How Much is a Buffalo Hide Worth
Written by Laura Cassidy
The drive to Philipsburg has always awakened sharp memories of my childhood travels. The unchanged beauty that is spring pricks my senses. I wiggle in my seat trying to see around the next bend before we get there. Why? I know exactly what lies ahead.
Kerry came home from work with the classified section of the Missoulian in his hand, “Honey, there’s a teepee for sale in the paper, what do you think? Would you like to take a drive and check it out?”
A teepee? We had just purchased a 20 acre patented mining claim. The plan was to have something framed and closed in, a well drilled, and a solar system, all by winter. We had already picked up a big Ford 4x4 with an awesome Boss V plow in anticipation of our need to keep the road open when the snow hit. Bought it from a guy in Polson. Why not a teepee in Philipsburg? The drive gave us time to brainstorm a bit. In hindsight, daydream might be a better word for it. With fire season ahead, always busy for Kerry, perhaps enclosing something to live in by winter was over optimistic?
We found Virginia’s place in the warm glow of evening, and when we saw it, well, it was like something came alive in each other’s eyes. As we listened to Virginia’s tales of many years spent with the teepee as her home, her need to sell it for enough money to leave Montana and a rough break up behind, heading to the Virgin Islands to start anew, we looked at each other and asked, “How much?”. How much was a 16’ Blue Star teepee worth? Complete with the poles, and 18 crystals dug by her from Crystal Park, high in the Elkhorn Mountains? According to Virginia, $890 would cover it.
As we drove home, moonlight shining bright on the countryside out the windows of our truck, teepee poles bouncing overhead, tied down as well as we could manage, two people who fell in love not too many years back, under a full moon at a hot springs, high in the Elkhorn Mountains, discussed how wise it would had been to pass on the $900 buffalo hide that Virginia was so sure would make our new abode complete. So how much was a buffalo hide worth, anyway?
(Later realizing that old TeePee was actually worth maybe $400 - $450)
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Laura Cassidy, alias Mountain Queen of the Northern Spy