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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, get you a cup of coffee, an umbrella for shade, and let's see what's out there, happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.51 a bushel. 550lb steer calf tapering off a little, but still a very, very good price. $5 to $5.15 on the top end, and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings not moving an inch $3.35 a pound. But guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Bible verse right up front. See if you've ever heard this before. Deuteronomy 32:7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you. Again, Deuteronomy 32 verse 7
OK Solberg:The theme bible verse for this program because it's good to remember, but it's sometimes hard to remember. You know, guys, some people say, oh, hey, I heard you on the radio yesterday. You know, it sounded good. I'll say, well, thank you.
OK Solberg:What did you hear that you liked? And they will look with puzzlement in their eyes and say, well, it was all good. So it's fun to listen but harder to retain. Right? Therefore, I'm gonna share again something I told you back in September 2024.
OK Solberg:Now the way I see it, if many of you can't recall what I said yesterday, few will few will remember what I said nearly two years ago. But I have another mission in mind. I wanna take Doc on a tour.
OK Solberg:I wanna take Doc on a tour of what many people in Phillips County don't even know exists, and that is the concrete work of the old Great Northern Roundhouse out where the town of Bowdoin used to set. So, Doc, this one's for you.
OK Solberg:From where you live right now, less than 5 miles from your house to the east, northeast once lived a small town called Bowdoin. With technology today, we can do so many things. We can pull up Google Earth and zero in where the town of Bowdoin was located.
OK Solberg:Really, the only standing structure there today is the old grain elevator. But pull it up on Google Earth and just north of where the elevator stands, north and a squeak west is the remnants of the old railroad roundhouse.
OK Solberg:Pull it up. Look at it. It's plain as the nose on my face. Okay. So what happened to the town of Bowdoin? Now every historian in the area that knows anything will tell you that Bowdoin evaporated after the railroad pulled out the roundhouse and built a new one or relocated the old one in Havre in 1920, and that is all true.
OK Solberg:What they failed to explain is WHY did the railroad pull out the roundhouse. Guys, here's my hypothesis. If you check history at that time, you'll find that automobiles were fast becoming the way of the future. And with automobiles, well, what do you need? You need roads.
OK Solberg:To quote a line from doctor Emmett Brown in Back to the Future, roads where we're going, we don't need roads. Well, in 1920 and beyond, they did need roads. And check it out. In 1919, the Roosevelt Highway was mapped out.
OK Solberg:They put the highway on a map and that Roosevelt Highway now called simply Highway 2 did not travel through the town of Bowdoin. Yikes. Therefore, my speculation is this. In 1917 and 1918, the roundhouse was being built. But in 1919, the railroad noticed that, uh-oh, Highway 2, the Roosevelt Highway will not travel through Bowdoin.
OK Solberg:So they said, shoot, boys. This won't work. We have to have a main thoroughfare through the town that houses our roundhouse, pull it out, and put it back up in Havre, Montana. Yet evidence of the old roundhouse is still visible from Google Earth or better yet, take a little afternoon trip out to the Bowdoin elevator and explore it yourself.
OK Solberg:In 1965, there was a front page article in the PCN. And at that time, the elevator was having a facelift. Anybody remember Isadore Bernice? Isadore was the manager. And in the article, it states, Bowdoin got its start in 1917 when the freight division was moved from Glasgow.
OK Solberg:People thinking Bowdoin was to have a great future started moving in. Businesses were started and homes built. Then they built the roundhouse. And in November 1917, the business district of the town of Bowdoin, now listen I'm not making this up.
OK Solberg:The business district of the town of Bowdoin consisted of 5 grocery stores, 3 hardware stores, a drugstore, a theater, a Shoe shop, 3 restaurants, 2 general Dry goods stores, a Hotel, a Newspaper, 2 Candy stores, a Roller Skating rink, a machine shop, and a Blacksmith shop, a Garage, 3 Lumber yards, a Bank, 2 or 3 Pool halls, a Barber shop, 2 Dray lines, had a School, and it also had about 50 homes with a population of 350 persons.
OK Solberg:After the Great Northern Roundhouse was abandoned in 1920, the businesses and the people drifted away, leaving the lonely elevator to represent the town, end of quote.
OK Solberg:Something every resident of Phillips County should know, a ghost town that even lost its town. But check out the foundation for the roundhouse. It's a must see to any person who still enjoys history, including you, Doc. You and me will go out there.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.