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| Lewis and Clark Caverns, Montana |
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Farmers Canal
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| Gallatin County, Montana |
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In 1890, farmers in the Gallatin Valley, eager to increase their yields, began work surveying and then digging a new ditch diverting water from the Gallatin River to their fields. The labor was back-breaking, even with the use of horse-drawn slips, but resulted in an 11-mile canal that flowed from Gallatin Gateway to Bozeman. The new waterway, incorporated as the Farmers Canal, is one in a web of irrigation canals snaking around the valley, and around the state of Montana. The technology is primitive — just a long hole in the ground — but indispensable to agricultural producers and the people who rely on them for food.
“Without irrigation, you wouldn’t see all this production agriculture here. It’s such a beneficial use of water,” said Dan Triemstra, current secretary of the Farmers Canal Company, the governing body that maintains the canal. “Agriculture is still a huge part of the economy of the Gallatin Valley.”
Triemstra is also one of 25 shareholders of the Farmers Canal, which he uses to grow a handful of grains and grasses on over 1,800 acres. Irrigation might make the work of a farmer more predictable, but it certainly doesn’t make it easy.
Triemstra wakes up before dawn to move his sprinkler lines. Wearing thigh-high rubber boots, he rides a dirt bike to a wheel line, which consists of dozens of sprinklers fixed to a long pipe with wheels. After draining the pipe, Triemstra kicks on a motor that moves the contraption forward, then reattaches it to the main water line. The sprinklers begin spitting out water as the sun peeks over the Bridger Mountains, and Triemstra moves on to the next field.
Even as the makeup of the Gallatin Valley changes, the Farmers Canal remains useful. Among its shareholders are housing developments and the city of Bozeman.
“If you tried to dig a canal nowadays — good luck," said Triemstra. "It’s a priceless thing to have that water conveyance facility there. And It ends up right in Bozeman. It's a valuable thing.”
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Carter's Boots
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| Bozeman, Montana |
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When Garrett Carter was one year old, his father Jeff, moved his boot repair business into a storefront on the 200 block of East Main Street.
“I literally grew up in this building,” said Garrett, now 23, as he deftly laid stitching across a rip in a pair of shoes. “I sat at this exact sewing machine and tried stitching things of my own creation.” On the other side of the shop, his father was trimming the edges of a new sole on an old cowboy boot.
Carter’s Boots and Repair has become a fixture in downtown Bozeman, beckoning dyed-in-the-wool ranch hands and tourists alike. “I hear all summer people come in, they're like, oh gosh, we used to have a little shoe repair shop in our town and the old guy died and they just closed it,” said Jeff.
Nearing the end of his career, Jeff has had to wrestle with potentially closing his business as well. This year, Carter’s will have to leave its building downtown. Jeff consulted his son, who has been a full-time employee for three years, on the future of the business. “He made a decision,” said Jeff proudly. “He said, ‘Yep, I think this is what I want to do.’”
The Carter’s plan to move into a shop on Huffine Lane, with twice as much space as their current location. Garrett is eager for the challenges of moving and one day taking over the company. “There’s always a learning curve on any project you’re doing,” he said. “We’re both still learning.”
