In May (bet you couldn't guess that from the fact
that this was Memorial Day) of 1999, my cousin dropped me a note saying she was
coming up to Wyoming for Memorial Day. Would I like to meet her in Red Lodge? She
would drive up and we'd meet. This was the first time we'd met since discovering
each other and e-meeting over the internet. I'd stay with Uncle Hank. She would
come up and we'd discuss and exchange information about our mutual family.
I agreed and we met as planned. To make a long story short,
and spare you the details of how Uncle Hank and I worried about her because she was late,
called her relatives in Wyoming to see when she left and discover how late she was, drove
into town and looked all over for a Camry (didn't have any idea what color) with Colorado
license plates, called the Highway Patrol (a friend of my uncle), let me say she arrived
later than we expected!!!
Remember now, it was Memorial Day. What does it do in
Red Lodge on Memorial Day? All together now: "IT RAINS!" 1999 was no exception.
But would a little cloudy weather and a few rain drops deter a determined bunch of Cestniks?
If you said yes, you don't know us very well. After all, Scotch Coulee was over the hill.
Surely, it wouldn't be raining over the hill. Surely!!! As the photo above indicates,
it was a cloudy day, but the rains held off while we visited. (Is God good or what?)
Prior to our visit to Scotch Coulee, we had picked up some
flowers to decorate the graves and Vincent Cestnik home site. We stopped at the top of Red Lodge
Hill (that's what I'm calling it for the time being anyway), and Uncle Hank pointed out where
John and Rosa Cestnik's ranch had been. (We took some photographs but I don't see them now. Later maybe.)
Anyway, everytime I go to visit my family's roots, it seems to be a new experience.
This time, the fence was down. We were able to go right to the place where Uncle Hank
has placed the wooden cross (marking Vincent Cestnik's homesite) and fasten down the flower arrangement we purchased. When it rains, it makes
things MUCH greener. I'd never seen it so beautiful. Springtime in the Coulee (doesn't that have
the promise of a song? Hum a few bars of Springtime in the Rockies, I guess...) brings other little
critters too. (Isn't that right, Irene?) This Memorial Day, when I put down the flowers,
I came out crawling with ticks. I mean crawling. If you look carefully,
you probably can see them in the picture with the cross. It makes me shudder to recall the
experience.
While we were in the coulee, we picked my uncle's brain. I mean that
almost literally. The Cestnik family lived in Scotch Coulee in the 1920s and 30s. This was 1999, remember.
We asked Uncle Hank if he could help us make a map of Scotch Coulee as it was when
he lived there. It was amazing. It's been some sixty years since he lived there, yet as Uncle Hank drove
up the coulee with us, he told us where a person's house was and maybe a little story about them.
Did you catch that SIXTY YEARS number? There were around fifty houses and names that he remembered and located
for us.
One story, Uncle Hank told us was that the coulee was sort of divided into two groups.
I think the dividing line was at the Planichek's, but perhaps, it was the Maurich house. The Cestnik's were above the line. We'll call them
the Upper Coulee Kids (UCK) vs Lower Coulee Kids (LCK). While they were mostly all Slovenians and certainly they all loved each
other, they were boys and girls (er, TOMboys!) not the Moms and Dads of course -- the kids. Once a year or so, Uncle Hank
said something would come up and they'd get into. . . let's say slight disagreements. Well, maybe quarrels. Okay,
okay, so they were . . . fist-fightin', name callin', low-down, dirty rotten, rock-throwin', kickin', screaming fights. It was the UCKs vs the LCKs. "See this scar above my eye?" Uncle Hank pointed. "That
came from one of those fights!"
Then, Uncle Hank said, "And the boy that hit me with the rock. . ." he paused, and in a way, that only Uncle Hank can do...smiled--starting out as a small grin, and gradually
growing into a full blown smile, he finished "he's got a big scar too!" Yes, Uncle Hank told me his name. It will just have to stay with me. He still
lives in Red Lodge. Uncle Hank says they're friends today.
It's not finished yet, but here's what the map looks like.
It is my desire to have short stories that my uncle and Mother Dutchess (Irene's Mother) tell us about the
people living in Scotch Coulee when the Cestnik's lived there. That's a ways off. You'll just
have to keep coming back. (You can visit the Cestnik Shopping Mall while you
wait!!!)
After decorating the homesite, taking lots of pictures, (these are courtesy of
my cousin Irene, by the way), mapping Scotch Coulee to help preserve it for future generations, hearing
several stories, we were off to the Bearcreek Cemetery to visit John and Vincent's gravesites.
This photo to the right shows Vincent Cestnik's grave, enclosed in concrete with the round topped
headstone. His father, John's grave is to the right and has a cross as the headstone.
We stayed there and decorated both of the graves. There is a memorial at the cemetery
to the many victims of the Smith Mine disaster of 1943. (By the way, this sign is at the Smith Mine, site. I don't have a photo of the memorial in the cemetery.)
Uncle Hank was working at the mine that very day. I believe he said he was one of the first men
to reach the victims of the tragic accident.
There had been a lot of rain and the cemetery was very green as you can tell in the photographs. It was a much more welcome-looking place. Here are my relatives. Close by, in Scotch Coulee, at the Vincent Cestnik homesite, are my parent's ashes.
