WILD HORSE PLAINS MONTANA

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About 25 miles southeast in Dixon (pop. 369), Harley and Joey Hettick (Harley's a freelance photographer) have had such success in commercially farming an acre of cantaloupes, they now plan to expand their operation to five acres. Just to the east of Plains, Bruce Icenoggle, who works in the local bank, is putting in four acres of baby's-breath and other flowers suitable for drying. He already has California markets lined up for the flowers. Lawyer Nursery, established in 1965 between Plains and Thompson Falls, has hundreds of acres under cultivation and ships its sturdy, northern-grown stock all over the Pacific Northwest, Canada and even to Tennessee.

"Though I've seen the scenery

a hundred times before, I tend to drive slowly, just so I can gawk."

Seaman's Nursery is much smaller, but no less a success story. Ted and Barbara Seaman arrived in Paradise from Colorado five years ago with $150. The first winter, they lived in a small cabin without electricity or running water and earned money by cutting and selling wood. Today, they've bought and leased land across the highway from Quinn Springs and use the hot springs' run-off to heat 10 greenhouses. Aside from selling locally, including a winter lettuce crop to restaurants, Ted's plants are found in stores in Missoula and Kalispell and as far away as Spokane, Washington. (He, too, wants to expand his operation to other greenhouses he hopes to build in Hot Springs.)

In the meantime, Barbara, an acupuncturist, has opened the Paradise Holistic Health Center across the road at Quinn Springs. For the most part, though, the problem with truck farming in this sparsely populated area is a lack of nearby markets. Also, with the possible exception of Trout Creek, there seems to be little activity in the arts and crafts despite being on a direct route to Glacier National Park and other tourist attractions. True, I-90, which parallels the Wild Horse Plains' Highway 200, gets most of the traffic, and many people coming from the Glacier and Whitefish/Kalispell area cut over at Plains to Flathead Lake.

Yet, one morning while I was having breakfast at the Rails Cafe, three different carloads of tourists stopped by: one to eat and two to ask directions. But unlike so many rural areas in which jobs are hard to come by, arts and crafts entrepreneurs aren't really tapping into the tourist trade. This prompted me to ask how people entertain themselves during the winter. The answer was always the same: "We read."

The Friendliness Factor

Perhaps it's this penchant for books that makes just hanging out in some bar, restaurant or someone's home so entertaining. The conversation and wit never seem to lag. Notable, too, is the lack of age discrimination when it comes to socializing. Young and old are often "best friends." Even Jim Stokes, who tends to be a loner, was drawn in by the friendliness of the folks. "I had long hair when I came here, but that caused no problems. I soon felt right at home in the Legion Bar in Paradise. There are lots of people over 70 years old there—old railroaders and loggers who like to talk and tell stories—and I like to listen to them." Mary Lynn Vanderhoff, the owner of a realty company in Plains and who descends from some of the first settlers, agrees. "People are very friendly. They immediately want to know where you come from and what you do and all about your family.

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