My grandfather passed away seven months ago. He was 94 years old. He had gone fishing

on one of his favorite streams and he happened to fall in. He seemed to be all right after

he made it home, but he ended up taking the pneumonia and he passed in the hospital bed

five days later. It was the only time in his life he had ever slept in a hospital bed and

probably the last place on earth he wanted his life to end. He lived his entire life on a piece

of property that his grandfather had staked and claimed in northwest Idaho. So my great-great-grandfather

was born in 1874. He didn't start putting this place together until about 1901, but he left home

in Missouri in 1894. My family wasn't big on remembering and revering when members of my family

did what, all that I know that I've learned through my own research and reading. And I wasn't

particularly interested in doing any of that until my grandfather passed away. It was while

I was cleaning the personal things from his house after he had passed on that I found a thing that

aroused my curiosity. I was always fond of my grandfather, though I never did get to see him as

often as I would have liked. My father chose not to stay on the property when he became old enough

to marry and settle down. We moved to Billings, and that is where I grew up, but I would spend

vacation weekends with my grandfather, especially after I was no longer required to go on family

vacations. They would go somewhere they thought would be interesting, and I would go and stay with

pop-all for a few days. He would tell story upon story, and I liked hearing every one of them.

So it came as a real shock and surprised to me when I was going through his things that I found

a plat of acreage that had been created when he had built his house. He had been deeded off a certain

amount of property at the time, and the plat showed just where his house would be on the property

that surrounded it. His father had also chosen not to stay on the place. Pop-all had come back to it

when he was ready to set up housekeeping with my grandmother. But the plat did show where his

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