A Shining Ruby in the Horse Prairie Valley
In our twelve years of owning the Horse Prairie Ranch in the Horse Prairie Valley there have been a number of outstanding, strong, and beautiful women whose lives have graced the Valley. These women have in common a love for and experience with the Valley. They didn’t all have the same skills but they were incredible performers, in many ways outdoing their fellow gender. Not only was the Valley graced by these women but their lives were also touched by the Valley. No matter what circumstance it was that brought these ladies to the Valley, they survived and, today, must have the fondest of memories about their lives in the Horse Prairie Valley.
I want to spotlight one of the women of the Horse Prairie Valley. She was one of the Valley’s oldest and toughest women. Her name was Ruby Prohosky. Within a year of purchasing the HPR, we had the opportunity to purchase another contiguous ranch, which had been mostly homesteaded by Jim (and John) and Ruby Prohosky. Jim and his brother John arrived in Dillon on the Immigrant Train with their friend George Geesa. These three men homesteaded in the Horse Prairie Valley, specifically George on the Old Hughes Place (the HPR) and Jim and John on the Prohosky Place. Ruby used to call Jim “Pa” and Jim would call Ruby “Sis”. Ruby and the Prohosky’s ran 415 Cows on their two places --- the lower place off Mansfield Lane and the summer Cow Camp, known today as Elk Haven. Jim had passed away many years before we arrived and his widow, Ruby, lived alone in the ranch house and outbuildings on 9 acres. I’ve always had a respect for older people and I wanted to make friends with Ruby early on. Ruby told me once that I was the first newcomer to the Valley to “come over and talk with me”. On the 28th of March, 1996, I invited Ruby to join our ranch manager, Mackey Hedges, and I for a tour of the Old Prohosky Place, which we had just purchased from Temple Sloan who owned the Bar Double T ranch across the Valley (and used the Prohosky place for calving). I got a tape recorder and jumped in my pickup with Ruby and Mac. I made sure that Ruby was in the front passenger seat (quite a contrast with the practice on the Indian Reservation in northern Arizona where I grew up and where the Indian women rode in the back of the pickup). We started out to tour the 714 deeded acres of what we would come to call the “Lower Horse Prairie Ranch” or LHPR.
Ruby loved to talk, was enthusiastic, and was always spinning a yarn or reconstructing an historical event. She was fond of telling me about all the good ideas she had for the ranch. I can hear her now almost yelling “God damn, Ken, if you get water in that Prohosky ditch on March 1, before any other user wants it or even thinks about it and are still iced over, you can have the greenest pastures in the Valley”. Ruby said that the old Prohosky Canal always had water in it. Speaking of irrigation and water Ruby told us of the sheet of ice that came off the southwest slope of Bachelor Mountain, onto the Prohosky Place, on March 28, 1958 --- exactly 38 years to the day of our tour of the LHPR.
Ruby was meticulous in taking care of her place. She had records for everything. She could tell you how many feet the septic tank was from the house (we once looked for years for the septic tank that serviced one of the cabins at LakeSide). Ruby’s garden was the largest and most beautiful in the Valley. She had every beautiful flower, plant, shrub, and tree that would grow in southwest Montana. She cared for them as if they were her children. I would often sit with Ruby at her kitchen table and we would have “conversation” (e.g. I was a good listener) for hours. When I left Marie at our RanchView home near headquarters to drive to Ruby’s house I would know that it might take a half day. I got up enough nerve on a few occasions to ask Ruby her age but she guarded that secret very well. I think that I once pieced together that she might be on the shady side of her eighties.
Ruby was very traditional and of the old school. She could swear with the best of them. She lived in a Valley dominated by men but held her own on many occasions. One summer she spent much of the day transplanting some of her beautiful flowers from her place to our LakeSide guest area, near the CreekSide Lodge. I wasn’t that impressed with where she was planting the flowers but I wasn’t about to throw cold water on her Daisies! It was an honor to see her put her fingerprints on our place.
Ruby was pretty opinionated about her neighbors. She either really liked someone or really didn’t like them. I remember once when she told me about her encounters with Bill Wellborn, a neighbor who at one time leased her place from another predecessor owner. Once, as part of a dispute, Bill Wellborn dropped a dead Cow just beneath Ruby’s kitchen window. I know Bill and I can see him doing that. I am not sure what Ruby did with the dead Cow. Amazing behavior for a couple of old ranchers working through a dispute……..maybe better than alternatives.
Ruby owned an old blue Cadillac. She kept it clean and always in the garage. It’s always been interesting to me that old ranchers buy sedan cars to go to town while those of us in town buy pickups to go to the country! Ruby also owned a nice old green pickup truck which she hardly ever used.
One day Ruby told me about their original ranch. It was comprised of more than 700 acres of mostly irrigated pastures with late water rights, two BLM pastures, and several hundred acres of a summer “Cow Camp” next to the Forest boundary, where they also ran 175 Pairs on 4 pastures, the same pastures that the HPR has today (the Prohosky Forest Service lease was lost by successors to the Prohosky, due most likely to poor management; the Hughes ranch also lost 325 of their original 500 capacity). Ruby told me one day about how a real estate person, and his father, had messed up the sale of their ranch by selling off the Cow Camp, separate from the rest of the ranch. Viable ranches need leased lands, deeded lands, pastures close to the Forest Service pastures, and a hay base. If one of the components of a viable ranch is sold off then the rest of the ranch is not viable, i.e. not complete or whole. In a future blog entry I will tell you more about what eventually happened to Jim and Ruby’s ranch.
One day Marie and I left the ranch on a cold fall day. After driving for awhile we realized that we had not seen Ruby on this trip. We wondered if she was okay. We called Rick and Karen, who worked for us at the time, and asked them to go to Ruby’s house and check on her. Rick and Karen could not get Ruby to answer her door. They broke into the house and found Ruby peacefully lying on her bed, deceased. It was the end of an era. The Ruby would never shine again in the Horse Prairie Valley. For years I felt Ruby’s spirit in the Valley but missed her shine.
We worked with Ruby’s daughter to purchase her ranch……..all 9 acres with numerous outbuildings. Ruby’s daughter got the old pickup and gave the old Cadillac to Rick and Karen. It was an honor for me that Ruby would sell the last 9 acres of their ranch to our family.
I want to spotlight one of the women of the Horse Prairie Valley. She was one of the Valley’s oldest and toughest women. Her name was Ruby Prohosky. Within a year of purchasing the HPR, we had the opportunity to purchase another contiguous ranch, which had been mostly homesteaded by Jim (and John) and Ruby Prohosky. Jim and his brother John arrived in Dillon on the Immigrant Train with their friend George Geesa. These three men homesteaded in the Horse Prairie Valley, specifically George on the Old Hughes Place (the HPR) and Jim and John on the Prohosky Place. Ruby used to call Jim “Pa” and Jim would call Ruby “Sis”. Ruby and the Prohosky’s ran 415 Cows on their two places --- the lower place off Mansfield Lane and the summer Cow Camp, known today as Elk Haven. Jim had passed away many years before we arrived and his widow, Ruby, lived alone in the ranch house and outbuildings on 9 acres. I’ve always had a respect for older people and I wanted to make friends with Ruby early on. Ruby told me once that I was the first newcomer to the Valley to “come over and talk with me”. On the 28th of March, 1996, I invited Ruby to join our ranch manager, Mackey Hedges, and I for a tour of the Old Prohosky Place, which we had just purchased from Temple Sloan who owned the Bar Double T ranch across the Valley (and used the Prohosky place for calving). I got a tape recorder and jumped in my pickup with Ruby and Mac. I made sure that Ruby was in the front passenger seat (quite a contrast with the practice on the Indian Reservation in northern Arizona where I grew up and where the Indian women rode in the back of the pickup). We started out to tour the 714 deeded acres of what we would come to call the “Lower Horse Prairie Ranch” or LHPR.
Ruby loved to talk, was enthusiastic, and was always spinning a yarn or reconstructing an historical event. She was fond of telling me about all the good ideas she had for the ranch. I can hear her now almost yelling “God damn, Ken, if you get water in that Prohosky ditch on March 1, before any other user wants it or even thinks about it and are still iced over, you can have the greenest pastures in the Valley”. Ruby said that the old Prohosky Canal always had water in it. Speaking of irrigation and water Ruby told us of the sheet of ice that came off the southwest slope of Bachelor Mountain, onto the Prohosky Place, on March 28, 1958 --- exactly 38 years to the day of our tour of the LHPR.
Ruby was meticulous in taking care of her place. She had records for everything. She could tell you how many feet the septic tank was from the house (we once looked for years for the septic tank that serviced one of the cabins at LakeSide). Ruby’s garden was the largest and most beautiful in the Valley. She had every beautiful flower, plant, shrub, and tree that would grow in southwest Montana. She cared for them as if they were her children. I would often sit with Ruby at her kitchen table and we would have “conversation” (e.g. I was a good listener) for hours. When I left Marie at our RanchView home near headquarters to drive to Ruby’s house I would know that it might take a half day. I got up enough nerve on a few occasions to ask Ruby her age but she guarded that secret very well. I think that I once pieced together that she might be on the shady side of her eighties.
Ruby was very traditional and of the old school. She could swear with the best of them. She lived in a Valley dominated by men but held her own on many occasions. One summer she spent much of the day transplanting some of her beautiful flowers from her place to our LakeSide guest area, near the CreekSide Lodge. I wasn’t that impressed with where she was planting the flowers but I wasn’t about to throw cold water on her Daisies! It was an honor to see her put her fingerprints on our place.
Ruby was pretty opinionated about her neighbors. She either really liked someone or really didn’t like them. I remember once when she told me about her encounters with Bill Wellborn, a neighbor who at one time leased her place from another predecessor owner. Once, as part of a dispute, Bill Wellborn dropped a dead Cow just beneath Ruby’s kitchen window. I know Bill and I can see him doing that. I am not sure what Ruby did with the dead Cow. Amazing behavior for a couple of old ranchers working through a dispute……..maybe better than alternatives.
Ruby owned an old blue Cadillac. She kept it clean and always in the garage. It’s always been interesting to me that old ranchers buy sedan cars to go to town while those of us in town buy pickups to go to the country! Ruby also owned a nice old green pickup truck which she hardly ever used.
One day Ruby told me about their original ranch. It was comprised of more than 700 acres of mostly irrigated pastures with late water rights, two BLM pastures, and several hundred acres of a summer “Cow Camp” next to the Forest boundary, where they also ran 175 Pairs on 4 pastures, the same pastures that the HPR has today (the Prohosky Forest Service lease was lost by successors to the Prohosky, due most likely to poor management; the Hughes ranch also lost 325 of their original 500 capacity). Ruby told me one day about how a real estate person, and his father, had messed up the sale of their ranch by selling off the Cow Camp, separate from the rest of the ranch. Viable ranches need leased lands, deeded lands, pastures close to the Forest Service pastures, and a hay base. If one of the components of a viable ranch is sold off then the rest of the ranch is not viable, i.e. not complete or whole. In a future blog entry I will tell you more about what eventually happened to Jim and Ruby’s ranch.
One day Marie and I left the ranch on a cold fall day. After driving for awhile we realized that we had not seen Ruby on this trip. We wondered if she was okay. We called Rick and Karen, who worked for us at the time, and asked them to go to Ruby’s house and check on her. Rick and Karen could not get Ruby to answer her door. They broke into the house and found Ruby peacefully lying on her bed, deceased. It was the end of an era. The Ruby would never shine again in the Horse Prairie Valley. For years I felt Ruby’s spirit in the Valley but missed her shine.
We worked with Ruby’s daughter to purchase her ranch……..all 9 acres with numerous outbuildings. Ruby’s daughter got the old pickup and gave the old Cadillac to Rick and Karen. It was an honor for me that Ruby would sell the last 9 acres of their ranch to our family.
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