“Montana Memoir is an absolutely wonderful read. I can’t believe the experiences the author was having at age sixteen… riding the rails around the West, being on his own. And I love that the Wilsall Mercantile, started by his Uncle Clyde Lyon in 1916 or ’17, is still in operation today!“
– Chase Reynolds Ewald, author of Cabin Style and American Rustic
About Montana Memoir
Wrangler, writer, and natural-born storyteller Bill McGee takes readers on a vivid journey back to the small cow town of Malta, Montana during the hardscrabble years of the Great Depression.
Set along the Great Northern Railway on the windswept Montana Hi-Line, Malta was a town built on grit and survival. Abandoned by his father at five—“Dad said Montana was getting too crowded,” McGee wryly recalls— young Bill witnessed firsthand the struggles his mother and three siblings endured just to get by and their strong connection to the Malta Community Church.
In the Author’s Words
“At seven, I was ‘farmed out’—as they called it—to a neighboring rancher in the Bennett Lake Community to work for my room and board, and maybe a new pair of Levis at Christmas. It meant one less mouth to feed at home. Looking back, I believe those hard years shaped the qualities that later helped me succeed in both business and life.”
MONTANA MEMOIR
The Hardscrabble Years, 1925-1942
by William L. McGee with Sandra V. McGee
BMC Publications, 2016
136 pp, 59 B&W vintage photographs & illustrations
Paperback and Kindle eBook
Available on Amazon
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What Readers are Saying…
“Bill had the reputation of being a straight shootin’ author, but I found some of his writing to be touching. For example, the photo captioned ‘The Ragamuffins’ of Bill and his brother and two sisters during the Depression. Bill writes, ‘We didn’t know we were poor. We always had clothes on our backs, even if they didn’t fit. My sisters, Doris and Betty, were wearing dresses made from decorated flour sacks as was common during the Depression. I was farmed out at age seven to live and work on the Carl Holm ranch because it meant one less mouth to feed at home.’ That’s what I mean by touching.
– William T. Lyons, editor, The Lyon’s Tale
“I read MONTANA MEMOIR in a single sitting because I couldn’t put it down. Bill McGee’s firsthand account brought to such vivid life a world I had heard of, but had never experienced. Thank you for writing this book.”
– John H., beta reader and a self-described “city boy”
“MONTANA MEMOIR will make everyone want to be a cowboy.”
– Murray Olderman, nationally syndicated columnist/sportswriter
– J. Nichols
– S. M.