Tom: My Village--Montana


Figure 1.--Here we see the village of Monana as it was when I was growing up in the 1940s. You can see father's sanitorium further up the mountain on the hill just outside the village. 

Montana is located high above the Rhone Valley in Switzerland. Is it a beautiful place and a pectacular location to grow up. I could not have asked for a more beautiful spot. The Rhone Valley is a predominately French speaking area of Switzerland. The villagers were French speaking and Roman Catholic. Montana, at that time was a small village with a few Sanatoriums for people with tuberculosis. Since then Montana has become a world renowned Golf and Ski-resort. That came inhandy because as a teenager I was able to earn a little pocket change as a ski instructor. This photograph was taken during my Christmas-holidays, where I helped out as ski-instructor at the local ski-school. Most of the kids came from France and Italy. As we were not "certified" ski-instructors, but they let us loose on the kids. It was lots of fun and gave me some pocket-money to spend back at the boarding school.

Rhone Valley

The Rhone River is an important European river. It is 505 miles long. It rises from the Rhone Glasier in the upper Valais in Switzerland. It flows west through Lake Geneva and then enters France. It joins with the Saône at Lyon. It then flows south into the Mediterranean west of Marseilles. The Rhone Valley near Montana of course was located on the upper Rhone. Montana was located high above the Rhone Valley in Switzerland. Is it a beautiful place and a spectacular location to grow up. I could not have asked for a more beautiful spot.

Montana Village

While the bottom of the Rhone-valley is at an elevation of about 1500 ft, our village was about 6,000 ft. The village-territory went from the top of the mountains all the way down to the valley-floor. The village-farmes lived a semi nomadic life. The main village the lived in most of the time was at our altitude thats where they kept their animals and produced cheese and butter etc.. Then there was a second village a bit lower down. Thats where the had their corn fields and fruit trees. Then there was an other village below that, and that is where they had their vinyards and whre they produced the wine. In summertime, the brought all the cows together and brought the in herds of about 300 cows way up into the mountains, where they grased them on the very rich mountain grass. That is why the cheeses from that region asre so rich. They maintained a comunal cheesery way up there and at the end of the season all the cheese produced up there was brought down to the village and distributed according to the number of cows a farmer had.

Villagers

The Rhone Valley is a predominately French speaking area of Switzerland. The villagers were French speaking and Roman Catholic.

Sanitoria

Montana, at that time was a small village with a few Sanatoriums for people with tuberculosis. The climte was considered beneficial for recovery. And this is why my father came to Montana with us, to work at one sanitoria there. His sanitorium was for military personnel. Much of the staff workibg at the sanitiria were like us, German speakers.

Transportation

When the sanatorium first opened, the only means of transportation from the bottom of the valley was with a funicular or by horse carriage. The funicular transported all the goods needed for the sanatorium and then from its station it was brought over by horse cart. Patients were transported the same way. In the late 1930s a road was constructed. It was a dirt road, but wide enough for trucks etc. A bus service on that road was started in 1946. Now this is a wide, well maintained road, which is one of several links of Montana to the valley. We did not own a car in our family until the late 1950s, when my brother bought a car. The shopping we had to do at the village was done on foot and we carried the good in our "Rucksacks". Larger goods were delivered by horse-drawn carriages. When we went down into the valley, it was on foot, which took about 1 hour down and 2 hours up. My first train ride was when I was 10 years old. What an adventure that was for me.

Ski Resort

Since then Montana has become a world renowned Golf and Ski-resort. That came inhandy because as a teenager I was able to earn a little pocket change as a ski instructor. This photograph was taken during my Christmas-holidays, where I helped out as ski-instructor at the local ski-school. Most of the kids came from France and Italy. As we were not "certified" ski-instructors, but they let us loose on the kids. It was lots of fun and gave me some pocket-money to spend back at the boarding school.

Sources

Voute, Tom. E-mail message, May 16 and 23, 2006.






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Created: 9:40 PM 5/16/2006
Last updated: 4:10 AM 6/2/2006