Lest We Forget The Graves - The Samples Flat Church (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798427550796)

This is a story of more than just a country church. It is also a story about the land and about Montana. I want this to be more than a story of a forgotten church; a church built in a land that already was old, having a history going back thousands of years that started with an ancient melting ice shelf. The land, experienced the near extermination of the American bison, followed closely by the demise of the Native American Indians. Finally, the land would witness the arrival of the white man. First, the explorers and pioneers, the fur-traders and gold seekers. The final chapter of the Samples Flat church is the arrival of the homesteaders and the plow, changing the land forever.

No one knew why this land was called The Samples Flat. On the map, it is an area in northcentral Montana in the middle of Chouteau County. An abandoned church stands tall in this open part of Montana. It is surrounded by wheat farms with alternating strips of wheat; fallow ground one year, then wheat the nest year. Strips run mostly in a north/south direction. Poor soil that, once a year will support wheat, then the next year, it will stand fallow resting; needing to gather enough energy to be planted once again in the fall for next year's crop.

To an unknowing eye this land could be called "uncharacteristic." At first glance the land appears flat with occasional sandstone hills and a wind that some say, blows all the time. It is a land with an interesting history, here the advance of northern glaciers would end. Then slowly, they retreated back. How many times did glaciers advance and retreat over the millennia? Even the geologists are unsure.

More recently, the buffalo roamed over this area of Montana; for a thousand years and more. Adding to the bison, Native American Indians followed these migrating herds as the buffalo was their life source.

Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery were the first white pioneers from early America tasked by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the vast lands west of the Mississippi river. Their riverboat was filled with all the supplies they would need to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers at St. Louis, to the Pacific Ocean. On their return trip, Lewis and Clark would separate in order to explore as much of the territory as possible. It was Cark who likely walked across this are of Samples Flat, trying to meet back up with the expedition at the Missouri near Fort Benton.

Author: Will Stubsten
ISBN-13: 9798427550796
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 03/27/2022
Pages: 92
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.23lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.19d