(plant rustling) - [John] Coming up on "Backroads of Montana," from these Western Montana fields, to the farmer's market.

- It smells like, get it while you can 'cause it's going, going gone.

- [John] Discover the story of the melons that are worth the wait.

(horse hitch rattling) Hit the trail in North Central Montana to see how this tradition rolls on.

Learn the history behind this Western Montana campsite and the battle that did not happen.

- Look, there's one right up there.

- [John] And in Southern Montana, visit a place for stargazers to gather and explore the cosmos together.

- [Jeremy] Just having that curiosity, I feel like is a healthy thing for a community.

- [John] Stick around.

This episode is one in a melon.

- [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," recognizing the outstanding people and places around our state.

I'm John Twiggs, and on this episode, we get to enjoy the sights and sounds of one of the largest Native American gatherings in the country.

(drums beating) (dancers exclaiming) Crow Fair is a cultural celebration, but it's often described as a giant family reunion.

The annual gathering is on the Crow Reservation and Southeastern Montana, with usually more than 20,000 people, native and non-native, attending the multi-day event.

During our show, we'll experience the pageantry of the grand entry, visit the massive encampment of more than 1,000 tipis, check out the truly unique Indian relay, and learn more about the history and tradition of this annual summer event.

Late summer also signals a special field harvest in Western Montana of a fruit that's not easy to grow here, but an unlikely farmer cracked the code in producing juicy, vine-ripened melons in the rolling hills of rural Dixon, and their taste has earned a fan base that makes the fruits worth the labor.

- [Harley] You get lucky.

You've gotta have good, good weather and hopefully you're right there when that happens.

- [John] In farming, a lot has to line up.

- [Faus] I'd say you have to be somewhat of a gambler to actually be a farmer.

- [John] And in Montana, it's even chancier to place your bets on melons.

- [Faus] It's not a crop that's suited for Montana really.

- [Cassie] There's always gonna be years where the weather's off a little bit.

- [Faus] I mean, we've had snow storms and frost.

- We don't like to say the word, but I would say hail.

- I mean we're always almost pretty much one year away from total failure, you know.

(gentle music) - [John] Every element matters, from the microbes in the soil, to the microclimate in this slice of Sanders County.

- [Cassie] Here in Dixon, we kind of have a little bit of a tropical zone, I would guess you would say.

- [John] A sweet spot for growing.

- [Cassie] Then once summer comes, where we've got the plants in, we're getting the weeds taken care of, and then it's just water, weed and wait.

(upbeat music) - [John] In fact, one of the most important practices is patience.

- [Cassie] You might see one melon one day that's slightly turned.

- [Faus] Almost ready.

- You don't pick it, you wait until the next day and then it'll be turned all the way and then you know that the sugar is gonna be as sweet as it's gonna get.

So that's why you have to be out there every single day.

If you pick 'em when they're green, they're not gonna have that flavor that you get with the Dixon melon.

That one is insanely good.

(upbeat music continues) - [John] That means they go from the field to the farmer's market as fast as possible.

- I know people like Dixon melons, but if we didn't deliver something that tasted good, they wouldn't show up, you know.

- It's that time of year again for the Dixon melons.

- Did you want red or yellow watermelon?

- You can't get a melon like it anywhere else in the world.

They're just so good, you don't mind waiting.

- I mean, you pull up to a farmer's market and there's already a line, you know something's going well and you're doing, all the hard work is worth it at that point.

Two canta?

Sure, I can do that.

- This is our treat for the year is Dixon melons.

(laughing) - They're local and they're extra juicy.

- I mean, if you buy a regular cantaloupe in the grocery store, it tastes like a piece of cardboard.

This tastes like a piece of candy.

- Go for it.

- It tastes very sweet, pretty sweet, but not too sweet to where you wanna not eat it.

- This is a called a canary.

- [John] With seven varieties to choose from, most buy more than one.

- I've never seen a sinful anywhere else, and the watermelons, they have red and yellow.

I mean, come on, you can't beat this.

- [Cassie] When they find the melon they like, they are die hard.

- I have on this shirt.

- [Cassie] Die hard.

They will get there an hour early if they have to to make sure that they get one of the ones that they know we don't have very many of.

Small smallish, this guy, okay.

- [Nevada] They're buying them for their whole family, you know, and it's a must-stop at the farmer's market and that's what the cool part is, is that we're, you know, we're just so popular that we have a line until we're done.

- [John] Today, the line speaks for itself.

But founding farmer Harley Hettick remembers offering free samples to spur sales.

- We used to like to cut the metal on in a half moon because the kids will all go for right for the middle.

Next thing you got is a kid with melon juice all over his face and dripping off his or her ears.

(Harley laughing) That's the best advertising you can have.

- [John] Harley first cracked the code on producing juicy, flavorful melons four decades ago.

- [Faus] He's the melon king is what we call him and he has been for a long time.

- [John] But long before he earned the cantaloupe crown, folks around Western Montana knew him for wearing another hat, newspaper photographer.

- I love photography, crazy about it.

That's all I dreamt about doing.

(upbeat music) - [John] The 26-year-old with North Dakota roots landed a job at "The Missoulian" in 1968.

For a decade, Harley's photos became Western Montana's first draft of history as he highlighted the humanity and humor in everyday life.

He knew precisely when to click the shutter, but it also helped having luck on his side, like the time he captured his most lucrative image at the bison range.

- At the right place, at the right time.

That's what luck is, I guess, being ready for it, you know.

- [John] He was ready for it 12 years later when things clicked with an Evaro restaurant owner named Joey Silvernale.

Harley had figured out the formula to grow melons in his backyard in Dixon, much to his neighbors' surprise, and Joey thought they were exceptional.

- She'd get a good one, and man, that was the end of that one.

- [John] Joey knew she and others would pay good money for a good melon, so in 1986, the couple took a chance on starting a commercial melon business.

Joey's son, Faus Silvernale, remembers those early days.

Once people tried the melons, they came back for more.

Faus grew along with the business and today he and his wife, Cassie, run the operation.

- I can do that.

- [John] Each harvest, they share with heavy hearts, since Joey lost her battle with breast cancer.

- She had a great attitude when it came to the business and really believed in what we were doing.

When you have somebody like that around in your business, it kind of is contagious and everybody kind of catches it.

(upbeat music) - Sometimes it baffles me, but it still happens.

It happens every year as people line up and I'm like, holy cow, they're here again this year.

- [John] And you can bet everyone is happy- - One more.

- One more.

- [John] Harley took a chance on Melons.

- Boy, I think they're lucky, don't you?

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah.

- [Customer] You have great melons.

- Even though a Dixon melon will keep up to two weeks in the fridge, Harley says he's never seen one stick around that long, without getting eaten.

(horse hooves clomping) Each day there is so much to see at Crow Fair.

Every morning there's a parade through the encampment with a Color Guard of Native American veterans leading the way, followed by a wonderful display from mainly Crow tribal members.

(drums beating) But for even more dazzling color and artistry, there's the Grand Entry.

(drums beating) (dancers exclaiming) Each day it starts the powwow with typically more than 500 dancers from the US and Canada.

It's a time-honored tradition.

- The color and the pageantry of the the Grand Entry, that's what people see, but among the Crow we say, "Kick the ground and let Mother Earth know you're still doing good on earth."

That's why we dance, that's why we celebrate as Crow people.

We kick the ground and we tell Mother Earth that we're still doing good on Mother Earth, so this is a celebration of life here at Great Crow Fair.

(drumbeat music) (metal jingling) - There are many ways to take in Montana's beauty, from the back of a horse, to a seat on a wagon.

We hitched a ride at the start of a three-day trail ride, and as we headed around Square Butte, we learned how this one tradition has rolled on for more than 50 years.

(horse hitch rattling) - [Rocky] Wow.

- [Gerry] Everybody say wagon train wagon!

- [All] Wagon train!

(gentle country music) (wagon squeaking) - [Gerry] It's exciting.

I mean, it's fun.

You never know what's gonna happen.

- It's kind of one big family.

About half of these people were here last year or the year before.

They keep coming back.

(gentle country music continues) (grass rustling) - Chouteau County Trailblazers has the ride every year over Father's Day weekend and we just call it the wagon train.

That's what we all call it.

- [Rocky] The guys started it in 1971.

- And it was just local ranchers and farmers that would get together and go do this ride.

That's how it started and then it branched out and they started getting more people and more people coming in.

- [Robert] Hell, there's 50 some people here.

There's people from Florida, Canada, and then scattered out clear across the rest of Montana.

(wagon rattling) (gentle country music continues) - [Rocky] I'm the longest, oldest member still going.

I'm still hanging in there.

- It's my first time.

It's a great group of people.

Very friendly, lot of fun.

So far we've had a lot of fun visiting with everybody.

(rhythmic banjo music) - This is Love Yanger.

- This is how you sit on a horse 2024.

- [Gerry] Today is like a 10, 11-mile day.

Normally we probably have about four or five, at least five wagons, and so this year to have only two wagons was really an odd oddball thing.

- Just walk, long day.

Driving is like a 90% hands-on thing in this kind of terrain.

It is a lot more relaxing to ride a horse.

Goes back to the Westerns and kind of the cowboys are the heroes, but the guy that shows up with the wagon with the food and the bed roll is probably the most important person in the outfit.

(wagon jostling) - They need seat belts back here.

- Well, Rocky, I want you to walk out front and direct me.

- [Rocky] Okay.

(laughing) - Around the rock.

- Yeah.

- [Tim] Pioneers had it a lot worse than we do.

- Well, I open the gate and I tie a ribbon on it, the last one through the gate, he closes it, pulls the ribbon, brings me the ribbon so that I know that those gates are closed.

Keeping gates closed, keeping the landowners happy, that's a big deal for us.

Without the landowners, we don't have a shot at doing this period.

- Easy and whoa.

We're making good progress, just giving the mules a break.

(rhythmic banjo music continues) (grass rustling) - [Robert] When you get out here and see the country, see the people, and you're on a horse, it's very calming.

- But when you look out to the whole horizon, it's just beautiful, beautiful land.

I mean, we're lucky.

- [Tim] You get to see country that we don't get to see any other time unless we're doing this.

(horse neighing) (upbeat music) - [Participant] This is gonna be camp.

The chuckwagon will come in later, feed all of us wonderful food.

(upbeat music continues) - [Rocky] We made it through the first day.

- [Gerry] We did.

♪ Put another log on the fire ♪ Cook me up some bacon and some beans ♪ ♪ Go out to the car and lift it up and change a tire ♪ - [Participant] We got good food, good view, and a good time.

♪ Come on baby, you can fill my pipe ♪ ♪ Then go fetch my slippers ♪ Then boil me up another pot of tea ♪ - The crew finished their three-day ride in the town of Geraldine and they're already planning a different route for next year.

They're always looking for new folks to ride along, so if you're interested, check out the Chouteau County Trailblazer's Facebook page for more details.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) Crow Fair is sometimes referred to as the Tipi Capital of the World.

Typically more than 1,000 tipis lined the grounds around the arbor.

They're a reminder of the event's history.

Crow Fair started in 1904 when the federal government thought a country fair format would help assimilation.

At the time, federal Indian policy generally prohibited traditional Native ceremonies, but the singing, dancing, and massive encampment quickly became most popular with tourists, and after World War II, the Crow tribe dropped agricultural aspects of the fair and focused on Native heritage, watching it grow into one of the most popular cultural celebrations in the nation.

(drum beat music) Our next story takes us back to Western Montana.

Today it's a peaceful picnic spot near the small town of Lolo, but nearly 150 years ago, it was almost the site of a catastrophic battle.

(car swooshing) - They probably get a pretty big laugh.

I mean, I remember when I first moved here, I'm like, "What the heck is this?

What's Fort Fizzle?"

And I mean, that's intriguing.

- [John] Lolo National Forest Archeologist Syd Bacon acknowledges there's no fort to be seen here, and Fizzle certainly doesn't seem like a distinguished name for an historical site.

- It's just a joke.

It's a farce, it's a comedy.

- [John] Local historian Austin Haney believes the unusual name fits the unusual turn of events that makes this sleepy picnic site special.

(gentle music) Nearly 150 years ago, the Nez Perce Indians were fleeing oppression and reservations in Idaho, seeking a peaceful passage and friends in Montana.

- [Austin] That traditional route that they've come down for generations, it's the Lolo Trail and that's the route they're gonna take.

- When the people, the white people in Missoula knew that the Indians were starting to come over into the hills, they essentially freaked out.

- The Missoulian infamously puts out that call, "Help, help come running."

- [John] Hundreds of settlers from the Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys answered the call and joined a small contingent of soldiers here were the valley narrows.

- [Austin] This was the most defensible part of the Lolo Canyon.

And so this idea of building the barricade, it maximizes your small numbers.

- [John] By late July of 1877, soldiers and volunteers were prepared for what they expected would be a terrible battle.

- I think they truly were thinking that, "Yep, they'll come straight on and this is it boys."

- They were probably terrified, of course, for their own lives.

- [John] How did it feel to sit behind that barricade, knowing it could be your last day on earth?

One of the settlers left an account of that.

It was hidden away in the Missoula County Archives for more than 100 years before employees unearthed it while scanning old documents.

The pages of the letter are brittle and yellowed with age, but the words are as powerful today as when they were written so many years ago.

- I've never seen this.

"July 26th, 1877.

'Dear Sister, the Indian question is red hot and still heating.'"

- "If we can keep them at bay until tomorrow, we will surprise them."

- "I have about 125 head of horses."

- "I have a brown stallion."

- "I also left $1,300 in gold."

- "I am single and alone.

No one has any claim on what I've mentioned."

- "I mentioned this for, there is no telling what might happen to me.

I mean, I might get killed."

- "If I do, I give you all I have got here to you."

- "I am in the saddle and off, so goodbye.

Your brother, John Hammer."

Wow.

- That's like his last living will and testament.

That's pretty amazing.

- [John] But John Hammer would not die that day, neither would anyone else.

The Nez Perce decided on a peaceful solution.

In the early morning hours, all 800 men, women and children hiked the surrounding ridges and went around the barricade.

- The sign says, "A successful failure."

I guess it kind of was because no one perished on July 28th, 1877.

Even though it did fizzle out, it was a successful failure.

- The US Forest Service recently purchased the hillside where the Nez Perce hiked to avoid confrontation with the settlers and soldiers at Fort Fizzle.

The agency hopes to collaborate with the tribe for an archeological exploration of the area.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) There are great athletes to watch at the Annual Crow Fair in Southeastern Montana.

The All-Indian Rodeo showcases some of the best talent on the circuit.

In addition to the rodeo, there's the unique Indian relay.

The Plains Indians originated the race on the open prairie, but it now takes place on a traditional horse track.

The competition includes a relay-style event.

The rider exchange demonstrates the athleticism and horsemanship needed to be a star in this Indian relay.

The stars come out in our final story for some nighttime fun.

There's a new public observatory in Southern Montana where curiosity, community and the cosmos all come together.

We'll let these night owls in Red Lodge tell us just how much they love Montana's big, dark sky.

(gentle music) - [Jeremy] It's almost a meditative experience.

And when you come out and look at the sky, you do obviously see how small you are in the big scheme of things.

(gentle music continues) And also experiencing it with other people is a community event.

- That one.

- Yeah.

- Oh, I see.

Check that out.

- Yeah.

- That's pretty cool.

- [John] Jeremy Battles is one of the familiar faces at Whistler Observatory, Red Lodge's new home for stargazing with friends and neighbors.

- You know, you can kind of just be alone with your thoughts, but then, you know, share various things.

It's almost like sitting around a campfire as well.

- Look, there's one right up there.

They're starting to pop.

(laughing) - Oh, that's part of Virgo.

- [John] It's hard to think of a hobby older than stargazing, and somehow, connecting the dots in the night sky still holds up, even in a world full of high tech entertainment.

- So you can actually take a moment to really experience wonder.

(gentle music continues) - [John] That's not to say there's no technology here.

Telescopes and cameras allow for peering further into space and capturing other-worldly scenes.

These images are all courtesy of Jeremy, Chair of the local Dark Skies group, and as you can see, quite the astrophotographer.

- Some of our larger scopes here, we can get pretty good visual images of galaxies that are, you know, completely invisible to the naked eye.

And those are whole other, you know, universes unto themselves.

(gentle music continues) Those are photons that left those galaxies in some cases 100 million years ago and there you are, it's hitting your retina.

That's a pretty cool concept.

- [John] Jeremy's been at this for a while.

What's new is having a dedicated place to do it.

- Having a place where you can do it that's not down in town really, really helps and having a place to keep large telescopes like this one is really helpful too 'cause you can imagine lugging this out is quite a process, so having somewhere where it can be set up more or less instantly is pretty great.

- The Whistler Observatory is a place where our community and visitors to our community can just visit the night sky and visit with each other and grow meaning in our place among the universe.

- [John] Theresa Whistler was the driving force behind the Observatory, which was named for her late husband, Ken Whistler, who passed away in January 2020.

- It's a place where we can educate the community about the importance of preserving and protecting our night sky.

It's a place where you can go and just stand in awe, without having to belong to an organization or paying a fee.

It's just right here in your backyard.

(gentle music) (crowd cheering) - [John] Theresa was there as they officially cut the ribbon on Whistler Observatory in April 2024 with a whole host of supporters.

The day turned out not just to be about astronomy, but an homage to the legacy of her husband.

- On the day of the dedication, I felt that I was just the luckiest person in the world to have the support of the community.

And I felt that, you know, I had finally put Ken to rest.

(laughing) I know it sounds funny, but that was what I set out to do is find a way to memorialize him in the community so it was just the most wonderful day.

- [John] As Red Lodge High school teacher Kirk Nell put it, "Ken was a guy with infectious curiosity and enthusiasm."

- There's a cool quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson that talks about kids.

"Kids are born scientists.

They wanna know why.

They wanna know how things work, and somewhere along the line, be it parents or teachers or life, kind of beats it out of us."

And Ken never lost that.

He never lost that and he modeled it for everybody else, which was, I think was just absolutely amazing.

- [John] The Whistler Observatory is an outgrowth of another project of Ken and Theresa Whistler, a place called Hero's Steam that serves as a learning lab and exploration center for the curious kids of Red Lodge.

For Theresa, the Observatory feels like a fitting extension of that and a great tribute.

- He'd be so happy.

(laughing) Ken was always looking for a way to share what he had.

(gentle music) There's something about standing outside and just meeting your neighbors with no agenda, just showing up and enjoying that together that I think people are looking for and I think it's a part of that trend where we're trying to hang onto things that we notice that are starting to miss in our cities or or miss in our lives.

Noticeably, the sky is a part of our environment.

- If you're feeling star parties might be right up your alley, there are other places in Montana to do it.

Helena and Missoula both have observatories, and in the East, Madison Rock's State Park is recognized as a Dark Sky Sanctuary, just some of the great places for stargazing in Montana.

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

We'd like to thank the great organizers at Crow Fair.

Remember, this amazing gathering happens annually on the third weekend in August.

Everyone is welcome.

We're always excited to hear what you're offering us for story ideas.

Drop us a message on our Facebook page, or you can 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."

(gentle music) - [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 mountain peaks to prairie lands ♪ ♪ The places I have known ♪ And I'm bound to ramble ♪ Yes, I'm bound to roam ♪ 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 (horse hooves galloping) (gentle music)