Nowhere: The Beginning, Life, and Decline of a Small Western Town

by Jack Beddall

In the short history of this country, tens of thousands of towns have been founded. Each had its own reasons, its own people, its own location. Some of them prospered mightily, becoming cities of great size and influence. Some became cities, some, large towns. Some of these towns never got past being “small.” For many of them, both that grew and those that did not, there can be what appears to be a reason. For instance, being located on water, in a nice climate, with fertile land and abundant wildlife, is a great advantage over being founded in a desert without any of those advantages. Some of these towns served temporary needs, such as the railroad being built. Some served industries such as mining or steel work or lumber. As long as the industry survived, so did the town. Some of the towns, however, just did not make it. They were founded with great hopes, grew into a full fledged town, complete with businesses, churches, service entities, and even a town law. Still, over time, the young who stayed never replaced the old that died, and eventually, all that was left was empty buildings and grown over roads. Nowhere, Montana is one of these towns. Located in a hard but not inhospitable location, served by water, but never enough, and populated both by the selfish and the generous, it did not survive past the early twentieth century. This is the story of its birth, growth, and eventual demise, told through the eyes of Tessa Hamilton, a young girl who was the most important element in the founding, Boone Voss, the idealistic young preacher from back east who founds the first church, and Juliet Whitlock, who was the first teacher in the school, a position she held for 27 years. Each of them has their own story, from their own perspective as the life of Nowhere, Montana is chronicled.

748 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2017