100 Acres at Fort Becoming ‘Farm’ – 1967
100 Acres at Fort Becoming ‘Farm’
It’s fun to talk to Sentinel High Vocational-Agricultural teacher Dave Mellin and hear him describe plans to turn 100 acres of spotted knapweed, sage and other weeds into a blooming farm.
“Most of the people call it Mellin’s folly,” he admits, but he has plans to use the high school’s land at Ft. Missoula for a real agricultural workshop for his charges.
His vo-ag courses are a challenge because most of the students are urban kids who are lucky to know a hammer from a hoe when they start.
As in all education, vocational agriculture. So Mellin’s transition. No longer is it enough to teach uses of the moldboard plow and the gestation period of a pig.
There aren’t enough farms left to support the young men who take high school vocational agriculture. So Mellin’s courses, while giving good grounding in farm mechanics and agricultural basics, are aimed at giving students knowledge that will help them get a good job in agriculture-related business.
The farm will fit right in, Mellin says.
He hopes to put in a well and sprinkler irrigation system that will be paid for out of crop profits. Then some of the land will be divided into small plots that students will be able to use for truck gardens. They’ll pay rent for the use and be able to sell their products.
Most of the land will be used for hay and small grains. His farm manager and assistant farm manager already put up between 25 and 40 tons of hay behind Sentinel High School High School each year.
Mellin plans for a limited scale livestock operation – probably hogs. plywood sides. The building will cost about $1,400, but it’ll probably be worth the cost in students’ building experience alone.
Some of his classes and a few volunteers are busy now constructing a 35 by 50 foot implement shed with a metal roof and exterior plywood sides. The building will cost about $1,400, but it’ll probably be worth the cost in students’ building experience alone.
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on May 28, 1967.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349978986
Below are links to some interesting sites regarding Missoula’s agricultural background:
http://www.umt.edu/facilities/pdfAndOtherFiles/FortMissoula.pdf
https://www.missoulacfac.org/history-of-farmland-protection.html
http://missoulacfac.org/images/reports/Losing_Ground.pdf