YONDER: A PLACE IN MONTANA; by John Heminway, National Geographic Adventure Press, $25; 324 pages.
For John Heminway, finding a 36-acre ranch for sale near the West Boulder River in Montana was like stumbling across a sack of gold. He was thrilled to discover the Bar 20 ranch, then questioned why anyone would ever leave it.
When he closed on its sale in 1987, Heminway was handed an old scrap of paper listing some of the Bar 20's former owners stretching back to the beginning of the 20th century. An Eastern urbanite, Heminway was enchanted by his new home and the essence of Montana — a massive, wild territory sparsely populated by ambitious, sometimes remarkable, people.
Perhaps the Bar 20's former residents, Heminway supposed, were kindred spirits — fellow outsiders drawn by both intuition and the clarion call of the American West. In his memoir, "Yonder: A Place in Montana," Heminway plays historical sleuth — flushing out the Bar 20's ghosts, exploring the spirit of the Big Sky State.
"Whatever ineffable quality had wooed my family here might well have attracted others on similar grounds," writes Heminway, a travel writer and television producer/host. "Might the allure of the Bar 20 be cross-generational? Who were all those others who shared our passion for this corner of the wilderness?"
Chapters are devoted to Heminway's efforts to learn of the lives that passed through the Bar 20. For some, the ranch offered retreat. For others, a sanctuary from their pasts. Not all wanted to be discovered. But everyone who had called the ranch their own eventually left. The Bar 20 — like Montana — had remained, quick to dismiss anyone's claim of ownership.
Wilderness, Heminway writes, is what powers the Bar 20; it "is our ocean, we its beachcombers. Like a sea, our wilderness has depths that may never be plunged, mysteries on the scale of sea serpents, massiveness to rival infinity."
Eventually Heminway's fascination for the Bar 20's legal owners wanes. Instead, he focuses on the Crow, Shoshone and other aboriginal cultures who populated Montana's West Boulder Valley eons before Anglo homesteaders and the railroad arrived. As expected, Heminway chides his naivete for believing his tenure on the Bar 20 would be anything more than a blip in its history.
Heminway is a lyrical writer/observer, owning a wise eye for the rhythm of the land and its transient people. Montana-lovers and readers of the contemporary West will likely enjoy "Yonder." Others may find his pace a little too deliberate, his search a little too personal.
E-MAIL: jswensen@desnews.com