SMALL TOWNS ARE NOT SIMPLE

The main assumptions about small towns that will get outsiders in big trouble are mostly based on the idea that “small means simple.” a refuge from all the “evils” of the big impersonal city.

But many small towns are as complex as much larger towns, sometimes in part because they have collapsed down from much bigger towns and kept all the structures (physical and historical), simply condensing and crushing them together without any sorting or editing. For instance, Valier was once a marketing town and then a boom town when Swift dam and the rest of the irrigation system was built. Merchants and hotels abounded, but when the construction was finished -- which in those days had depended on a great number of laborers and horses -- the people left and there was no need for so many structures. Some burned, some fell apart because they were temporary anyway. But the town has the idea they can return to the boom days and will if they can restore the remaining buildings.

Another example: when CRP meant that the government would pay dry land farmers NOT to farm and also because modern machinery meant one man could work enormous acreage and also because it took more and more acreage to make a living so that the smaller farms were consolidated into big farms, there was less need for houses out on the land. Often after some time standing empty, these houses have been moved into Valier and refurbished, leaving behind a square of windbreak shrubs and trees out on the farmland. Sometimes a cement slab. Older people remember where those houses were and who moved them. These ghost histories are invisible to newcomers, even the ones that live in those houses.

Another example: when the railroad wanted shippers and the Pondera Canal Company wanted farmers and the Jesuits wanted parishioners, the forces worked together to bring a whole Belgian village to a location close to Valier, close enough that it was in time absorbed into Valier. The feuds, family ties, genetic advantages and liabilities, ways of doing things, religious allegiance, and many other webworks all came along, nearly intact, and were thickened even more by the shared fortunes of starting over again in a much harsher place. These stories and genetic ties control much that seems otherwise inscrutable.

Another example: Valier is a border town, on the border between the Blackfeet Reservation and the State of Montana. Border studies is a whole academic discipline that studies the gradients and limits that are imposed by artificially created boundaries. Lately here this has included the founding of Heart Butte High School which siphoned off the Blackfeet students who had bused to Valier and then a counter movement of Blackfeet students back to the Valier school system, either because their families found housing in Valier (the population of the rez is growing steadily and quickly) or because of the belief that “white” schools are more orderly and “teach better.” The Valier schools are happy to have Blackfeet athletes. School funding is based on head counts.

More damaging has been a long history of neglect of Birch Creek water on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Quite apart from diverting the trust funds of the tribe, the BIA has notoriously ignored the securing of valuable water rights and the development of irrigation on the rez side. (Birch Creek IS the boundary in theory, though it has been known to change channels and certainly always has a flood plain which blurs the line.) So the Montana side naturally expanded to take advantage of a maximum of the water. Now suddenly, prodded by the tribe and internal awakenings, the BIA has set out to claim Blackfeet entitled waters. This coincides with drought (which may be easing a bit this year, though the loss of glaciers will mean less water flow, no matter what) which has stressed the Montana farmers to the point of bare survival. It is estimated that when all the lawsuits and agreements are finished, the Montana side will have “lost” 30% of their water. (It’s unlikely that anyone will think of the Montana has having “gained” 30% illegitimately over the past decades! Esp. since the Blackfeet side was not prepared to use it and it all just flowed on past down to New Orleans.) This is a death sentence for some farms.

Another example: Valier considers itself a resort town, though the “resort” is really the irrigation impoundment that feeds the canal system. But to them the “resort” idea justifies of the campground along the water body. It also justifies constant pressure to “look nice,” that is, to look like other towns as a sign of respectability and safety. (The kids will tell you that there are about three drug dealers in this town of 350. Statistics will tell you that 3% of humans are genetic sociopaths. Whether or not the individuals are the same is open to investigation. At least in a small town it’s pretty clear who they are.)

Infrastructure is probably one of the most crucial things about buying a house in a small town, but few ever think of it because it’s usually underground, historically created, not always mapped on paper, and rarely mentioned by a realtor. It’s all just pipes and wires, so how complicated can it be? The trouble is that the “pipes” (sewer tiles and waterlines) are often a hundred years old and the wires must support far more traffic all the time as “basics” in households include more electrical appliances. At the same time both fed and state keep imposing higher standards for water quality and septic disposal, as well as more training for the employees who must maintain everything. The problems are so tough and boring that NO ONE wants to be the mayor or on the council.

People are no longer so rural as they used to be, so laws that once allowed each family to have a buggy horse and a little flock of chickens is now offensive to newcomers because of smells and “germs.”

Lawn wars run all summer between those who insist they must have elaborate sprinkler systems in order to maintain a “decent” green yard and those who have better things to do than cut grass. Some people think the fact that they own a yard means they can pile junk in it while others think that only lawn ornaments have any right to be there. Town councils spend more time on this than almost anything else except barking dogs. Don’t even mention sidewalks, another hot button issue. And the council spent a couple of thousand dollars on new street signs in a town where you describe your location either by naming the person who used to live there or by saying something like: “It’s the pink house two blocks south of the school.” Only newcomers need signs.

The assumption of outsiders is that small town people smile and say “howdy” and wave because they are harmless and will always want to be friends. People who live in small towns know that appearing friendly is self-defense, although there are some truly friendly people. It’s wise to be wary of hidden agendas and unsuspected dimensions. It’s smart not to assume that everyone will want to let outsiders into their lives because they’re just fine the way their lives are now. The real estate people will not tell you this.