

- [Hanneke] We started fixing it because all it was was a building with leaky roof and four walls.

- [John] Walls with Hanneke's Dutch heritage as the inspiration and Les's woodworking skills, they turned the dilapidated buildings into a storybook retreat.

- [Jesse] The hand-painted rugs on the floors that are beautiful and the balcony with the pretty daffodils and all the little scalloped edges on the windows and things like that and the built-in beds and the handmade wardrobes.

- [John] In 1978, the Ippisch couple decided to share the magic they had created.

They opened the gates for a Christmas market, selling their simple handmade wool and wooden ornaments, toys, and folk art to the community.

- [Hanneke] One of the reasons we do is we like to play, and it's just fun doing them and trying to create something which people possibly might enjoy.

That's all.

- Hanneke and Les made all these extraordinary, beautiful hand-carved or scroll-sawed nativities and children's toys and ornaments.

And Hanneke would also have books that would go along with the toys and just incredible, like, things that were very old-fashioned and very European and wonderful.

- [John] Everyone loved it so much, it became an annual Christmas tradition, drawing thousands of people, including a young Jesse.

- Well, I grew up in Alberton, and we would come here for the Christmas markets, and I just was enchanted.

She was an amazing presence.

She wore her red cape.

She opened the gates very dramatically and welcomed people in, and she... - [John] It was clear to Jesse and everyone who attended that Hanneke wanted to spread love and especially tolerance.

The nativity scenes and ornaments she designed spanned numerous cultures, races, and traditions.

This was intentional because Hanneke had seen the darkness humanity was capable of when hate and intolerance flourished.

- So Hanneke was part of the Dutch resistance.

- [John] In her autobiography "Sky," Hanneke writes that she was just a teenager when Germany invaded Holland and the Nazis began persecuting the Jews.

One terrible night, she saw one of her Jewish classmates, Rebecca, forced into a vehicle and taken away.

Hanneke went home and cried.

The next day, she joined the resistance, ferrying Jewish children and families to safe houses in the Dutch countryside.

She signed her books with the phrase, "Let us remember," and she recounted her story at schools and community gatherings.

(tender music) So Hanneke's joy at Christmas and the Ippisch family's handmade creations were more than ornaments and toys.

They were a rebuke of darkness, an embrace of light and love.

Their kindness imbued the schoolhouse and the treasures they sold here with magic.

But all good things must come to an end, and after nearly 25 years, the couple held their last market in 2002 and sold the property.

The schoolhouse changed hands several times over the years, and the tradition of opening the gates to the public at Christmas disappeared until... - I saw on Craigslist that there was a yard sale here, and I drove out because I was excited about all the things that might be at the yard sale.

And it wasn't a yard sale, but the house itself was for sale.

- [John] Jesse couldn't believe her luck and put in an offer.

A year later, the property and the magic that came with it were hers.

She immediately started to think of ways to bring back the holiday gatherings and honor the memory of Hanneke and Les.

- I knew that I wasn't going to whittle things out of wood and paint them and all of that, but I also had a lot of encouragement from my friends about things that we could do.

(festive music) I'm Jesse.

It's nice to have you.

- [John] So in 2019, Jesse opened the gates once again.

- [Jesse] They ride the train and write letters to Santa and see Santa and get their photo.

A lot of it is really geared towards the children.

- [John] The community immediately embraced the return of the tradition.

Jesse also chooses a charity to support each Christmas season and sends the proceeds from the festivities to them.

It's her way of spreading the love even further.

- I think she has stayed true to the heart of what it was about, but she has also made it her own.

- The way that I love the schoolhouse I don't really want to keep to myself.

It is something that sparkles more when it's shared, so we keep the gates open.

- Along with her love for Christmas, Jesse has a soft spot for special-needs children, so each year she opens the Enchanted Christmas Village a little early so special-needs children and their families can enjoy it for free.

Well, that's all the time we have for this episode.

We'd like to thank Alissa Miller and the Baker Chamber of Commerce.

They encourage visitors to check out what this Southeastern Montana town to offer.

We love when you offer us a great story idea.

If you have one, drop us a message on our Facebook page, or you can always write to us at Backroads of Montana, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812.

We've got more great stories to share and two lanes to travel.

I'm John Twiggs, and we hope to see you out on the backroads of Montana.

- [Announcer] "Backroads of Montana" is made possible with production support from the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans, the Big Sky Film Grant, and the University of Montana.

♪ Montana is my home ♪ ♪ From my peaks to prairie lands, the places I have known ♪ ♪ And I'm bound to ramble ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm bound to roam ♪ ♪ And when I'm in off the road now, boys, Montana is my home ♪ ♪ Coming in off the road now, boys ♪ ♪ You know I'm heading home ♪ (bright music)