Dear HCN,
Dan Flores (-In Montana:
The view from the ranchette,” HCN, 5/10/99) is technically correct
when he writes that A.B. Guthrie Jr. was a Midwesterner. It is
misleading, however, to accuse the author of The Big Sky of being
just another hypocritical carpetbagger Californicating Montana
while criticizing others for doing so. In 1901, his folks moved him
from Bedford, Indiana, to Choteau. He was six months old. My
father, Art Ramsey, another carpetbagger, was born in Walla Walla,
Wash., and arrived in Choteau at about the same age. He and Bud
grew up together under the hypocritical impression that they were
Montanans. If they were alive, I think they would love to take
Professor Flores with them to the mountains on one of their beloved
pack trips so he could set them straight.
Doug
Ramsey
Yakima,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Californicating carpetbaggers.
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