Shortly after I got back from visiting Hinsdale, Mont., in 2017, I received an email from Steve Johnston, one of our freelance photographers. He had seen my article on the trip in the paper while he was at his dentist's office.
"Wish I knew you were going," he wrote. "Six more hours west to Bigfork and you could have found former Hinsdale residents, my parents."
The last thing I would have had in mind after driving almost 18 hours was spending more time in the car. But when former Hinsdale (Ill.) resident Rob Svendsen (whom I wrote about last week) told me about all the former Hinsdaleans living in Montana, Steve's email came to mind. (Turns out Rob and Steve were at Central together, one year apart.)
When I reached out to get his mom's cell number, I learned his sister, Sandy (Hinsdale Central Class of 1973), lives there, too.
Sandy, who first moved to Bigfork with her husband, is actually the reason Elvira and Greg Johnston relocated there.
"We started coming out little by little to visit, and long story short, we ended up buying a house. We thought it was going to be a vacation home, but it ended up being a permanent home," Elvira said.
Their new residence came with a new business opportunity as well. Elvira and Greg partnered with Sandy's husband to open a brewery in Woods Bay. They've since built a new location with a pubhouse closer to home.
"We bought what was an old bowling alley in Bigfork overlooking the lake," Elvira said. "Sandy remodeled the whole building and it became Flathead Lake Brewing Co."
Greg continued to own Central Steele Fabricators in Chicago until a few months ago, when he sold the company. He, Elvira and Sandy each own a separate part of the brewery to comply with Montana law.
Sandy first fell in love with Montana on a trip with her first husband, a Boseman native.
"We were driving from Boseman to Glacier National Park," she recalled. "We saw Flathead Lake and we were sold. We were like, 'We need to be here.' It was a fluke of a trip that turned into the next 24 years of my life."
She and her mom cited two reasons they love Big Sky Country: its stunning landscapes and unassuming residents.
"It's so unpretentious," Sandy said. "You could be sitting next to a billionaire, literally, and you wouldn't even know it. People out here, it's about the lifestyle and the person you are more so than anything else."
Sandy said it was a great place to raise her two kids, who spent their time skiing and snowboarding in the winter, hunting in the fall and out on the lake in the summer.
"You're just living this outdoor adventure," she said.
Elvira finds the open space particularly appealing.
"Obviously it's beautiful," she said. "Not that Hinsdale isn't. I'll be honest, when we go back - and we were back just recently - it's almost claustrophobic when you pull into O'Hare."
"Traffic" in Bigfork means 20 cars on the road, she added.
In addition to wonderful new friends they've made in Montana, Elvira and Greg still keep in touch with their Hinsdale friends back here.
"When we come back, we try to get together with friends and catch up," Elvira said.
One good friend and longtime Hinsdale resident recently made the move to Montana - Pete Hambrick, who was the best man at Elvira and Greg's wedding.
"All of a sudden, we're getting Hinsdale people out here," Elvira said.
Sandy appreciates having the most important former Hinsdaleans living close by.
"It's wonderful, it really is, to have my dad next door and see him every day and build something together that is going to outlast us," she said. "I just think that's something special, to be able to come in every day and work with your family. It's been quite nice."
- Pamela Lannom is editor of The Hinsdalean. Readers can email her at [email protected].
