1 family’s history - General Discussion Forum - General Discussion Forum

I’m not sure why, but I’ve really started to take interest in my ancestors/family tree. Reading stories like this make me think I need to spend some time with my Grandparents documenting bits of their lives. The following story was run in a local paper in SD. It it told through the eyes of a great friend’s grandfather. Can you imagine how different it was back in 1943?? Bet they were a bit tougher than my generation. Every time I’ve met Odie, he was all smiles.

Quote:

Tales from the river – Lowell “Odie” West FeatureBy Amanda FangerIn 1929, Lowell “Odie” West was born on an island known as Mission Island – an island which is no longer there. The one-mile wide by three-mile long island was located west of Onida on the Missouri River. “The island had a ridge that ran all the way around it that kept the water out,” West said. “I don’t know how that ridge got there.” West went on to explain that the center of the island was lower than the surrounding “Cedar Ridge,” and that when the river was at high-tide, the water was at a higher elevation than their house was. Although it had been his home for nearly 15 years, West says that he remembers conversations his parents would have about the day the island would flood.“It wasn’t a secret,” he said. “We all pretty much knew that it would happen someday.” That day came in 1943; the ridge on the north end finally eroded away enough to allow the surrounding river water in. As the youngest of seven children, West is fond of his memories of growing up there. Trips to town were infrequent.“By the time I was six, I can only remember being in town twice in my life,” he said. “A trip to town consisted of walking a mile from the house to the Cedar Ridge, then rowing across the channel and finally driving a car into town.” West said that it was not necessary to make such frequent trips back then because, “We raised everything we needed on the island.” West said that they did not have any tractors or heavy farm equipment on the island. Everything that was farmed was farmed with a horse and harvested by hand. “There was five of us boys, and that cane would grow to be seven and eight feet tall,” West recollected. “It was so big and awkward that us younger kids could hardly handle it.” When, in the summertime, South Dakota would get too hot to work, West said that they would all jump in the river. During the depression, West said that his family was just as poor as the next, although they were probably better off.“Up on the flat, there was a drought,” West explained. “Dad would give people (who came to visit) as many vegetables as they could carry. (My parents) were always giving to anyone who came to visit.”On the island, the drought was nearly non-existent. With a water-level of only five inches, West claims that his family could grow “anything you put in the ground,” from corn and wheat, to okra and peanuts. Other things West remembers about living on the island was getting ready to go to dances across the river to Mission School House. “Us boys would fight over who got to shave first,” West said. Then they would row a boat across the river for the dance. From those barn dances that were held, West became acquainted with some people who would go on to make quite a name for themselves in the rodeo world; such as Casey Tibbs. “He was one of the best bronc riders I’ve ever seen,” West said. “Back then, if we wanted something to do, we’d get a couple of broncs in and ride them on Sunday afternoons.” West’s dad had nearly 100 head of mares that he ran on the Little Bend government land. It was a common occurrence to have several local cowboys show up for the afternoon of fun, West explained. Besides breaking broncs for his dad, West said that he also competed in the rodeo circuit for a while. At the time when West competed, many young men were in the army and overseas fighting in the war. He said that, even if you won all three events which were offered – saddle bronc, bare back, and bull riding – the most you could hope to win was $35. “That would buy gas enough to get you to the next one,” he said. “But boy, that was a lot of fun!”Three of West’s brothers enlisted in the service, so he was the only one left home to help his dad on the farm.In the winter time, when there was no more grass left for their cattle on the flat, they would drive the cows across the frozen channel and onto the island. Then, in the springtime, they would drive the cows and their calves back across the channel when the water wasn’t too deep. Still, West recalls the need of a boat and several outriders to be downriver from the herd as they crossed the channel; the current was still strong enough to sweep most of the calves down river. The boatmen and outriders who were down river would catch the calves as they floated away and bring them back to shore. One day before the island flooded, West remembers driving his dad to look at the progress of the new Oahe Dam. “I asked my dad what he thought. He just shook his head because nobody could believe it at the time,” West said. “Everybody thought that there was no way you could stop that much water by dumping a little dirt in its way. It was just unthinkable.”A short time later, the island was lost. “Dad came home and said that the ridge had broke at the north end of the island,” West recalls. “We lost everything. Our house was in the center of the island and the water came right through it.” When the water came, the Wests took everything they could and left what they couldn’t carry. All their milk cows and several work horses were left stranded on the island for a time. West said that the draft horses were eventually swum across the channel, but the milk cows were not strong enough to swim the distance and were swept away. “My dad was leading them across in a row boat and then they were swept away with the current,” West said. “That’s the last I saw of them.” After that, the West’s were able to farm the highland on the island for a few years. “In my opinion, they flooded the best farm ground in South Dakota when they dammed the river,” he stated.“When they were getting ready to back the water up, they did it four inches at a time, to let the water freeze over the trees,” West said. The island is gone, West said. Because of the way the water was held back and frozen in increments, the day the water was finally all held back, West said the whole island just rose with the water level and floated across the river. All the trees stayed together because of the ice and the roots held the island intact. “It took two days for it to reach the other side,” West said. “When it did, it just broke apart. That was the last anyone ever saw of the island.”West said that people of the time were worried about what they would do with all the timber that had been uprooted. “There were thousands of acres of cottonwood trees lost, but not a one showed up at the dam. They must have all sunk to the bottom,” he said. “I wish I could take my grandkids down and show them the island where I grew up, but I can’t.” “I don’t think I would change a thing (I’ve done in my life). Some of those things were probably dumb, but we had fun along the way,” West said. “I never did anything that I was ashamed of. I wouldn’t change a thing.”