The Bobcat Nation

Anyone ever been there? Maybe ctowm. He's from Opheim.
Anyway that's where my grandparents homesteaded back in 1912. My bro and a few cousins were there on the Fourth with assorted wives and kids. We put up a new sign and flagpole at the cemetary then painted the family house built in 1919. One cousin is an MSU alum and bro played 4 bobkittens frosh football team for a few practices. Haha. He's a griz fan now though.
If you're still reading this, Thoeny is about 45 miles north of Hinsdale and 30 west of Opheim.

How many residents in Thoney, Tom??

From looking at Google Maps, the population should be around 4.

GiW, none. Thoeny hasn't had a resident for about 30 years. There is only one building left in town and that's the school. I believe it once had about 100. You can see where the streets were.

My family's home is about .5 miles to the East. There is another abandoned home about .25 miles East of that.

We were there for about seven hours and only one car drove by.

ONLY in Montana!

Tom, I have been to Thoeny many times. The last time I was there I can't even remember the school house being up.

A while back a friend of mine took a metal detector to the town site and found a lot of really cool things. Things like letters from a newspaper typecase (if that's the correct word) from the Thoeny newspaper. One even said "Opheim News".

Funny thing.....Thoeny is still on a lot of maps published today.

When you were there did you see any rattle snakes?

Cat-theotherwhitemeat wrote:Tom, I have been to Thoeny many times. The last time I was there I can't even remember the school house being up.

A while back a friend of mine took a metal detector to the town site and found a lot of really cool things. Things like letters from a newspaper typecase (if that's the correct word) from the Thoeny newspaper. One even said "Opheim News".

Funny thing.....Thoeny is still on a lot of maps published today.

Hey! Figured you'd get this sooner or later.

That's interesting about your friend and his metal detector. I know a few people that would be very interested in what he found.

I'm not the reason Thoeny is on the map, but I did play a role in getting the State to spell it correctly. The reason it's there is as a reference point for people who might decide to drive the road from Opheim to Hinsdale. As you know once you get out there about 10 miles the landscape takes on a perm-a-look if there is such a thing. Thoeny is a bit of a landmark because the cemetary has Thoeny in the name and it is one of the few changes of scenary. So you can look at the map and kind of get your bearings.

No rattlers!

Speaking of really old, really small towns in Montana: I have doing some research on my family background. When I was doing some research on my wife's family, I found they grew up in Yantic around the 1920s (they always said they were from Chinook). There was a North Yantic and a South Yantic; must have been a booming metropolis back in the day. Anyway, there was a school and a post office, but mostly just farms. It's about 7 miles northwest of Chinook; if you watch closely while you're driving HWY 2, you will still see Yantic Road.

TomCat88 wrote:Anyone ever been there? Maybe ctowm. He's from Opheim.
Anyway that's where my grandparents homesteaded back in 1912. My bro and a few cousins were there on the Fourth with assorted wives and kids. We put up a new sign and flagpole at the cemetary then painted the family house built in 1919. One cousin is an MSU alum and bro played 4 bobkittens frosh football team for a few practices. Haha. He's a griz fan now though.
If you're still reading this, Thoeny is about 45 miles north of Hinsdale and 30 west of Opheim.

Hey Tom, I have been to Thoeny a few times since I grew up 8 miles west of Opheim on the Floyd Ranch. I haven't been there for at least 20 years though ever since I moved to Lewistown. Was through Hinsdale not to long ago on a trip to Opheim to see family. What year did you graduate from Hinsdale?
How can anyone graduate from MSU and become a griz fan? My family are huge CATS fan and didn't even go to MSU!

WrestMom4CATS wrote:

TomCat88 wrote:Anyone ever been there? Maybe ctowm. He's from Opheim.
Anyway that's where my grandparents homesteaded back in 1912. My bro and a few cousins were there on the Fourth with assorted wives and kids. We put up a new sign and flagpole at the cemetary then painted the family house built in 1919. One cousin is an MSU alum and bro played 4 bobkittens frosh football team for a few practices. Haha. He's a griz fan now though.
If you're still reading this, Thoeny is about 45 miles north of Hinsdale and 30 west of Opheim.

Hey Tom, I have been to Thoeny a few times since I grew up 8 miles west of Opheim on the Floyd Ranch. I haven't been there for at least 20 years though ever since I moved to Lewistown. Was through Hinsdale not to long ago on a trip to Opheim to see family. What year did you graduate from Hinsdale?
How can anyone graduate from MSU and become a griz fan? My family are huge CATS fan and didn't even go to MSU!

He didn't graduate MSU just went here his frosh year. I don't know if he made it through the whole year.

I graduated from Helena Capital along with one other sib. The rest of my sibs graduated from Hinsdale. We moved to Helena in 72, Dad went back to Hinsdale in 85.

TomCat88 wrote:Anyone ever been there? Maybe ctowm. He's from Opheim.
Anyway that's where my grandparents homesteaded back in 1912. My bro and a few cousins were there on the Fourth with assorted wives and kids. We put up a new sign and flagpole at the cemetary then painted the family house built in 1919. One cousin is an MSU alum and bro played 4 bobkittens frosh football team for a few practices. Haha. He's a griz fan now though.
If you're still reading this, Thoeny is about 45 miles north of Hinsdale and 30 west of Opheim.

Been there many times! no kidding!

My great-great-grandfather homesteaded near there in 1893 (Harry Rutter), my great-grandmother taught school at Thoeny, riding up from Hinsdale initially. Got a lot of relatives around the area (names of Cornwell, LaCock, Reinhart), seen some nice muleys around there and took my first antelope near Thoeny. My 75-yr old mom still gets together with her Hinsdale class of 9 graduates (what's left of them, I think 6 or 7 now) every year. She talks about Thoeny and about how it used to actually be a small town, with hopes of the RR cutting through it in the early 1900's (I guess it was on one possible RR route). Also talks poetic about Vandelia (sp?), that I think was mostly wiped out by a tornado in the 80's or so.

In fact, just saw a Hinsdale relative this week who was proud to inform me that John "Harry" Rutter was just inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. Cool, and I didn't even know there was such a thing!

JDoub wrote:

TomCat88 wrote:Anyone ever been there? Maybe ctowm. He's from Opheim.
Anyway that's where my grandparents homesteaded back in 1912. My bro and a few cousins were there on the Fourth with assorted wives and kids. We put up a new sign and flagpole at the cemetary then painted the family house built in 1919. One cousin is an MSU alum and bro played 4 bobkittens frosh football team for a few practices. Haha. He's a griz fan now though.
If you're still reading this, Thoeny is about 45 miles north of Hinsdale and 30 west of Opheim.

Been there many times! no kidding!

My great-great-grandfather homesteaded near there in 1893 (Harry Rutter), my great-grandmother taught school at Thoeny, riding up from Hinsdale initially. Got a lot of relatives around the area (names of Cornwell, LaCock, Reinhart), seen some nice muleys around there and took my first antelope near Thoeny. My 75-yr old mom still gets together with her Hinsdale class of 9 graduates (what's left of them, I think 6 or 7 now) every year. She talks about Thoeny and about how it used to actually be a small town, with hopes of the RR cutting through it in the early 1900's (I guess it was on one possible RR route). Also talks poetic about Vandelia (sp?), that I think was mostly wiped out by a tornado in the 80's or so.

In fact, just saw a Hinsdale relative this week who was proud to inform me that John "Harry" Rutter was just inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. Cool, and I didn't even know there was such a thing!

Yes, I know all those names. Had LaCock in my class, Cornwell (Rutter girl married Cornwell) in my church, Reinhart in my sister's class.

On the drive home an antelope passed me on the dirt road. Came from my right and cut across the road in front of me. Seemed to be laughing as it went by.

Thoeny is pronounced teenie. Fittingly.

I've also been there a few times, but since there's no bar and no golf course, its not on my regular schedule of place to visit, even though I only leve about 50 miles away.