Cooke City, MT

This little village intrigued me. We spent three nights here and were able to talk to the hotel owners on several occasions. They just purchased the hotel in May and are from...you guessed it! WV!!! They have been going to the area for about ten years to camp, and when the plant they worked for in WV closed down, and the hotel was for sale, they took it as a sign to move. They seem to be very happy, but my mother-in-law doesn't think they are as happy as they think. She wouldn't be anyway. There are about 90 people in the town. If you don't have a job there, you don't live there. There isn't any reason for you to be there otherwise. The closest towns are hours away. The red building is the grocery store, a national historic landmark. It has been there over 100 years. We went in and Oreos were $5.25! You could get basics like milk and butter, but there wasn't much else. If you need to go to the store you buy in bulk and plan it well. The top picture is our hotel. There are several in the town. This one has 6 rooms. They stay open year-round so that people who like snow sports can come up too. I am unsure of how they do that, but they do. There is a post office in town, and again that raises questions for winter delivery. There were a few restaurants, but they are only open in the summer. There is no law, no medical help, not much of anything. There is, however, a school. It is a one room school house, and keeping with local rules, it is built of logs. The teacher is paid as well as having her housing provided. She will have 4 students this year; 2 Kindergarteners and a 3rd and a 4th grader. They have a school bus; it is a yellow SUV. I told the boys it is like home schooling! The teacher retires next year, and I think I would like to try teaching there for a year, just for the experience. But since my boys about passed out from lack of seeing their friends for two weeks, I guess that adventure will have to wait for a while.