June & July 2025
Building
The Small Tasting room is fully framed and the walk up window is installed. We’re lucky to have a group of strong friends that helped us hang a large, wooden door as part of one of the walls. It’s 8’x12’ and has to weigh between 400-500lbs. To protect it and highlight its natural sheen, Katrina has recently applied a coat of Danish Oil.
You might wonder: where did we find such a large door? Derek found it (and its pair) under a section of the built-up floor, laid on top of an original ramp that led from N. Idaho St. (locals you’ll notice the difference in siding to the left of the N. Idaho Street entrance).
This door discovery encouraged us to more deeply research the history of the building. While the Montana Cadastral says the building was erected in 1920, Derek has found multiple items that were from the 1910’s, including Poor Tax receipts from 1913 and 1915, an Olmsted-Stevenson Co receipt from 1914, and a Western Union telegram from 1917. He’s also found a number of undated items, like empty receipt books for Olmstead-Stevenson and tags for The Waldorf Company. Katrina found an article from 1980 that mentioned the building had been a wholesale grocers, then decided to turn to the Beaverhead County Museum for some help. She has since spent some wonderful time with Chris Montgomery, Michelle Stephen-Hassard, and Candi Wentworth following these leads (and a few others). What turned out to be the key to the mystery: stapled to one of the large wooden doors was a scrap of an advertisement for hardware and groceries. Katrina spent some time looking up John W. Morton:
1891: a robbery at Morton’s store including some “skillful examination and cross questioning by the marshal” (follow up a month later on one of the robbers)
1910, April 7 Page A1: The John W. Morton company asked permission to erect a frame warehouse on North Idaho street. The application was referred to the fire committee.
So, the mystery is solved! Our building was built by John W. Morton in 1910. Next month, we’ll share some of his late 1800’s and early 1900’s advertising with you (it’s a hoot) and in upcoming months we’ll continue to trace the history of the building as it changed ownership.
Business / Community
June had us busy helping with the Tweedy Mountain Stick Horse Stampede, which fundraised for the Early Childhood Coalition of Beaverhead County. Kids and adults alike had a great time listening to Debbie from The Bookstore read aloud, diving into the Beaverhead County Chamber of Commerce pie eating contest, doing horse-themed crafts with the Dillon Public Library, and participating in the stick horse rodeo itself. We can’t wait for next year.
Distillery
What a summer of cocktails and mocktails! We’ve been enjoying shrubs both ways. Here are a few of Katrina’s favorites:
Rhubarb shrub + gin + sparkling water + lemon. Thanks both to Swede and Jason for the rhubarb for recipe testing.
Chokecherry shrub + vodka + orange bitters + lime. Thanks to the chokecherry trees that line our boulevard.
Strawberry jalepeno shrub + sparkling water + mint. Thanks to George and Marsha for their recommendation here.
Next up, honeyberry shrubs made with berries grown at Honeyberry Adventures. Honeyberries, also called haskaps, are cold hardy, drought tolerant, and look a like long, fat blueberries. These ones, grown at 6200ft in Lima, taste incredible – like a sweet and tart combination of raspberries and blueberries. Locals, u-pick is usually Friday 7-11am, Saturday, 7-11am, and Sunday 7-9am. Bring your own containers – we’ll see you out there.
Katrina will soon start listing on our website the shrubs we have in inventory. She’s been designing the labels and ensuring they meet the state requirements and approval of our local county health sanitarian. For those of you at a distance, there will be shipping options available.
In August, we’re looking forward to some gin and tonics on the front steps, mixing a vodka and bitters for the last Dinner in the Park, and hopefully making some ginger beer for the Dillon Farmer’s Market later in the month.
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