Come to Pray
14/06/12 05:15
There are a lot of old songs that stick in my mind. I don’t know all of the verses to a lot of them, just the chorus or a little bit. But somehow these imperfect memories crowd my mind. I catch myself singing at all sorts of places in my life.
Yesterday, I had the song, “Don to the River to Pray” in my head all day long:
As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol’ way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!
O sisters let’s go down
Let’s go down, come on down
O sisters let’s go down
Down in the river to pray
The other verses are all a variation on the theme. One asks, “Who shall wear the rob & crown?” And the choruses go through sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers. I think the last chorus is “O sinners.” The tune really sticks with you once you start thinking about it.
I often don’t know why a particular song is in my head, but I do know why I was singing that song yesterday. I had read an article about the sale of the town of Pray, Montana. The town has been listed as “for sale” for several months. The asking price is $1.4 million. That is quite a bit of money for five acres with the old bar and store and the post office.
If you’ve never been there you might not understand. Pray sits in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Paradise valley is the general name given to the Yellowstone River Valley between Gardiner and Livingston, Montana. The river is the best of blue ribbon trout fishing, wonderful for canoeing, rafting, drift boating or just floating down on an inner tube. Be advised, however, the water is cold. It is coming straight from Yellowstone Lake, over the falls of the Yellowstone and out into the broader valley. The valley is rimmed with beautiful mountains, including Emigrant Peak. At 10,921 feet, we often flew around it when we were heading through the country in light airplanes. The valley floor ranges from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, so the peaks are dramatic and beautiful.
If you ever watched the movie, “A River Runs Through It,” you know what Paradise Valley is like. Although Norman McLean’s autobiographical book is set in the Blackfoot River region near Missoula, most of the filming of the movie was done on the Gallatin and Yellowstone Rivers, much of it in Paradise Valley. They got the name right when they named the place.
Now, if the price is right on June 27, the town of Pray will be sold at auction.
Pray is just 3 miles from Chico Hot Springs. Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s the old hotel and resort at Chico was getting a bit run down. The swimming pool was still a lot of fun and there was a large area with even warmer water for sitting. We used to love to go to Chico in the winter. You could warm up in the pool, get out and roll in the snow and then get back into the pool. The warm water would make your skin tingle. It was worth doing over and over again. The steam rising off of the hot water made the entire place seem like it was shrouded in mystery. Often you could look through the steam to the crystal clear blue sky above and the mountains towering over the valley. The prices at Chico were reasonable and the food was good in those days. We had several family gatherings there.
Chico was also a frequent place for church meetings. Back when the Montana Conference of the United Church of Christ held regular educator’s meetings, there was an annual retreat for Church educators held at Chico for several years. The Conference board would occasionally meet there. Special events with speakers from outside of the state also were held in that location. Our camp, Mimanagish, was a summer-only camp. The last 20 or so miles of the road weren’t plowed and the only access was by snowmobile. But Chico is open year-round and made a good gathering place.
In those days, however, Chico was dry. They didn’t have a license to serve alcohol. There were differing perspectives on the situation. For my folks, who didn’t drink, it made Chico a great place for family gatherings and church events. For others, there was a desire to sip a glass of wine or drink a beer and no way to satisfy that desire.
There was one good option for church meetings: Hop into the car for the short drive to the Pray bar. You could tell your colleagues that you were going out to Pray and not be lying. Besides, everyone knew what “going to Pray” meant. Some Christians go to Pray a lot.
The stories, like the song, float around in my mind, but they are of another time and another place.
I don’t know if you could earn back an investment of over a million dollars by running a business out of Pray. It has been a long time since the main road from Livingston to Yellowstone Park was built on the other side of the river. Pray is on an older secondary road and doesn’t get much traffic these days. People heading for the park never know that it is there. I suppose that a well-run and well-advertised bed and breakfast would see a lot of guests in the summer and a few in the winter. There are no downhill ski resorts in the Yellowstone Valley, but it is a great area for hunting, cross-country skiing and other activities and Yellowstone Park is gorgeous in the winter. They keep the road from Mammoth to Cook City plowed, including access to Tower Falls. You can see bighorn sheep, deer, elk, buffalo, coyotes, wolves, antelope and a lot of other game. The hot springs are dramatic in the winter. It is a great place to visit. But most folks will speed by on the opposite side of the valley on the modern highway. The old road is too windy and slow and it can be treacherous in the winter when it gets icy.
On the other hand, if I had the money, I might be tempted to place a bid on Pray. It would be fun to appoint myself mayor. I would never tire of inviting people to “Come to Pray.” Then, again, I get to do that in my current lifestyle.
Yesterday, I had the song, “Don to the River to Pray” in my head all day long:
As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol’ way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!
O sisters let’s go down
Let’s go down, come on down
O sisters let’s go down
Down in the river to pray
The other verses are all a variation on the theme. One asks, “Who shall wear the rob & crown?” And the choruses go through sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers. I think the last chorus is “O sinners.” The tune really sticks with you once you start thinking about it.
If you’ve never been there you might not understand. Pray sits in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Paradise valley is the general name given to the Yellowstone River Valley between Gardiner and Livingston, Montana. The river is the best of blue ribbon trout fishing, wonderful for canoeing, rafting, drift boating or just floating down on an inner tube. Be advised, however, the water is cold. It is coming straight from Yellowstone Lake, over the falls of the Yellowstone and out into the broader valley. The valley is rimmed with beautiful mountains, including Emigrant Peak. At 10,921 feet, we often flew around it when we were heading through the country in light airplanes. The valley floor ranges from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, so the peaks are dramatic and beautiful.
Now, if the price is right on June 27, the town of Pray will be sold at auction.
Pray is just 3 miles from Chico Hot Springs. Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s the old hotel and resort at Chico was getting a bit run down. The swimming pool was still a lot of fun and there was a large area with even warmer water for sitting. We used to love to go to Chico in the winter. You could warm up in the pool, get out and roll in the snow and then get back into the pool. The warm water would make your skin tingle. It was worth doing over and over again. The steam rising off of the hot water made the entire place seem like it was shrouded in mystery. Often you could look through the steam to the crystal clear blue sky above and the mountains towering over the valley. The prices at Chico were reasonable and the food was good in those days. We had several family gatherings there.
In those days, however, Chico was dry. They didn’t have a license to serve alcohol. There were differing perspectives on the situation. For my folks, who didn’t drink, it made Chico a great place for family gatherings and church events. For others, there was a desire to sip a glass of wine or drink a beer and no way to satisfy that desire.
There was one good option for church meetings: Hop into the car for the short drive to the Pray bar. You could tell your colleagues that you were going out to Pray and not be lying. Besides, everyone knew what “going to Pray” meant. Some Christians go to Pray a lot.
The stories, like the song, float around in my mind, but they are of another time and another place.
On the other hand, if I had the money, I might be tempted to place a bid on Pray. It would be fun to appoint myself mayor. I would never tire of inviting people to “Come to Pray.” Then, again, I get to do that in my current lifestyle.